Spielberg, Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson Make ‘Emergency Call’ to WBD Chief David Zaslav to Protest Cuts

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

A trio of America’s top film directors are bringing their influence to bear to save Turner Classic Movies, using their clout to get access to the entertainment conglomerate CEO who’s in the middle of massive layoffs across his corporate empire.

David Zaslav’s tenure at the helm of the post-merger Warner Bros. Discovery has been riddled with headlines about unhappy content creators, the swift and brutal shuttering of the CNN+ streaming service, plus CNN’s ratings struggles and personnel turmoil – including the ouster earlier this month of CEO Chris Licht.

The WBD CEO has acknowledged cuts will be necessary, and the layoff hatchet landed particularly harshly on TCM. “Much of its leadership” was let go on Tuesday, according to a report by IndieWire’s Christian Blauvelt that listed now-unemployed top brass to include people who “were responsible for everything from curating lineups, to shooting intros and outros, and for creating original shows, documentaries, and video essays that serve as major contributions to American cultural history,” as well as organizing the annual TCM Film Festival.

That event specifically has been a favorite of none other than Steven Spielberg, pictured above with Zaslav at the 2023 festival back in April, wrote Blauvelt:

Spielberg appeared at the last two TCM Film Festivals and in multiple TCM documentaries. Paul Thomas Anderson also was at the festival this year; in that same LA Times article, he called the network “holy ground.” Also among its passionate fans are Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, and Patton Oswalt. Tom Hanks just recorded some fantastic intros and outros to “Casablanca” and “Jezebel” opposite 20-year TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, whose name is a connection to Hollywood’s golden age but whose own historical knowledge is even more impressive.

Martin Scorsese has been even more effusive in his praise for the classic film network, frequently telling interviewers that he leaves TCM on in the background while he edits movies along with his longtime collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker, describing it as giving him “something to turn to, to bounce off of, to rest in, to reinvigorate my thinking — just glancing at some image or combination of images at a certain moment” and being “more like a presence in the room, a reminder of film history as a living, ongoing entity.”

Now, in the wake of the layoffs at TCM and potentially other unknown budget cuts yet to come, Spielberg, Anderson, and Scorsese “have scheduled an emergency call” with Zaslav, reported Blauvelt, going on to lobby the CEO himself to preserve TCM, arguing that if Zaslav truly wants WBD to be “a studio for filmmakers,” then he needs to rebuild the bridges “burned by the previous regime under Jason Kilar,” who forced films to debut simultaneously on streaming and in theaters during the pandemic, over the vociferous objections of movie makers.

“As logic goes, it’s hard to say that Warner Bros. is the best home for filmmakers when it’s also gutting their favorite TV network — the only one dedicated to celebrating cinematic history (and, incidentally, the greatest linear hub for showing off 100 years’ worth of Warner Bros. artistry),” wrote Blauvelt.

“If TCM is neglected, or God forbid, shuttered, it would be a massive loss to cinema culture,” he added. “It would devalue Warner Bros.’ own legacy — if they don’t care about this unique way of putting their history on display and in context, why should filmmakers believe that Warner Bros. values cinema beyond the bottom line?”