Hollywood
Bella Thorne & Kyra Sedgwick set for thriller Big Sky
MUMBAI: The star of Disney Channel’s about-to-end Shake It Up continues her march into more mature material. Having joined the indie Home Invasion earlier this year, Bella Thorne has now signed on along with Kyra Sedgwick as the leads in Manis Film’s thriller Big Sky.
The English language debut by Jorge Michel Grau, who helmed the original Spanish language chiller We Are What We Are, features Thorne as Hazel and the former The Closer star as her protective mother Dee. On their way to a desert facility to help the teen deal with her paralysing agoraphobia, the two find themselves attacked by gunmen and Hazel has to fight her own demons for the duo to survive.
Frank Grillo, who starred in End of Watch, Zero Dark Thirty and will be in upcoming CaptainAmerica: The Winter Soldier plays the male lead in the film along with Les Miserables’ Aaron Tveit. Randy Manis, Matthew Salloway and Christina Papagjika are producing. Christine Vachon is executive producing for Killer Films with Jeffrey V. Mandel of TBD Syndicate and AKA pictures’ Clayton Young. Ricky Tollman is co-producing.
AKA pictures – a subsidiary of Benaroya Pictures – is co-financing Big Sky. Having finished Warner Bros’ The Familymoon with Adam Sandler and Drew Berrymore earlier this summer, Thorne is next set for Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
With The Closer having wrapped on TNT last year, Sedgwick is scheduled to appear on the big screen in the upcoming Kill Your Darlings, Reach Me and Gren Wells’ The Road Within.
Hollywood
WBD sets April 23 vote on $110bn Paramount Skydance merger
Investor approval key step, but regulators loom over mega media deal
NEW YORK: Warner Bros. Discovery has set April 23 as the date for shareholders to vote on its proposed $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance, marking a crucial step in one of the biggest media deals in recent years.
The all-cash transaction offers WBD shareholders $31 per share, a hefty 147 per cent premium to its unaffected stock price, signalling strong intent to push the deal across the finish line. The company’s board has unanimously backed the merger and is urging investors to vote in favour.
Even if shareholders give the green light, the deal is far from done. Regulators in the United States and Europe are expected to scrutinise the merger closely, weighing concerns around competition and potential price impacts for consumers.
To keep investors on side, WBD has built in a safety net. If the deal is not completed by September 30, shareholders will receive a quarterly “ticking fee” of $0.25 per share until closure.
The proposed merger would significantly reshape the media landscape, combining the assets of Warner Bros. Discovery with those linked to Paramount Global and Skydance Media. It would also cement the growing influence of David Ellison, who has been steering Skydance’s aggressive expansion strategy.
“The WBD Board has been guided by the singular principle of securing a transaction that maximises the value of our iconic assets and delivers as much certainty as possible to our shareholders,” said Warner Bros. Discovery board chair Samuel A. Di Piazza Jr.. “This historic transaction will expand consumer choice and create new opportunities for creative talent.”
Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive officer David Zaslav added that the company is working closely with its counterpart to close the deal and unlock value for stakeholders.
With investor backing likely but regulatory hurdles ahead, the proposed merger is shaping up to be a defining moment for the global entertainment industry, where scale, content and competition are increasingly intertwined.
