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Hollywood Is Fighting Back Against Paramount’s Warner Buyout With Open Letter 

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Pedro Pascal, Florence Pugh, Joaquin Phoenix, Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo, and many more big names in Hollywood are fighting back against Paramount’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company that owns HBO, HBO Max, CNN, TBS, Food Network, and the Warner Bros TV and film studios. 

Over 2,000 industry professionals have now signed an open letter protesting the acquisition. The letter was published this week on BlocktheMerger.com.

“We are deeply concerned by indications of support for this merger that prioritise the interests of a small group of powerful stakeholders over the broader public good,” the letter reads. 

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“The integrity, independence and diversity of our industry would be grievously compromised. Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement.”

“Media consolidation has already weakened one of America’s most vital global industries – one that has long shaped culture and connected people around the world,” the letter says. 

Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lily Gladstone were among other signatories. Directors who also signed include Denis Villeneuve, Boots Riley, Mimi Leder, and Nicole Holofcener, according to the Guardian. 

The deal itself is worth around $111 billion, and is currently awaiting approval from regulators. If it is to be approved, it would consolidate two of Hollywood’s biggest studios, which the letter emphasizes could result in diminishing quality, as well as lead to major job losses. 

David Ellison, chief executive of Paramount, beat Netflix to become the main bidder for Warner Bros. He said that the deal would be good for the creative community and guaranteed his investment in both studios. He also pledged to release 30 movies to theaters every year, which has also been met with skepticism.

Additionally, there are concerns over Ellison and his father’s close ties to Donald Trump, which could lead to fewer films being made that engage with politics. 

“This transaction uniquely brings together complementary strengths,” a statement from Paramount reads. 

“To create a company that can greenlight more projects, back bold ideas, support talent across multiple stages of their careers, and bring stories to audiences at a truly global scale—while strengthening competition by ensuring multiple scaled players are investing in creative talent.”

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The highly signed letter expresses major concern: 

“As film-makers, documentarians and professionals across the movie and television industry, we write to express our unequivocal opposition to the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery merger.

This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries – and the audiences we serve – can least afford it. The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world. Alarmingly, this merger would reduce the number of major US film studios to just four.

Our industry is already under severe strain, in large part due to prior waves of consolidation. We have witnessed a steep decline in the number of films produced and released, alongside a narrowing of the kinds of stories that are financed and distributed. Increasingly, a small number of powerful entities determine what gets made – and on what terms – leaving creators and independent businesses with fewer viable paths to sustain their work.

Media consolidation has accelerated the disappearance of the mid-budget film, the erosion of independent distribution, the collapse of the international sales market, the elimination of meaningful profit participation and the weakening of screen credit integrity.

Together, these factors threaten the sustainability of the entire creative community. That includes endangering the professional lives of the tens of thousands of workers who help make up that community in predominantly small businesses and independent companies embedded in local economies and communities nationwide.

Fortunately, someone is doing something about all this. California attorney general Rob Bonta and his colleagues in other states are reportedly scrutinising the merger and considering legal action to block it. We are grateful for their leadership, and stand ready to support all efforts to preserve competition, protect jobs and ensure a vibrant future for our industry, for American culture, and for our single most significant export.”

AI

Performing Arts Union Threatens Mass Direct Action Over AI Content Created From Actors’ Images

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Equity, the performing arts union, is now threatening to take mass direct action over tech and entertainment companies that are using their members’ likeness, images, and voices to train and create AI content without permission. 

The union stated that they issued the warning after an increasing number of Equity members made complaints over misuse of their personal data in AI material and infringements of their copyright. 

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Paul W Felming, the union’s general secretary, stated that they’re planning to coordinate mass data requests to the companies so they’re forced to disclose information regarding if they used members’ data in AI-generated material without consent. 

The union confirmed they were supporting a Scottish actor that believes her image is being used to create the AI “actor” known as Tilly Norwood, a name that’s been highly discussed in film and media in recent weeks. 

The Guardian also reported that the union said Briony Monroe, 28 and from East Renfrewshire, stated she believed her face was used to make Norwood, which was created by the AI “talent studio” Xicoia, which has also denied the claims. 

Beyond image likeness, a majority of the complaints Equity has received is from members that are concerned over AI-generated voice replicas. 

Fleming stated that the union has been successfully helping members make subject access requests to producers and tech companies which haven’t provided detailed information and explanations regarding what specific data they used to create their AI content.

“The companies actually became very willing to start discussing compensation and usage. So the industry needs to be more careful because it’s not going to stop there,” Fleming stated. 

“AI companies need to know that we will be putting in these subject access requests en masse. They have a statutory obligation to respond. If an individual member reasonably believes that their data is being used without their consent, we want to find out.”

“What we’re trying to do is use people’s individual rights to make it so hard for tech companies and producers to not enter into collective rights,” stated Fleming.

The union has around 50,000 members, and Fleming explained that if a significant enough number of them make subject access requests, firms would experience a major “hassle” if they were unwilling to negotiate. 

Data protection laws state that individuals have the right to ask for all information an organization holds against them. Those organizations have around one month to reply to subject access requests. 

“It’s not a silver bullet. It’s not easy to do because they may well have got data from somewhere else. A lot of people are behaving very recklessly and immorally,” Fleming said. 

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Regarding her own personal complaints, Monroe stated that Norwood had copied both her image and mannerisms.

“I move my head quite a lot when I’m acting. I noticed in the last few seconds of Tilly’s show reel, that is exactly what she did. Other people have also said, ‘Those are your mannerisms. That’s how you act,’” she said. 

Liam Bidd is the industrial official for recorded media at Equity UK. Bidd stated that the union is taking Monroe’s concerns seriously, and that AI production company Particle6, which launched Xicoia, confirmed it was working with the union to address these concerns. 

“Briony Monroe’s likeness, image, voice or personal data have not been used in any way to create Tilly Norwood,” a spokesperson for Particle6 said. 

“Tilly was developed entirely from scratch using original creative design. We do not and will not use any performer’s likeness without explicit consent and fair compensation.”

Budd stated: 

“We’ve had increasing numbers of members getting in touch about specific infringements where they believe that their image or voice has been used without their consent to then create an output which can identify them or resemble them in some way.”

It’s been a lot more common in the audio space because the technology is much easier. You don’t need many recordings to create a digital replica of a voice.”

Equity UK has been in negotiations with the UK production trade body Pact about AI, copyright, and data protection. 

“The bosses are not asking questions about where this data has come from. Privately, they will admit that it is impossible to ethically use AI because it has been scraped and trained on data where the provenance is at best unclear.

But nine times out of 10, we know it’s been used completely outside of the existing copyright and data protection framework,” Fleming stated.