Just over a month after the Directors Guild promised to meet with the companies looking to acquire Warner Bros, guild president Christopher Nolan confirms that the union has had discussions with both Netflix and Paramount regarding its concerns about the legendary company being swallowed up by a competitor.
How are those talks going? Stay tuned, he says. The DGA is not yet ready to choose a side or oppose the sale altogether.
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“I don’t really want to talk about the specifics of the conversations we’ve had, but publicly I’ve seen a shift from both companies to embrace, for example, theatrical windows, things like that,” Nolan told reporters from Deadline, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter during a recent interview. “I mean, there are encouraging sounds, but that’s not the same as commitment.”
While acknowledging “in an ideal world it would continue to function as an independent buyer [and] distributor. This would be the best thing for all members,” he also urged that the leadership of the union is “trying to evaluate the reality of this situation.”
Netflix recently switched its deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to an all-cash deal, removing the stock option but continuing to value the company’s studio and streaming assets at $27.75 per share. While the deal is already signed, Paramount Skydance still emerged as a serious contender in this battle, having made a hostile bid for all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including the cable networks. There were concerns raised about the idea of any person controlling any part of the company.
Nolan describes the meetings with Netflix and Paramount as “productive,” but explains that “”we are still in the thick of it” regarding the dissection of the issues involved.
While there are a number of concerns, chief among them are different for each company. Fears about the health of theatrical distribution dominated the conversation when it came to Netflix, even though co-CEO Ted Sarandos promised “Warner Bros. movies will be released in theaters with a 45-day window, just like they are today.” Critics of Paramount Skydance have raised alarm bells about the pro-Trump Ellison family having control over another cable news network should it acquire CNN.
Nolan, who served on the DGA leadership for years before running for president last year, directed most of his concerns toward the reality that either acquisition means more media consolidation on the horizon for an already struggling industry.
“A merger will mean job losses. It will mean consolidation. We all know that. We can all look at history to see that our interest right now is to try to meet, how can we try to improve some of these concerns? How can we try to look at these companies and secure some kind of meaningful commitments from them – in Warner Bro’s fantastic terms how do we secure. A 100-year-old company with the library its incredible, with its incredible employees — you can see the best chance of survival and potential to succeed,” Interstellar director explained. “So, whether it’s from Paramount, whether it’s from Netflix, we’re interested in more about the specifics of how to pull these things off, what the consolidation will do, what the impacts will be on our members, and we’re deep in those conversations.”
For the record, on the theatrical front, Nolan presses: “We strongly take the position that we need a 60-day theatrical window, like Disney, which is the most successful theatrical distributor. That’s what they do, and that’s what everyone should do.”
He is not ignorant of the consequences of minimizing the theatrical window, and pointed out that “when we analyze our residual space, the residuals from the licensing of films released in the theater is still our largest single category that contributes towards our health plan.” However, he acknowledges that the problems do not end there.
“When you add up what our members contribute to television, obviously that’s the bulk of it, and that’s where, in the changing streaming landscape, a lot of the major issues are with the deal,” he said. “The reality is, we have very, very significant concerns about how this is all going to play out. It’s a very troubling time for the industry. The loss of a major studio is a major blow.”
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