English Entertainment
MGM’s new TV series sees ‘Spaceballs’
MUMBAI: MGM’s latest plan for television involves adapting the Mel Brooks comedy classic Spaceballs.
MGM Domestic Television Distribution has teamed up with the German based Berliner Film Companie (BFC) for this purpose.
The television series will be animated. The 1987 film Spaceballs focussed on Planet Spaceball’s President Scroob, who sends Lord Dark Helmet to steal Planet Druidia’s abundant supply of air to replenish that of his own planet. Only the hero, Lone Star, can stop the evil plan.
Under the agreement, BFC and MGM will produce an hour-long pilot and 13 half-hour episodes. Additionally, MGM will distribute the series in the US, Canada and other countries with the exception of Germany.
Brooks and Thomas Meehan, who had written the film’s screenplay, will write the series pilot. They will also supervise writing on the rest of the series. Brooks and Soehnlein will serve as executive producers and Brooks will provide the voice of two main characters- President Scroob and Yogurt.
MGM executive VP television distribution, North America Jim Packer said, “Primetime animation has become a powerful staple. With the unmatched comedic talents of Mel Brooks and BFC’s expertise, you’ve got quite a winning combination. To this day, Spaceballs is incredibly successful on television and in video, and with the abundance of Sci-fi films that have come out in the past decade, there’s no shortage of material for Mel.”
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.
