Hollywood
Joe Wright may direct Warner Bros. Peter Pan movie
MUMBAI: British filmmaker Joe Wright may soon be directing a Peter Pan movie for the Warner Bros. studio.
Wright has been known for his period pieces starring Keira Knightley, is in talks to direct the origin movie. Scripted by the Jason Fuchs, an actor-turned-writer who penned Ice Age: Continental Drift, the movie will be a take on the Peter Pan myth.
It is learned that Warner Bros is very high on the project and Sarah Schechter is overseeing and making it one of its priorities.
With this, Wright seems to be taking all the interesting choices — from romantic and tragic period dramas like Pride & Prejudice, Atonement and Anna Karenina to off-beat action movie Hanna.
Hollywood
Paramount Skydance to fuse HBO Max and Paramount+ in $110 billion megadeal
Ellison vows reinvention, not retrenchment, as combined group eyes 200m subscribers and $69 billion revenue
LOS ANGELES: Streaming’s latest land grab is colossal. Paramount Skydance Corp. will combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform after signing a $110 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery Inc..
The transaction, formally inked on 27 February, is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. Paramount agreed to pay $31 per share in cash, fending off rival suitors including Netflix Inc..
On a conference call, chief executive officer David Ellison confirmed the streaming tie-up. HBO Max, with 131m subscribers, and Paramount+, with 79m, would be merged into one platform. Yet HBO, he stressed, would endure as a brand even after integration.
“Across the two platforms, there are over 200 million D2C subscribers today in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide, positioning us to compete effectively with the leading streaming services in today’s marketplace,” Ellison said.
The pitch is scale with swagger. The combined entity expects to generate $69 billion in pro-forma revenue in 2026, with estimated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $18 billion, according to chief financial officer Dennis Cinelli. Net debt is projected at $79 billion.
Ellison was emphatic that the strategy is expansionary. The group is targeting at least 30 theatrical releases annually across its studios and does not plan to cut production. “This is not about consolidation, it’s about reinventing the business,” he said.
Sport will be central to that reinvention. Ellison highlighted rights to the National Football League, Ultimate Fighting Championship, March Madness, the PGA Tour and the Olympics in Europe. A previously signed $7.7 billion UFC deal offers flexibility to air events on Warner Bros.’ TNT network, he added.
The future of certain legacy investments remains murky. Warner Bros. Discovery holds less than 10 per cent of AEW, whose television rights deal for TBS, TNT and HBO Max runs through 2027, with an option to extend to 2028. It is unclear whether that stake would be divested or retained post-merger.
Paramount said it has no plans to spin off its cable networks. A shareholder vote is expected in the spring, chief operating officer Andy Gordon said.
Funding the takeover is as muscular as the ambition. Paramount has secured $47 billion in equity backed by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners, alongside $54 billion in borrowing from Bank of America, Citigroup and Apollo Global Management Inc..
Investors were cautious. Paramount shares slipped 1.9 per cent to $13.26 in morning trading in New York.
If regulators sign off, the deal will redraw the streaming map — welding together premium drama, blockbuster film, live sport and global distribution under one roof. In the battle for eyeballs, Paramount Skydance is betting that bigger is not just better, but unbeatable.
