“We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.” —Pete Docter, the Pixar creative chief, telling the Journal why he shifted from smaller, personal stories to films with broader themes for “everyone” like Hoppers, which just opened to $45.3 million domestic.

More: It’s funny to see Docter characterize the Pixar about-face as his decision rather than a result of Bob Iger returning as C.E.O. in late 2022, right after the Florida culture war and Pixar’s Lightyear (a gay kiss) and Disney Animation’s Strange World (the representation trifecta of a gay teen romance, interracial parents, and a disabled dog). Iger mandated wholesale content changes that the affable Docter dutifully followed. Dishonorable mention: “Even the 1927 Yankees had 44 losses that season.” —Jeff Goldstein, the Warner Bros. distribution chief, downplaying The Bride!’s D.O.A. $7 million domestic debut on a $92 million budget (WB says $80 million) with a bizarre analogy to the most dominant baseball team of all time. Despite Warners’ successful run in 2025, that’s certainly an optimistic statement for a studio with a bunch of pricey risks like Supergirl, Tom Cruise’s Digger, and J.J. Abrams’s The Great Beyond on its ’26 slate. Speaking of Warner Bros.…: Amid all the chatter at Warners about which executives and talent deals will survive the coming Paramount takeover, a list is circulating of the Skydance movies made by David Ellison. It’s a nice reminder of the creative taste that will soon control about a third of all U.S. theatrical releases, so let’s just name the Skydance titles of the past 10 years that were not based on existing Paramount franchises: Life, Baywatch, Geostorm, Annihilation, Gemini Man, Terminator: Dark Fate, 6 Underground, The Old Guard, The Tomorrow War, The Adam Project, Luck, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, Air, Ghosted, Heart of Stone, The Family Plan, Spellbound, The Gorge, Fountain of Youth, The Old Guard 2, The Family Plan 2. A few hits in there… but the films average to a 47.9 on Metacritic. And speaking of Ellison, here’s Kim…

As a demoralized Hollywood anxiously casts about for signs of how David Ellison will run ParaBros or WarnerMount, should the $111 billion deal close, the reality is that there isn’t much track record to work with regarding the 43-year-old producer who has become the world’s most voracious acquirer of media in a span of about seven months. Yes, having rolled into town with a couple billion dollars in his pocket, he ran Skydance and has dozens of credits. But he’s also enjoyed little notable success outside the projects that Paramount kissed him into. Now the studio team—Skydance’s Dana Goldberg and former Sony exec Josh Greenstein—will potentially be overseeing a third of Hollywood’s theatrical releases.

So some of Ellison’s decisions before and since the acquisition of Paramount offer a clue about what may not be his strongest suit: hiring. Ellison has several times marched against conventional personnel wisdom. Jeff Shell, John Lasseter, and screenwriter Max Landis, all previously accused of sexual misconduct, got back to work thanks to Ellison. He also gave Brett Ratner a boost by offering distribution if another Rush Hour sequel comes together. And while I understand Ellison’s logic in putting Bari Weiss in charge of CBS News, I would argue that her well-known political positions and lack of reporting and television experience have so far been a completely foreseeable exercise in noisy brand damage. If he gives her control of CNN, expect much more of the same. Another recent Paramount hire—33-year-old partners J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, the founders of low-budget genre production company BoulderLight—made me wonder whether anyone in Hollywood does any due diligence when chasing what they think is a hot property. (Paramount declined to comment on any element of this article.) RedBird principal Gerry Cardinale recently defended the Paramount–Warners deal in a conversation with Matt Belloni, telling him, “I’ve always said, particularly in these content businesses, you’re only as good as the people you put around you.” So let’s take a look.

We’ll start with Paramount Skydance president Jeff Shell, who was fired as C.E.O. of NBCUniversal in April 2023 following allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Gibson Dunn was retained by Comcast to investigate that claim and is back again, this time assessing professional gambler R.J. Cipriani’s allegation in a lawsuit filed today that Shell shared sensitive company information while using him as an off-the-books advisor and media manager.

