Legendary fighting for Dune to get theatrical-only release

Warner Bros. is releasing a full year’s worth of movies straight to HBO Max, which has made some studios very angry indeed.

A couple weeks back, AT&T-owned Warner Bros. announced that every single movie it had coming out in 2021 — including big stuff like The Suicide Squad, The Matrix 4, and more — would be released in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously (although the movies will only be available on HBO Max for 31 days). This went over extremely poorly with some of the creatives behind those movies, including Dune director Denis Villeneuve. “With this decision AT&T has hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in film history,” he wrote. “With HBO Max’s launch a failure thus far, AT&T decided to sacrifice Warner Bros.’ entire 2021 slate in a desperate attempt to grab the audience’s attention.” Ouch.

Villeneuve’s Dune is set to be the first half of a two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic. There’s also a spinoff TV show (coming to HBO Max) in the works, although it was experiencing problems last we checked. With this move, Villeneuve fears that Warner Bros. “might just have killed the Dune franchise.”

That’s what Legendary is concerned about, too. The studio financed 75% of both Dune and Godzilla vs. Kong, both of which are part of Warner Bros.’ new plan. But Deadline reports that Legendary is fighting the decision, trying to make sure that Dune, at least, doesn’t get released on HBO Max at the same time as it lands in theaters.

Dune is currently scheduled for a release date of October 1, 2021. The original reason Warner Bros. gave for putting out these movies on HBO Max is that it will let people see the movies without having to risk going to the theaters and getting exposed to COVID-19. Legendary is arguing that, by October, the vaccines should be widely distributed enough for theater-going to be safe again, which sounds reasonable enough to me. (Crossing my fingers, of course; no one wants the virus to take another unexpected turn.)

Godzilla Vs. Kong is a little different. That’s due out on May 21, 2021, when the vaccinations aren’t expected to be as widespread. That one might come out on HBO Max, but for the privilege, Legendary wants Warner Bros. to pay $250 million. That was the price thrown around when Legendary was shopping the movie to Netflix earlier this year. WarnerMedia reportedly used its stake in the film to block that sale, only to turn around and put it out on HBO Max without paying anything.

Or at least that’s how Legendary sees it. The situation is a little different because, unlike with a sale to Netflix, Warner Bros. does plan to release Godzilla Vs. Kong into theaters, but Legendary wants $250 million anyway.

It doesn’t sound like lawsuits have been filed yet, but they could be on the way. It’s just a messy situation all around. You could argue that Legendary is being uncaring by insisting its movies release in theaters even though a pandemic could still be on at the time, or that Warner Bros. was short-sighted to announce this plan without telling their creative partners about it. Who should give ground here? We’ll see how it shakes down come 2021.

In the meantime, the first movie released under this plan, Wonder Woman 1984, comes out in theaters and on HBO Max on Christmas Day!

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h/t IndieWire