Texas Hold’em: Will David Ellison’s Poker Face Make Rob Bonta Fold, or Will the A.G. Call the Billionaire’s Bluff?

Happy Wednesday, folks!

Forget all the WB-Paramount drama; how about the big DC Studios update from The Ankler’s Lesley Goldberg and Variety’s alarming report about Barbie 2?

I’m not surprised that DC has canceled Waller and Paradise Lost, as I told you when James Gunn and Peter Safran did their big dog-and-pony show for the media that it’d be a miracle if we saw 40% of the projects they announced that day — such is the nature of development. Waller felt like an ancient relic from a past iteration of the DCU, and there’s no point in doing Paradise Lost before introducing Wonder Woman… unless her introduction is coming sooner than we think. Either way, this is part of a larger industry shift, and studios not feeling the need to greenlight a ton of superhero TV shows, as the unintended consequence is that they make the movies feel less special.

As for Barbie, let me tell you something — this movie is definitely going to happen. Because when you’re spending nearly $100 million on The Bride! and more than $100 million on Mickey 17, spending $200-250 million on a Barbie sequel that will likely gross a billion dollars is a no-brainer — even if the sequel underperforms the first film.

Everyone forgets the negotiations for The Hangover Part II, and how the three leads — and director Todd Phillips — wanted a major pay bump. For a while, it looked like the guys’ trip to Thailand wasn’t going to happen. That is, until WB’s Alan Horn stepped in and made it happen. Now, David Zaslav is no Alan Horn, but I predict that he’ll close this deal, and honestly, why wouldn’t he? I know it’s being reported that he’s balking at the outrageous salary demands of Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and Greta Gerwig, but it’s not like these deals are going to be his problem in a few years. Spend $100 million to bring the three of them back, spend less money on the supporting cast, and get it done. After all, WB could use some good headlines to distract from the miserable box office year they’re having — the result of kicking multiple cans down the road during last year’s charmed box office run.

Yesterday, I finished watching the BBC miniseries The Bombing of Pan Am 103 on Netflix, and I thought it was pretty damn good. Not Chernobyl-level great, but a very affecting drama featuring a solid performance from a 29-year-old English actor by the name of Connor Swindells, who looks like a young John Cena.

Best known for the Netflix series Sex Education, Swindells appeared in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and will soon be seen in Ruben Ostlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down. I bring him up because watching the Pan Am series, it’s clear that he had something special — a certain presence.

I’m not sure if Swindells is James Bond material, or more like the Rory Kinnear, head-of-MI6 type, but if Amazon isn’t dead-set on casting a “name” actor as 007, he’d be a pretty interesting choice, in my opinion. I’m just saying… I was impressed by his performance.

I also binged Netflix’s stomach-churning documentary The Predator of Seville, about a tour guide who raped dozens of tourists who trusted him to keep them safe. It’s not as strong as the streamer’s recent run of true-crime documentaries, but it’s worth a watch, if only to see how this group of women came together from around the world to demand justice. You’ll have to watch the three-part docuseries to find out whether they get it.

I wasn’t invited to see The End of Oak Street this week, so I have no idea whether the buzz is legit, but if it is, then I’m happy for Ewan McGregor and director David Robert Mitchell, both of whom could use a hit. I’m looking forward to seeing that one in theaters, and Matthew McConaughey’s honey-flavored crime movie The Rivals of Amziah King as well. Perhaps I’ll make it a McGregor-McConaughey doubleheader!

Tonight, I weigh in with my thoughts on the escalating battle between Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, and the state’s native son, David Ellison, the head of Paramount who has threatened to flee the Golden State unless his merger with Warner Bros. is approved.

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