The Writers Guild of America is reportedly suing to block Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, according to Reuters.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, claims the deal would reduce the number of buyers in Hollywood for films and TV shows, jeopardise writers’ livelihoods and threaten the health of U.S. entertainment.
The complaint states: “With fewer competitors, the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. entity would have both the incentive and the ability to lower costs by suppressing writers’ wages and reducing output. Writers will be paid less and have fewer employment opportunities.”
Paramount has already responded to the guild, which has 18,000 members across the entertainment industry. A spokesperson says that it has “deep respect for the WGA and its members” and claims the deal “will have the scale and resources to reverse the current trends in our industry and expand opportunities for writers, not shrink them… [there will be] more development slates, more series and film greenlights.”
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison already pledged a while back to release 30 movies per year across both studios and to keep them exclusively in theatres for 45 days.
The case arrives just a day after California and 11 other states also sued to block the deal.
