"I’m told that Anderson’s mysterious next movie, rumored to star Joaquin Phoenix, Viggo Mortensen, and Regina Hall, has been set up at Warner Bros. Zaslav probably wants to keep that emerging deal in place, lest he repeat the mistakes of former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who alienated Christopher Nolan with the 2021 day-and-date release strategy as the director fled his longtime studio home and set up “Oppenheimer” at Universal instead.
Zaslav is hacking at divisions across the company, so salvaging a PTA deal may not be his highest priority. The statement issued by the directors on Tuesday said Zaslav reached out to the men earlier this week, though multiple sources tell IndieWire that’s not true at all — Scorsese instigated the call through his non-profit The Film Foundation, a company that has been experimenting with streaming classic films through its website over the past year and might make more sense as a future home for TCM than any line item in Zaslav’s budget. So why did Zaslav get credit for the call? The statement attempts to let him calm the waters without having to officially issue any remarks himself. He outsourced a shield to the film community."