[Constance Wu] Storytelling,
that's how we make meaning in our lives.
Even before we had movies, people told stories over the campfire.
It's how we love each other and grow as communities.
And I think Warner Bros. has taken all the tools
and all the technology we have
and used that to tell those stories
that are essential to the fabric of what it means to be human.
[Morgan Freeman] Warner Bros. has been transforming storytelling
for over 100 years.
Faced with the explosion of unprecedented technology,
new corporate landscapes and revolutionary cultural change,
the studio would lead the industry into the digital age.
[Alan Horn] Visual effects experienced a tremendous growth spurt,
and we found ourselves having opportunities to do things
we just couldn't do before.
- [explosion] - [people gasp]
I will not be side-lined, sidetracked, or sidestepped.
[Oprah Winfrey] I just don't think there's anything more important
than people being able to see their own stories.
It is the greatest sense of validation.
Women will be silent no more!
[Gal Gadot] We're gonna make so many girls feel empowered,
and feel capable, and dream big.
[Freeman] But through all of the tectonic shifts of the times,
runs a 100-year-old commitment
to visionary creators, and bold, authentic stories.
[Jon M. Chu] Now we are here to tell a new perspective,
and we have the power and the knowledge to do so.
[Christopher Nolan] It's not about hiring filmmakers
and letting them do what they want,
it's about having a useful machine to create something
that hopefully the audience hasn't seen before.
[explosions]
[Freeman] And to continue to educate, entertain,
and enlighten us for generations to come.
[LeVar Burton] As a storyteller, there is a responsibility
for the images, and the stories that we tell.
Clearly it meant something to the founders of this studio.
And I love that about Warner Bros.
and their mission and what they set out to do.
To uplift humanity through storytelling.
- [claps hands forcefully] - Damn it, I'm in.
[crowd] Five, four, three, two, one!
- [fireworks whistling] - [crowd cheering]
[Freeman] When the ball dropped on New Year's Eve 2000,
the world welcomed the dawn of a new millennium
and the birth of the Digital Age.
The rise of the Internet
unleashed a frenzy of new business opportunities,
sparking a gold rush of investment in the dotcom space.
But of all the new digital giants leading the Internet revolution,
none was more dominant than America Online.
[automated voice on computer] You've got mail.
[Freeman] Determined to become
the biggest media empire in the world
and flush with cash,
AOL set their sights on Time Warner,
kicking off the biggest corporate merger in history.
I don't think it's too much to say
this really is a historic moment,
a time when we transform the landscape of media and communications.
[Freeman] As the deal was announced,
Warner Bros. promoted a slate of new leaders
who would have to navigate the shifting media landscape.
[Horn] One day, Bob Daly called me.
He said, "Are you sitting down?"
I said, "Bob, I'm laying down because it's six o'clock in the morning."
He said, "Oh, I forgot. I'm in New York."
So, he said, "Terry and I are stepping down.
And we would like Barry Meyer
to run Bob Daly's job as chairman.
And we'd like you to come in and be Terry Semel."
[Freeman] Alan Horn began working with Bob Daly and Terry Semel in 1996
after his company, Castle Rock Entertainment,
was acquired by Time Warner.
Warner Bros. was pre-eminent, dominant, best in class,
so the notion of running the place with Barry Meyer was very exciting.
I had been at the studio since 1971,
so I'd been there for, you tell me, what, 25 years.
[Freeman] Barry Meyer came to Warner Bros. as a business affairs executive
and rose through the ranks in the TV division
before stepping into the top job.
[Meyer] When I became CEO,
I felt really, really well-groomed.
[Horn] I felt that Bob and Terry had done a great job
and it was important for us to continue the legacy
and to keep this studio at the forefront
of the motion picture community.
[Freeman] But it would be a tough road ahead for Horn and Meyer.
[automated voice] Welcome.
[Freeman] With a new corporate parent
aimed at keeping Americans at home and online,
Warner Bros. felt compelled to do the opposite.
Get people off of their couches and into movie theaters.
When I came in, I said, "I want to do tentpole movies with size and scale."
Because I felt those are the pictures that will drive the success of the company.
We need to give the audience member
a reason to sit down and watch this on a big screen.
[Freeman] Horn's vision would be realized through a children's book
by an unknown British writer.
It had not been published in the United States yet,
it was barely just published in the UK.
The first Harry Potter book was found by a guy named David Heyman,
who was a production executive who worked for us in London.
[David Heyman] The writing was so vivid,
the characters so relatable,
the world so richly realized, imagined.
It was a story that I related to.
Who wouldn't want to go to a magic school like Hogwarts?
[Freeman] A dark and complex coming-of-age saga
set at a magical British boarding school,
Warner Bros. saw its potential
to revolutionize family entertainment,
and optioned the still-unfinished series
from first-time author J.K. Rowling.
Then the books came out and became a gigantic, worldwide bestseller.
[all] Three, two, one... [screaming]
[Horn] All of a sudden, the decision to make the Harry Potter film
was really, you know, a no-brainer.
The challenge, of course, was presenting something to an audience
that's already in love with the underlying literary property.
If they don't like it, they really don't like it.
[both screaming excitedly]
There was a tremendous amount of terror
because this was the most popular book in the world at the time.
And if I screwed up, I'd kill the franchise.
[Freeman] The director behind family classics
like Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire,
Chris Columbus was chosen to direct for his unique ability to work with children.
But Columbus had never taken on a fantasy franchise
of this magnitude before.
[Columbus] It was a frightening experience in making the first film,
because the first film was setting the map
for every subsequent film that was going to follow.
So I was flown out to Scotland to meet with J.K. Rowling.
And she said, "Tell me your vision for the film."
And I said, "The first one has to be this inviting, almost storybook quality film,
where Harry is invited into the world of Hogwarts,
and we fall in love with it.
