MAX
EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery promised to give the writers and directors proper credit for its Max streaming service, but doesn’t expect the resolution to happen any time soon.
“It could take weeks if all the data has to be transferred, reviewed and finalized,” a studio insider at streamer startup SNAFU said May 23, prompting outrage and anger from striking writers and negotiating filmmakers this week. “It’s not easy to push a button.”
Still, creatives are unlikely to be mollified by WBD delays after the bugs hit the nerve.
“Warner Bros has put writers, directors and producers in an invented, ever-shrinking category they call Creators,” WGA West CEO Meredith Stiehm said in a joint press release with DGA CEO Lesli Linka Glatter on the Max rollout on Wednesday. “First of all, this is a breach of creditworthiness. But worse, it’s disrespectful and offensive to the artists who make films and TV shows that bring billions to their company.”
Photo credit: MAX
As it stands, Jesse Armstrong is still counted among a group of non-alphabetic “creators” for the upcoming succession. Notwithstanding the addition of executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay to the troupe of Succession Creators currently starring on “Max,” Armstrong is the sole creator of the Emmy-winning satire.
Despite the frustration (to put it politely) many writers, directors, producers and others at being lumped together as “creators” on the Max credits pages, the promised “credits correction” process will indeed take weeks The best scenarios.
“From Roku to Apple and beyond, you have to do this platform by platform and it takes time,” a streamer exec told Deadline. “The number of platforms will be a determining factor in how long it will take overall,” he added, noting that the legacy credits that existed on HBO Max couldn’t just be carried over to Max.
Credit – MAX
When a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson was asked today how long it would take to clean up the plethora of Max credits on shows like Robin Thede’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and David Chase’s “The Sopranos,” Referring Deadline to their May 23 statement, that indirect statement said, “We agree that the talent behind Max’s content deserves that his work be properly recognized.” were accidentally changed during the technical transition from HBO Max to Max and we apologize for this error.”
Credit – MAX
Just to be clear, in just one of literally thousands of examples of errors on the streamer no matter what Max is up to, Matthew Weiner, the creator of “Mad Men,” isn’t a co-creator of “The Sopranos” — but he was the author of the acclaimed one series and rose to executive producer.
While there have been a myriad of conspiracy theories as to how something so stupid could have happened – including whether it could have been orchestrated by WBD CEO David Zaslav as revenge for being repeatedly targeted by the striking WGA – it seems the truth being far more mundane; I hear a case of rash efficiency stumbling into human error.
In a rush to transition HBO Max to Max this week, a unit within WBD’s sprawling IT department took credits matters into their own hands. With the abundance of drama, comedy, specials, animation, film and unscripted material from WB, HBO, Discovery and more in the Max inventory, it was decided to create a reduced collectible format so everything was ready for release. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the engineering team’s efforts never made it to the company flagpole where they might have been corrected. The internal consequence of this was that most WBD executives at the highest level weren’t even aware of the blunder until Max’s somewhat shaky start went live and criticism poured across the internet.
Still, that’s bullshit for a lot of people, and two days after Max apologized and promised to fix things, the desire to see proper credits on the shows lingers:
The WGA, on strike since May 2nd, was busy with today’s big rally in downtown LA and referred Deadline to the joint statement it made with the DGA on May 23rd. The DGA, which has been negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV producers, did not respond to requests for comment on the status of the “Creators” credits because they were dealing with a new contract to replace the current contract, which expires on June 30th.