As Grode continues talks with Warner Bros. Warners’ previous arrangement with Legendary allowed it to cherry-pick the movies it financed. called it quits after an eight-year marriage in which the company founded by Thomas Tull backed such Warners films as Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and Man of Steel. Though other studios are said to be in the hunt, Warners would be something of a natural fit.

And one of the first orders of business was locking down a distribution partner. Since former lawyer Josh Grode took the reins at Legendary in March, he has put his stamp on the studio and last month inked a $1 billion senior secured revolving credit facility led by J.P. That would mark its final film with Universal.ĭetective Pikachu is not expected to move from the May 10 date that Universal had carved out. Legendary has a stake in BlacKkKlansman, a film from Universal’s Focus Features label.

Legendary also has put up large chunks of the budget for most of the films in Universal’s slate over the past four years, including summer hit Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which has earned $1.2 billion to date. The Universal-Legendary relationship had sputtered over the past year, culminating with Legendary’s Dwayne Johnson starrer Skyscraper, which sources say will ultimately be a money loser.

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