But then, in the second film, it gets darker,
and by the time we get to Prisoner of Azkaban,
things get really dark and really complex."
And I didn't know what she was going to say.
And she said, "Well, that's exactly how I see the film."
One, two, three, action!
I remember the first film was very much a case of, "How do we do any of this?"
Like working out how to do Hagrid, or working out how to do Quidditch.
We didn't know how to do any of that stuff.
[Freeman] New technology allowed Columbus and his team
to achieve never-before-seen visual effects,
that felt like true magic.
You're a wizard, Harry.
[Radcliffe] Even as a kid, you did have a sense on Potter of like,
"Oh, I'm working with the best people in the world,
figuring out how to make these things come to life."
[Alfonso Cuaron] I was completely amazed by the scale of it
and by the visual effects, obviously, by the story.
And I fell in love with it.
I find that there was a universe that was very complex.
[Meyer] I remember Alan and I flying to London
to see the first cut,
and when the movie was over,
the two of us got up and just hugged each other.
[Freeman] The first Harry Potter film
opened to critical and box office success,
kickstarting a global franchise
that would transform the industry,
and captivate a generation.
[Jacqueline Coley] People didn't just want to see the movies and go home.
They wanted to feel a part of these places.
And it built these huge communities around things that they all loved.
And that really showed that these franchises are infinitely valuable.
[people screaming]
[Freeman] With the potential for Harry Potter
only just beginning,
it seemed Warner Bros. had cracked the secret to mega-franchise success.
But the studio's triumph couldn't mask the turmoil
unfolding at the new AOL Time Warner.
We had different goals.
The thing with the AOL guys is you always felt
that they just wanted to get the stock up
so they could cash out and move on.
Pump the revenue as best you can at whatever the cost was.
That wasn't the way we ran the company.
[Michael Schneider] You had two very different cultures trying to work together,
and it just didn't make sense from the beginning.
And right around that same time, the dotcom bubble burst.
New warnings today about falling corporate profits
sent the Dow down 292 points.
The Nasdaq lost 109.
[Schneider] And suddenly the value of AOL
wasn't necessarily what it once was.
A horrible, horrible deal.
It cost me a lot of money. It cost everybody a lot of money.
[Peter Roth] It was a dark time.
And it's certainly been written about ad nauseam.
It, you know, has been described as the one of the worst
business deals in the history of business.
[Freeman] As Time Warner's stock plummeted,
the pressure to keep the sinking ship afloat
rested on the studio's shoulders,
and one division in particular,
Warner Bros. Television.
[Roth] When I came to Warner Bros.,
the single most important goal
was to bring in a whole new array of what I considered to be
the best, most talented, most compelling producers in all of television.
Hire the right people and get out of their way
and let them do their thing.
[Freeman] In his new role,
Peter Roth would bet big on creative mavericks
to push the boundaries of TV.
[Roth] I was handed many scripts,
most of which I didn't particularly care for.
But I read this one script
called The West Wing,
which I loved.
I pick up the phone, I call Aaron Sorkin.
I say, "Hey, Aaron, I just want you to know
this script is extraordinary.
I do have to acknowledge and admit to you, though,
in the history of broadcast television,
there has never been a hit set in Washington DC."
There was no reason that anybody should have thought
that that show was going to work.
There was a tremendous amount of research that NBC showed me
that people, literally, when you ask them,
do they wanna watch a show about politics?
Said, "Absolutely not."
But the fact that it's never worked before
doesn't mean that it can't work now.
And executed as brilliantly as this?
Why not?
[crew] Take seven.
[Wells] The rhythm of Aaron's writing is very specific.
Not every actor can do it.
- [Billy] Is Josh on his way out? - No.
- Is he? - No.
- I know he's your friend. - He is.
- Did Caldwell say-- - Billy, I'm not talking about this.
That ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba.
When you try to cut it together, then it's really cutty.
If you stand back from it, it feels like you're in the theater.
And so Tommy Schlamme, who directed the pilot,
his solution to that was,
let's move it.
[Bonnie] Don't kill the messenger, Leo.
Oh, why the hell not, Bonnie?
- [Bonnie] Five minutes? - Please.
[Wells] The movement itself will help with the rhythm of it.
It became its own very specific thing in Tommy's hands on The West Wing.
We've got to work with these people.
And where the hell do you get off, strutting your--
- I know. - Al Caldwell's a good man.
Al Caldwell wasn't there.
I'm saying you take everyone on the Christian right,
dump them into one big pile and label them stupid.
[Roth] I literally leapt up as I saw that first tracking shot
and saying, "Oh, my God, this is like out of Scorsese!"
It was so beautifully written, so compelling.
Such an idealized version of the White House
that we all desperately needed to see.
[President Bartlet] There's a promise
that I ask everyone who works here to make.
Never doubt
that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens
can change the world.
Do you know why?
It's the only thing that ever has?
[Wells] We heard from many, many people who went into public service
having watched The West Wing.
It brought something to television
that I think had not been on television before.
[Coley] I don't think it can be denied that the one-hour drama
really elevated with shows like The West Wing.
This idea of television that could rival
what we see on the big screen.
Shows like The West Wing were integral
in what we now consider the heyday of peak TV.
You do not look old enough to have a daughter.
And you do not look like a daughter.
That's possibly
very sweet of you.
[Freeman] By the early 2000s,
television was in the midst of a creative renaissance
known as the Golden Age of TV...
My past is not your future.
Wow, you're cool.
[Freeman] ...with genre-defining new hits from Warner Bros.
Your real parents weren't exactly from around here.
All right, let's move it!
[Freeman] As the studio's most iconic TV phenomenons
continued to rule the ratings...
- We win! - [laughs]
[Freeman] ...this period of Warner Bros. Television
launched the careers of some of the biggest stars of the era,
including ER heartthrob, George Clooney.
