{"id":69184,"date":"2025-08-14T14:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69184\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T14:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:17:07","slug":"david-ellison-calls-top-gun-3-star-trek-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69184\/","title":{"rendered":"David Ellison Calls ‘Top Gun 3,’ ‘Star Trek’ Priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGrowing up, David Ellison<\/a> spent every Sunday going to the movies with his mother and his sister, Annapurna founder Megan Ellison. As an adult, he spent more than 15 years pursuing his wish to run a legacy Hollywood studio. Now, his dream has become reality and all eyes are on the young mogul to see if he can right a movie studio that has been all but run into the ground.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Wednesday, Ellison, the ambitious and introspective son of tech billionaire Larry Ellison showed off his new throne \u2014 metaphorically speaking \u2014 when hosting a meet-and-greet for journalists on the storied Melrose Lot in Hollywood, home of the newly minted Paramount<\/a>-Skydance. The gathering of he and his C-suite followed a similar event<\/a> in New York held Aug. 7, the day the $8 billion merger officially closed. The L.A. presser focused more on the movie and TV side, which includes CBS, its cable channels and Paramount+.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the event, Ellison called Top Gun 3, the sequel to the $1.5 billion grosser Top Gun: Maverick, a top priority at the studio, and said he would be in the Tom Cruise business as long as the A-list star \u2014 with whom he has made ten films in Ellison\u2019s former life at Skydance \u2014 wanted to tell stories with him.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne of our biggest priorities is restoring Paramount as the No. 1 destination for the most talented artists and filmmakers in the world,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cGreat filmmakers make great movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison, who said he intends to make movies exclusively for theaters, now has full control over a number of film franchises he already worked on at Skydance. Many of them have been dormant on the big screen for years (Star Trek, G.I. Joe) or have had trouble finding their footing in recent years (Terminator, Transformers). Paramount+ chief and former Netflix exec Cindy Holland, speaking publicly for the first time about her intentions, didn\u2019t mince words when backing up her boss: \u201cStreaming movies are not a priority for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-film chief Josh Greenstein said these franchises would be a priority, noting the company hopes to release 15 films a year, and then up that to 20. He name checked Star Trek and Transformers, with a surprise being World War Z, the 2013 Brad Pitt zombie feature. He also indicated an interest in both horror (Paramount is home to A Quiet Place and Smile) as well as R-rated comedies. But he noted that originals were also a priority, pointing to the first greenlight<\/a> under the new regime, the Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, James Mangold project High Side.<\/p>\n

\n\tStar Trek, which has not been in theaters since 2016, has largely been overseen by Alex Kurtzman with a lengthy list of Paramount+ series. Execs said that Trek would be looked at holistically rather than siloed off between different parts of the company, such as film and TV. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure those conversations are happening together so that we can do what\u2019s best for the brand as a whole,\u201d said film co-chief Dana Goldberg.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the Paramount+ side, Ellison acknowledged the uber importance of Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan for the health of the streaming service. \u201cHe is literally a singular genius with a perfect track record,\u201d said Ellison. \u201cIf we can make this his home as long as he wants to tell stories, we want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNewy tapped Paramount+ chief and former Netflix exec Cindy Holland \u2014 speaking publicly for the first time about her intentions \u2014 didn\u2019t mince words when later backing up Ellison\u2019s focus on making films for theatrical, versus the small screen, since they have different roles. \u201cStreaming movies are not a priority for me,\u201d said Holland, who played a key role in Netflix\u2019s ascent to power when serving as EVP of scripted at Netflix, bringing in such marquee series as The Crown and Orange is the New Black, among other projects.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe want to entertain all audiences around the world on Paramount+,\u201d said Holland. And for that to happen, the menu of content has to be expanded beyond current options. \u201cBut we\u2019re seeking to expand that and make sure that we\u2019re offering programming for everybody, not just occasionally and not just for the one thing they want to come back for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen asked if Ellison would give her the content budget she needs, she respondedwith a quick yes.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison arrives at Paramount well-prepared in terms of using his creative acumen in the flailing entertainment conglomerate, which has been peddliSumner Redstone family for more than three decades. Instead of choosing outsiders, he\u2019s relying on Hollywood veterans who have, between them, worked at almost every major studio. <\/p>\n

\n\tOther notable C-suite names include Andy Gordon, who had been leading RedBird Capital\u2019s Los Angeles office, who is COO of the company. RedBird, which is providing financial capital to support the Skydance deal, has also most recently employed Shell.<\/p>\n

\n\tGeorge Cheeks, who has also been leading the CBS business, will remain with the company as chair of TV media, adding oversight of the company\u2019s cable TV channels. Cindy Holland, the former Netflix scripted TV chief, will lead the new Paramount\u2019s streaming businesses, including Paramount+ and Pluto. Holland has been a Skydance advisor since last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison\u2019s longtime confidante and Skydance chief content officer Goldberg has been tapped alongside former Sony Pictures exec Greenstein to lead the new Paramount Pictures studio as co-chairs (they each have additional duties as well). Goldberg said Paramount would emphasize family films, citing movies like Goonies and The Night at the Museum franchise as north stars. \u201cWe\u2019re going to run towards those movies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHolland, Greenstein and Goldberg were not at the New York press event, so Wednesday provided the first chance to hear from them. For Greenstein, it\u2019s a homecoming. Prior to Sony, he ran marketing and distribution at Paramount, where Ellison\u2019s Skydance had a co-producing and co-financing deal. He, Ellison and Goldberg formed a close friendship that endured.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison fielded a number of other topics, batting away speculation that he was interested in acquiring TikTok and declining to discuss specifics on new voices he might like to bring into CBS News. He also noted that he intended to hold onto BET, after speculation that the previous Paramount regime flirted with selling.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs he has reiterated repeatedly, Ellison emphasized that technological efficiencies will help Paramount prevail in the years to come. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLegacy media kind of swam out to the middle of the lake, but wasn\u2019t exactly sure how to get to the other side. Some people wanted to go back and burn the boats,\u201d Ellison said, adding that he intended to \u201cget to the other side of the lake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up, David Ellison spent every Sunday going to the movies with his mother and his sister, Annapurna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,18027,75,9489],"class_list":{"0":"post-69184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-david-ellison","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-paramount"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}