International Insider: Merger Approved!; RTS London’s AI Buzz; Deadline @ Zurich

Welcome, welcome Insiders. Max Goldbart here taking you through a week in which one of the biggest entertainment deals of this century was waved through. Read on. And sign up here.

Merger Approved!

C-suite winners and losers: In the end it all happened quite quickly. Several weeks back it appeared that David Ellison might feel the full force of regulators in the UK and Europe, not to mention dozens of U.S. state AGs. Fast-forward to Wednesday and the $110B Paramount-WBD mega-merger was officially waved through and the new company will officially launch on Tuesday (October 6). Thoughts moved at lightning speed to the C-suite winners and losers, and we didn’t have to wait long for the departure of Cindy Holland, who it is heavily presumed will be replaced by HBO boss Casey Bloys as chief of streaming across both behemoths. In her email to staff, Holland hinted at Ellison “optimizing for HBO stability,” clearly a somewhat barbed nod to her successor. HBO was talking up its Spanish originals at Iberseries in Madrid this week and all eyes will now be on how much Bloys looks to expand the joint operation’s streaming strategy outside of the U.S., with internationals boss Sarah Aubrey expected to remain by his side. Nellie Andreeva’s deep dive can be found here. One name that wasn’t expected to pop up this week was Ynon Kreiz, the Israeli-born former Endemol Group boss who exited Mattel, and was then swiftly named co-CEO of Par-Warner, sharing top-dog duties with Ellison. Kreiz brings weighty international experience to the new entity, and was for a couple hours rumored to be taking up a big international job before being named co-chief. The long-serving Gerhard Zeiler still holds the international keys at Warner with Kevin MacLellan in an equivalent post at Par. Thoughts now turn to the outposts of both of these big beasts, where there is surely much rejigging and “optimizing” to come.

AI Chatter @ RTS London

Generating headlines: Just a day before the merger completed, Reemah Sakaan, the boss of Paramount UK network 5, was facing tricky questions across the pond over political interference from her new overlords, but she batted them away with aplomb. This was at the RTS London Convention, where the great and good of the Brit TV industry gathered for a day jam-packed with news lines. With hundreds being laid off across the BBC and Channel 4, a new content chief set to be imminently announced at the latter, and the mergers at Sky-ITV and Banijay-All3Media taking hold, there was plenty to address. In the end, it was AI that once again generated headlines. Prime Video international boss Kelly Day laid down the gauntlet with a full-throated backing of AI first up, as she said the tech is “not a threat to creativity,” but is “creativity unleashed.” Not to be out-headlined, BBC DG Matt Brittin then raised eyebrows when he out-the-blue admitted he’d been sent a fully AI-generated episode of Doctor Who. “Pretty good,” was his verdict, leading BBC commissioners in the crowd to choke on their morning coffee. The reality is that the tech is here to stay and the peeps in charge clearly want to be realistic about its benefits… Creatives may take a little while to join them. Steven Knight, who is vehemently anti-AI, spoke a few hours after Brittin. However, all the crowd really wanted to know from the Peaky Blinders creator was the identity of the next 007, given that Knight is writing the Amazon MGM movie (Amazon was also sponsoring the RTS event). In the end, the crowd waited and waited, before all they got was a firm “no” to the question of whether writing the movie about the most famous spy on earth is giving him sleepless nights. Knight was neither shaken, nor stirred. All our RTS coverage can be found here.

The Insider Interview: Academy Boss Bill Kramer @ Zurich

Our Deadline Studio in Zurich was replete with big stars and industry names over the past week (for Martin Moszkowicz, Romain Bessi and more click here), so it was difficult to boil the Insider Interview down to one. In the end we opted for a fascinating sit-down with Academy chief Bill Kramer, Mattel Studios’ Robbie Brenner and Sony Pictures Classics’ Michael Barker. The trio, unsurprisingly, wanted to chat about Obsession and Backrooms, the year’s big hits that look set to usher in a wave of YouTube creatives to mainstream film. For Kramer, their breakout success speaks to “the importance of fandom,” no matter where it comes from. >>>Watch the Interview

Global Breakout

The French TV industry has its challenges at present, but Cat’s Eyes stands out. TF1’s series is about to launch Season 2 and is based on a cult 1980s Tokyo-set manga. The first season was a ratings hit airing on Hulu in the U.S. We checked out what the growing international buzz is all about. >>>Read The Breakout

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: Nicolas Cage, Michael Sheen, Jordi Mollà, Emilio Sakraya and Adrian Topol are starring in C.L.A.Y., a psychological cyber-thriller from Simon Afram.

🌶️ Another: Cast has been confirmed for Woody Allen’s next movie including Marton Csokas and Jemima Kirke.

🥇 Team unveiled: Banijay set out its new sales team under Cathy Payne, with Rachel Job nabbing a top job and a number of long-serving execs exiting.

📆 Premiere date: Indian rural horror Kaali Keti will be given a theatrical release on October 23.

🚪 Closing down: True Brit Entertainment, UK seller of The Death of Robin Hood, has filed for bankruptcy.

🏆 Awards latest: The European Film Academy has named Beki Probst, Marin Karmitz and Sandra den Hamer as the first recipients of its new Community Award.

⛺ Fest latest: Stewart was at Iberseries in Madrid, where co-pros, YA and the Banijay-All3 merger were in the spotlight.

⏱️ To the Tardis: Multiple BBC Studios labels will likely apply to be the next producer of Doctor Who.

🍿 Box office: KPop Demon Hunters 2 is targeting a “very broad theatrical release,” per Ted Sarandos.