[George Clooney] With ER, it was a magical five years,
and then my contract was up,
and I didn't want to renew
because I was already doing movies
and I was making a pretty good living.
You know, every movie I did was,
the article would lead with, you know,
"He's not going to be a movie star."
There was a big stigma between television and film at the time.
[Freeman] Clooney's rise to movie stardom
was not an overnight success,
even after taking on one of the most prized roles in Hollywood.
Hi, Freeze. I'm Batman.
[Clooney] Batman & Robin
was a big, big flop,
and, critically, just murdered for it.
Suddenly, because you were someone who could greenlight a film,
they were reviewing you based on the film.
So you're getting killed for a movie that you just thought,
"Well, I just said yes to an acting job."
And so I had to change how I thought about it,
going, "Well, if I'm gonna get blamed for the film, then I better...
pick better films."
[yells] Come on, you bitch!
[Clooney] Perfect Storm was such a massive hit.
It had nothing to do with me. It's a movie about a big wave.
But I said, "Since I took so much shit for Batman & Robin,
I'm going to take all the credit for this."
[crowd cheering]
[Freeman] After becoming a bankable name,
Clooney would utilize his relationship with Warner Bros.
to redefine what a modern movie star looks like.
[Danny] It's never been done before.
It's gonna need planning and a large crew.
[Freeman] Clooney formed a production company
with director Steven Soderbergh,
and the pair gambled on a modern reimagining
of a Warner Bros. Rat Pack classic, Ocean's Eleven.
Ocean's was a property
that I didn't think Steven would want to do
because he was kind of this independent auteur.
And he said, "I know how to do this.
We have to populate it with big stars."
What? Did you guys get a group rate or something?
Hang on to your knickers.
[Danny] The house always wins.
Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big,
and then you take the house.
You've been practicing that speech, haven't you?
Little bit. Did I rush it? Felt like I rushed it.
No, it was good. I liked it.
[Freeman] Ocean's Eleven's success at the box office
delivered a tentpole hit for Warner Bros. that would pay out for years to come.
But Clooney would take his goodwill with the studio
and cash in for something more personal.
We were trying to do the "one for us, one for them."
And that was a fair deal. You know, Clint always did that,
which was, "I'll do a big commercial film
and let me do my little film."
[Edward] We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
[Freeman] Both behind and in front of the camera,
Clooney set out to build on the studio's legacy
of socially conscious filmmaking.
- Why am I being investigated, Fred? - Drop it.
[Clooney] These are movies that talk about really serious issues,
and Warner Bros. was willing to take big chances.
[Horn] Relationships with people like George Clooney
were critical to the studio.
If the relationship is good,
these very talented people come back,
so it's helpful to have a project that resonates with them.
They killed them, Michael.
Those small farms, the family farms.
[Clooney] Michael Clayton is a hard film to even consider getting made.
That's not some easy film to swallow.
[Tony Gilroy] I was very angry when I wrote that movie.
This case in the movie,
it's based on a real case that happened.
It's about the moment where people decide to do the wrong thing.
[horse neighs]
[Clooney] And I have to say, Warners,
you know, when we sat them down,
they said, "You know, you're going to piss off some people."
And we were like, "What does that mean for you guys?"
And they were like, "Who cares? Let's go."
[Michael] I'm not the guy that you kill.
I'm the guy that you buy.
Are you so fucking blind you don't even see what I am?
Truly, forever, I will have this place in my heart for Warner Bros.
because of, I felt that they were very brave
at times that were not easy to be very brave.
[Freeman] Clooney's pursuit of meaningful stories
with Warner Bros.
culminated with the 2012 film Argo.
Originally, I was going to play the part.
And we were going to do it, and then Ben called up.
And Ben had just done a couple of films before that
that were really good.
And he said, "I want to direct it."
And I was like, "Great."
"And I want to play the part."
I was like, "Fuck!"
I need you to help me make a fake movie.
So you want to come to Hollywood and act like a big shot...
- Yeah. - ...without actually doing anything?
- No. - You'll fit right in.
[Clooney] He took the script in a different direction than we were.
Our version of Argo was funnier.
And he was like, "I think there's more of a thriller in this as well."
- [Tony] Good. What's your job on the movie? - [Joe] Producer.
[Tony] Associate producer. What's the last movie you produced?
What's your middle name?
- Leon. - Shoot him. He's an American spy.
[Joe] You really believe your little story's going to make a difference
when there's a gun to our heads?
I think my story is the only thing between you and a gun to your head.
They are calling the operation.
I'm taking it through.
[Adam] You don't decide if it goes.
[Jack] ...a one-way whorehouse mirror...
It is going!
[Clooney] And he did a beautiful job with that, and it won Best Picture.
To see good films on the big screen,
the kind of films that are not guaranteed to make it,
it's very difficult.
And I don't want to crap on the tentpole films
because I enjoy them and I actually think they're good for us,
but it can't be that at the expense of the films that mark you,
and I'm hopeful that those will still find their way.
[Freeman] Throughout the digital age,
Warner Bros. was able to keep a foot
on both sides of the filmmaking divide...
[Frank] No one gives it to you.
You have to take it.
[Freeman] ...releasing a balance of artistically daring work
to critical acclaim.
This is the time to build our nation.
[all cheering]
Hiya, fellas.
[Freeman] And record-smashing event films
with sequels that kept on giving.
The enemy is preparing for war.
- [roars] - [Gandalf screams]
[Freeman] But an ambitious, new auteur at the studio
had a vision for a film
that would transcend the dichotomy altogether.
[Nolan] I felt an increasing separation between the serious drama
and the big blockbusters that were using the CGI at the time.
I've always hated that divide, because I feel that as a filmmaker,
you want to try to blur those boundaries,
to create something
that hopefully the audience
hasn't seen before.
