#paramount

#paramount

We pitched Tom a story he liked, Bruckheimer said in 2024. But he's a very in-demand actor and he's got a lot of movies lined up, so we have to wait and see.

"I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace. I think it's imperative that CNN be sold."

Arrival is a moody sci-fi drama about a linguistics professor, played by Amy Adams, who is tasked with finding a way to communicate with aliens that arrive on Earth.

As we said, we do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct to consumer subscribers. We do plan for that to be able to operate with independence, so that HBO can, candidly, do what it does incredibly well.

We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.' iconic brands. But this transaction was always a 'nice to have' at the right price, not a 'must have' at any price. Netflix's co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters explained their decision to withdraw, emphasizing that while they valued the opportunity, the financial terms no longer justified proceeding with the acquisition.

An experienced Paramount staffer briefed on the change described it as "more strategic than financial," saying that consolidating Simon's position into Phillips' was done to "remove duplication." A second employee characterized the move as being done to "streamline processes" and make "Paramount easier to work with." A third Paramount insider familiar with the company's thinking said there were a few "targeted changes" on the personnel front in Paramount Advertising, "focused on reducing complexity."

Paramount executives are brainstorming several ways to make their namesake streamer more competitive, including a short-form video feed, a sports multiview feature, and free content, according to an internal presentation viewed by Business Insider. The presentation was sent by Dan Reich, the Paramount+ head of global product and design, to Dane Glasgow, Paramount's chief product officer, via email in mid-January.

Paramount was criticized for settling a $16 million voter interference lawsuit filed by President Trump. The FCC approved its Skydance deal shortly after. Critics also accused the company of capitulating to President Trump after he suggested he brokered a "side deal" with Skydance executives for millions of dollars in public service announcements supporting conservative causes. Paramount denied its settlement included PSAs.

"In the fights that I've lost, it's not that I was getting my ass whooped from pillar to post from bell to bell or anything like that,"

You're probably (unfortunately) at least vaguely familiar with some pretty infamous serial killers in the U.S., like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. However, you may never have heard of Stephen Morin, even though his suspected crimes rival both Bundy's and Dahmer's in number. And although none of these pieces of sh*t deserve to be immortalized, what makes Fear Not unique is that it tells Morin's story through the lens of a survivor's lived experience.

Netflix and Paramount are vying for Warner Bros., which has already had enough suitors - and failed marriages - to rival Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor. On today's podcast, we look at the streaming TV chessboard to make sense of what those two massive players bring to the table for Warner Bros. What would a combined ad offering look like for each deal?

State of play: WBD' s board has 10 days to respond to a hostile takeover bid from Paramount, launched Monday after WBD announced a deal to sell its studio and streaming businesses to Netflix for $83 billion. While the board has said it believes Netflix's offer was superior to Paramount's for financial reasons, it will need to weigh whether choosing to reject Paramount's tender offer could invite shareholder lawsuits.

David Ellison's ascent to the summit of Hollywood power traces an unconventional flight path. At 13, the Oracle founder's son received an extraordinary gift from his father: his own airplane. By 17, he was performing aerial acrobatics in professional airshows. Two decades later, he has traded the cockpit for the boardroom, steering his company through a $8 billion merger that placed him atop Paramount, with hopes of adding Warner Bros. to his trophy case.

Although the US Department of Justice (DOJ) holds the power to block mergers that it deems to go against antitrust laws, Trump's influence over the DOJ can't be overlooked. While Paramount previously seemed to establish a good relationship with the president, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos may have done the same recently. Sarandos "spoke with the president in the last couple of weeks in a confab that lasted about two hours," The Hollywood Reporter reported on Sunday, citing "multiple" anonymous sources.

The battle for Warner Bros. is not over yet. After Netflix announced on Friday that it would buy the majority of the Warner Bros. entertainment assets, Paramount on Monday announced that it would offer billions more to buy the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery as part of a hostile takeover bid. Specifically, Paramount is offering $30 per share, compared to $27.75 from Netflix. That works out to $18 billion more in cash than Netflix.

On Tuesday, news emerged via Puck that Paramount-and its new CEO, the Trump-friendly David Ellison-is going to produce a fourth installment of the Rush Hour franchise, after Trump personally pushed Ellison to make another one of the action comedies. When Trump's wish came true, Puck's man in Hollywood, Matthew Belloni, wrote that the president deserved an executive producer credit for making this all happen. "Get ready for the dumbest possible state-controlled media," Belloni added.