The lawyers will determine whether Shell crossed any lines, but this has already generated a lot of unwanted publicity at a sensitive time for Paramount. There’s a reason why public companies generally don’t touch executives fired for cause by another public company. If that person screws up again, the leadership and the board look like schmucks and could face shareholder wrath. In this case, Shell is not accused of repeating his earlier behavior, but there’s a common thread to the allegations: impulsivity. Shell’s longtime nickname used to be Shooter, not necessarily because he was a cornucopia of ideas but because of a tendency to go off… half-cocked. Shell came back from the NBCU scandal just months later when Cardinale hired him and later slid him into Paramount’s executive ranks as president and board member—so, in fairness, Cardinale gets at least partial blame for this mess. RedBird wanted someone at the studio with experience in sports deals and linear channels, which Ellison lacks. (Shell is a Harvard MBA; Ellison, who is fond of MBA language, never graduated from college.) I have had my doubts as to whether Ellison listened to Shell much, and now, with former RedBirder Andy Gordon as Paramount’s C.O.O., it’s not clear whether Ellison has reason to stand by Shell. (Standard disclosure: Through our acquisition of Air Mail, RedBird is now a minority investor in Puck.) If you met Cipriani—and I have known him for several years, though we’ve only met in person once, briefly and by chance—you would be stunned that a C-suite executive would turn to him for business advice. Cipriani is a legit whistleblower who helped bring down a major drug ring, and a self-styled Robin Hood who has made repeated attempts to call out Las Vegas casinos for alleged bad practices. But he’s far from a conventional business type. Shell’s apparent interactions with him are surprising in the extreme, even if he was just trying to flatter and fend off Cipriani, who had planted some information in the press about Shell’s scandal at NBCU. (Cipriani was offended that Shell fired then-NBCU vice chairman Ron Meyer for misconduct while his own conduct was later revealed to be not above reproach.) But among the exhibits attached to Cipriani’s complaint is one message that appears to be from Shell reading, “Hey do you have a second to talk this after? [sic] I need your help/guidance re South Park.” That alone makes for a pretty bad look.

Like Shell, John Lasseter was also ejected from a public company. In 2017, at the height of the #MeToo movement, sources started to call me about his alleged inappropriate groping and kissing as head of Pixar and Disney Animation, and I ultimately broke the story that resulted in his instant departure on a temporary leave that became permanent. Other publications followed with more allegations, as well as questions about his drinking at company events. Lasseter eventually apologized for his conduct.

Once he was out at Disney, his late attorney, Skip Brittenham, tried to set him up at pretty much every other studio without success. It’s worth noting that by then, Lasseter had not directed a film since Cars 2 in 2011. No public company would touch him, but Skydance was private and Ellison hired him as head of Skydance Animation in January 2019. (Larry Ellison had employed Skip to guide David when the young heir first became serious about the business, so the two were close.) There was immediate backlash, and the head of Paramount’s animation division declined to work with Lasseter. At the time, Ellison held tense staff meetings defending the hire, but later conceded that he mishandled the announcement and should have been more transparent and inclusive of his employees in making the decision. Lasseter is a legend in animation, but so far his tenure under the Ellisons has not led to success. Skydance struck a distribution deal with Apple that only lasted from 2021 to 2023, and led to the release of one movie, Luck—which did not have any—and the television series Wondla, which lasted three seasons. Again, Skydance pitched the deal around town and found no takers; several sources told me they weren’t impressed with the materials. So while it’s pretty clear by now that a streamer isn’t the ideal place to launch costly, Pixar-esque animated films, the deal ended up at Netflix, which so far has released only the painfully expensive Spellbound in 2024. Still to come this year are Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn, and Swapped, with the voice of Michael B. Jordan. In a bit of news, Lasseter is said to be working on a project called Cosmic Motors, which he is directing after a more than 15-year hiatus. (I asked a source how the film was coming along and was met with a long pause.)

Bari Weiss is an altogether different proposition. Lacking experience in television and reporting, she was clearly going to be a lightning rod, especially since her views on the “woke” left and Israel were well-known. Given the ongoing disaster in the Middle East, this is an especially awkward time for a news leader to be known for zealous support of Israel. Her string of unforced errors has been chronicled relentlessly by media reporters—decisions that inflicted brand damage on CBS News and 60 Minutes.