[Freeman] After taking the industry by storm
with his mind-bending feature, Memento,
director Christopher Nolan made a home at Warner Bros.
with the 2002 noir thriller Insomnia.
Are you trying to impress me, Finch?
Because you got the wrong guy.
[Freeman] But the young auteur was about to break new ground
with the studio's most iconic vigilante,
who was ripe for a reinvention.
[Nolan] They were at a point with Batman
where the previous iteration of the franchise had somewhat run out of steam,
and they didn't really know what they wanted to do with it.
When Tim Burton took on the character,
he made this absolutely brilliant
and extraordinary world
within which the character was also extraordinary.
But what hadn't happened was this sort of other version
where you allow Batman to be this extraordinary figure,
but you try and portray a relatively realistic world.
And that was my pitch to Warner Bros.
is, let's look at giving everything a grounded sense
in a cinematic world.
And I thought, "This guy has a take on Batman.
Very, very smart."
I think his English accent helped.
That always gives you ten degrees more intelligence
in the eyes of those listening, but anyway.
We had a great meeting with him, and he was just so impressive,
so off we went.
[Freeman] Sold on Nolan's vision
of bringing Batman into the real world,
Warner Bros. handed over the reins to one of their most prized properties
and a budget bigger than anything Nolan had taken on before.
[Emma Thomas] With Batman Begins,
the scary thing was, really, the scale of it
and how we were going to deliver
these incredible visuals.
Chris has always been attracted to making films
that really make audiences feel like
they can touch what it is that they're watching.
And doing everything as practically as possible on this film
was really how he wanted to achieve that.
[Nolan] I really tried to get the scope and scale and relatability
of any sort of action cinema, not just comic book cinema.
And so we did a lot with miniatures.
We shot on real locations.
We went around the world with the films.
With this idea that Batman is, in some sense, is not a superhero.
I like to joke that, if he has a superpower, it's great wealth,
so he's able to buy things and put together all kinds of assets
that he can utilize in his fight against crime.
So, what do you think?
Does it come in black?
[Nolan] There's nothing magic about the character.
And that makes him relatable.
We could, any of us, in theory, be Batman.
What the hell are you?
[glass smashes]
[Carmine groans]
I'm Batman.
[Horn] Chris gave it a credibility that made me feel
that this was not a comic book character.
I felt... It felt real to me.
[Freeman] Batman Begins reinvented the superhero origin story,
but Nolan would push his vision even further...
with a genre-defying villain.
[Nolan] Once we've created that contemporary, more realistic world,
we wanted to try and figure out what might the Joker be in that.
[Joker] Whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...
stranger.
[Coley] For everything you can say
about any superhero movie that happened before this,
none of them approached it
with the crime thriller approach that Chris Nolan did.
It was one of the best film series to ever happen,
one of the best franchises to ever happen,
and, obviously, as one of the best superhero movies
to ever happen here at Warner Bros.
[Freeman] The Dark Knight
became the highest grossing film of 2008,
but its true legacy went beyond just box office numbers.
[Thomas] The Dark Knight had great cultural resonance
and it definitely felt like we might actually get a Best Picture nomination
as a superhero movie, but it didn't happen.
And subsequently, the next year,
the Academy moved to ten Best Picture nominees
and I've heard it called the "Dark Knight rule."
[Freeman] Christopher Nolan ignited what would become
a flourishing new movement in large-scale filmmaking.
[Ariadne] Why is it so important to dream?
[Cobb] In my dreams, we're still together.
We filmed a lot on the stages here.
Stage 16, in particular.
And that's the largest stage in Hollywood, the tallest stage,
that was famously lifted up to give more ceiling height.
We shot our Japanese castle set,
where the windows are blown in with water cannons.
[Freeman] Over the next decade at Warner Bros.,
he would push the genre
to bigger, more personal heights,
redefining what a blockbuster film could be.
[Coley] Whether it be The Dark Knight,
whether it be our chances for interstellar travel,
whatever it is, he wants to bring that concept
into the most cinematic lighting and framing possible
to tell a compelling story.
[Nolan] It's enormously important that
individual voices have been nurtured through the studio system.
I felt very looked after,
and I really enjoyed the feeling of the security
of an experienced studio around me.
A machine that could be brought to bear on my creative impulses.
It felt like a tremendous privilege to be working in that system.
[Freeman] While Warner Bros. continued its storied history
working with some of the biggest names in the business,
there was one place on the lot every celebrity wanted to be.
- [man 1] Seven, six, five... - [man 2] The pressure...
- There you go. Ready, A? - [man 1] Four, three, two,
- one... - [woman] Roy, tech right up.
[crowd cheering]
[Freeman] The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
With a rotating list of Hollywood's biggest stars,
Ellen ruled the daytime scene for almost 20 years.
- You guys are doing pretty good. - Yep.
[Freeman] But before she was on a first-name basis with all of America,
Ellen's daytime dominance seemed almost unthinkable.
[Ellen DeGeneres] A lot of people didn't think
that it would work.
A lot of people thought
it's housewives at home during the day
doing their ironing,
you know, and, you know, wearing their aprons,
and they're not going to watch
a lesbian during the day.
And, of course, that made me mad and upset because
they also didn't watch a lesbian at night, so...
I had no time. There was no time for a lesbian on television.
[Freeman] Ellen DeGeneres made television history in 1997
when she came out as gay in her sitcom Ellen.
She revealed her secret to her therapist on the show,
played by Oprah Winfrey.
I didn't even give it a second thought.
Ellen asked, and I said, "Yes."
It wasn't until after I did it,
that I realized, "Oh, this was a very, very, very big deal."
We do not want the gay and lesbian lifestyle
paraded in the living rooms of America's homes.
[Schneider] This was the '90s,
and we hadn't really seen a show with a lead who had been gay.
