Naito is part of 1,000 cuts that happened today (Oct. 29) as the new Skydance-owned Paramount looks to achieve $2 billion in savings. Other motion picture exits today include President of Worldwide Music Randy Spendlove, Senior Vice President (SVP) of Production Bryan Oh, EVP of Production Geoff Stier, EVP of Home Entertainment Andres Alvarez, EVP of International Theatrical Marketing Rachel Cadden, SVP of Multicultural Marketing Christine Benitez and SVP of Literary Affairs Phil Cohen.
Feelings Don’t Matter: How the Ellison Era Is Transforming Paramount
It’s a brand-new day at the legacy studio, where prestige films are out, testosterone-heavy tentpoles are in and Brett Ratner is back on the call sheet.
In the days before the Paramount-Skydance merger closed, headlines as to who was staying and who was going were flying fast and furious. One person who appeared to be held in high esteem by Skydance chief David Ellison was Ramsey Naito, head of Paramount Animation.
It would have been understandable if Ellison opted to show Naito the door as he did with other top execs, considering she was closely aligned with former Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins (she had helped bring the successful Nickelodeon series PAW Patrol to the big screen). On Aug. 6, the night before the merger became official, an anonymously sourced news story indicated that Naito was safe, highlighting the success of 2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which grossed $182 million worldwide against a $30 million budget and propelled the brand to north of $1 billion in merchandising sales.
But things quickly turned for Naito as the emboldened top executives installed by Ellison to run the studio began asserting their power. In a fall meeting with key leaders, including Paramount Pictures co-chairman Josh Greenstein, Naito was left feeling humiliated after she was told she had devalued the Turtles franchise. Sources say Naito later confronted Greenstein and others to object to the way they had spoken to her.
The essence of their response? “Get over it.”
It was an echo of the feelings-don’t-matter, no-coddling ethos that powers Silicon Valley, where Ellison was raised and watched his father, Larry Ellison, grow Oracle into one of the most valuable companies in the world (and make himself one of the richest people on the planet). Multiple sources say Ellison is building a more brash culture that’s defiantly upending the circumspect, politically correct style that has defined Hollywood in the post-#MeToo, post-George Floyd eras. It’s a studio reborn, where blunt feedback is the norm, canceled talent is welcome (cheaper on the dollar, and yearning to prove themselves) and no one is walking on eggshells.
Sources close to the new regime deny that anyone ever spoke down to Naito, but acknowledge that they confronted the exec for declining to take responsibility for the fact that several animated films under her watch had gone over budget, including Smurfs, a bomb that lost about $80 million for the studio. In either case, sources say that Naito saw the writing on the wall and told friends she wasn’t sure how long she’d last under the new management. On Oct. 29, she was among those let go in a massive round of layoffs. Naito could not be reached for comment. She was replaced recently by Jennifer Dodge, president of entertainment at Spin Master, the toy company behind PAW Patrol.
Even before Ellison took over, there were signs that the studio was changing. Paramount was among the first to kill its DEI policies, and after the Ellison era began, it became the first to publicly push back against the growing anti-Israel sentiment in Hollywood. Ellison also has been willing to empower once-canceled male execs as well as those who are eager to assert their influence after being denied top jobs at other companies.
“There is an arrogance [at the film studio] that has caught the town by the surprise,” says one source who’s in business with Paramount, careful to note that co-movie studio chairman and TV chief Dana Goldberg, a Skydance alum, and Paramount president Jeff Shell do not share this style.
What some see as arrogance, others characterize as a much-needed shift, remaking a struggling studio that was deprived of resources for years. The execs inherited a slate where every movie this year lost money in its theatrical run until the October romantic sleeper hit Regretting You. (That list includes the Ellison-produced Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.)
Says a source who knows many of Paramount’s new power players: “They have either been in the studio system or adjacent to it and are now in a position they never thought they’d have again. It’s really theirs to lose; they can either build something that works or doesn’t.”
