The editor-in-chief at GQ who was involved in the decision to pull an article critical about Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is also producing a movie at Warner Bros. Pictures, according to a new report by Variety.
On Monday, GQ ran a story by freelance film critic Jason Bailey titled “How Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Became Public Enemy Number One in Hollywood.” As The Washington Post detailed earlier today, the article was edited from its original version and later pulled after Bailey asked for his byline to be removed from it. The Post reported that the decision to edit the piece came after individuals at Warner Bros. Discovery complained to the magazine about the story, which in its original version compared Zaslav to “Succession” character Logan Roy and to Richard Gere’s businessman character in “Pretty Woman.”
However, as Variety reported, one of the individuals contacted was reportedly GQ Editor-in-Chief Will Welch, who is also attached as a producer to a film set up at Warner Bros. called “The Great Chinese Art Heist.” The film is to be directed by “Wicked” and “Crazy Rich Asians” filmmaker Jon M. Chu, with a script by Ken Cheng, Jessica Gao, and Jimmy O. Yang; it’s based on a 2018 GQ article.
A Warner Bros. Pictures representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the project is still in development at the studio or if Welch remains attached as a producer. However, a Warner Bros. Discovery rep told Variety that no one at the corporate level was aware of Welch’s ties to the movie studio.
As for the decision about the edits to the piece, a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson said Bailey did not reach out for comment on the piece before publishing.
“The freelance reporter made no attempt to reach out to Warner Bros. Discovery to fact-check the substance of the piece before publishing — a standard practice for any reputable news outlet. As is also standard practice, we contacted the outlet and asked that numerous inaccuracies be corrected. In the process of doing so, the editors ultimately decided to pull the piece,” a WBD spokesperson told IndieWire.
“A piece published by GQ on Monday was not properly edited before going live. After a revision was published, the writer of the piece asked to have their byline removed, at which point GQ decided to unpublish the piece in question. GQ regrets the editorial error that led to a story being published before it was ready,” a spokesperson for GQ told Variety.
GQ did not immediately respond to IndieWire’s request for comment. A rep for Chu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
