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      Deal Talks Between Paramount and Skydance Heat Up

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      David Ellison, the founder of the Skydance media company, met with Paramount’s board of directors late last month to discuss the deal.Shari Redstone is getting one step closer to selling her media empire.Paramount, home to one of Hollywood’s most storied movie studios as well as CBS and cable networks like Nickelodeon, has been discussing entering into exclusive talks with the media company Skydance for a potential deal, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions. Moving to exclusive talks would be a significant step forward in a process that has been shrouded in uncertainty for months.Whether the two sides will agree to exclusivity remains to be seen, especially with other investors still pursuing Paramount. Apollo Global Management, an investment firm with more than $500 billion under management, has submitted an $11 billion offer to acquire the Paramount movie studio. Paramount’s board of directors, though, is seeking a deal for the entire company — including its cable channels and CBS — rather than pieces.Apollo continues to evaluate what proposal might most appeal to the company’s board, two people familiar with the situation said. Byron Allen, whose Entertainment Studios owns the Weather Channel, has also expressed interest in acquiring Paramount.Ms. Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, began negotiating with Skydance to sell her stake in the company last year. She controls Paramount through National Amusements, a holding company that owns her voting stock in Paramount. Ms. Redstone has held off on a sale for years, betting that the company’s fortunes would improve as its flagship streaming service, Paramount+, gained momentum.The terms of the deal being discussed would involve Skydance’s buying National Amusements and merging with Paramount. That deal hinges on approval from Paramount’s board, which has for weeks been weighing its options with the help of advisers.Late last month, David Ellison, the tech scion who founded Skydance, met with Paramount’s board committee to discuss his vision for a deal, according to two of the people familiar with the talks. Founded in 2010, Skydance is best known for shepherding blockbusters for Paramount, including movies in the “Mission: Impossible” and “Top Gun” franchises.Representatives for Paramount and Skydance declined to comment, and the financial terms of the deal couldn’t be learned.Paramount’s stock has fallen 18 percent since the start of the year amid headwinds for the media industry. The company is trading at a steep discount to the combined value of Viacom and CBS, which merged to form Paramount in 2019. Paramount+ is still losing money, but its losses have slowed and it continues to add subscribers.The ratings agency S&P Global downgraded Paramount’s debt to junk last week, citing “accelerating declines” in its traditional television business and continued uncertainty in its push toward streaming. Some analysts said that ratings action might make Paramount easier to acquire, since it could circumnavigate a provision that would require a buyer to immediately pay the company’s debt. More

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Streaming in April

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      “Fallout,” “Girls State” and a “Bluey” special are streaming.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of April’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘Fallout’ Season 1Starts streaming: April 11This sardonic postapocalyptic action-adventure series combines elements from different games within the larger “Fallout” video game franchise, which since its debut in 1997 has delighted gamers with a mix of rich storytelling and wry wit. The series has Ella Purnell playing Lucy, an exemplary citizen in an underground bunker colony on an Earth ravaged by nuclear warfare. When circumstances force Lucy to the surface, the sunny optimism she learned from her father (Kyle MacLachlan) is tested by her encounters with scavengers, mutants and heavily armed soldiers in robotic armor. Developed by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy (the team behind “Westworld”) with the showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet (the co-writer of “Captain Marvel”) and Graham Wagner (a “Portlandia” writer), “Fallout” aims to be the rollicking, irreverent counter to all the dour end-of-the-world TV shows.Also arriving:April 1“House” Season 1April 4“Música”April 5“How to Date Billy Walsh”“Alex Rider” Season 3April 12“Apartment 404”April 18“Dinner With the Parents” Season 1“Going Home With Tyler Cameron” Season 1April 25“Them: The Scare” Season 1Cecilia Bartin in “Girls State,” a documentary directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss on Apple TV+.Whitney Curtis/Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Girls State’Starts streaming: April 5The 2020 documentary “Boys State” followed a group of Texas high schoolers at a politics-themed summer camp. For this sequel, the directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine cover a similar camp from a different perspective, embedding with Missouri high school girls as they run for office, draft resolutions and hear court cases, emulating the functions of a state government. This particular edition of Missouri’s Girls State was held on the same campus as Boys State, inviting direct comparison between the programs (which differ in their levels of rigor). It also happened not long after the draft of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision was leaked. As with the earlier film, Moss and McBaine avoid turning their subjects into simplistic heroes or villains. Instead, “Girls State” honors these bright, concerned young ladies’ earnest interest in making friends and becoming better leaders.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Paula Weinstein, Hollywood Veteran and Political Activist, Dies at 78

