Hot 'Buffy' Rumor: Chase Sui Wonders Joining Sarah Michelle Gellar in Hulu’s 'Vampire Slayer' Reboot

Happy Wednesday, folks!

Unless, of course, you work at Paramount.

Having been laid off several times before, my heart goes out to everyone whose jobs have been negatively affected by this $8 billion merger, though at least everyone had enough notice, in this case. Hopefully, they’ll be able to line up other jobs while reaping the rewards of generous severance packages.

But yes, the pink slips are coming, the pink slips are coming to the studio, where David Ellison has been busy installing his Skydance team, including former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, who will serve as President.

Skydance veteran Dana Goldberg and former Sony exec Josh Greenstein will serve as co-chairs of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Films, while Goldberg will serve as the Chair of Paramount Television and Paramount Television Studios, which will be led by Skydance’s TV head Matt Thunell. Paramount Television Studios will absorb both Skydance Television and Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, meaning it’s absorbing Taylor Sheridan’s deal with MTV, which runs until 2028.

Keyes Hill-Edgar, who most recently served as COO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, has announced he’s leaving after 25 years at Paramount. Liza Burnett Fefferman, who serves as EVP and Head of Communications for Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, is also departing.

Former Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks has survived the merger, and he’ll serve as Chair of TV Media (which means he’ll oversee South Park), while Skydance’s strategic advisor Cindy Holland will serve as Chair of Direct-to-Consumer (so she’ll oversee Paramount+).

Elsewhere, Don Granger, the third leg of Ellison’s Skydance tripod alongside Goldberg and Thunell, will lead the Film division under Goldberg and Greenstein.

His appointment left no room for Michael Ireland, who exited with an offer of a producing deal at Paramount — an offer he’s still reportedly weighing while he sticks around a while longer to consult during the transition. Ireland previously held positions at 20th Century Fox and Leonardo DiCaprio’s company Appian Way.

Meanwhile, Jane Wiseman and Efrain Miron, who worked with Holland at Netflix and later, Sister, are expected to join her team at Paramount.

As Ellison and his various Chairpeople build their new teams, a number of longtime Paramount execs are leaving, and that includes Nina L. Diaz, who recently served as President of Content and Chief Creative Officer for Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios.

Finally, Paramount’s new board will include Ellison and Shell, as well as RedBird Capital founder Gerry Cardinale and chairman John L. Thornton, Oracle CEO Safra A. Catz, Paramount COO Andy Gordon, and former Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing, along with three others.

With his team now in place, Ellison plans to invest in gaming and Paramount’s streaming service, as Holland was one of the architects behind Netflix’s original programming. Some say that Ellison may have his eye on merging with Warner Bros. next, though I can’t imagine he’s in any rush to deal with SEC regulators again.

For now, he should be focused on rebooting the Transformers and Star Trek franchises, and figuring out Top Gun 3, which I understand is being prepped for a 2028 release. Ellison (and Cheeks) will also have to repair relations within the talent community after canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

For Ellison’s full senior leadership team at New Paramount, click here.

The box office wasn’t great this weekend, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps suffering a huge drop en route to a second weekend of $40 million, indicating that it will likely come in under Superman. I’ve heard that Matt Shakman will likely return to direct a sequel, which Marvel execs think will perform better once its First Family appears in the two-part Avengers finale.

Elsewhere, Paramount’s slapstick comedy The Naked Gun and Neon’s horror movie Together performed in line with expectations at $17 million and $11 million, respectively, while The Bad Guys 2 outperformed its tracking, taking in $22 million stateside. This weekend, New Line’s horror-thriller Weapons is tracking for a $40 million debut on the strength of rave reviews from critics.

Today, you’ll read about the latest addition to the cast of Hulu’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, and the shakeup among the creative team of Will Ferrell’s Netflix series Golf, which ditched Ramy Youssef in favor of David Gordon Green, among others.

Plus, there are items about Timothee Chalamet’s new heist movie, Sony’s latest animated Spider-Man movie, the new Star Wars villain, additions to the cast of Luca Guadagnino’s Open AI movie, Universal’s new Lego movie, a reboot of the William Shatner series T.J. Hooker, and my thoughts on the trailer for Noah Baumbach’s new Netflix movie Jay Kelly, starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler.

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