“On Monday, Skydance-owned Paramount announced that Larry Ellison — the founder of Oracle and father of Paramount CEO David Ellison — had personally agreed to be responsible for $40.4 billion of equity financing for the company’s offer (to buy Warner Bros. Discovery), as well as any damage claims.” - AP
In 2023, “Meyers had written a semi-autobiographical rom-com called Paris Paramount. She’d originally written it for Netflix, but they did not want to give her the budget she needed.” And that was all the news - until this weekend. - Vulture
Bari Weiss is said to have spiked the show a few hours before it was supposed to run. "The report … was to have featured correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewing deportees who the Trump administration has sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison in El Salvador.” - Variety
You know the word - the f-word. “A single use of the F-word requires at least a PG-13, while additional uses will elevate it to an R.” - The New York Times
“I covered the 3-D boom from the start, and even early on one could see that the golden goose was cooked. It was clear that the marginal returns on 3-D screenings were rapidly diminishing.” - The Atlantic
Bad, really bad. "It’s a mistake to compare this stuff to other films. It is, indeed, a mistake to compare it to any other artistic enterprise. What we’re dealing with is closer to tinsel or snow in a can. Christmas movies are mere decoration.” - Irish Times (Archive Today)
How to pick an (Oscar) winner: "The presumptive top five in the Best Picture race includes two auteur-driven blockbusters, one old-school weepie, one timely social drama, and one family saga by a venerated European director.” - Vulture
“You don’t have a right to make your movie, because it costs so much and you need so much help. You do have to earn the right to make your movie. That is a part of our job.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
“Hollywood machers were convinced the film would never make money and that Warner Bros’ big gamble ‘could be the end of the studio system.’ But Sinners never let that cynicism in.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Inside the kingdom’s gilded palaces, industry players are mingling with princes and executives, while celebrities stroll red carpets at festivals, concerts and sporting events from Riyadh to Jeddah. ... The willingness to re-engage with the Saudis has been driven by several forces, (especially) Hollywood's insatiable need for new funding sources.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
“Estimates of the size of the video game industry range from $200 to $300 billion — larger than film, television and music combined, by some calculations — and Saudi Arabia, in its relentless, top-down drive to diversify from oil, is taking a big slice.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
Bollywood produces films in Hindi, and there have always been “regional” cinema industries making movies in other Indian languages. Recently, following the huge international success of RRR (shot in Telugu), there has developed a Pan-Indian genre: big budgets, high-quality dubbing in multiple languages, no region-specific stories, nationwide and worldwide ambitions. - TheWrap (MSN)
