Bad Robot Productions

Bad Robot is an American film and television production company led by J. J. Abrams. Under its Bad Robot Productions division, the company is responsible for the television series Alias, Lost, Fringe, Person of Interest, Revolution and Westworld alongside the feature-length films Cloverfield, Star Trek, Super 8, Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Star Wars Episodes VII and IX, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Star Trek Beyond, The Cloverfield Paradox, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and Overlord.

Bad Robot

Santa Monica headquarters
Type	Private
Industry	Motion pictures Television Music
Founded	2001
Founder	J. J. Abrams
Headquarters	Santa Monica, California, United States
Key people	J. J. Abrams (Chairman and CEO) Katie McGrath (CEO) Brian Weinstein (President and COO)
Divisions	Bad Robot Productions Bad Robot Interactive Bad Robot Television Bad Robot Games Loud Robot
Website	www.badrobot.com

History

The original Bad Robot Productions logo used from 2001 through 2008.

Bad Robot was originally based at Touchstone Television, but was moved by Abrams to Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Television, after his contract with ABC expired in 2006. Bad Robot produced Lost in association with ABC Studios, formerly Touchstone Television. The two companies jointly produced Six Degrees and What About Brian.

Abrams is Chairman and Co-Chief executive officer of Bad Robot, and Katie McGrath serves as the Company's Co-Chief executive officer. In June 2017, Bad Robot announced that Brian Weinstein would become President and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing daily operations and spearhead the company's growth strategy in its existing businesses, while developing new areas of expansion across the entire Bad Robot platform and pursuing alternative financing options.[1] In May 2015, Ben Stephenson left the BBC where he had been head of drama to helm Bad Robot Television. Lindsey Weber leads Bad Robot's feature film division.

The production logo has appeared since 2001, featuring a red rectangular headed robot running through a meadow silhouetted until it appears suddenly in front of the camera, followed by voices provided by two of Abrams's children, Henry and Gracie Abrams, saying "Bad robot!"[2] Although some fans believe that the name comes from a line in the animated film The Iron Giant, Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that it simply came to him during a writers' meeting.[2]

In February 2013, it was announced that Bad Robot would be partnering with the Valve Corporation to produce possibly a Half-Life or Portal film in the distant future.[3] In August 2015, Valve released a new beta game mode to Team Fortress 2, PASS Time, which Bad Robot worked on.[4] On July 7, 2016 the PASS Time game mode became official.[5] Bad Robot released a trailer entitled "Stranger" (otherwise known as S.), rumoured to be Abrams' next film or television project, perhaps even a Lost spin-off, but it was finally explained to be promoting S., Abrams and Doug Dorst's new novel, as a new trailer for S. was released. In February 2017, it was announced Julius Avery is attached to direct a Paramount coproduction, the World War II zombie film Overlord, from screenwriter Billy Ray.[6]

Bad Robot Productions is currently based in Santa Monica, California,[7] in a building which is incorrectly labeled on purpose as the home of the fictional "National Typewriter Company" because Abrams "likes typewriters — and misdirection."[8]

In June 2018, the company announced a spin-off venture formed with the Chinese video game publisher Tencent to launch Bad Robot Games for the development of video games on mobile, computer and consoles, with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment as a minority investor. Bad Robot Games will develop and publish titles related to Abrams' works and other Bad Robot Production contents, with Tencent holding the rights for distribution in China. The division will be helmed by Dave Baronoff, who has worked on the Cloverfield franchise and in developing Spyjinx as a joint project between Bad Robot Productions and Epic Games (also partially owned by Tencent), while Tim Keenan, who helped develop Duskers, will serve as the creative director.[9]

In 2006, Bad Robot teamed up with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Television for a $60 million development deal [10] that lasted through 2018.[11]

In late 2018, it was announced that Bad Robot was leaving Paramount and seeking a new overall deal.[12] In January 2019, it was announced that Universal, Disney, and Warner Bros. were the top three studios battling it out for what could be a record breaking overall deal including theme parks, music labels, TV, merchandising, and streaming services as Bad Robot plans on ramping up production significantly in the coming years.[13] It was also announced that Bad Robot would be co-producing a remake of the British series The Wrong Mans for American network Showtime along with BBC Studios, but Showtime later cancelled the project.[14][15][16]

Bad Robot launched a subsidiary record label called Loud Robot in late 2018,[17] in partnership with Capitol Music Group.[18] Loud Robot is headed by co-general managers McKee Floyd and Nicky Berger along with Charles Scott, who currently heads Bad Robot's music division and has been the leading music supervisor for the company's films. Artists signed to the label include Cleveland-born rapper Nnena,[19] neo soul singer/songwriter UMI,[20] Nashville, Tennessee-based alternative rock artist Chaz Cardigan,[21] and London-based rhythm and blues artist DWY.[22]

On September 12, 2019, Bad Robot officially announced a new five-year overall deal with WarnerMedia. According to The Hollywood Reporter, WarnerMedia agreed to pay Bad Robot at least $250 million (plus various financial incentives) to produce feature films, television shows, video games, and digital content.[23]