We’re told Ellison was impressed with Weiss’s digital media company, The Free Press, and thinks she’s learning on the job. She may indeed be learning, but she has recently taken shots at New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on social media, which, again, is unusual behavior from the leader of a news organization. “There’s a war, high prices, job losses, A.I. unleashed, and on and on. But Bari Weiss’s CBS is on the case of the NY Mayor’s wife’s likes from years ago. WTF is going on,” Obama advisor Ben Rhodes wrote on the site formerly known as Twitter. When CBS News producer Alicia Hastey quit last month, she wrote to staff that stories were now expected to “conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations—a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines.” Needless to say, that’s far from an improvement for the division. On Monday, Justice Department correspondent Scott MacFarlane resigned after reportedly expressing dismay over CBS News’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it coverage of the anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot. Some argue that the public blowups suited the Ellisons as they curried Donald Trump’s favor. But would it not have been possible to hire a seasoned right-leaning news executive to move CBS News to what Ellison calls the center with less negative publicity? I asked Bill Grueskin, a veteran of The Wall Street Journal who teaches professional practice at Columbia Journalism School. He isn’t sure any executive could do what’s being asked of CBS News: adapting to the digital age and holding on to the existing audience while placating Trump. But the odds are even worse, he said, for someone “with almost no reporting background or video experience.”

In January, Paramount brought in J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, founders of BoulderLight, to start a new label in a deal reportedly valued at $20 million over four years. Their claim to fame was producer credits on Zach Cregger’s breakout, Barbarian, and last summer’s Weapons. But a phone call or two would have revealed that not only did Cregger bar them from the set of Weapons, but that Lifshitz and Margules were pushed out of two other films in the past few years for alleged behavior that ranged from unpleasant to outright bad.

For such young men, the pair have made a startling number of enemies… yet Michael De Luca fought to keep them at Warners, where they had a first-look deal, and producer Jason Blum also pursued them. It’s unclear whether the issues with the BoulderLight team made their way to Ellison’s ears before Paramount hired them. I’m told he liked Weapons, so the deal probably sounded good to him. The rift between Cregger and Lifshitz, a mile-a-minute talker, started during the making of Barbarian, which came out in 2022. Cregger wanted the producers to defer some of their fee—as he was doing—to help finance the project. They balked, but ultimately relented. Then, at the request of his rabbi, Lifshitz brought a group of kids from his synagogue to the set. The day was disrupted, and Cregger, shooting his first film and already contending with Covid protocols, was furious. Weapons was up next, and by then Cregger would have nothing to do with Lifshitz and Margules. But both are listed as producers on the film, and this wasn’t the first time they got credit on a project they had been asked or actually told to leave. They are also listed as producers on the 2023 film Woman of the Hour, directed by and starring Anna Kendrick, and again on the 2024 comedy Friendship, which starred Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson. After the two were hired at Paramount, an executive on one of those productions told me, “You wonder how come no one did their diligence. I literally was gobsmacked.” A high-level exec who has worked with the pair said, “It’s pretty impressive how they came from nothing to be hated by so many people.” I’m told some agents want nothing to do with them, but, this person noted, “People will not outright dismiss them because they do come across good material and they are smart.” One issue, according to sources who have dealt with them, is that they have tended to be abrasive with talent. And on Woman of the Hour, a source told me, “They’re not very good at following through on producing the film. They didn’t really show up.” After production company AGC Studios sent legal letters accusing them of being in breach, they still wound up with credits, but only a fraction of their fee. “They almost just shrugged their shoulders,” the source said. “You could almost say they were gracious about being knocked off.” Lifshitz and Margules got another lawyer letter on Friendship. According to several sources, the production company Fifth Season believed that they had submitted an inaccurate budget and terminated their services. The company brought in television producer Nick Weidenfeld to take their place just as production was getting underway. “The story of young upstarts coming into the business and making waves and being incredibly productive, that gives people a lot of hope,” a source who worked on the film told me. “People want to buy into that story: You can still make it. It was a bummer, seeing how it played out. Beyond the numbers, there was a complete breakdown in trust, and you can’t expect to rely on those producers.” Lifshitz and Margules declined to comment, but sources in their camp dispute all of these allegations and say the root cause of the problems was that bigger players were trying to take advantage of young newcomers. BoulderLight was permitted to have a junior executive on the sets of both Woman of the Hour and Friendship, and things did go more smoothly on the 2025 film Companion. Director Drew Hancock said via email, “What I saw making Companion was two producers who cared deeply about the film and pushed to make the best version possible. J.D. and Rafi aren’t passive guys. They’re engaged, opinionated, and passionate. I never felt anything but support from them at every stage of the production.” Blum had enough faith in them to send a statement, too: “What I see in J.D. & Rafi is a sharp eye for talent and a genuine love of horror. I’m a fan of what they’ve built and I hope to work with them someday.” Roy Lee, the producer who has worked closely with BoulderLight and who launched Cregger on both Barbarian and Weapons, offered a more nuanced take: “I think J.D. and Rafi have experienced a few growing pains in their meteoric rise in Hollywood. But I think they’ve learned from their mistakes and will be better producers because of that. I see them as part of the next generation of producers who will be making culturally relevant movies for years to come.” Paramount hopes that prediction comes true. The bigger question is whether Ellison has learned anything about hiring in his unquestionably meteoric rise in Hollywood.