I was supposedly "untouchable," and no one was hiring me.
[Schneider] A couple years later,
when it came time for The Rosie O'Donnell Show to go off the air,
Warner Bros. needed a new marquee talk show host.
For a mainstream daytime talk show
to feature a lesbian comedian at its heart
was a huge risk on the part of Warner Bros.
[DeGeneres] Once I agreed to do the show,
Warner Bros. had a hard time selling the show.
I remember the most common remark.
The station managers would say,
"She doesn't even curse. She's not even dirty."
I was like, "Fucking A."
I think there were a lot of people who just didn't think that would work.
[announcer] Here she is now, Ellen DeGeneres!
[DeGeneres] And they couldn't have been more wrong.
Okay, so these are my offices right here on the Warner Bros. lot.
It's very exciting because now there's all kinds of things going on here.
I can do anything I want.
"G. Clooney."
Which of these two do you like?
[DeGeneres] That makes me wonder what she's worried about.
Or does my breath... You know when you do the...
- Yeah. - Like that? Like that? Yeah.
Get me a mint.
You can't throw a stone
without hitting somebody
in the face.
- You just throw the stone-- - [Julia screams]
- Oh, my God! - Oh, Julia Louis-Dreyfus!
- What the [bleep] was that? - Sorry.
- What the [bleep] was that, Ellen? - Sorry.
[crowd cheering]
[Channing Dungey] The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 19 seasons.
There was a long run there for a reason.
The key sort of watchword for Ellen was "fun."
[crowd cheering]
The fact that she started every episode with the dancing.
It made you laugh. It made you feel good.
[all scream]
It was the bright spot in your day.
Just spend a little time with Ellen.
[DeGeneres] I'm grateful that I could make a difference,
and giving a face and a voice
to people who are feeling alone and not represented on television.
[crowd applauding]
[Winfrey] The secret to having a great talk show
is the ability to be 100% fully yourself,
and that's what the audience is looking for.
Ellen found a way to be more and more real.
[Freeman] While Ellen was conquering daytime,
a new genre was taking over primetime.
Oh, my God.
[Freeman] Unscripted television.
In the early 2000s,
Warner Bros. got in on the ground floor
with a genre-defining dating series,
The Bachelor.
[Roth] What if we were to do a show
in which a guy is looking to find the love of his life
and introduced to 25 gorgeous women,
all of whom aspired to be his wife?
If you think about it, it's Prince Charming come to light.
Let's welcome our new bachelor...
[Freeman] A heartfelt twist
on the competition shows of the time,
the 2002 premiere of The Bachelor
sparked a reality romance phenomenon.
[Jessie Palmer] The show has just grown and grown and grown,
not just here in the United States,
but literally around the world.
People want to see real people.
They're rooting for the love story.
[Freeman] The Bachelor kicked off
an unscripted studio division that chased pop culture...
Yes!
[Freeman] ...and celebrated ordinary people.
A violin has strings and fiddle has "strings."
Boy, you my man!
[Nick Offerman] I've been waiting a year and a half
to find out about my great-grandparents.
- Come on! - You want me to come too? Oh, Lord.
[audience cheering]
This is Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses!
[Freeman] As television began overflowing with new content,
Warner Bros. doubled down on a tried and true format.
The sitcom.
[Roth] I thought, "Who can I make a deal with
that can change the course of our fare in comedy?"
And number one on my list back in 1999 was Chuck Lorre.
Made a four-year deal, the most expensive deal
in the history of television of comedy creators.
It was terrible.
I had a four-year deal,
and for three years I just sucked eggs.
If I walked into the commissary,
none of those executives would look up from their Cobb salad and look at me.
And then, literally in the last half year...
I got involved with a project that became Two and a Half Men.
You reupholstered the couch.
I like it better the way it was.
Stained?
Hey, every one of those stains had a story behind it.
[Freeman] A modern take on The Odd Couple,
Two and a Half Men co-starred Charlie Sheen
as a hard-partying playboy
with a taste for the double entendre.
Charlie to base camp. I can see the summit.
But in 2007, Chuck Lorre stumbled onto
an idea that would redefine the culture of cool.
It began with Bill Prady, who, back in the '80s,
when he was a computer programmer in New York,
and he told me about the guys he worked with who were brilliant,
but entirely dysfunctional.
Geniuses who could rattle off pi to 80 places,
but couldn't talk to women.
Just go mute.
And I remember going, "Bill, that's our show. Those guys!"
And you can start sorting protons and neutrons,
while I build carbon atoms.
[Lorre] One thing we learned was the audience viewed the guys as children.
Bazinga!
[Lorre] Because they were very naive and childlike.
Oh, no!
See, this is why I wanted to have a costume meeting.
[Lorre] And they didn't want anybody around them
who might be hostile or didn't care for them.
So, Klingon Boggle?
[Lorre] There was a wonderful maternal quality
that Kaley brought to the role.
She was bemused by them, occasionally perturbed by them,
but always gentle with them.
This is really impressive.
I have a board. If you like boards, this is my board.
[Lorre] I think the guys felt alienated from the rest of the world,
the culture at large, perhaps.
And their solution to that separateness
was they had each other.
They created a community amongst themselves.
We went to Comic-Con that summer and it was standing room only.
[audience laughing]
I couldn't stay away.
[Lorre] There were people crying just to see these actors
like they were the Beatles. And I went,
[chuckling] "Oh...
Something's happening on the show that never could have been anticipated."
The Big Bang Theory mixed a lot of things
that were in the popular culture at the moment.
The rise of Comic-Con and fandom
becoming much more than just a niche,
but something that was celebrated in the popular culture
and in the mainstream.
That was front and center in The Big Bang Theory,
and they really embraced that.
Ow!
[Freeman] Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory
cemented Chuck Lorre
as a formidable television auteur at Warner Bros.
who was just getting started.
