Free Republic

What once was the peak, is now just the beginning. Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren't rewriting history — we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first home for bold, quality storytelling. We chose this name for a few important reasons. First and foremost, as we bring Paramount and Warner Bros. together, we wanted to preserve what has made each of these studios iconic. Both have distinct identities, extraordinary legacies and brands that have resonated with audiences for generations. We never wanted a...

CNN Staffers Panic over Paramount Merger: ‘Bloodbath Coming,’ Newsroom Is ‘Like a Funeral’ CNN news anchor Jake Tapper (C), flanked by Univision's news anchor Ilia Calderón (R), waMandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Simon Kent23 Sep 20263,997 2:47 Paramount’s looming acquisition of CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly sending shivers down the collective spines of news gathers at the 46-year-old legacy outlet. As Breitbart News reported, Paramount reached a deal with 12 state attorneys-general Monday that surmounted a major hurdle to closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery which will now go ahead. This clears the way for...

Paramount has reached a settlement with California Attorney General Rob Bonta over a multi-state antitrust lawsuit, paving the way for its massive $81 billion Warner Bros. Discovery merger, according to sources. By approximately 10:20 a.m. ET, shares in Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery jumped 6.6% and 9.8%, respectively, after reports that advanced settlement talks over the weekend had been successful. The settlement terms include a commitment to release 30 movies a year; a multiyear pledge to remain in California, after previously threatening to exit; and independent editorial boards for CBS News and CNN, sources told The Post. The Wall Street...

Leaks the past few months out of David Ellison‘s inner circle said the CEO would take his Paramount ball and leave California if state attorneys general didn’t back off on their antitrust suit to stop the $111 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery. And now it looks like the ball really is in play. Paramount brass have told key officials and stakeholders the company is “deadly serious” about leaving California and the home of Hollywood after over 100 years, sources tell me. Among those told a deposit has been put on the moving trucks is L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and...

Projections indicate that a Paramount exodus would severely hurt California’s economy to the tune of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs if movie studio head David Ellison made good on his threat to relocate. AG Bonta’s lawsuit halts the Warner Bros. acquisition.Conducted by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, the study found that California would lose roughly 28,990 to 57,980 full-time jobs statewide across various industries if Paramount relocated to a state like Tennessee, with revenue losses estimated between $10.6 billion and $21.2 billion annually. “It should be emphasized that these estimated job losses include direct,...

The headlines announcing Mark Ruffalo’s latest line of defense against claims of antisemitism were striking. More than 170 Jewish artists had rallied around the actor, denouncing an “outrageous smear campaign” and rejecting accusations that his rhetoric about the Ellison family and the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger trafficked in antisemitic themes. Read the names and the letter itself, and a different picture emerges. There are recognizable Hollywood figures among the signatories, including Joel Coen, Tony Kushner, Hannah Einbinder, Ilana Glazer and others. Of the 177 signatories, fewer than half are entertainment figures. The list also contains a significant collection of anti-Israel...

Paramount clapped back at Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo and accused him of invoking “antisemitic tropes” in an unhinged rant where he raged against the company’s proposed Warner Bros merger. The media giant swiftly issued a lengthy statement on Friday after the Hulk-portrayer spouted off on social media, criticizing the intended $110 billion merger as “crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world.” “We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and...

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird wrote in an op-ed for The Daily Wire that she is suing California for leading the charge in the lawsuit against the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger.“California is once again trying to be the country’s regulator. And once again California is defying common sense to raise costs around the country,” Bird wrote.Bird argues that “any Iowa family” would tell you the cost of streaming is too high and that there are “fewer quality shows” to choose from. She says these are symptoms of one company getting “too far in front,” and the competitors being “too small to...

Back in June, the Justice Department approved the Paramount deal to buy Warner Bros., a merger that would give David Ellison control over not just Warner Bros. but CNN and HBO Max, too. The merger is happening because Warner Bros. cannot stand on its own anymore, but the Left isn't happy about this. They think Ellison, who has worked with President Trump in the past, will allow some sort of weird MAGA influence over the network. Advertisement In July, 12 states moved to block the merger, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, citing concerns about a "reduction in competition" and...

David Ellison is eager to reach a swift resolution in the antitrust case filed by 12 states seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. And, in a move seemingly aimed at gaining leverage in the showdown, he’s prepared to start moving Paramount out of California as soon as October unless the merger is resolved through a settlement with the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, Variety has confirmed. Ellison told Paramount senior execs last week that he will relocate Paramount’s operations outside of the state of California if the deal doesn’t close by Sept. 30, sources confirmed to Variety. The...

