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Ted Lim Joins Warner Bros Motion Picture Group As Chief Business Officer

Ted Lim Joins Warner Bros Motion Picture Group As Chief Business Officer

Yahoo28-01-2025

Ted Lim has joined Warner Bros Motion Picture Group as Chief Business Officer, the studio announced on Tuesday. In this newly created role, Lim wil to continue Warner Bros. growth and provide greater support to many of the vital divisions within our organization.
Lim joins from Amazon MGM Studios, where he most recently served as Head of Global Strategy and Business Development. Staffers were notified of the hire this morning.
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During his time at Amazon, Lim helped architect the company's go-forward film strategy – in particular, he oversaw the strategic expansion of the theatrical slate with upcoming titles such as The Accountant 2, Project Hail Mary, Masters of the Universe, and The Thomas Crown Affair, while executing distribution strategies for recent titles including Creed III, Challengers, The Beekeeper, and American Fiction. He was also a key proponent of facilitating global theatrical windows for Red One and Air and managed the company's international theatrical distribution partnership with Warner Bros.
Read the internal memo from studio chiefs Michael DeLuca & Pam Abdy below.
Team Motion Picture Group-
As we shared earlier this month, we remain focused on the future of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group as a singular operation that allows us to be globally focused with the films we bring to audiences while also serving our team's needs in markets worldwide.
As we evolve towards a fully integrated worldwide department, we are excited to introduce you all to our new team member, Ted Lim, who joins the Motion Picture Group as Chief Business Officer. In this newly created role, Ted's contributions will allow us to continue our growth and provide greater support to many of the vital divisions within our organization.
As Chief Business Officer, he will report to us and work closely with leadership to define and implement the strategic and operational plans for the Motion Picture Group. He will also identify and drive new business development and growth opportunities, ensuring alignment with WBD's long-term corporate objectives. Ted will additionally lead initiatives to optimize internal processes across production, marketing, and distribution while providing guidance on the adoption of new technologies and innovative practices in partnership with the respective functional leads of finance, P&C, GBT, driving alignment with OneWBD.
Working with our colleagues in finance, streaming, franchise, content sales/home entertainment, licensing, and consumer products, Ted will collaborate with each division to ensure each Warner Bros. Pictures release reaches the widest possible audience beyond its theatrical window. With this new structure, Ricky Tydus who serves as SVP of Creative Strategy & Film Operations and his team will report to Ted.
Ted comes to WBD from Amazon MGM Studios, where he most recently served as Head of Global Strategy and Business Development, overseeing corporate strategy, content strategy for film (theatrical and streaming) and international originals, creative planning, franchise management, and strategic partnerships. During his time at Amazon, Ted helped architect the company's go-forward film strategy – in particular, he oversaw the strategic expansion of the theatrical slate with upcoming titles such as The Accountant 2, Project Hail Mary, Masters of the Universe, and The Thomas Crown Affair, while executing distribution strategies for recent titles including Creed III, Challengers, The Beekeeper, and American Fiction. He was also a key proponent of facilitating global theatrical windows for Red One and Air and managed the company's international theatrical distribution partnership with Warner Bros.
Previously, Ted was Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development for MGM Studios, where he was a key member of the deal team that led the company's landmark sale to Amazon. He also supported us both in our roles as MGM's Motion Picture Group Chairman and President, respectively, on the greenlighting, production, and release of films including No Time to Die (the latest installment of the 007 franchise), House of Gucci, Dog, Licorice Pizza, and The Addams Family 2, as well as the formation of United Artists Releasing (the company's US theatrical distribution joint venture with Annapurna) and the business plan for the relaunch of Orion Pictures. Following the close of the MGM acquisition, Ted helped lead integration efforts to create a unified film & television business model across Prime Video, Amazon Studios, and MGM before taking on his broader role at the combined studio.
Prior to MGM, Ted served as Senior VP of Strategy and Business Development for Participant and as an executive in the Corporate Strategy and Business Development team for The Walt Disney Company. He started his career in management consulting at Bain & Company and has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Harvard University.
We look forward to introducing him to the team when he joins us officially this week.
Mike & Pam
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Tony Talk: Dissecting those shocking wins for ‘Purpose,' Nicole Scherzinger, Darren Criss, and more
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timean hour ago

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Tony Talk: Dissecting those shocking wins for ‘Purpose,' Nicole Scherzinger, Darren Criss, and more