Productions

Films

Year	Title	Director	Budget	Gross
2001	Joy Ride	John Dahl	$23 million	$36.6 million
2006	Mission: Impossible III (Uncredited)	J. J. Abrams	$150 million	$398.5 million
2008	Cloverfield	Matt Reeves	$25 million	$170.8 million
2009	Star Trek	J. J. Abrams	$150 million	$385.7 million
2010	Morning Glory	Roger Michell	$40 million	$60 million
2011	Super 8	J. J. Abrams	$50 million	$260.1 million
	Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol	Brad Bird	$145 million	$694.7 million
2013	Star Trek Into Darkness	J. J. Abrams	$190 million	$467.4 million
2015	Infinitely Polar Bear	Maya Forbes	$6.7 million	$2.1 million
	Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation	Christopher McQuarrie	$150 million	$682.7 million
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	J. J. Abrams	$245 million	$2.068 billion
2016	10 Cloverfield Lane	Dan Trachtenberg	$15 million	$110.2 million
	Star Trek Beyond	Justin Lin	$185 million	$343.5 million
2017	Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Uncredited)	Rian Johnson	$200–317 million	$1.333 billion
2018	The Cloverfield Paradox	Julius Onah	$45 million	N/A - Streaming via Netflix
	Mission: Impossible – Fallout	Christopher McQuarrie	$178 million	$791 million
	Overlord	Julius Avery	$38 million	$41.7 million
2019	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker	J. J. Abrams	$275 million	$1.074 billion
2021	Mission: Impossible 7	Christopher McQuarrie	N/A	N/A
TBA	Oh, the Places You'll Go![24]	TBA	N/A	N/A
	Your Name[25][26]	Lee Isaac Chung
	Untitled Cloverfield film	TBA	N/A	N/A

Television series

Year	Title	Creator(s)	Co-production(s)	Notes	Network
2001–06	Alias	J. J. Abrams	Touchstone Television		ABC
2004–10	Lost	Jeffrey Lieber J. J. Abrams Damon Lindelof	Touchstone Television		ABC
2006–07	What About Brian	Dana Stevens	Sachs/Judah Productions (season 1) Touchstone Television		ABC
2006–07	Six Degrees	Raven Metzner Stuart Zicherman	Nosebleed Productions Touchstone Television		ABC
2008–13	Fringe	J. J. Abrams Alex Kurtzman Roberto Orci	Warner Bros. Television		FOX
2009	Anatomy of Hope			Pilot	N/A
2010	Undercovers	J. J. Abrams Josh Reims	Warner Bros. Television Good Butter Productions		NBC
2011–16	Person of Interest	Jonathan Nolan	Kilter Films Warner Bros. Television		CBS
2012	Alcatraz	Elizabeth Sarnoff Steven Lilien Bryan Wynbrandt	Warner Bros. Television		FOX
2012	Shelter		Warner Bros. Television	TV Movie[27]	The CW
2012–14	Revolution	Eric Kripke	Kripke Enterprises Warner Bros. Television		NBC
2013–14	Almost Human	J. H. Wyman	Frequency Films Warner Bros. Television		FOX
2014	Believe	Alfonso Cuarón Mark Friedman	Esperanto Filmoj Warner Bros. Television		NBC
2015	Dead People			TV Movie[28]	The CW
2016	11.22.63	11/22/63 by Stephen King Bridget Carpenter	Carpenter B. Warner Bros. Television	Miniseries	Hulu
2016	Moon Shot			Web series	N/A
2016	Roadies	Cameron Crowe	Vinyl Films Warner Bros. Television Showtime Networks		Showtime
2016–	Westworld	Westworld by Michael Crichton Jonathan Nolan Lisa Joy	HBO Entertainment Kilter Films Jerry Weintraub Productions Warner Bros. Television		HBO
2018–19	Castle Rock	Sam Shaw	Old Curiosity Shop Darkbloom Productions Warner Bros. Television		Hulu
2020	Little Voice	Jessie Nelson	Dear Hope Productions Warner Bros. Television Studios	Straight-to-series	Apple TV+
2020	Lovecraft Country	Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff Misha Green	HBO Entertainment Monkeypaw Productions Warner Bros. Television Studios		HBO
TBA	Lisey's Story	Lisey's Story by Stephen King	Warner Bros. Television Studios		Apple TV+
	My Glory Was I Had Such Friends		Warner Bros. Television Studios	Miniseries	Apple TV+
	Demimonde	J.J. Abrams	Warner Bros. Television Studios		HBO
	Duster		Warner Bros. Television Studios		HBO Max
	Overlook	The Shining by Stephen King	Warner Bros. Television Studios		HBO Max
	Justice League Dark	Justice League Dark by DC Comics	Warner Bros. Television Studios DC Entertainment		HBO Max
	Untamed	Untamed by Glennon Doyle	Warner Bros. Television Studios

