David Zaslav says it took courage to scrap films because of tax write-offs

David Zaslav says it takes courage to scrap films because of tax deductions.

“What content will help us succeed? We made a strategic decision about the content that won’t help us succeed. It was difficult and painful… But it was necessary.”

“We are in a very difficult time that requires tough decisions, and many of them are unpopular,” said Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, reviewing the trajectory of a company that has cut staff and put content on hold in a completely changed landscape since announcing the Discovery-Warner Media merger in 2021.

“We said there are no sacred cows,” he told Andrew Ross Sorkin during a question and answer session at the New York Times DealBook conference.

“If we started today,” he added, “what content would we need? What content would help us? How many people would we need? What should HBO look like? What should Warner Brothers look like?”

He called the first major layoffs at WBD “brutal,” but said, “These are companies that were never really restructured for the future. And so we really decided we have to be brave, we have to figure it out.”

In yet another movie-killing maneuver by David Zaslav-led Warner Bros Discovery, we have learned from a very reliable source that Warner Bros will not be releasing the live-action/animated hybrid Coyote vs. Acme, with the company taking an estimated $30 million write-down on the $70 million production. To our knowledge, the write-down for the film was applied to the recently reported third quarter.

This is the third time that Zaslav’s Warner Bros. has canceled a film that was greenlit by the previous Warner Media administration. The other two were Batgirl, whose destiny is Max, and the animated Scoob Holiday Haunt!