Sources who know Ellison, 42, say that he personally has never presented as a bully, but father Larry is a self-avowed über-alpha personality who has a multibillion-dollar stake in the Paramount purchase and is one of Donald Trump’s closest tech-world confidants. Trump has publicly praised the Skydance-Paramount marriage and David Ellison, pointing to right-leaning changes at CBS News, and is reportedly also looking favorably upon Ellison’s bid to gobble up Warner Bros. over rivals Comcast and Netflix. (Paramount, for its part, has called the bidding “a tilted and unfair process,” claiming Netflix has received preferential treatment.) On Nov. 25, Paramount confirmed a deal to distribute Rush Hour 4 from disgraced director Brett Ratner, who was banished from Hollywood in 2017 after a Los Angeles Times report in which six women accused him of sexual misconduct. The agreement came after a request from Trump to Larry. (Ratner was never charged and has long denied wrongdoing.)
While the Rush Hour 4 news jolted many on the lot, sources say that even before Trump’s request, there were already conversations within Paramount about whether to distribute the orphaned project. The movie would almost certainly make money for the studio given that Paramount, as a distributor but not a financier, stands to receive a hefty fee. Still, Greenstein and Goldberg ultimately passed and only later learned that Paramount would be distributing it around the time news leaked to the media about Trump’s overtures to Larry.
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“David likes to hire people who he thinks were devalued,” says one person who has known him for years. One early example: Skydance swooped in and hired legendary Pixar chief John Lasseter after he resigned from Disney at the height of the #MeToo movement following allegations of inappropriate behavior. Later, the first major production deal announced by the new Paramount was a first-look pact with Will Smith, still tainted from slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. And one of the few leftover movies from the previous regime that Team Ellison embraced is an Ebenezer Scrooge project starring Johnny Depp that would mark the actor’s first major studio feature since Warner Bros. fired him from the Fantastic Beasts franchise in 2020 amid his messy divorce from Amber Heard.
There are examples of that same distressed-asset philosophy at the C-suite level. Shell, the president of Paramount, exited as chairman of NBCUniversal after a female colleague, a CNBC reporter, filed a sexual harassment complaint against him following a nearly decade-long affair. He was fired for cause and did not receive severance. Paramount colleagues say Shell is transparent about what happened, proactively bringing it up and eager to note that he’s learned from his mistakes. (Like Ellison, he is laser-focused on the potential Warners acquisition and not on the day-to-day operations of the film studio.)
Several years before his firing, Shell and NBCUniversal movie chief Donna Langley informed staff at Universal Pictures that Josh Goldstine, president of worldwide marketing, was being suspended after an investigation into complaints of inappropriate conduct. Shell and Langley praised the women who came forward, and Goldstine was fired, but he later won a $20 million arbitration ruling against NBCU (the arbitration findings were never made public). He joined Warner Bros. as president of worldwide marketing in 2021 before being laid off at the beginning of this year. Greenstein lobbied Ellison to name Goldstine president of worldwide marketing and distribution at Paramount, and he joined the studio in mid-October. Some might have forgotten that in 2001, Goldstine was one of two top execs at Sony’s creative advertising division who were suspended and later demoted for making up glowing critics’ quotes for A Knight’s Tale after a class-action lawsuit was filed against the studio for duping moviegoers into seeing the film.
Goldstine now reports to Greenstein and Goldberg, who was Ellison’s longtime trusted movie and TV production czar at Skydance. Known for being loyal, Ellison also brought over Skydance movie and sports chief Don Granger to lead the film division. Greenstein and Goldstine have many fans and are widely admired for their marketing acumen. But both are ruffling feathers internally.