Shorts

Year	Title
2013	KRE-O Star Trek

Mobile Apps

Year	Title
2013	Action Movie FX

Awards and recognition

Nominations

• 2002 Emmy Award Nomination, Outstanding Writing for A Drama Series (Alias)[29]
• 2005 Emmy Award Nomination, Outstanding Writing for A Drama Series (Lost)[30]
• 2007 Golden Globe Award Nomination, Best Television Series – Drama (Lost)[31]

Wins

• 2005 Emmy Award Winner, Outstanding Drama Series (Lost)[32]
• 2005 Emmy Award Winner, Outstanding Directing for A Drama Series (Lost)[33]
• 2006 Golden Globe Award Winner, Best Television Series – Drama (Lost)[31]

References

1. Kroll, Justin (June 13, 2017). "Bad Robot Names Brian Weinstein President and COO". Variety. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
2. Fonseca, Nicholas (December 7, 2001). "'Alias': The Story Behind J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
3. Variety (February 12, 2013). "Star Trek's JJ Abrams and Valve's Gabe Newell - Full Keynote Speech - D.I.C.E. SUMMIT 2013".
4. "Team Fortress 2". www.teamfortress.com. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
5. "Team Fortress 2 - Meet Your Match". teamfortress.com. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
6. "Bad Robot's D-Day Movie 'Overlord' Finds Director (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. February 2, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
7. Abramian, Alexandria (September 11, 2013). "Source: J. J. Abrams Building 'Star Wars' Post-production Facility in L.A. (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
8. Bruni, Frank (May 26, 2011). "Filmmaker J. J. Abrams Is a Crowd Teaser". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
9. Shanley, Patrick (June 7, 2018). "J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Launches Video Game Division". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
10. "Bad Robot marches with Clark, Lingg". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
11. Fleming, Mike Jr. (February 18, 2015). "J.J. Abrams And Bad Robot Re-Ups With Paramount Through July 2018". Deadline. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
12. Fleming, Mike Jr. (November 14, 2018). "Seeking New Studio Home, Bad Robot Sets Six New Homegrown Film Projects". Deadline. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
13. Andreeva, Nellie; Fleming, Mike Jr. (January 16, 2019). "Bad Robot: Sizing Up the Field As Race To Land JJ Abrams' Business Enters Home Stretch". Deadline. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
14. White, Peter (August 2, 2019). "'The Wrong Mans': Pilot Not Going Forward At Showtime". Deadline. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
15. Carr, Flora (April 17, 2018). "BBC comedy The Wrong Mans with James Corden set for US remake". Radio Times. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
16. Brown, Brigid. "Casting News: U.S. Version of James Corden's 'The Wrong Mans' is Switching Things Up". BBC America. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
17. "Bad Robot Launches Indie Music Label Loud Robot (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
18. "Bad Robot Partners With Capitol Music to Launch Indie Label Loud Robot". Billboard. August 21, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
19. Betancourt, Bianca. "Meet Nnena, the Soulful Rapper Signed to J.J. Abrams Music Label". Teen Vogue. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
20. "Sacks & Co. /// UMI". sacksco.com. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
21. "Chaz Cardigan Signs to Capitol Records/Loud Robot". Music Connection Magazine. January 24, 2020. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
22. Vigil, Dom. "DWY Releases New Single, "BMX"". Prelude Press. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
23. Goldberg, Lesley (September 12, 2019). "J.J. Abrams Officially Closes Sizable WarnerMedia Film, TV Partnership". The Hollywood Reporter. Los Angeles. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
24. "J.J. Abrams Will Produce Oh, the Places You'll Go! as Part of a Dr. Seuss Cinematic Universe". io9. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
25. Borys Kit (September 27, 2017). "J.J. Abrams, Paramount Team Up for Sci-Fi Love Story 'Your Name'". Retrieved September 28, 2017.
26. Dave McNary (September 27, 2017). "J.J. Abrams Developing Remake of Japanese Hit 'Your Name' With Paramount". Variety. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
27. Andreeva, Nellie (May 7, 2012). "NBC Pilots 2012 Analysis: Single-Camera Comedies and J. J. Abrams Among Early Orders". Deadline. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
28. Andreeva, Nellie (February 25, 2015). "Andrew J. West to Play the Lead in CW Pilot Dead People from Bad Robot". Deadline. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
29. "54th Emmy Awards Nominees and Winners". -Emmys.com. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
30. "57th Emmy Awards Nominees and Winners". Emmys.com. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
31. "Winners & Nominees Best Television Series - Drama". goldenglobes.com. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
32. "57th Emmy Awards Nominees and Winners". Emmys.com. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
33. "57th Emmy Awards Nominees and Winners". Emmys.com. Retrieved January 8, 2016.

External links

• Official website
• Bad Robot Productions on Twitter
• iOS App Action Movie FX. On iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/action-movie-fx/id489321253?mt=8
• "Bad Robot Productions Signs Far-Reaching Production Deals With Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Television" (Press release). Time Warner. July 15, 2006.
• Andreeva, Nellie; Siegel, Tatiana (July 17, 2006). "Abrams builds his Robot". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 14, 2008.