Daryl Hannah’s op-ed decrying her character assassination in Ryan Murphy’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette certainly reads like it was co-written by her litigator. [N.Y. Times]

More: Hannah’s lawyers don’t need my help, of course, but Murphy pulls this crap on purpose. He knows Hannah (and before her, Olivia de Havilland on Feud) will be outraged by the lies and feel compelled to respond, thus giving his shows more publicity and “buzz.” It’s all part of the exploitation playbook on which he’s built his business. The iPics in Westwood and Pasadena are closing, and the end of its cheese popcorn maybe hits me the hardest. [L.A. Times] More: Remember when Westwood Village was home to seven separate movie theaters? Now, without the Fox Village (under construction by the Jason Reitman group), the Bruin (recently boarded up), and the closed National, Plaza, Crest, Westwood, and now iPic (formerly Avco), the sad-looking Village is down to just one: the Landmark. At least one of Rupert’s four adult kids showed up for his 95th birthday party. Sadly, Lachlan didn’t rap. [N.Y. Post] Disgraced publicist Peggy Siegal says she once orchestrated a dinner party for Prince Andrew with guests Jeffrey Epstein and Woody Allen, just to get an endorsement quote from Queen Elizabeth for Harvey Weinstein’s The King’s Speech. [N.Y. Mag] Not thrilled about the Saudis owning a piece of WarnerMount? The Chinese are apparently back in, too. [Bloomberg] Finally, a One Battle After Another scandal, and it’s after voting closed. [N.Y. Times]

Readers weren’t entirely buying Gerry Cardinale’s explanation of the logic behind the WarnerMount deal. Some examples…

“According to their most recent 10-Ks, Paramount has 17,000 employees and Warner Bros. has 35,000. I don’t understand how leadership can say with a straight face there won’t be job cuts. Especially when the other Ellison company [Oracle] is in the news for planning to cut thousands of jobs for A.I. investment.” —An executive “Glad to hear they are planning to keep the classic dream alive: ‘I.P. monetization across the flywheel of I.P. monetization.’ Hollywood, baby! What’s not to love??” —A producer “Cardinale talks about CBS being the crown jewel, the home of Walter Cronkite. Yet he reiterates the Trump talking point about Bari Weiss—‘She’s terrific’—while she actively, objectively begins to destroy the CBS News brand, especially 60 Minutes. Cardinale is a very smart guy. He and Ellison have to know that their crown jewel will no longer be that jewel if they allow government interference as they are actively doing now with CBS News. Now we have CNN in the mix. If they mess with the customer’s trust in the brand, they are done.” —A manager “Can’t wait to see the Halloween Horror Night experience at the WB Burbank Adventure Park later this year. Holograms of Ben Kalmenson, Steve Ross, Gerald Levin, Steve Case, Jeff Bewkes and John Stankey will all jump out of office doors to tell you of their tragic turns as C.E.O.s of the forever doomed empire… Zaz will own the WB parking structure that charges $50 per car and everyone will still hate him.” —Another executive “Sounds like Megan Ellison’s torching of several hundred million dollars of her dad’s money won’t keep her out of the game, so [David] can bring her on board to run NEOM Burbank, the branded theme park they’ll be obligated to create on the ashes of the former WB lot in order to get this all financed.” —Yet another executive

Lionsgate’s Michael biopic debuts with extremely strong awareness and interest on The Quorum’s early tracking chart…

Have a great week, Matt

Maya Tribbitt contributed research for this issue. Got a question, comment, complaint, or a birthday gift for Rupert? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.

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