A culture clash is almost guaranteed when putting together a team of ambitious executives who have long thought they deserved more power than Hollywood has afforded them. Greenstein, who had a previous stint at Paramount as marketing and distribution head before decamping for Sony in 2014 and rising to co-president of the motion picture group, waited in the wings for years to succeed Sony film chief Tom Rothman but was thwarted when the elder executive re-upped his deal this year. He is a man’s man famous for his golfing outings — one go-to partner is Mark Wahlberg — and drives a lifted truck to accommodate his mountain bike, another one of his passions.
Granger, meanwhile, spent years at Paramount as a production exec — including working on a number of Tom Cruise films — before striking out on his own (Snakes on a Plane was one credit). He joined United Artists in 2004, when it was run by Cruise and Paula Wagner, and ascended to president of production in 2007, but UA languished and he joined Skydance in 2014, running film under Goldberg and Ellison and producing titles such as Jack Reacher.
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Paramount insiders debunk the notion that this new team is making “flyover state” films but readily admit they are building a slate focused on areas it sees as underserved by Hollywood, a move that mirrors Ellison’s work to reshape CBS News. The mogul has complained that the news business has been taken over by coastal elites out of touch with the American public, so it’s not surprising that he’s bringing the same ethos to his studio. One major emphasis is to develop broad, testosterone-laden tentpoles like a Call of Duty movie that Taylor Sheridan is writing and a $100 million-plus motorcross film directed by James Mangold and starring Timothée Chalamet, who would earn a career-high $25 million. (Mangold also has a new overall deal with the studio.) Paramount also is keen on making a Western with 1923 actor Brandon Sklenar.
“The one thing I’m trying to figure out is what other big priorities they are embracing,” says a rival executive. Asks another studio head, “Is there anything that isn’t a male-driven action movie?”
Paramount insists there is. During an Aug. 13 media event, Greenstein name-checked such franchises as Star Trek, Transformers and World War Z. He also indicated an interest in horror (Paramount is home to A Quiet Place and Smile) and R-rated comedies. Insiders at Paramount say the team’s guiding principle is ensuring that every movie is an event. This doesn’t just mean franchises, it could include risqué comedies for both men (think: The Hangover) and women (Bridesmaids) or dramas targeting Black audiences (à la The Woman King, which Greenstein made at Sony).
There appears to be little appetite for risky critical-darling or awards-bait fare. Paramount’s small, internal awards team was laid off in October, though sources say they will remain on through the end of Oscar season. The studio already pulled back dramatically on awards plans for the Channing Tatum-Kirsten Dunst feature Roofman.
“They have no interest in anything but down-the-middle IP. It’s all about commerciality,” says one industry source.
However, not all male-driven action tentpoles have been embraced: Nearly $20 million in marketing was slashed from Edgar Wright’s big-budget The Running Man, starring Glen Powell and made by the previous regime. The $110 million movie bombed, opening to a mere $18 million.
Though morale at the movie studio was low before the merger, sources say it has further plummeted among holdover staff as Greenstein and Goldberg, with input from Granger, go through the slate, killing projects or selling them off. Eloise, an adaptation of Kay Thompson’s beloved children’s series about a girl living at the Plaza hotel in New York, was quietly sold to Netflix. Ryan Reynolds had been quick to board the MRC project as a producer and star when approached by the prior regime, saying his three young daughters are huge fans of the book. But sources say Greenstein in particular didn’t believe the IP was relevant in today’s times, nor did the studio want to make it as a theatrical movie for the $75 million budget, even though MRC is helping to cover the cost. The Goldberg-Greenstein regime also has scrapped plans to make Winter Games, a romantic sports drama starring Miles Teller.
But those aren’t the only femme-fueled titles being scrapped: Another project that isn’t going forward is Victor and Sam’s Day Off, a spinoff of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; ditto for Colin Trevorrow’s Area 51 movie that has Reynolds attached to produce.
It’s hardly unusual for incoming leaders to take stock of what they have and jettison things. But Greenstein has stated that the company hopes to release 15 films a year starting in 2026. As one producer with ties to Paramount asks, “How are they going to make so many movies when they are killing them left and right?”