Yes. That's it!
[Roth] Mike & Molly to Mom,
to Young Sheldon to Bob Hearts Abishola.
- Tequila? - Many shots.
And you paid for it.
[Roth] Hit after hit after hit.
It's been one of the most successful relationships,
certainly of my career and, frankly, of Warner Bros. Television.
[Freeman] As Chuck Lorre reigned over a sitcom kingdom,
a regime change was underway in the C suite.
After 12 years leading the studio,
Barry Meyer and Alan Horn stepped down.
Steering the studio's ship through the Digital Age,
Meyer and Horn oversaw a flourishing period
of creative and financial boom at Warner Bros.
They passed the torch to a new leader in 2013
who planned to bring WB to the front lines
of the superhero studio wars.
Kevin Tsujihara really wanted to expand the DC universe.
And they wanted to expand it as quickly as they could.
Because Marvel had been doing multiple movies.
[Freeman] The new era of DC expansion began on television,
from WB's veteran showrunner Greg Berlanti,
with the superhero soap opera, Arrow.
Greg Berlanti changed the course of our company and of DC,
starting with Arrow and then Flash and then Legends of Tomorrow.
And then Supergirl.
[Freeman] Known as the Arrowverse,
Berlanti's interconnected world fed an insatiable appetite.
[Freeman] But Kevin Tsujihara had ambitious plans to compete with Marvel...
on the big screen,
with the triumphant return of the most iconic superhero of all time.
[Jor-El] You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive toward.
In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.
[Freeman] Man of Steel marked WB's
official launch of the DC Extended Universe.
You're going to go to war?
That son of a bitch brought the war to us.
[Freeman] From the ultimate superhero face-off,
to a motley crew of supervillains...
[laughs]
[Freeman] ...DC was reshaping the comic book film landscape.
But an up-and-coming filmmaker
was about to breathe new life into a long dormant hero.
We always wanted to break that action comic book ceiling.
We felt that Wonder Woman would be the one to do it.
I think I was about eight or nine when I first saw Wonder Woman.
I was like a moth to the flame, of the image,
the symbolism, the delight.
And ever since that time, I never lost my desire to tell a universal story
that brings beauty into people's life and inspires them.
And so, after I made Monster and had some success,
I went to Warner Bros. I said, "I want to direct Wonder Woman."
[Freeman] With a lifelong passion for the character,
Patty Jenkins' unique vision for DC's first female superhero won over WB.
But the studio would be taking an Amazon-sized risk
on a filmmaker with no experience helming a big-budget action film.
There's a history of female superhero movies being thought not to work,
and so I definitely felt the pressure every day.
On the other hand, I was given the great gift of Gal Gadot.
When Patty and I met, it was love at first sight.
From the first moment,
we've both wanted to tell
the same story.
We didn't want to think about Wonder Woman as tough and hard and cold.
We wanted her to be a true woman.
Like the way women are.
- We need to help these people. - We have to stay on mission.
So what? So we do nothing?
No. We can't save everyone in this war.
- Steve... - This is not what we came here to do.
[Jenkins] Often superhero movies are all about the bad guy.
Wonder Woman was not at all about the bad guy.
It was about Wonder Woman's journey
to becoming a hero and her birth into the world.
- Fire! - Fire!
[Jenkins] That's why superhero comic books were written in the first place.
They were about, what would you do with great power,
and how can you be a hero in the world?
[Lynda Carter] I rose up.
I was standing in the seats of the theater
with Gal, and my daughter said, "Mom, I never really understood
why people were so enthralled with you in Wonder Woman until I saw Gal."
It's not just a cartoon character.
It is much more than that.
[Freeman] Wonder Woman's impact went far beyond the big screen...
becoming a symbol of female empowerment.
Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman opened up a new space,
especially for young women and girls
to have a sense of themselves as powerful.
[Freeman] Wonder Woman broke down the walls
of what a superhero could be.
But Warner Bros. would push the boundaries even further,
devoting an entire film to a notorious villain.
[Todd Phillips] I wasn't so much a comic book guy.
I loved the movies. I certainly loved
the Chris Nolan films,
but I really wanted to do a character study,
a movie about a singular person.
I always loved what the Joker character
represents in the comics and the films.
I thought, "Boy, if we can get a great actor to play that part,
we could really do a deep dive into why this person is this way."
[laughs uncontrollably]
What? You think that's funny?
[Toby Emmerich] It was a hard script to say yes to,
because it was a dark film.
It was an anti-hero protagonist.
It took place in the DC world.
There'd been a Joker.
But this was going to be a different Joker, played by a different actor.
But the studio loved the screenplay.
You know, everyone who read the script just said,
"Wow, this could be something great."
So we took the shot.
Is it just me?
Or is it getting crazier out there?
[chuckling]
[Phillips] I've been around a lot of great actors,
but nobody quite like Joaquin.
He really went in deep,
and really felt like he became Arthur/Joker.
- [gun fires] - [man screams]
[Phillips] In one particular scene,
he had killed these three Wall Street guys on the subway,
and he was supposed to run into this rundown bathroom
and hide the gun.
[panting]
[Phillips] And Joaquin brought up a thing going, "Why is Arthur hiding the gun?"
And so I said, "Yeah, let's not do that.
Let's do something else."
And we just him and I alone
sat in this bathroom for 45 minutes thinking what else could we do?
And I said to him, "Oh, I got this great new piece of music from Hildur,"
who's our composer.
[slow somber music playing]
And I played the music, and Joaquin just started moving to it.
And then he kind of improvised this gorgeous dance.
And it was like, really quickly we realized, "Oh, that's the scene.
This is the moment. This is the metamorphosis.
This is where he first feels Joker coming out of him."
- [Joker] What do you get? - [Murray] I don't think so.
