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Bad Robot and a collection of bad investments?

near

Gold Member
So with today's release trailer for Silent Hill: Ascension, I couldn't help but notice a familiar logo that was present. Bad Robot Games. A subdivision of JJ Abram's Bad Robot, established 4 years ago in 2018, which secured funding from Tencent, a reasonably huge deal! They had announced a collaboration with Epic Games on a mobile game called Spyjinx in 2020, which has since been silently cancelled. So to date, this subdivision has failed to produce anything. It got me thinking, how many times have I seen these ventures and deals being made with Bad Robot and is there a familiar pattern?

In 2018, Loud Robot was established, a record label to produce musical talent. So far, I've not been able to find much on this outside of one artist, that largely remains unknown and hasn't had much if anything released. The label also established a deal with RCA Records in 2021. The official Twitter account also seems dead, with no posts since 2019.

In 2021 Bad Robot established Bad Robot Audio, and signed a first look deal with Spotify 2021. Another huge deal, they even headhunted Amazon's Audible director of content partnerships, content acquisition and development. Nothing has yet to materialize from this partnership.

In 2019 Bad Robot inked a $250millon deal with WarnerMedia. I think this one is quite widely known. A five-year agreement that runs through 2024, to develop and produce theatrical movies as well as content for all of its platforms, including but not limited to HBO Max. Reports started surfacing last year that David Zaslav, head of WarnerBros. Discovery, was “frustrated by the lack of output”. My favourite of all the Bad Robot deals is the one with Valve for Portal & Half-Life films, agreed sometime in 2013, we know nothing of the financing that has gone into this deal, but a failure it has been nevertheless.

Bad Robot, Loud Robot, Bad Robot Games, Bad Robot Audio. A collection of entertainment studios that manage to secure lucrative huge deals and fail to produce anything substantial. I love JJ Abrams' films, Super 8, Star Trek, The Force Awakens. But is he the biggest fucking hack of all time? You decide.

ZcGwcPq.jpg


Sources:
 

near

Gold Member
I type fast, it happens to me a lot. Hopefully no one else will notice because people don't read. :p
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
A lot of these deals seem hollow. At least it has kept JJ bottled up though his acolytes and imitators have spread his 'brand' of storytelling and his filmmaking aesthetic. Same thing with the DnD guys from GOT. They landed a big star wars deal....nope. Then a big deal at netflix but I think the only thing released so far was a low budget high school rock movie, which was pretty good but even they was a while ago.

I think these deals are tax shelters more than anything
 

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
Havent heard the name JJ Abrams in a while. Cloverfield was amazing and I liked the modern Star Trek movies with Chris Pine. Other than that, eh.
 

Ownage

Member
So with today's release trailer for Silent Hill: Ascension, I couldn't help but notice a familiar logo that was present. Bad Robot Games. A subdivision of JJ Abram's Bad Robot, established 4 years ago in 2018, which secured funding from Tencent, a reasonably huge deal! They had announced a collaboration with Epic Games on a mobile game called Spyjinx in 2020, which has since been silently cancelled. So to date, this subdivision has failed to produce anything. It got me thinking, how many times have I seen these ventures and deals being made with Bad Robot and is there a familiar pattern?

In 2018, Loud Robot was established, a record label to produce musical talent. So far, I've not been able to find much on this outside of one artist, that largely remains unknown and hasn't had much if anything released. The label also established a deal with RCA Records in 2021. The official Twitter account also seems dead, with no posts since 2019.

In 2021 Bad Robot established Bad Robot Audio, and signed a first look deal with Spotify 2021. Another huge deal, they even headhunted Amazon's Audible director of content partnerships, content acquisition and development. Nothing has yet to materialize from this partnership.

In 2019 Bad Robot inked a $250millon deal with WarnerMedia. I think this one is quite widely known. A five-year agreement that runs through 2024, to develop and produce theatrical movies as well as content for all of its platforms, including but not limited to HBO Max. Reports started surfacing last year that David Zaslav, head of WarnerBros. Discovery, was “frustrated by the lack of output”. My favourite of all the Bad Robot deals is the one with Valve for Portal & Half-Life films, agreed sometime in 2013, we know nothing of the financing that has gone into this deal, but a failure it has been nevertheless.

Bad Robot, Loud Robot, Bad Robot Games, Bad Robot Audio. A collection of entertainment studios that manage to secure lucrative huge deals and fail to produce anything substantial. I love JJ Abrams' films, Super 8, Star Trek, The Force Awakens. But is he the biggest fucking hack of all time? You decide.

ZcGwcPq.jpg


Sources:
Hustlaz hustlin. Ghostware. Vaporware. Money laundering.
 

near

Gold Member
While I think there is a case to be made for money laundering, I don't think it's plausible. The bad investments I refer to in the OP are not being made by Bad Robot, they're being made by Tencent, WarnerMedia, Spotify, RCA Records and similar partnerships, with investors who see dividends. Bad Robot will use JJ Abrams as leverage on the merit of he's profile, to produce creative content and entertainment in which value is attributed. He is selling them a vision or an idea that doesn't seem to pan out.
 
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