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      Raised by a McCarthy-era rebel, the producer and journalist Hannah Weinstein, she followed her mother’s path into movies and television, advocacy and action.Paula Weinstein, a movie producer, studio executive and political activist who became a fierce advocate for women in her industry, died on Monday at her home in Manhattan. She was 78.Her sister Lisa Weinstein confirmed the death. She said the cause was not yet known.In the boy’s club of Hollywood, Ms. Weinstein was the rare female top executive: Over her long career, she was president of United Artists, a vice president of Warner Bros. and an executive vice president at 20th Century Fox. She was just 33 when she was hired at Fox in 1978, and when she was promoted to vice president a year later, The Los Angeles Times called her “the highest-ranking woman in the motion picture industry.”“A man can be mediocre in almost everything, but a women’s got to be perfect,” she told Life magazine that year, when she was included in an article about Hollywood’s “Young Tycoons.”But Ms. Weinstein, who colleagues said possessed a wicked sense of humor — her sister described her laugh as an infectious cackle — and a steely commitment to social justice, was unusual in Hollywood beyond her gender. As Ken Sunshine, the veteran public relations consultant and longtime Democratic activist, put it in a phone interview: “Unlike so many, she didn’t play at politics. To her, social and political change was paramount. She was the antithesis of a phony Hollywood activist looking for good P.R. or a career boost. She was unique in a sea of pretenders.”Ms. Weinstein accepted the Emmy Award for the HBO movie “Recount” in 2008. She was an executive producer on the film, which was based on the 2000 presidential election.Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesActivism was the family business: Her mother, Hannah Weinstein, was a journalist and speechwriter who in 1950 took her three young daughters to live in Paris and then London, fleeing the grim and punitive politics of the country’s McCarthy era. In Britain, where the family lived for more than a decade, Hannah Weinstein produced movies and television series using blacklisted actors and writers like Ring Lardner Jr. and Ian McLellan Hunter. She repeatedly told her daughters, as Lisa recalled, “If you believe in something, you have to be willing to get up off your ass and do something, and if you don’t get up off your ass, you really didn’t believe in it.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Georgia Town Basks in Bountiful Filming. The State Pays.

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      When movies are made in Thomasville, Ga., it welcomes celebrities and an infusion of cash. But the financial incentives that attract studios have cost the state billions.It is no wonder that moviemakers saw potential in Thomasville, Ga., as a stand-in for Main Street U.S.A. Cobblestone streets and mom-and-pop stores speckle the downtown of this city of 18,000 that is caked in red clay soil and nestled among rolling hills.Just as attractive to some of those producers are Georgia’s lavish filming incentives, which have made Thomasville a cost-effective place to make modest pictures with major stars. Dustin Hoffman came for the rom-com “Sam & Kate.” A children’s book adaptation, “The Tiger Rising,” brought Dennis Quaid and Queen Latifah to town.But what is good on the ground for local economies — Thomasville says each of the six movies filmed there has provided an economic boost of about $1 million — can simultaneously be a drain on state coffers.Some Georgia lawmakers wondered whether it might be wise to put some limits on an uncapped tax incentive program that has given billions of dollars to Hollywood studios, scrambling this week in hopes of passing a bill that would modify the program. More

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      Five Horror Movies to Stream Now

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      A fanatical faith leader, aggressive home invaders and disfigured attention hogs are among the subjects of this month’s horror picks.‘Sheeps Clothing’Rent or buy on major platforms.Kyle McConaghy’s knockout neo-noir thriller is a sinister yet humane parable about blind faith and religious manipulation. It’s one of my favorite movies of the year so far.After suffering a traumatic brain injury in a brutal attack, Mansa (Aaron Phifer) takes a job editing videos for a struggling church led by the young and charismatic Pastor (Nick Heyman). Mansa, who is Black, disregards a neighbor’s warning that the white Pastor is a bootleg preacher who suckers Black people out of money. When Pastor, enraged, kills a parishioner, he convinces the trusting Mensa that God uses sinners for his will and wants Mensa to help Pastor get rid of the body in the California desert.This film, with a screenplay by McConaghy and Phifer, is about two people but contains many contradictions; its twists take you down paths that are unnerving but tender, specific yet universal, bleak but not without hope. Race underscores it all: In a filmmaker’s statement, Phifer said he was inspired by the “convenient allyship” of white people he never heard from again after they reached out during the George Floyd protests, and by “the lack of substantive action in the white church” of his youth. This film may look lean and humble, but it speaks a mighty word.‘You’ll Never Find Me’Stream it on Shudder.Guilt looks like a ghost in this creepy two-hander from the Australian filmmakers Josiah Allen and Indianna Bell.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Louis Gossett Jr., 87, Dies; ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ and ‘Roots’ Actor

