Variety 07/10/2024

Hollywood needs Deadpool to save the day. That idea might once have seemed absurd. By comparison to Marvel-franchise superstars such as Thor and Captain America, Deadpool was a minor leaguer. But his relative lack of name recognition was no obstacle to Ryan Reynolds’ insouciantly foulmouthed performance. And ever since 2016’s “Deadpool” and its 2018 sequel blew up at the box office, moviegoers have been waiting for the return of this red-spandex-wearing pansexual antihero. Lucky them: For the price of one ticket, they’re getting a double dose of Marvel icons. “Deadpool & Wolverine” has the added attraction of luring Hugh Jackman, an ex-X-Man, out of retirement. Short of Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as Iron Man, seeing Jackman once again wield Wolverine’s claws sweetens the deal for fanboys and -…

David Ellison started his pursuit of Paramount Global last winter — 30 years nearly to the month after Sumner Redstone and Barry Diller began their long M&A fight for control of one of Hollywood’s foundational studios. A generation later, Ellison’s Skydance Media and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital are poised to add a new chapter to the history of Paramount, CBS and more, after an equally protracted and hard-fought negotiations with Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. So, assuming the $8 billion transaction is completed, what do they plan to do with their prize? The new leadership team, which includes Ellison as chairman-CEO of the merged company and former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell as president, sought to answer that question as it made the rounds with analysts and reporters after clinching the…

When will the deal close? Skydance predicts by September 2025, unless another bidder swoops in with a better offer. What’s next for Paramount+? Team Skydance has endorsed the current Paramount regime’s efforts to find a joint venture partner for the streamer. Will CBS be put up for sale? Skydance leaders say they intend to keep the company largely intact, but sale efforts for smaller assets such as BET Networks and international platforms are in the works. Will the new owners sell the Paramount studio lot? There’s no official word either way, but it doesn’t seem to be a front-burner priority at this stage.…

Alec Baldwin’s temper is the stuff of Hollywood legend. His volatile behavior on the set of “The Edge” — he refused to shave his beard — left such an impression on producer Art Linson that he made a movie about it, “What Just Happened,” with Bruce Willis caricaturizing Baldwin as a tantrum-throwing star. But he is also an adept and dependable actor. Dean Goodine was the prop master on “The Edge,” a thriller filmed in the Canadian Rockies. Before one key scene, he showed Baldwin how to load dummies into a Winchester Model 1886. “I have no stories other than of him being professional,” Goodine says. “He paid attention to all the training. He did the scene flawlessly.” Baldwin is on trial this week in Santa Fe, N.M., on a…

As the producer of three of the four highest-grossing movies of all time, Jon Landau was incredibly skilled at the art of managing moviemaking on a grand scale. Friends and colleagues say Landau leaves a remarkable legacy as a supportive, wise and beloved collaborator. The producer and partner to James Cameron on “Titanic” and the “Avatar” series died July 5 at age 63. Landau “produced the films creatively,” says Weta FX’s Joe Letteri, senior VFX supervisor on the “Avatar” movies. “He always fought for what the film needed. Yes, he was responsible for the budgets and the schedule and everything else, but first and foremost was ‘Is this going to make the movie better? Is this going to make the story better?’” Robert Legato, a longtime friend and VFX supervisor…

“Sundance is absolutely not leaving Park City.” So said a top executive at a prestige movie label only two weeks ago, speaking anonymously with Variety. The executive is part of a large contingent of the independent film community that believes the iconic Sundance Film Festival was bluffing in April, when it announced it would seek proposals for a new host city after 40 years in the mountains of Utah. But this movie may have a twist ending. Insiders are increasingly convinced that the festival will uproot itself for a new home in 2027, when its contract with Park City ends, multiple sources say. At first, many believed the festival was leveraging the competition to get better terms from its current host. There were reasons Sundance was growing dissatisfied. For starters,…