| AS WBD MERGER SAGA INTENSIFIES, WAR OF WORDS BREAKS OUT |
| NETFLIX & PARAMOUNT JOCKEY AFTER WBD'S DECISION TO REOPEN NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE DAVID ELLISON-LED STUDIO |
Shortly after Warner Bros. Discovery announced its board of directors had kicked off a seven-day period to reconvene merger discussions with Paramount, the jockeying for position began. Paramount called the board move "unusual," but said it would engage in "good faith" with the board. It also called Netflix's pending offer inferior and vowed to nominate a slate of directors at WBD's annual meeting later this year.
Paramount CEO David Ellison's message also was sent to Washington, D.C. In a letter to Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ellison wrote that a Netflix-WBD combination would be a "fundamental threat to fair competition in the entertainment industry."
Netflix didn't sit idly by amid the rhetoric. Despite having an accepted $82.7 billion offer in place for WBD's studios-and-streaming division, Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the streamer assented to the short window of re-opened talks because Paramount has been “making a ton of noise, flooding the zone with confusion for shareholders." >>>Crunch Time
Related:
In Warner Merger Battle, Netflix Needs To Take “More Action” To Prove It Loves Movie Theaters, Cinemark CEO Says |
Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
ABC Renewal Status Report - For the past three years ABC has, like clockwork, kicked off its renewals in January or early February with a pickup of its flagship comedy Abbott Elementary. The network may be slightly off its regular timing this year but the outcome is expected to be the same, with Quinta Brunson’s award-winning series poised for a Season 6 renewal. >>> 'Grey's Anatomy' Facing Another Budget Cut
Nine Number Ones – The Presidents' Day weekend has settled with Warner Bros/MRC’s Wuthering Heights lording over the global Box Office with $83M total. Domestic came in lower at $37.5M and foreign slightly higher at $45.5M. The pic reps the Burbank lot’s ninth No. 1 opening in a row. >>> Global Marketing Campaign
Gores, Rose On The Same Page - Former NBA player turned sports analyst Jalen Rose has partnered with Tom Gores, Chairman and Founder of Platinum Equity and owner of the Detroit Pistons, to launch Same Page Entertainment, a Detroit-based, multi-media production company with a full slate of projects set to launch this year. >>> Michigan Focused
"What A Difference A Day Made" - A weighty biopic based on the life of legendary jazz and blues vocalist Dinah Washington is in the works. An all-star team has been assembled including veteran British playwright Winsome Pinnock and EP Danny Glover. >>>Superlative Musician
Development At Disney UK - Disney+ has created a top development job in the UK as the streamer continues to expand its EMEA team. The successful candidate will play a "pivotal role" in the team responsible for Rivals and Extraordinary. >>>More International Budget
Doc Talk Podcast: Director Morgan Neville - In conversation with Doc Talk hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey, Neville (winner of an Oscar, Grammy and Emmy) explains how his new documentary about Paul McCartney, Man on the Run, came about. Perhaps the greatest challenge he faced making it, he says, was avoiding what could have amounted to a “jukebox of anecdotes” to create something deeply intimate and revealing. >>>Listen |
When Deadline spoke with Tell Me Lies showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer along with Grace Van Patten and Jackson White, who play toxic lovers Lucy and Stephen, Van Patten said she’ll look back fondly on what she and White both call a “cupid show” (because so many of the actors are dating in real life, not least Van Patten and White themselves).
Her favorite, twistiest scene is, she said, “Stephen, walking down the steps with Diana. The coconut bra. That’s number one." Among White’s memorable moments? “This year she beat the sh*t out of me. That was fun,” and “I liked pretending like I was on drugs. And, anytime I get to sleuth around and be shady while she’s trying to love me, it’s very fun.”
Read on to find out what Oppenheimer, Van Patten and White think will happen in the future for Lucy and Stephen, Bree and Wrigley, Diana and Pippa and Evan. >>>Q&A |
ExclusiveWalton Goggins has come aboard to lead action-comedy Mister from Bright White Light and John Wick outfit Thunder Road. Chloë Grace Moretz will co-star.
ExclusiveLeo Woodall is set to co-star opposite Sydney Sweeney in a movie adaptation of Edith Wharton’s classic novel Custom of the Country for Studiocanal and Charles Finch’s Rabbit’s Foot Films.
ExclusiveFans of Apple TV sports comedy series Stick will see a lot more of Timothy Olyphant and Judy Greer in Season 2. Both have been promoted to series regular roles.
ExclusiveCarla Gugino, Matthew Modine and David Hyde Pierce have wrapped on the Philadelphia shoot for Vivien & The Florist.
ExclusiveConnor Storrie, star of the breakout hit series Heated Rivalry from Crave/HBO Max, is in talks to join the cast of Peaked, the comedy coming together at A24.
ExclusiveBad Sisters star Claes Bang is fronting a TV series based on the life of Dr. Jakob Joseph, one of the pioneers of plastic surgery.
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QUOTABLE "Crap"- Stephen Colbert on the statement issued by CBS in response to his Tuesday monologue |
MORE NEWS
🏈 Audiences spent quite a lot of time watching television in January, Nielsen says. According to the measurement company’s latest monthly report, TV viewing was up 3.7% over December to a 12-month high, fueled mostly by sports.
✊ A month before the writers guild is set to bargain with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the Writers Guild Staff Union called a work stoppage until further notice and picketed outside the WGA West offices in Los Angeles.
🤖 WBD joined Disney and Paramount in putting the copyright infringement gears to TikTok owners ByteDance over AI generated videos of Darth Vader, the Marvel universe and Tom Cruise.
❌ Belgium's oldest distributor, Belga Films, has been liquidated. Belga's sister companies Belga Studios and Independent Films remain very much alive and kicking, according to its CEO.
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OBITUARIES
🕯️ Jane Baer, a pioneering animator who worked at Disney on films ranging from Sleeping Beauty to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and also ran her own animation production company, died Monday in her sleep at her home in Van
Nuys, CA. She was 91. 🕯️ Cass Lacelle, star of Freeform's Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise, died at the age of 34 after a battle with cancer. 🕯️ 2026 Deaths Photo Gallery |
| ON THE RADAR
Wed - 56 Days premieres
Thu - The Night Agent premieres
Sat - Annie Awards
Sun - Olympics closing ceremony; BAFTA Film Awards
Tue - State of the Union address |
23 And Me - Cynthia Erivo during the curtain call at the West End Opening Night for Dracula, in which she plays the titular vampire as well as 22 other characters. |
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