Report: J.J. Abrams Fleeing California — Will Move 'Bad Robot' Production Company to NY

Film and TV producer J.J. Abrams is reportedly seeking to downsize his Bad Robot film production company and moving it from Los Angeles to New York.

Variety reports that insiders have dished that Abrams is set to fire employees and intends to reorganize the whole company and move his headquarters to New York where it will have a “smaller footprint,” the paper says.

Abrams has written, produced, and directed many hit movies and TV shows. He was a driving force behind Alias, Lost, Fringe, Westworld, Super 8, Cloverfield, a Mission: Impossible sequel, and the Star Trek and Star Wars big-screen reboots.

Founded in 1999, Abrams has been leading Bad Robot with executive VP Bryan Burk and Katie McGrath (Abrams’ wife) serving as co-CEO.

Bad Robot is currently working on a Dr. Seuss adaptation slated to debut in 2028, as well as a Hot Wheels move and an animated feature, Emily the Strange. Bad Robot is also working on season 2 of Presumed Innocent for Apple TV and other TV streaming projects.

Abrams’ company has also branched out into stage productions having recently produced a Broadway presentation of Sunset Blvd. The company has also produced a run of 50 First Dates and Barcelona.

On the other hand, Abrams has faced a wave of criticism for his stewardship of beloved franchises such as Star Trek and Star Wars. According to The Telegraph, Abrams’ hacky work in Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker devastated the filmmaker’s standing in Hollywood.

After that, some of Abrams’ projects fell apart, including an ambitious sci-fi epic he had planned for HBO, and Paramount confirmed that no more films of shows would continue the particular timeline he set up in the Star Trek universe. His fizzling output was an embarrassment for Warner Bros., who had inked a $500 million development deal with him and Bad Robot.

Abrams’ problems aside, though, Hollywood itself is in the midst of a meltdown that could lead to the end of the once powerful film industry. La La Land is locked in a death spiral that it may never be able to reverse, Breitbart News reported.

The days of Southern California’s media dominance may be numbered, with the public’s viewing habits continuing to undergo massive shifts. And the legacy studio system is struggling to respond and reinvent itself accordingly, especially in the U.S. as productions of movies and TV shows flee California in droves and even increasingly head to other countries looking for far cheaper costs.

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