Tag: warner bros

David Ellison extends deadline for Warner Bros. Discovery takeover offer

Posted on by faz_business


Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is apparently still hopeful that investors will approve his $108.4 billion hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance announced Thursday that it’s extending its all-cash offer to acquire the storied studio, and giving investors until February 20, 2026 to accept. The company’s previous offer expired on January 21, but with a lawsuit in the works and a revised Netflix deal to compete with, Paramount Skydance wants to stay in the conversation.

Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery originally announced their $82.7 billion acquisition agreement in December 2025. Netflix’s deal is for a significant portion, but notably not all, of Warner Bros. Discovery as it exists today. If approved, the streaming service would acquire Warner Bros. film studios, New Line Cinema, HBO, HBO Max, the company’s theme parks, game studios and select linear channels like TNT, but not the collection of reality TV and news programming that Warner Bros. Discovery calls “Global Networks.”

Paramount Skydance made its competing offer of $108.4 billion for all of Warner Bros. Discovery a few days later in December, with the recommendation that shareholders reject the Netflix deal. To add pressure, Paramount Skydance also sued Warner Bros. Discovery in January alleging that the company had not provided adequate information about why it favored Netflix over Paramount. Beyond offering more money, Paramount contends its deal is more likely to be approved by regulators because owning Warner Bros. doesn’t “entrench Netflix’s market dominance.” Warner Bros. Discovery claims that funding for Paramount’s deal “remains inadequate” and that the company is uncertain Paramount Skydance will actually be able to complete the deal.

David Ellison was previously able to merge Skydance with Paramount using the financial backing of his billionaire father Larry Ellison, and the Ellison family’s friendly relationship with the Trump administration. Promising to make sure that CBS News represents “a diversity of viewpoints” via a newly appointed ombudsman, and that the merged Paramount Skydance won’t create any diversity, equity and inclusion programs was enough to get the FCC to approve the merger. Ellison might have thought acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery would be equally easy, but at least so far that hasn’t worked out as planned.

Warner Bros. Discovery rejects Paramount’s hostile bid

Posted on by faz_business


Warner Bros. Discovery’s board has formally rejected the $108 billion takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, the company announced. WBD said it remains committed to its $82.7 billion deal with Netflix, which would close some time next year, pending regulatory approval.

“[The board] has unanimously determined that the tender offer launched by Paramount Skydance on December 8, 2025 is not in the best interests of WBD and its shareholders and does not meet the criteria of a “Superior Proposal” under the terms of WBD’s merger agreement with Netflix announced on December 5, 2025,” the studio said in the press release.

Paramount’s offer was funded in part by sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, so it could have triggered a national security review by the US government. However, Paramount said that even if those entities dropped out, the company’s owners (the Ellisons) would “backstop the full amount of the bid.”

However, the board said that Paramount “has consistently misled WBD shareholders that its proposed transaction has a ‘full backstop’ from the Ellison family. It does not, and never has,” adding that “the terms of the Netflix merger are superior.” WBD explained that Paramount is relying on an “opaque revocable trust” for said backstop which is “no replacement for a secured commitment by a controlling shareholder.” WBD’s board also noted that Paramount expects to achieve $9 billion in cost synergies from the merger, and that “would make Hollywood weaker, not stronger.”

In a statement, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that “the Warner Bros. Discovery board reinforced that Netflix’s merger agreement is superior and that our acquisition is in the best interest of stockholders. This was a competitive process that delivered the best outcome for consumers, creators, stockholders and the broader entertainment industry.”

Paramount has yet to comment, but the company has previously said that its $30 per share offer is a better deal, due to the all-cash nature (compared to 84 percent cash for Netflix) and fact that it would have a clearer path to regulatory approval due to the Ellison’s supposedly tight relationship with President Trump.

Warner Bros. Shifts ‘Mortal Kombat II’ Release Date to Summer 2026

Posted on by faz_business


Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) will have to wait for showtime just a little longer than originally anticipated, as Mortal Kombat II will bow out of 2025’s fall movie release schedule, instead opening in May 2026.

The Warner Bros., New Line, and Atomic Monster production was originally slated to be released on October 24 of this year, but that is no longer the case. According to Deadline, it’s not a reflection of the film’s quality, as the trade reports the film has been testing well, but rather a pivot to bank on the success of the early summer window it saw with Final Destination Bloodlines. The New Line horror flick cultivated a solid box office debut of $51.6 million after opening in mid-May.

With that in mind, the sequel to 2021’s Mortal Kombat will now open on May 15, 2026.

