\n\tDavid Ellison finally has his prize. <\/p>\n
\n\tOn Thursday, the Skydance Media founder closed the $8 billion merger with\u00a0Paramount Global<\/a> that he orchestrated, enduring political turbulence and skepticism about the viability of the company\u2019s TV and movie empire for over a year. In order for the deal to pay off, Ellison, who will serve as chairman and CEO of the newly rechristened\u00a0Paramount Skydance<\/a>,\u00a0must maintain strong partnerships with the creative community. Before the sale, Paramount has lacked the financial resources of competitors like Disney and Netflix, but it has been the home of top talent. Keeping them happy and busy cooking up ideas for new film, TV and streaming franchises will be critically important if Paramount Skydance wants to outmaneuver other studios. <\/p>\n \n\tOn the film front, look for the new regime to try to maintain or even extend some crucial first-look deals as Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, who will oversee the studio, try to reinvigorate Paramount\u2019s film slate. These include Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the producer of the \u201cTransformers\u201d films and their spinoffs, as well as Neal H. Moritz, whose Original Films is behind the \u201cSonic the Hedgehog\u201d franchise. Both series are among Paramount\u2019s most popular properties. There are also two superstar filmmakers it\u2019s important to keep happy \u2014 John Krasinski<\/a>, who is preparing to write and direct \u201cA Quiet Place Part III\u201d for Paramount, as well as Parker Finn, the director of the studio\u2019s \u201cSmile\u201d films, among its most profitable recent releases.<\/p>\n \n\tRyan Reynolds, one of the few bankable stars remaining, has a first-look pact with the studio, which would love him to headline a few blockbusters, as does Kenya Barris, the creator of \u201cBlack-ish.\u201d And though Damien Chazelle lost the studio millions of dollars with \u201cBabylon,\u201d he\u2019s an Oscar-winning auteur, who Paramount would probably like to keep in the fold \u2013 Wild Chicken Productions, the company he runs with wife Olivia Hamilton, calls the studio its home. Its next project, an untitled prison drama with Cillian Murphy and Daniel Craig, will be distributed by Paramount.<\/p>\n \n\tOn the TV side, Taylor Sheridan<\/a> is easily the golden goose via the rich overall deal between MTV Entertainment Studios (soon to be redubbed Paramount TV Studios) and his Bosque Ranch Productions banner. <\/p>\n \n\tThe Oscar-nominated writer recently wrapped up his hit Paramount Network series \u201cYellowstone\u201d after five seasons and has already produced two prequels, with a third on the way<\/a>. He\u2019s also developing multiple spinoffs: one starring Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly<\/a> and another featuring Michelle Pfeiffer <\/a>at Paramount+, plus a third led by Luke Grimes at CBS<\/a>. On top of that, Sheridan has proved to be a reliable pipeline to Paramount+, heading up shows like \u201cMayor of Kingstown\u201d (going into Season 4), \u201cTulsa King\u201d (going into Season 3) and \u201cLandman\u201d (going into Season 2). There is also a \u201cTulsa King\u201d spinoff set in New Orleans<\/a> due to start shooting next year.<\/p>\n \n\tTrey Parker and Matt Stone and their Park County production company also just re-upped their deal with Paramount<\/a> to keep \u201cSouth Park\u201d on the air for a further five years. The deal, reportedly valued at $1.5 billion, not only secured another 50 episodes of the beloved Comedy Central series, but finally saw it bring its library and all new episodes to Paramount+. <\/p>\n \n\tUnder CBS Studios, Robert & Michelle King continue to be reliable hitmakers via King Size Productions. The husband-and-wife duo currently have the well-received \u201cGood Wife\u201d spinoff \u201cElsbeth\u201d at CBS, with that show going into its third season. They are also eying a series order for the legal drama \u201cCupertino\u201d at CBS, with that project having recently cast Mike Colter in a lead role<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tJennie Snyder Urman and Sutton Street Productions currently oversee the CBS reboot of \u201cMatlock\u201d starring Kathy Bates, which recently netted Bates an Emmy nomination for best actress in a drama series. <\/p>\n \n\tThen there is Alex Kurtzman and Secret Hideout, which is in charge of the \u201cStar Trek\u201d TV franchise. While the company has produced a number of new \u201cTrek\u201d shows over the last decade, there are currently two \u2014 \u201cStar Trek: Strange New Worlds\u201d and \u201cStar Trek: Starfleet Academy.\u201d \u201cStrange New Worlds\u201d is currently airing its third season and has already been renewed through its fifth and final season<\/a>. \u201cStarfleet Academy\u201d is expected to premiere in 2026 and has been renewed for Season 2. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Ellison finally has his prize. On Thursday, the Skydance Media founder closed the $8 billion merger with\u00a0Paramount…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,48674,3093,48502,12673],"class_list":["post-66597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-john-krasinski","tag-paramount-global","tag-paramount-skydance","tag-taylor-sheridan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}