Latest news with #VillageRoadshowEntertainment
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
John Waters Has Encouraged Chappell Roan To Consider Acting
In the pop-star tradition of Cher, Madonna and Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan might add actress to her resume. The Grammy winner revealed that she recently met legendary cult filmmaker John Waters, who encouraged Roan to embrace her inner thespian and give acting a try. More from Deadline John Waters Back In Director's Chair For 'Liarmouth; Indie Icon Writing/Helming for Village Roadshow Entertainment Chappell Roan Will Perform At Elton John's Oscars Party Pedro Almodóvar To Receive 50th Chaplin Award From Film At Lincoln Center; Dua Lipa And John Waters Among Presenters 'I met John Waters last night, which was insane,' she told W Magazine. 'One of my idols! And I was talking about how there are only so many 'firsts' you can have with your career.' Roan continued, 'And he said, 'No, no, no—there are all the firsts to go through when you become an actress!' And I said, 'I'm not an actress—what are you talking about?' He said, 'Every singer is an actress!' And I was like, okay, maybe I am! Damn! If John Waters says I'm an actress, maybe I am!' After breaking out with her 2023 debut studio album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Roan won her first Grammy this year for Best New Artist. Meanwhile, Waters' two-decade hiatus from filmmaking after his 2004 satire A Dirty Shame was interrupted when Village Roadshow Entertainment optioned his novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance in 2022, with Waters set to write and direct. Although Waters said in April 2024 that he had a good script in place, with Aubrey Plaza onboard to star as the titular Marsha 'Liarmouth' Sprinkle, they 'don't have the money to make it.' In November, he revealed that the adaptation is no longer happening. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery Brad Pitt's Apple 'F1' Movie: Everything We Know So Far Everything We Know About 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 So Far
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Film Company Behind The Matrix Files Bankruptcy Amid Warner Suit
(Bloomberg) -- The film production house behind The Matrix and Ocean's sagas filed for bankruptcy in the US amid a long-drawn legal battle with Warner Bros Discovery Inc. ICE Eyes Massive California Tent Facility Amid Space Constraints How Britain's Most Bike-Friendly New Town Got Built Washington, DC, Region Braces for 'Devastating' Cuts from Congress The Dark Prophet of Car-Clogged Cities Saving the Signature Sound of Washington, DC Village Roadshow Entertainment Group sought bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Monday with $223.8 million in asset-backed secured notes and $163.1 million of senior secured debt, according to court documents. The company, based in both the US and Australia, had struggled to bounce back from the pandemic slump and the 2023 Hollywood writers' strike, which delayed film productions. Its liquidity problems, however, stemmed largely from an ongoing arbitration with long-standing partner Warner. In 2022, Village Roadshow Entertainment filed an arbitration over the release of The Matrix Resurrections, the latest chapter of the movie series, on the HBO Max streaming platform, allegedly depriving the company of theater revenues. The company also accused Warner of 'shutting it out of its rights to co-own and co-finance' new chapters of the films that it had first developed, it said in the filing. The threat of a potential arbitration award 'could flatten the company's balance sheet' and even if the lawsuit is resolved, its key relationship with Warner has been 'irreparably decimated,' Village Roadshow Entertaiment said. The company was founded in 1997 and has produced and released over 100 films, including Joker, The Great Gatsby and The LEGO Movie. Owned by Falcon Strategic Partners and Vine Media Opportunities since 2017, Village Roadshow Entertainment appointed Keith Maib, a senior managing director at Accordion Partners, as chief restructuring officer in January. The company has an agreement existing creditors for a debtor-in-possession facility to facilitate the sale of its assets through bankruptcy. CP Ventura LLC is a so-called stalking horse bidder for its library assets. The case is Village Roadshow Entertainment Group USA Inc., 25-10475, US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The Real Reason Trump Is Pushing 'Buy American' Nvidia Looks Past DeepSeek and Tariffs for AI's Next Chapter How America Got Hooked on H Mart How Trump's 'No Tax on Tips' Could Backfire for the Working Class Snap CEO Evan Spiegel Bets Meta Can't Copy High-Tech Glasses ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Los Angeles Times
17-03-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
