Hollywood is feeling the lure of Saudi Arabian money (...)
Saudi money is also behind a portion of Paramount Skydance’s more than $60 billion bid this week for Warner Bros Discovery, according to Variety, which cites multiple sources, and Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the discussions. A spokesperson for Paramount declined to comment.
Additionally, the kingdom is backing a $1 billion new independent content studio called Arena SNK launched in October by former Lionsgate executive Erik Feig, and a $55 billion deal for video game maker Electronic Arts announced in September. A representative for Feig declined to comment.
Executives from Sony traveled to Saudi Arabia this fall for meetings, a spokesperson confirmed. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts also traveled to the country this fall to attend a conference and view a potential theme park site in Qiddiya, a tourism megaproject in Riyadh province, according to a source with knowledge of Roberts’ trip who was not authorized to speak on the record about it. (Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the parent company of NBC News.)
The Red Sea Film Festival 2025 is going on right now (Dec 4-13). The glitterati are partying with Saudi royalty & following the money while blithely ignoring Saudi human rights abuses
A slapstick comedy about accidentally killing a journalist in an embassy and desperately trying to get rid of the body by dismembering it and taking it out in suitcases.
Alien invasion movie, it turns out the only thing that kills the aliens is crude oil.
Historical drama about prophet Mohammad: first ever movie where the main character is always just out of frame.
For some reason I'm reminded of the new Top Gun's absolute refusal to name their enemy. The studios's pathetic cowardice took me right out of the movie.
Ok, so Hollywood will do what they did with China when trying to sell their movies there, Saudi's will suddenly for some random reason be cool, popular and kind completely out of the blue.
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