[Joker] When you cross a mentally ill loner
with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash?
- Call the police, Gene. - I'll tell you what you get.
- Call the police. - You get what you fucking deserve!
[audience screams]
[female newscaster] The new Joker film, opening nationwide today,
is sparking fears of real-life violence.
[Emmerich] That was a scary time.
America's changed, gun violence has changed so much in the last decade,
and there'd been a shooting once in a Batman film.
We never thought the film would incite violence,
but you never know how people will misinterpret art,
so we took every measure we could to make sure that that wasn't going to happen.
It was a relief when the film came out.
People understood the film.
Violence is a destructive force and a hurtful force.
[Freeman] A bold departure from the comic book genre,
Joker was hailed as a triumph.
Nominated for 11 Oscars and winning two,
it became the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time.
[guns cocking]
Hands up.
[growling]
You know, New York is considerably more interesting than I expected.
[Thunderbird screeches]
[Freeman] By the late 2010s,
the path to box office success was dominated
by supercharged mega franchises.
[roars]
[Freeman] To find a hit with mass appeal, outside the tentpole world,
Warner Bros. embraced an unexpected filmmaker,
determined to make a new kind of impact.
The fact that Warner Bros. is the steward of stories
to not just America, but the world, that's a huge responsibility.
But for me to be one little piece of that history,
I mean, I can't even believe that I'm here right now.
[Freeman] After a string of high-profile blockbusters,
director Jon Chu was one of Hollywood's fastest rising stars.
But after a decade in the industry, Chu had a realization
that would send him down a more personal path.
[Chu] I'd been hearing this stuff from the industry itself.
"You can't hire this person, or that couple.
They don't sell internationally, or that," so...
I realized all that stuff was backwards and it was, like, in me.
And if I wanted to actually put an all-Asian cast in a movie,
I'm one of the only people who could do that.
And so that's when I found Crazy Rich Asians.
My mom, my sister, my cousin, all told me, "You got to read this book."
Come to Singapore.
I think it's about time people met my beautiful girlfriend.
[Chu] At the center of it is what touched me
was this story about Rachel Chu,
who's an Asian-American going to Asia for the first time.
That's exactly my experience of going to Hong Kong.
And I really zeroed in on that for Rachel Chu.
I was like, "I know how to tell that story."
At first it was going to be an independent production
because we didn't think a studio would back this thing.
And then we got the call from Warner Bros.,
which seemed like a place that was unthinkable for a movie like this.
But they said, "This is part of our tradition.
We were started by immigrants.
We have a tradition of telling stories
of different cultures and different perspectives."
And immediately they were in.
Three, two, one, action!
[gasps]
[Constance Wu] I was very excited not to just make a romcom
starring an Asian American,
but to make one that was about class and identity struggles.
That was about relationships with your parents and with generational differences.
I'm not leaving because I'm scared,
or because I think I'm not enough.
Because, maybe for the first time in my life,
I know I am.
[Chu] That's the end of the movie.
It's not about getting the guy.
It's about her standing up for her own self-worth.
And we were thinking of putting in Coldplay's "Yellow."
Warner Bros. was very worried about, "Well, what does that say?
How are people gonna interpret that?"
And I said to them, I was like,
"I want to re-own that word,
and this song can do that for us."
And they trusted me.
So, at first, Coldplay, wasn't going to allow us to use it,
so I wrote this letter.
"Dear Chris, Guy, Jonny, and Will,
I know it's a bit strange, but my whole life I've had
a complicated relationship with the color yellow.
From being called the word in a derogatory way
throughout grade school,
to watching movies where they called cowardly people 'yellow,'
it's always had a negative connotation in my life.
That is, until I heard your song.
For the first time in my life,
it described the color in the most beautiful, magical ways I'd ever heard.
The color of the stars,
her skin, love.
It will give a generation of Asian Americans and others
the same sense of pride I got when I heard your song.
I want all of them to have an anthem
that makes them feel as beautiful as your words and melody
made me feel when I needed it most."
And then, a couple hours later, they replied,
and we got the rights to it, so...
I wrote it over there in the edit room, on the couch.
When I first watched Crazy Rich Asians,
in the movie theater,
I was really emotional.
When I started in the '80s,
there was just so few opportunities for Asian actors.
I would go watch movies all the time,
and I would always fantasize or dream
that the lead of the movie
would have an Asian face that looked like me.
So when I first saw Crazy Rich Asians in the movie theater,
it meant everything to me.
That movie is the reason why I decided to get back into acting
after a 22-year break.
I'm having this whole second act, it's because of this movie.
And I'm so grateful to Warner Bros.
that made this movie, and also to everybody involved.
[Freeman] Jon Chu's vision for an all-Asian romcom
soared past expectations,
becoming one of the biggest movies of the year.
But, behind the scenes,
a new mega-merger had landed at the studio.
After a two-year battle with the Department of Justice,
telecom behemoth AT&T took control of TimeWarner,
branding the new joint company WarnerMedia.
The studio underwent numerous restructuring efforts,
eventually leading to Ann Sarnoff
becoming the first female CEO of Warner Bros.
How do you tell stories and make programming,
whether it's feature films or television or games
that are relevant to this next generation?
I think that's a big challenge for all of us in the business.
[Freeman] To capture the attention of a new generation,
the studio gambled on a cutting-edge vision
to reintroduce one of the most iconic figures in music history.
Elvis was unlike any movie journey I've ever been on.
Like, I can't tell you how many people said to me,
"Yeah, but, how are you going to find an Elvis?"
Not only is he an unbelievable vocal character,
but also he's one of the most handsome and attractive people
that ever walked the face of the Earth.
And then there's the way he moved.
So the finding of Austin Butler and the casting process...
I now look at it and go,
"Actually, I think I didn't find Austin.
I think Austin found it."
