Because nobody wants to get yelled at by both Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese on the same day—triggering what we can only assume would be some sort of spittle-flecked existential flashback to the golden age of ’70s boy auteurs—WarnerMedia, parent company of embattled movie streaming site FilmStruck, has relented to demands that it find some way to “save” the soon-to-be-shuttered service. Sort of.
To be clear, FilmStruck is definitely still canceled, denying cinephiles—even famous ones—their easy access to Criterion classics and other obscure film treasures from the Turner Movie Classics vaults. But Warner is now saying that, spurred on by the protests that have greeted the news of the service’s closing, it’s considering re-opening it as part of an already-planned set of streaming services it’s had in the works for a while, because it’s 2018, and you’re not hot shit if you don’t have your own proprietary mini-Netflix in the works.
The catch, as noted by Deadline, is in the timing: FilmStruck dies in two weeks, and Warner’s not intending to launch this still-unnamed batch of streaming options until fourth-quarter 2019. So even if the FilmStruck replacement ends up being part of the package, and if it has something equating the catalog of the current service, you’re still going to have to scrounge in the streaming garbage for a full year before breathing its rarefied air again. It remains to be seen whether this shaky olive branch will be enough to get Steve and Marty off the company’s case.