English Entertainment
Discovery, CameraPlanet announce ‘Discovery Docs’
MASSACHUSSETTS(US): Discovery Communications, Inc.(DCI) and CameraPlanet have announced a joint venture for a series of films Discovery Docs.
CameraPlanet will distribute the films theatrically in at least five cities in the US before premiering on Discovery Networks. For all the films that run through the partnership, Discovery will receive rights of first refusal on proposed theatrical documentaries from the filmmakers.
An official release says the documentaries will be produced by documentarians such as two time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple American Dream Peter Gilbert who produced the basketball themed docudrama Hoop Dreams.
CameraPlanet co-presidents Steve Rosenbaum and Steve Carlis said, “Documentary filmmakers have always wanted two things — the prestige and impact of theatrical film distribution, and the reach and importance of widescale television broadcasts. With the new film series and thanks to the vision of Discovery and our partnership with tremendous filmmakers, we’re able to bring both together.”
CameraPlanet is a producer and distributor of film, television. It aims at making media that is both entertaining and important. On the founding principle that “stories can connect our world” and under the leadership of Rosenbaum and Carlis, CameraPlanet develops, produces and distributes both its own and its partners’ content in the US and other countries.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
