ScreamWire Daily

Paramount Skydance is close to securing roughly $24 billion in equity commitments from Gulf sovereign funds—including about $10 billion from Saudi Arabia’s PIF—to back its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a move that raises regulatory scrutiny and could enable a potential close by end of July pending approvals.

Bad Robot is downsizing and shuttering its LA offices after a long decline from its 2019 WarnerMedia megadeal (reported then at $250M over five years) and has re-upped with Warner Bros. on a much smaller, first-look non-exclusive deal while offloading assets like its Santa Monica HQ.

Shudder acquired Izabel Pakzad’s feature debut Find Your Friends — a Joshua Tree-set girls’ trip thriller starring Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, Helena Howard and Sophia Ali — in a multi-territory deal (North America, UK/Ireland, Spain/Portugal, Australia/NZ) and will release it on Shudder June 12; CAA negotiated and WTFilms handled international sales.

The WGA reached a surprise tentative agreement with studios/streamers: a four-year provisional contract that preserves the health plan (after a $122M fund loss) and addresses free work issues — negotiated by Ellen Stutzman with committee co-chairs John August and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel — prompting relief but also concerns about a longer term amid rapid industry change and AI risks.

Park Chan-wook’s dark comedy-thriller No Other Choice, starring Lee Byung-hun, lands on Hulu April 24, giving the acclaimed Korean filmmaker a U.S. streaming platform release for his latest tense satire.

Daily Dead’s review finds Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death leans heavily into gore and voyeurism themes—praising Dacre Montgomery’s chilling killer and Barbie Ferreira’s performance—while arguing the film’s thesis and originality are uneven.

SAG‑AFTRA issued a statement congratulating the WGA on reaching a tentative agreement with the AMPTP and said it looks forward to resuming bargaining; the WGA deal reportedly addresses health fund sustainability, streaming residuals and staffing/AI protections, and SAG‑AFTRA and the DGA contracts expire June 30.

Amazon MGM Studios reportedly greenlit a RoboCop TV series under new global TV chief Peter Friedlander; original 2024 attachments included Peter Ocko as showrunner and James Wan producing via Atomic Monster.

Thanksgiving 2 is in development at TriStar/Sony and Spyglass with Eli Roth attached; star Jalen Thomas Brooks says the sequel will answer lingering questions and raise the stakes, though production timing has been delayed by cast scheduling.

Ryan Coogler's Proximity Media is developing a TV adaptation of the Animorphs novels for Disney+ with Coogler EPing as part of his overall Disney deal.