♪ Well, that's all right Mama ♪
♪ That's all right for you ♪
♪ That's all right, Mama ♪
[Luhrmann] He was born to play that role.
We knew that, in Austin, a new star was born.
[Freeman] With the perfect Elvis cast,
and Tom Hanks set to play the infamous Colonel Tom Parker,
production began in Australia in March 2020.
[Luhrmann] We're shooting on the film,
and we're doing a scene where Colonel Tom Parker
is guiding Elvis through the showroom.
And I'm about to say, "Look, let's bring Tom now into the scene.
And Tom, you explore this idea."
And as I do, my first assistant says,
"Hey, Tom has to leave the set. I think he's got that flu thing."
And the rest of the world knows what happens next, right?
I was actually on an airplane,
and I got a text.
"Confidential, Tom Hanks tested positive for COVID."
[newscaster] "The medical officials have protocol
that must be followed.
We Hanks' will be tested, observed, and isolated
for as long as public health and safety requires."
"Okay, we've got to shut down. What are we doing?
Is Tom okay? What's going on?"
If this evolves into a pandemic,
there's no way we in the United States are going to escape
having more infections in this country.
And the next thing, Hazmat suits and shutting down sets,
and the film's over.
[Freeman] The pandemic shut down all film productions
and movie theaters across the country,
putting the future of the entire film industry in jeopardy.
[Emmerich] There was a real concern
that the big movie theater chains
wouldn't be able to survive COVID.
Is this going to just make people not want to go to movie theaters anymore?
It was scary.
[Luhrmann] And this is where Warners comes in.
I said, "Look, I am making this movie for movie theaters.
You need to see Elvis, the movie, and Elvis, the man,
and Elvis, the performer, on a big screen."
[Emmerich] Austin Butler and Baz never left Australia.
They stayed there, they rode out COVID, and they made this movie
under these newly devised COVID protocols.
I mean, to me, that's a miracle.
Mr. Presley. Are you ready to fly?
I'm ready.
Ready to fly.
[Emmerich] It got people into theaters.
It's one of the most successful original films
to be released since COVID.
My singular focus in making a movie
is to bring all kinds of people to come sit in a dark room with strangers,
for everyone to be united from what's going up on that flickering screen,
and for a few brief moments, not to feel alone.
You know, we all laugh together, we all cry together,
we're all moved together, we're all touched together.
We are not alone.
[David Zaslav] There's a lot of ways that we consume content,
on small screens, on TV screens,
but when you go to a motion picture, everything stops.
When I was about 17 years old on a Saturday afternoon,
my dad took me to a motion picture.
And the lights went out and there was this giant screen,
and Bonnie and Clyde came on,
and it was like magic.
That was, for me, the beginning of this journey for my life.
Kid that grew up in Brooklyn
and was inspired by so many of the movies that Warner Bros. made.
And here I am, which, for me is...
It's the stuff that dreams are made of.
It's hard to believe.
[reporter 1] AT&T set to combine WarnerMedia with Discovery,
creating a media powerhouse.
[reporter 2] AT&T's WarnerMedia and Discovery agree to merge.
Discovery's boss David Zaslav will run this new combined company.
Well, hello, Warner Bros. Discovery!
[audience cheering]
Were there are other names thrown out?
How did you come to "Warner Bros. Discovery"?
- I just said, "We have to use Warner Bros." - Uh-huh.
"Because I don't want a corporate name.
Warner Bros. stands for these four guys."
[Freeman] The Warner Bros. Discovery merger
capped off two decades of acquisitions,
rebranding, and corporate instability.
The marriage resulted in a powerhouse portfolio.
[Zaslav] Together we have a chance to be
the greatest entertainment company in the world.
Whoa!
[Zaslav] Because we have the most content,
the most platforms,
and we're more global than any other media company.
[Dungey] When you think about the tremendous amount
of intellectual property that exists at this company,
the opportunities are just so rich.
But it is imperative
for us to be making shows that really reflect the world around us.
It's about who's telling the stories,
who's behind the scenes.
People understand that talent can come from anywhere.
This is just the wave now,
and I do think Warner Bros. has done a good job of that.
They're opening their arms to that a little bit more.
We think it's really important to find filmmakers and voices
that tell authentic stories, positive stories about
what it looks like to be them or what their culture feels like.
[Mike De Luca] Those filmmakers are worth their weight in gold.
Those storytellers that understand that you're part of a tribe,
you feel like you're part of a collective humanity.
[Rick] Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this?
I mean, what you're fighting for.
[Victor] Might as well question why we breathe.
If we stop breathing, we'll die.
Each of us has a destiny, for good or for evil.
[Zaslav] When you tell a great story, you can change minds.
The Warner brothers understood that,
Steve Ross understood that.
And so, when you think about Warner Bros. today,
it's about building on the incredible success over the last 100 years.
[Freeman] What began as a family affair
has grown into a global empire of entertainment.
Since its inception, the studio has developed talent
into risk takers, trailblazers and visionaries.
In return, those fearless voices
have reflected and shaped our culture.
[Phillips] I think what's made Warner Bros. last 100 years
is that inclination
to swing for the fences and trust filmmakers.
[Scott] It's a dangerous story for this paper.
Fuck it, let's stand by the boys.
[Freeman] Throughout the decades,
storytellers have embraced
the pioneering spirit of the founders.
That same courage will inspire the next century.
[Melissa] We do this because we're supposed to.
It's a calling.
You answered.
[Winfrey] What it means to tell stories
in a world that is craving direction and hope
has more value now than ever before.
[Zaslav] One of the great things about being here on the lot
is not just the legacy.
It's not what happened here, who's been here.
It's who is here.
We all came together for the same reason.
To fight to tell a great story,
and to make a difference.
We love this business, and we have more stories to tell.
[upbeat music playing]