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      His portrayal of a drill instructor earned him the Oscar for best supporting actor. He was the first Black performer to win in that category.Louis Gossett Jr., who took home an Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and an Emmy for “Roots,” both times playing a mature man who guides a younger one taking on a new role — but in drastically different circumstances — died early Friday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87.Mr. Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett confirmed the death.Mr. Gossett with Susan Sarandon and Christopher Reeve after winning the Oscar for “An Officer and a Gentleman” in 1983.Associated PressMr. Gossett was 46 when he played Emil Foley, the Marine drill instructor from hell who ultimately shapes the humanity of an emotionally damaged young Naval aviation recruit (Richard Gere) in “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982). Reviewing the movie in The New York Times, Vincent Canby described Sergeant Foley as a cruel taskmaster “recycled as a man of recognizable cunning, dedication and humor” revealed in “the kind of performance that wins awards.”Mr. Gossett told The Times that he had recognized the role’s worth immediately. “The words just tasted good,” he recalled.When he accepted the 1983 best supporting actor Oscar, he was the first Black performer to win in that category — and only the third (after Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier) to win an Academy Award for acting.He had already won an Emmy as Fiddler, the mentor of the lead character, Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton), in the blockbuster 1977 mini-series “Roots.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Best of Late Night, at the Movies and Beyond

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      The new horror-thriller “Late Night With the Devil” isn’t the only time late-night hosts, shows and sets become fodder for on-screen moments in film and TV.The new horror-thriller “Late Night With the Devil” stars David Dastmalchian as the host of “Night Owls With Jack Delroy” where, on Halloween night 1977, an occult-themed episode takes a dark turn during the live broadcast. Shot in a found-footage way that unearths the “lost” episode, the movie (now in theaters, streaming on Shudder on April 22) is a satirical throwback to the era’s supernatural and religious fanaticism, with a notable nod to “The Exorcist.” And it is one of the most recent in a string of late-night moments that make their way to the big and small screens.Late-night hosts past and present have lent their sets (and sometimes themselves) to projects, while fictional nods and fake hosts pop up elsewhere. From Gucci campaigns featuring James Corden interviewing Harry Styles to several “Simpsons” cameos and sendups, to David Letterman crossovers on “Seinfeld,” “The Larry Sanders Show” and “Roseanne,” late-night hosts play a particularly present role in popular culture. Below is a select look at the times late-night television has smartly made its way into fictional movies and TV.‘Looking for Love’ (1964)Rent on Apple TV or Amazon.In this film directed by Don Weis, Connie Francis stars as Libby Caruso, an aspiring singer who initially found success peddling a line of women’s clothing. Booked on “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” to talk fashion, Libby makes mention of her singing and sees her life change after Carson invites her to perform a song.‘The King of Comedy’ (1983)Stream it on Hulu.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Five Action Movies to Stream Now

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      This month’s picks include brotherly revenge, ghoulish specters and more.‘24 Hours with Gaspar’Stream it on Netflix.A taut revenge action fable, the Indonesian director Yosep Anggi Noen’s “24 Hours with Gaspar” features scintillating choreography. For years Gaspar (Reza Rahadian) has been searching for his childhood best friend, Kirana (Shofia Shireen), who was kidnapped and sold by her sex-trafficking father, Wan Ali (Iswadi Pratama). To find answers, Gaspar, a detective, works with a fight club owner named Agnes (Shenina Cinnamon), a strategy that works well until the device that helps Gaspar’s heart function is broken in an electrifying fight, eloquently lit to capture the silhouettes of limber bodies swinging to deadly effect. Now he has only 24 hours to live.The second half of Noen’s film is a heist flick: Gaspar cobbles together an unlikely team to rob Wan Ali’s jewelry store where a legendary black box capable of granting any wish is rumored to reside. The film culminates in a rugged all-out brawl at a fight club, which is crosscut with Gaspar confronting Wan Ali in a fight that’s emblematic of the film’s existential poeticism.‘Anti-Drug Operation’Stream it on Hi-Yah!Spanning 71 minutes, “Anti-Drug Operation,” by the Chinese director Yan Yuchao, packs a big punch in a small package. After the sudden murder of their mother, two young brothers take separate paths: One becomes the drug-busting cop Captain Lin (Li Bin); the other, Lin Lang (Lang Feng), becomes a drug lord. The plot follows the brothers as adults, as Captain Lin tries to save his sibling before the dangerous gangster Zhong Hu (Xiao Mi) — the man who killed their mother — murders him.Despite their different moral codes, the brothers share a bond that eventually puts both in danger, leading to a major raid. Slowed to the speed of molasses, a scene at a rural narcotics lab becomes a site for high drama. Yan shoots oblique angles that accentuate the fighting power of Captain Lin and Lin Lang to devastating effect.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More