Welcome to Tony Talk, a column in which Gold Derby contributors Sam Eckmann and David Buchanan offer Tony Awards analysis. Mere hours after the 2025 Tonys, we reconvene to dissect the shocking wins, highlight our favorite victors, and discuss the musical performances. David Buchanan: After a truly sensational Broadway season, last night's Tony Awards didn't disappoint with some surprises, did it? If folks have been reading our weekly column, they probably did pretty well with their predictions and would've seen some of these upsets coming — I shockingly tied for first place worldwide! — but there were still some wins that were hard to call correctly in the moment but were predictable in hindsight. One of those categories was Best Play. We knew that this would be a squeaker between frontrunner Oh, Mary! and challengers Purpose and John Proctor Is the Villain, but very few Gold Derby users correctly called the win for the Pulitzer victor. Do you think the fact that voters recognized performer and playwright Cole Escola with a Best Actor win led them to go with the drama with more gravitas for the top prize? More from GoldDerby Behind the scenes at the Tony Awards: From Darren Criss to Andrew Lloyd Weber, backstage at Broadway's biggest night 'Legend of Zelda' movie delayed, Snoop Dogg biopic cast, and more of today's top stories Minha Kim 'confronted all new emotions that I had never anticipated' in Season 2 of 'Pachinko' Sam Eckmann: Congratulations on your top score! There were so many insanely close races last night, so picking the correct choice in each coin toss was tough. Part of the victory for Purpose came down to the strength of the entire Best Play field. Voters were fans of all of these plays, so a full sweep for Oh, Mary! wasn't in the cards. The classic trope of wanting to reward a script that feels 'important' helped push Purpose over the edge in the top race. Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is also the 'it' writer of the moment in New York. Couple these points with the fact that Escola has a guaranteed win in Lead Actor, and it does make sense that a different production squeaked past Mary Todd Lincoln in the top race. Speaking of performers, I'm kicking myself for dropping Darren Criss at the last minute for Jonathan Groff in Lead Actor in a Musical. Clearly voters were head over heels for Maybe Happy Ending. Is it safe to say the overall enthusiasm for that musical is what tipped the scales for Criss? SEE 'Every beat is meticulously crafted': An oral history of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning play 'Purpose' Buchanan: I think so! In such an incredibly strong season for new musicals, it was not a guarantee that Maybe Happy Ending would sweep the pivotal categories of Director, Book, and Score on its way to its likely Best Musical victory. But once it started cleaning up during the ceremony, it would have been shocking if Criss — the sole acting nominee and thus the face of the show – ultimately lost. We both predicted Criss all season long, but The New York Times Tony voter survey led many folks astray by claiming Groff had the lead for playing Bobby Darin in Just in Time. He would have made for a great winner, as you can glimpse from the Tony performance last night just how high energy and charismatic he is throughout that show. But at the end of the day, Criss is also giving a strong performance in what is clearly a better-written musical. Do you think a similar dynamic tipped the scales for Nicole Scherzinger over Audra McDonald? I think most folks would say that Gypsy is one of if not the best musical of all time, but voters were clearly more taken by Jamie Lloyd's radical reinterpretation of Sunset Boulevard than George C. Wolfe's version of Gypsy. Eckmann: I admit that I was definitely swayed for the first time (in the wrong direction) by the voter survey in The New York Times. It's normally the best barometer for the Tony Awards, so the fact that it wasn't totally accurate points to how fiercely close so many of these votes were. This was definitely the case in the McDonald-vs.-Scherzinger battle. I think that once again, the victory went to the performer in the production that was more popular with voters. McDonald was the only potential win for this revival of Gypsy, whereas Sunset Boulevard was strong enough to win Lighting Design and Musical Revival. Were there any other wins during the night that had you cheering? As a huge Purpose fan I'm sure you enjoyed Kara Young prevailing for the second year in a row. SEE 2025 Tony Awards first-timers club: Half of this year's acting winners triumphed for their Broadway debuts Buchanan: Yes, the two wins for Purpose were by far my favorites of the night! I predicted Young, but it was by no means a guarantee that she would win in that incredible field which included Jessica Hecht and Fina Strazza. But there is just no denying that Young is a generational talent and so supremely kind and charismatic to boot, so it is absolutely fitting and thrilling that she is one of the very few performers to win back-to-back at the Tonys and the first Black performer to do so, too. I will remember her performance as Aziza and her growing disillusionment over her night with the Jasper family for a very long time. I'm also delighted that Tony voters found a way to acknowledge Jacobs-Jenkins' brilliant, Pulitzer-winning play and Cole Escola in the same ceremony. While I'm sure Escola would have loved to win both prizes, I think the way they split the trophies — plus giving Oh, Mary! the directing prize for Sam Pinkleton — was very "appropriate," Jacobs-Jenkins pun intended. As a champion of the show since its off-Broadway days, were the two Oh, Mary! wins your favorites of the night? And what were some of the snubs or complete shut-outs that stung the most? Eckmann: I was so thrilled for Pinkleton! Oh, Mary! simply would not work the way it does without his guiding hand. In our current political moment, it's truly powerful to see that this radically queer work of bizarre genius can be a financial smash on Broadway and win mainstream awards. I was similarly ecstatic for Francis Jue, who managed to win Featured Actor even though Yellow Face lost Play Revival. He was truly one of the breakout stars of the campaign trail, and this was a wonderful way to honor not only his moving performance, but also his incredible career in the theater. It's hard to be mad at any of these wins because the season was just so strong. But I will continue to say that Real Women Have Curves should have been a Best Musical nominee. I wish there were more places for it to be rewarded last night. Alas, its only real shot was for Justina Machado, but Natalie Venetia Belcon has long had Featured Actress in a Musical sewn up. At least Real Women managed to secure a performance on the telecast, and I hope folks are inspired to buy tickets. The show has a gigantic heart that deserves to be celebrated. Speaking of performances, I think I was most moved by the host Cynthia Erivo and Sara Bareilles duetting on 'Tomorrow' from Annie during the In Memoriam segment. The image of them holding each other as they looked back at the image of the late Gavin Creel had me at a puddle of tears, and reinforced the theme of community which seemed to dominate this telecast. In a world where we constantly analyze winners and losers of the industry's biggest award, it was a needed reminder that everyone in attendance is truly a winner just for the opportunity to be in that room. SEE 2025 Tony Awards: 'Maybe Happy Ending' dominates with 6 wins, Nicole Scherzinger shocks with Best Actress win over Audra McDonald Buchanan: Beautifully said, and I agree seeing Bareilles' reaction at the end of the In Memoriam was incredibly powerful! I also loved Harvey Fierstein's Lifetime Achievement Award speech on the Tony Awards: Act One telecast and his message that he feels like he accidentally fell into his exceptional career in the theater after finding his community while painting show posters as an adolescent. It is hard to have too many gripes about the winners this year, but I will confess that I am a bit heartbroken that three of my favorite productions from this sensational Broadway season — Dead Outlaw, Gypsy, and The Hills of California — all went home empty-handed. Victories for David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna in Best Score, Audra McDonald in Best Actress of a Musical, and Laura Donnelly for Best Actress in a Play, respectively, would've made this Tony Awards an all-timer for me, personally. I am glad that Dead Outlaw, Gypsy, and the also-snubbed Just in Time acquitted themselves exceptionally well in their performances; I couldn't be more pleased that McDonald's otherworldly "Rose's Turn" has been recorded on video in an accessible form for posterity, and I'm sure Sunset Boulevard fans feel exactly the same way about Scherzinger's moving "As If We Never Said Goodbye." While we're on the subject of Best Actress in a Musical again, you and I foreshadowed this year's exceptionally close contest exactly one year ago last June when we offered our extremely early 2025 Tony predictions; I can't wait to do that guesswork for the 2026 Tonys with you again any day now, so stay tuned, Broadway fans! SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby 'Maybe Happy Ending' star Darren Criss on his Tony nomination for playing a robot: 'Getting to do this is the true win' Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT? Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' Click here to read the full article.

