The merger between Warner and Paramount is raising hackles in Hollywood among those who want this ordeal over with already, even if that means selling the rights to dozens of properties to a company led by a millionaire with fascist leanings, and those who believe it’s worth fighting. The fact is that on September 30, David Ellison will have to start paying Warner 7 million a day until they can sign the deal, which could reach 7 billion if they ultimately can’t sign it for legal reasons. You’d have to be very naïve not to want to watch something like that.
If you like each other, get together
The clearest example of an actor backing the deal is Tom Cruise, who stands to benefit from it: in fact, he has just announced the filming of Days of Thunder 2 and is convinced the whole thing will be positive for Hollywood’s future: “I think it’s incredible. **They’re going to make 30 movies a year: to me it’s a community, not an industry**. The people in those studios aren’t just people in those studios. They’re my family. I know we’re going to have those 30 movies. I want us to come together as a community to help make them. Paramount won’t be the only one doing it: it’s going to take the help of every artist to be able to make them”. You decide how much you trust good old Tom.
On the other side is George Clooney, who’s spent years living in Europe away from American troubles, and who at the Venice Film Festival not only supported Mark Ruffalo, who was accused of antisemitism for speaking out against the merger, but also warned: “I don’t see how the merger is going to make financial sense for the people trying to make it happen. We’ll see. I always worry when one big company absorbs another. I always worry because it means a lot of people are going to lose their jobs”.
Days of Thunder. Summer 2028. pic.twitter.com/rD3QLXfUyi
— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) August 29, 2026
Who’s right? In this case, it’s possible both are. They’ll probably spend the first few years making 30 movies, even if it’s just to save their own skin, but thousands of people are going to lose their jobs along the way, because there are positions that are going to be duplicated and are pointless. Even so, the soap opera is far from over, and it looks like we won’t see a resolution until 2027. At this point, I’ll settle for an entertaining ending and for a bucket of water to fall on the millionaire’s head.