Rush Hour 4 is one answer. Another is the R-rated workplace comedy Bald Eagles, a spec they scooped up days after coming into power. The studio also is developing a new Paranormal Activity movie with James Wan and Blumhouse producing, sources say, and moving forward with a carry-over romantic comedy that’s set to star Brie Larson is based on Rebecca Serle’s best-selling book One Italian Summer.
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The new regime is now figuring out what to do with the Ninja Turtles franchise. It’s so impressed by Sonic the Hedgeghog that it has hired Sonic producer Neal H. Moritz to guide a a live-action Turtles movie that’s already nabbed a high-profile Thanksgiving holiday release date of Nov. 17, 2028. Meanwhile, the sister TV division has canceled the spin-off to the Seth Rogen-produced Mutant Mayhem, leading to industry chatter that the big-screen animated sequel is in jeopardy. But sources say the top brass at Paramount, which has already spent $40 million on the Mayhem 2, remains high on the sequel and intends to move with its October 2027 release date, with a third movie even being discussed with Rogen and his Point Grey.
If the famously outspoken liberal Rogen makes an odd bedfellow for a studio that’s so close to Trump, it gets even weirder. One project that is moving right along is from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They are a cash cow for Paramount, and particularly Paramount+, so much so that Ellison quickly reupped their deal after taking over as CEO.
Trump has remained notably silent on the duo, who have gone after him with a vengeance that has made them more relevant and popular than ever. But he may not be able to resist complaining about the live-action, music-infused comedy skewering racism that’s in the works from the duo and Kendrick Lamar. The story centers on a young Black man who takes a job performing as a slave at a popular plantation attraction, and who grows quickly wary about the entire situation, though insiders say this logline may be outdated as is describing it as an ensemble comedy. It’s hard to say, considering only a few people at Paramount have been allowed to read the script at Parker and Stone’s office; the duo, along with Lamar, have full creative control. Those who have read it say it’s outrageously funny.
The still untitled movie, known internally as Whitney Springs, was supposed to hit theaters during the July 4th holiday this year, but Lamar, who produces, and filmmaker Dave Free (Lamar’s manager) wanted major reshoots; the film was pushed to March 20, 2026. In recent days, Paramount revealed that it won’t be ready for that date, as word broke elsewhere that Lamar may go on tour. When it’s finally done, however, Paramount will have no choice but to open it in cinemas.
“They’ll release it with closed eyes and gritted teeth,” says someone close to the project, which at this stage features Parker onscreen as the town’s mayor. Paramount and the filmmakers have not announced any casting and have kept all details under wraps.
Though Larry Ellison’s bromance with Trump might get the most media attention, David Ellison himself has a much more crucial business bromance — with Cruise. The mogul has heaped praise upon the star, with whom he has made 10 films, including installments of Mission: Impossible and Top Gun: Maverick. Privately, though, the relationship has not always been smooth sailing.
According to two sources, Cruise grew unhappy with Ellison not long after Robbins came aboard at the top of Paramount in 2021. During a meeting about the final two Mission: Impossible movies, Cruise said he needed tens of millions of dollars in additional production funds. Ellison suggested that Cruise find some of the money on his own. From then on, multiple sources say Cruise wouldn’t attend any production or marketing meetings if Ellison was in the room. Still, the Robbins regime ultimately caved to Cruise’s demands, coughing up more dough. (Sources close to Skydance dispute there was any such rift.)
But Cruise is eager to get Top Gun 3 off the ground. He’s also seeking a home for his deep-sea disaster adventure that reportedly sports a production budget north of $200 million. Warner Bros., where Cruise has a deal, and Universal have passed. Sources confirm that Cruise recently went to the Paramount lot to pay his respects to the new leadership, which would seem to mean he no longer is at odds with Ellison. And if Ellison gets his way and buys Warners in a history-changing moment for Hollywood, Cruise won’t be the only one having to acquiesce to a new cultural order.