Tennessee is courting David Ellison’s Paramount, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. In a letter to Ellison on July 2, Tennessee Deputy Governor Stuart McWhorter urged the Paramount CEO to relocate the studio’s corporate headquarters amid a rift with California over its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. “Our success is rooted in fiscal discipline, low taxes, predictable governance, and a steadfast belief that government should be a partner in private-sector growth,” stated the letter. “Companies that choose Tennessee find more than a favorable business climate — they find a state committed to helping them succeed.” The invitation was delivered...

A coalition of 12 Democratic attorneys general led by California filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block the $110 billion merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance, despite the deal having been approved by the Trump administration. “The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. The legal challenge comes just days after reports that advisers close to...

Former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens is reportedly writing a tell-all memoir about his 37 years at CBS News, taking aim at owner Paramount, its CEO David Ellison and editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, among others. In a proposal obtained by Breaker Media, Owens describes Paramount’s decision to settle President Trump’s lawsuit over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris as “perhaps the worst legal strategy ever employed by the worst-run media company in the history of America.” The proposed book would mark Owens’ most extensive public account yet of the turmoil that engulfed CBS News...

Why is nothing new happening in film? You’ve noticed. Sequel after sequel, unmemorable plots, films you don’t care about discussing the next day. Yeah, it didn’t use to be like this. Filmgoers in the 20th century had a bonanza of new genres or styles of film. Every decade birthed two or more. Film started in the 1910s with a big dose of Charlie Chaplin. Sound entered the picture in the ‘20s, and the films got bigger. The 1930s exploded with Gangster Films, Spectacle Films, Musicals, and Slapstick Comedy. In the 1940s came Power Women Films, Film Noir, and Italian Neorealism....

A group of states led by California and New York is preparing to sue to block Paramount Skydance from acquiring Warner Bros., Reuters reported on Friday. Last year’s merger between Paramount and Skydance already sparked criticism over concerns about antitrust issues and the impact of centralizing control of major media and entertainment companies. The criticism grew as Paramount settled a lawsuit President Donald Trump had filed against CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which numerous legal experts had assessed as a fundamentally weak case on First Amendment grounds. It was widely speculated that political...

The filming of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers happened when the Paramount lot was ringed by a picket line, part of the 1945 strike by motion picture set decorators that led to the infamous Black Friday riot outside the main gate at Warner Bros. The strike is a movie history footnote today, and though it gets aired out whenever the industry endures another labour dispute, it's hard to imagine pickets full of writers or actors today in a melee with studio security and police with "tear gas bombs, fire hoses, brass knuckles, clubs, brickbats, and beer bottles" as Variety...

Over 200 journalists, academics, and filmmakers have signed a letter opposing the Paramount Skydance takeover of CNN following the former’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. Letter from the Freedom of the Press Foundation argued that Paramount taking control of CNN will lead to “improper political meddling” from CEO David Ellison, per HuffPo, citing the reported changes at CBS. “News segments critical of Trump policies have been pulled; revered producers and reporters have quit rather than be censored; shows Trump dislikes, like ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,’ have been cancelled; and CBS Evening News has taken to airing flattering features...

Anchor Tony Dokoupil quickly halted Wednesday’s live broadcast of “CBS Evening News” after a cameraman suffered a medical emergency on set. Dokoupil was in the middle of reporting on President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping from Taiwan when he noticed the cameraman was in need of assistance. Trump’s summit with the Chinese leader comes amid ongoing tensions over trade and Taiwan as well as the U.S. war with Iran. “And finally tonight from Taiwan as President Trump and [Chinese President Xi Jinping] prepare to meet, you will hear a lot about American decline and the rise...

Hollywood insiders and executives at Paramount Global are growing increasingly suspicious that Netflix is playing a behind-the-scenes role in efforts to prevent the proposed combination of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global, a deal commonly referred to in industry circles as WarnerMount, according to a report from Puck News.The streaming giant, led by co-chief executive Ted Sarandos, has faced accusations of quietly supporting campaigns aimed at blocking the merger and potentially reaching out to regulatory authorities to voice concerns about the transaction. These allegations come amid a broader push within parts of the entertainment industry to halt further consolidation among...

An $81 billion Warner-Paramount mega merger has received shareholders’ stamp of approval, propelling a deal that could vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape closer to the finish line… That corporate drama may now be over, but the implications remain. Thousands of actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals have voiced “unequivocal opposition” to the deal, in a letter arguing that further consolidation will lead to job losses and fewer choices for filmmakers and movie goers… The merger would bring together two of Hollywood’s remaining five legacy studios. It would also join two major streaming platforms — Paramount+ and...