Happy Monday and welcome to another edition of The Monitor, WIRED’s collection of all things pop culture. Today we’re celebrating J.J. Abrams’ huge deal with WarnerMedia and mourning the death of MoviePass. Join us, won’t you?
The Cast for The Suicide Squad Is Insane—Naturally
Director James Gunn tweeted the cast for his forthcoming movie The Suicide Squad (not to be confused with 2016’s Suicide Squad) on Friday, and it’s huge. Nathan Fillion, Taika Waititi, Pete Davidson. The list goes on and on. Check out all the names below while you contemplate just what this movie could look like.
RIP, MoviePass
In sad but not surprising news, MoviePass announced on Friday that the service would be shutting down as of Saturday. The move comes because “efforts to recapitalize MoviePass have not been successful to date,” the company said in a statement. It’s no secret that MoviePass had undergone several overhauls in an attempt to find a workable subscription model, but it seems as though this might be the service’s final salvo. Helios and Matheson Analytics, MoviePass’ parent company, is looking for financing to keep the service going, but “there can be no assurance that any such financing will be obtained.”
J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot Land Huge Deal With WarnerMedia
J.J. Abrams and his production company, Bad Robot, have entered into a massive new deal with WarnerMedia under which Bad Robot will make shows, movies, games, and other content for Warner’s many properties. (The company owns HBO and Warner Bros., among others.) The five-year deal is reportedly worth at least $250 million, but according to a story in the Hollywood Reporter, Apple was willing to offer some $500 million to have Bad Robot’s content exclusively.
More Great WIRED Stories
- Concerning consent—and canceling cancel culture
- Watch how to solve a Rubik’s cube, step by step
- Why the Porsche Taycan’s two-speed gearbox is such a big deal
- Elon Musk: Humanity is a kind of “biological boot loader” for AI
- The ethics of hiding your data from the machines
- 👁 How do machines learn? Plus, read the latest news on artificial intelligence
- 📱 Torn between the latest phones? Never fear—check out our iPhone buying guide and favorite Android phones