Ben Stiller and Leonardo DiCaprio Are Rebooting THE TWILIGHT ZONE as a Feature Film — GeekTyrant
Ben Stiller and Leonardo DiCaprio Are Rebooting THE TWILIGHT ZONE as a Feature Film — GeekTyrant

Geek Tyrant

timean hour ago

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Ben Stiller and Leonardo DiCaprio Are Rebooting THE TWILIGHT ZONE as a Feature Film — GeekTyrant

It looks like Ben Stiller is reprotedly stepping back behind the camera and into The Twilight Zone . According to TheInsneider, Stiller is in talks to direct a new feature-length reboot of Rod Serling's iconic sci-fi anthology series for Warner Bros., with Leonardo DiCaprio producing through his Appian Way banner. The guy who gave us Tropic Thunder and Zoolander , and more recently, the unsettling brilliance of Severance , may end up directing a Twilight Zone movie. This might've been surprising news before Stiller made Severance , but his work on that show proves he's more than capable of blending surrealism and paranoia. It's very much in the spirit of Serling's world. DiCaprio, meanwhile, has been attached to a Twilight Zone reboot for over a decade. His company Appian Way, known for backing prestige dramas like The Wolf of Wall Street and Killers of the Flower Moon has been developing a feature based on Serling's scripts since 2008. Warner Bros. was reportedly negotiating with Serling's estate to secure rights to specific episodes with the goal of telling 'one continuing story line based on one or more episodes,' which would distinguish it from the 1983 anthology film. That '80s movie, Twilight Zone: The Movie , was broken into segments directed by Hollywood legends including John Landis, Steven Spielberg, George Miller, and Joe Dante. It adapted several classic episodes such as 'Kick the Can,' 'It's a Good Life,' and the terrifying 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.' The new take, if it moves forward, sounds like it will be a single narrative thread instead of a segmented format, which is much more interesting. And this isn't the first attempt at a modern Twilight Zone movie. Over the years, filmmakers like Matt Reeves ( The Batman ) and Joseph Kosinski ( Top Gun: Maverick ) have tried to crack the code. Reeves' version, written by Jason Rothenberg, centered on 'a test pilot who winds up breaking the speed of light; when he puts down his craft, he discovers that he's landed a bit late for supper — 96 years late,' hinting at a possible remake of the 1961 time-travel episode 'The Odyssey of Flight 33.' That version fizzled out, and the franchise instead returned to television with Jordan Peele's CBS All Access reboot, which ran for two seasons before being quietly canceled. With Warner Bros. back in the mix, DiCaprio still onboard, and Stiller possibly directing, this iteration might finally stick. It's too early to say how much of Serling's voice will remain, but I imagine the film will lean into the eerie social commentary that made the original series so influential. But if Stiller brings the same atmospheric tension from Severance and DiCaprio channels his obsession with cerebral, high-concept storytelling, this might actually be the trip to the fifth dimension that fans have been waiting for.

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