The film stars Urban as Cage—a casting many have been anticipating since the first movie—and will feature returning stars Lewis Tan (Cole Young), Ludi Lin (Liu Kang), Jessica McNamee (Sonya Blade), Mehcad Brooks (Jax), Josh Lawson (Kano), Chin Han (Shang Tsung), Joe Taslim (Bi-Han), Tadanobu Asano (Lord Raiden), and Hiroyuki Sanada (Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion). The ensemble is joined by newcomers Tati Gabrielle (Jade) and Adeline Rudolph (Kitana).

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Todd Phillips Thinks His Joker Would Be a Batman Fanboy

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The big promise of Todd Phillips’ Joker was stripping out the titular character’s comic book elements and showing what would happen if a regular guy in 1980s Gotham decided to put on clown makeup. (Turns out, things didn’t go well, mainly for everyone else around him.) A young Bruce Wayne is in the original movie, and you may be wondering what would happen if an adult Batman met this version of his nemesis. According to director/writer Todd Phillips, he thinks Arthur Fleck would just think Batman’s neat. (You’re shocked, I’m sure.)

In a recent IGN interview, Phillips explained how Arthur would “be in awe of the alpha male that is Batman. I think [he’d] look up and appreciate it.” In his read, Arthur is “fascinated by men at ease,” such as his own coworkers and Robert De Niro’s talk show host Murray Franklin from the first movie. Those men are everything he’s not, and why wouldn’t that extend to Batman? Presumably, this Batman knows Arthur’s responsible for his parents’ murder, but maybe they can move past that.

The original Joker ended with Arthur eventually losing his cool so bad he shot Murray in the face on live TV, so that fascination clearly has a limit. Still, Phillips’ comments get at something, namely how Arthur has been very quick to fall in love, either romantically or platonically. But Warner Bros. is probably not interested in making the decades of subtext between Bats and Jokes into actual text, or at least no more than what Lego Batman already did back in 2017. Considering Arthur’s luck with people he crushes on, anything between this Clown Prince and a Dark Knight old enough to punch his face in would likely end in a bad romance.

Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters on October 4.

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Venu is the new sports streaming service likely to drain your bank account

Posted on by faz_business


ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery in February that they would jointly launch a sports-focused streaming service, and today they’ve shared some pertinent details. Subscriptions to the Venu service will cost $43 a month. The platform will have three broad categories of content: live games and events, on-demand sports programming and talk content such as studio shows. Venu will launch at an unspecified time this fall.

The linear networks included in Venu are ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+. Viewers will have access to lots of major events across the world of athletics. The World Series of Major League Baseball, the four Grand Slams of tennis, the Stanley Cup finals for the National Hockey League, and a wide spread of college athletics will all be represented in Venu’s programming.

When people sign up at the launch price, that monthly cost will be locked in for twelve months. Considering how often we see prices going up in the streaming landscape, it’s safe to assume that $43 won’t be the fee indefinitely.

Watching sports is a fragmented and expensive activity today. Different leagues might have media rights deals with multiple different networks and streaming platforms, meaning fans have to check carefully where to find their favorite teams each night. Having so many providers together under one umbrella would streamline the experience, especially for people who like to follow multiple sports. But the joint effort has drawn criticism. after the initial announcement, claiming the new streaming package would violate antitrust practices.

Let’s Never Ever Remake Possession

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Possession poster art by Barbara Baranowska

A crop of Barbara Baranowska’s iconic Possession (1981) poster art.
Image: Gaumont

Yes, io9 used a very similar headline back in 2017 regarding a remake of The Crow—and Hollywood clearly did not listen; that long-in-the-works project is arriving in theaters this August. How The Crow do-over fares is yet to be seen (maybe Bill Skarsgård’s Joker look will work magic?), but we must insist, yet again, that another much-loved genre classic be left the hell alone, no matter how much we enjoy the involved talent.

Rob Savage on Collaborating with YellowJackets’ Sophie Thatcher

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Andrzej Zulawski’s singularly unsettling 1981 film Possession is chugging down the remake track with writer-director Parker Finn (Smile) and producer Robert Pattinson—an obvious choice to also star, though THR notes “his acting involvement will be clarified down the road as the script and schedules develop.” The original film stars Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani as a couple living in West Berlin whose marriage fractures amid surreal, supernatural circumstances. It’s haunting, and has since become a cult classic.

The trade also reports that multiple studios are currently battling over who will, uh, get possession of Possession, including “A24, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros,” and that “other companies may enter the fray.” Also of note: “the reception to the pitches has been extremely positive, with execs talking about the ‘batshit’ and ‘out there’ story but also its strong commercial potential. How to market the eventual movie is also part of the conversations.”

What do you think about remaking Possession—and for that matter, are you counting down to The Crow?

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.