Directors Guild Writes To Warner Bros, Demands Meeting Over Controversial 2021 Plan: Report

The controversy surrounding Warner Bros.' decision to take its entire 2021 film slate to HBO Max is far from over.

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has written a letter to Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff demanding a meeting to address the issues related to the production giant’s hybrid release plan, The Hollywood Reporter has learned from unnamed sources.

Insiders also revealed that the “sharply worded” letter, signed by DGA national executive Russell Hollander, was sent to Sarnoff Tuesday. It highlighted the organization’s concerns about how films will be valued, the report said.

Apart from that, the letter also said that DGA’s president Thomas Schlamme had a meeting with Robert Greenblatt, chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment, and Kevin Reily, CCO of HBO Max, in which they discussed the matter. In the meeting, which took place on Nov. 17, Warner Bros. told the guild that movies moved to the streaming service will be valued according to the prices they would command in the outside world.

“The spirit of it was to get a fair, free-market value. What they've done is a departure from anything discussed in that meeting,” the source told THR.

News of the Directors Guild writing to Warner Bros. comes a couple of days after Christopher Nolan blasted the production house for its bizarre decision that makes “no economic sense.”

Speaking in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the filmmaker said that he was in “disbelief” when he heard the news and called the deal “very, very messy.”

“They're meant to be out there for the widest possible audiences. And now they're being used as a loss-leader for the streaming service -- for the fledgling streaming service -- without any consultation. So, there’s controversy,” Nolan said.

The “Tenet” director also branded HBO Max as the “worst streaming service.”

“Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service,” Nolan said in a statement to THR.

WB will be releasing all its 2021 movies simultaneously on the big screen and HBO Max. The movies that will premiere on the streaming platform next year include projects like Denis Villeneuve's "Dune," James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad," James Wan-produced "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It" and Adam Wingard's "Godzilla vs Kong."