The European Commission is investigating the $111 billion Paramount-WBD deal under the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation, looking at the approximately $24 billion being fronted for the takeover by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. - Variety
The top factor, perhaps, was the ongoing fallout from Hollywood’s contraction. It’s no small thing that, since 2022, studios have tightened their belts and downsized their slates, reducing the job opportunities available for average industry workers. - The Hollywood Reporter
It will be an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, but it’s something. Joining her as recipients of this year’s Governors Awards are director Ridley Scott and animator Floyd Norman. - AP
How much do we want the internet to be television? A good gimmick for social-media content doesn’t automatically translate to interesting TV, a medium that many of us enjoy precisely because it doesn’t live or die by an algorithmic social-media feed. - The New Yorker
“The deal struck between the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers came four weeks after talks began.” - AP
“On Sunday, the It Was Just An Accident writer/director’s attorney Mostafa Nili announced that Judge Iman Afshari rejected their objections and fully upheld the in-absentia verdict, on the grounds of making an ‘underground and problematic film against the establishment.’” - Deadline
Paramount Games Studio launches as Paramount Skydance is awaiting regulatory approval on its pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. WBD has its own in-house video game studio, which produces titles based on Harry Potter, “Game of Thrones,” the DC Universe and more WBD IP. - Variety
“There's something really ugly and beautiful about Los Angeles, I think, and that's what these films capture - the idea that anything could happen here, that people could become overnight famous in LA for something they did really well or something really horrible.” - NPR
“He came of age in the American new wave era but in spirit belonged neither to that nor fully to Hollywood’s golden age studio system that preceded it.” - The Guardian (UK)
One advocate for the lawsuit: “The consequences would be felt nationwide, from destroying CNN the way that Ellisons have devastated CBS to entertainment industry job losses and consumers losing access to independent voices and a competitive market.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
“Pixar plummeted to the ground with such a force that I began to question my undying devotion to an animation studio. Could my beloved Pixar, which had already anthropomorphized so many things, really make something so upsetting and perplexing, and on so many levels?” - Salon