‘Joker,' ‘Matrix' producer files for bankruptcy protection amid Warner Bros. fight
Village Roadshow Entertainment has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a dark turn for the once-prolific film financing company that backed the 'Joker,' 'The Matrix' and 'Ocean's Eleven' movie franchises. The West Hollywood-based company blamed its ongoing legal battle with longtime partner Warner Bros. for its collapse, according to a Monday filing in U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware. Village Roadshow also conceded that its ambitious push into producing independent films and television programs before the pandemic was unprofitable, exacerbating its financial woes. The breach of contract lawsuit against Warner Bros. came after the studio introduced 'The Matrix Resurrections' in December 2021 on its HBO Max streaming service the same day the film was released in movie theaters. Village Roadshow complained that the Burbank studio's pivot away from an exclusive theatrical release had destroyed the value of a key franchise. Village Roadshow's predicament is a stark example of how the entertainment industry's shift to streaming has upended once vibrant businesses. Since its founding in 1997, Village Roadshow has co-produced and co-financed more than 100 movies that together generated more than $19 billion in worldwide box office receipts, according to court documents. 'A confluence of macro-economic factors have weighed heavily on the company's balance sheet,' Keith Maib, an executive with Accordion Partners who is serving as chief restructuring officer for the Village Roadshow liquidation, wrote in a declaration. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes and major entertainment companies' embrace of streaming helped crater the company, Maib wrote. The bankruptcy filing was designed to facilitate 'orderly sales of the debtor's assets,' he said. Village Roadshow is controlled by Vine Media Opportunities, Falcon Strategic Partners and a Canadian limited partnership, 1397225 Ontario Ltd. The company said its assets are worth an estimated $100 million to $500 million. But it has more than 200 creditors and debts of $500 million to $1 billion, according to the filing. Village Roadshow owes more than $11 million to Kirkland & Ellis in Los Angeles for professional services. Its debt to the Writers Guild of America West tops $1.4 million. (The WGA put Village Roadshow on its strike list in December for nonpayment.) The filing also shows that Village Roadshow owes Bryan Cranston's Moonshot Entertainment Inc. $794,000 for development costs and another $250,000 to Sony Pictures Television. Former Sony executive Steve Mosko, who joined Village Roadshow in 2018 as chief executive, left earlier this year. He had attempted to build Village Roadshow into an independent studio that produced its own movies and television shows. But the Mosko-led campaign to remake the company into a full-service studio proved costly and untimely. Village Roadshow put into development 99 feature films, 166 scripted television series and 67 unscripted series. Of those, six movies and seven television series went into production. 'No film or television series that was produced was able to create a profit that could sustain the studio business,' Maib wrote. Village Roadshow's legal battle with Warner Bros. was the last straw. The company's dispute against Warner Bros. remains unresolved in arbitration — more then three years after the lawsuit was filed. In late 2021, Warner Bros. was recalibrating due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, then owned by AT&T, was prioritizing gaining subscribers to support its streaming service over its traditional business of releasing movies to cinemas. That's when it placed 'The Matrix Resurrections' on HBO Max. Village Roadshow said it has spent more than $18 million in legal fees to try to resolve the Warner Bros. dispute — fees that remain unpaid. While the firm also worked on movies with Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures, its most valuable assets were produced in conjunction with Warner Bros., including 'Mad Max: Fury Road' and 'The Lego Movie.' The company co-produced and co-financed 91 films with Warner Bros. by arranging some $4.5 billion in financing. Village Roadshow's library assets generate about $50 million a year in revenue, according to Maib's declaration. Last year, Village Roadshow engaged Goldman Sachs Group to sell some library assets, but uncertainty caused by the lingering Warner Bros. dispute scuttled the effort. The company then engaged Sheppard Mullin Richter and Solic Capital Advisors, which came up with a 'stalking horse bidder' to buy the assets following the Chapter 11 process, Maib wrote. A year ago, the company had about 45 employees in the U.S. and Melbourne, Australia. In its move to slash costs, the firm now has fewer than a dozen employees. As of this month, the company's monthly overhead is about $300,000.
