Paramount anticipates its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery will close in September – but members of the entertainment community, including leaders in the documentary field, are saying, “Not so fast.”
An open letter protesting the merger has attracted more than 4,700 signatures to date, with marquee names attached that range from J.J. Abrams to Adam McKay, Kristen Stewart, Sandra Hüller, Robert De Niro, Sofia Coppola, film distributor Richard Lorber, Pedro Pascal, Ramy Youssef and more. Among the prominent signatories from the doc space are Alex Gibney, Laura Poitras, Abigail Disney, Yoruba Richen, Laura Nix, Lucy Walker and many others.
On the new edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we talk with two highly respected figures in documentary who also signed the letter: filmmaker Marjan Safinia and Lois Vossen, founding executive producer of Independent Lens. They tell us why they strongly oppose the combination of Paramount and WBD, which would bring HBO Documentary Films, CNN Films, HBO Max, Paramount+, MTV Documentary Films and more under one roof.
Super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently said of the merger, “The train has left the station,” suggesting he regards it as a done deal. But our guests tell us why they think a critical group of officials at the state level could yet block it. Safinia and Vossen also explain why a little-remarked aspect of the merger – control over important archives – could particularly harm nonfiction filmmakers.
Paramount has promised to release a robust slate of films if its merger goes through. But Safinia insists “the math ain’t mathing.”
On the latest episode of Doc Talk, we also explore the challenges facing public television, long the foremost purveyor of documentary content. The Trump administration effectively killed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provided some of the budget for PBS and NPR. Vossen tells us how Independent Lens, which airs on PBS stations, is responding to the crisis by reaching audiences in new ways.
That’s on the new episode of Doc Talk hosted by John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley), and Matt Carey, Deadline’s senior documentary editor. The pod is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.
