Warner Brothers Inc

Movie star Clint Eastwood ruined the career of his former girlfriend, actress Sondra Locke, by getting her a movie development deal in return for calling off a palimony suit, and then using his influence to block her from actually making any films, Locke's attorney contended Wednesday. "This deal with Warner Bros. was a sham.

Warner Bros. hopes to cure a case of superhero envy. After years of lagging rival Marvel Entertainment in adapting comic-book properties for the big screen and other media, the Burbank studio unveiled a major restructuring of its DC Comics unit Wednesday that will bring its operations under tighter control. The move is an effort by Warner Bros. and corporate parent Time Warner Inc. to implement a new strategy for DC Comics, which will face stiffer competition from a steroid-charged Marvel as a result of Walt Disney Co.'s deal last week to acquire it for $4 billion.

He said he did her a favor; she said he did her wrong. The courtroom battle between co-stars and former lovers Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke heated up Tuesday in Burbank as the previously laconic Eastwood grew animated on the witness stand, denying that he used his clout with Warner Bros. to sink Locke's budding director's career after their bitter breakup in 1989.

Clearing the way to move forward with its two planned films of "The Hobbit," Warner Bros. resolved a nasty legal battle with the heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien over profit from the "Lord of the Rings" films. Last year, two of Tolkien's children, Christopher, 84, and Priscilla, 80, sued New Line, now a unit of Warner Bros., for an estimated $150 million that they claimed was owed from the three "Lord of the Rings" movies, which amassed $2.96 billion at the worldwide box office and at least $3 billion in DVD and other ancillary sales, according to the lawsuit.

Warner Bros. hopes to cure a case of superhero envy. After years of lagging rival Marvel Entertainment in adapting comic-book properties for the big screen and other media, the Burbank studio unveiled a major restructuring of its DC Comics unit Wednesday that will bring its operations under tighter control. The move is an effort by Warner Bros. and corporate parent Time Warner Inc. to implement a new strategy for DC Comics, which will face stiffer competition from a steroid-charged Marvel as a result of Walt Disney Co.'s deal last week to acquire it for $4 billion.

You've watched its TV shows and seen its movies. Now wear the studio's sneakers. In another sign of the blurring between sports and entertainment, Warner Bros. on Wednesday said it has agreed to a licensing deal using Laker center (and Warner Bros. actor) Shaquille O'Neal for a line of WB Sport shoes and clothing featuring O'Neal's "Shaq Dunkman" logo.

What's $120 million between friends? Village Roadshow Pictures, which has owed that much to Warner Bros. for nearly a year on four films released in 2008, has repaid the studio after restructuring its $1.4-billion credit line. Amid last year's financial collapse, the Australian film financing company unexpectedly lost access to funds it had committed to use for a 50% stake in "Get Smart," "Gran Torino," "Nights in Rodanthe" and "Yes Man." It has been co-financing Warner movies for over a decade.

Furby, the hot holiday toy that looks like a cross between an owl and a gremlin, will get a face lift next year, industry sources say, following complaints from Warner Bros. that the toy bears too close a resemblance to Gizmo, a character in Warner's "Gremlins" movies. Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro Inc., which manufactures the hot-selling Furby line, did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Warner Bros. long-reigning chiefs, Bob Daly and Terry Semel, have lots to smile about these days, including their studio's market share leap to first on the strength of current hits "The Matrix" and "Analyze This" after a dismal two years at the box office. The $10-billion entertainment empire that the duo preside over, which encompasses the studio's movie, television and consumer products divisions and Time Warner's global music business, is firing on all cylinders right now.

For Warner Bros., the mission was to keep "The Dark Knight" from seeing the light of day. In an era of instantaneous digital copying and widely available high-speed Internet access, the premature and unauthorized release of a movie to the public -- especially a coveted summer blockbuster -- can spell disaster. If the movie's a stinker, the word will travel at the speed of a mouse click, ruining chances of making back money.

Warner Bros. is setting its sights on Redbox and Netflix amid the latest sign that consumers are abandoning retail DVD stores in favor of the fast-growing rental kiosks and mail subscription companies. The Time Warner-owned studio on Thursday joined 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures in announcing that it would not provide movies to leading kiosk operator Redbox until 28 days after they go on sale. In a surprising move that hasn't yet been made by any of its competitors, Warner said it would impose the same restriction on Netflix and other DVD-by-mail subscription providers unless they agreed to "a day-and-date revenue sharing option."

Warner Bros. has emerged as the only bidder for Midway Games Inc., all but assuring that it will take control of the bankrupt video game publisher previously owned by Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone and become a major force in the video game industry. Midway had hoped that the film studio's $33-million offer, made in late May, would spark a bidding war that would boost its price.

What's $120 million between friends? Village Roadshow Pictures, which has owed that much to Warner Bros. for nearly a year on four films released in 2008, has repaid the studio after restructuring its $1.4-billion credit line. Amid last year's financial collapse, the Australian film financing company unexpectedly lost access to funds it had committed to use for a 50% stake in "Get Smart," "Gran Torino," "Nights in Rodanthe" and "Yes Man." It has been co-financing Warner movies for over a decade.

With the heads of Warner Bros. signing only two-year contract extensions, Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes will focus on succession and how the movie and television studio should be managed in the face of tectonic shifts in the entertainment industry and a harsh economic environment.

Everybody is talking about "Watchmen." Now if only more people would watch it. Amid a flurry of anticipation and hype, director Zack Snyder's superhero epic opened last weekend with $55.2 million in U.S. ticket sales -- a solid but less-than-blockbuster debut for a movie that Warner Bros. and its partners will have spent $200 million-plus to make and market. The question now is whether all the Internet and water cooler chatter will translate into footsteps into the theaters this weekend.

The court fight over "The Watchmen" is costing Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, but the biggest bill of all could fall to the film's producer, Larry Gordon, his lawyers and their insurers, who could be on the hook for substantially more money. Court documents in the nearly yearlong dispute over the superhero movie's distribution rights show that Warner Bros.

Oprah Winfrey isn't the only one having second thoughts about author James Frey. With Frey's admission Thursday to the talk-show host that he fabricated details of his memoir "A Million Little Pieces," which recounts his drug and alcohol recovery, Warner Bros. is debating whether to move forward on the movie version. "We're reevaluating our position on what to do," Warner Bros. President Alan Horn said Friday.

The year was 1992 and Warner Bros., basking in the box-office success of its hit Mel Gibson movie, "Lethal Weapon 3," rolled out a large cake decorated with a Hollywood trade ad recognizing that the film had just crossed the $100-million mark. Studio Chairman Bob Daly pulled an envelope from his pocket and poured seven keys to shiny new Range Rovers onto the table. "Just pick the color you want," Daly said.

Lawyers for 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. told a judge Friday that they were trying to settle the copyright lawsuit over "Watchmen," a signal that the nearly year-old court fight over the superhero movie may be nearing a conclusion. The attorneys were to appear before U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess to schedule a trial later this month over the film's distribution rights when they told the judge that settlement talks were underway. Warner Bros.