David Ellison’s Skydance Media, which had been planning to leave its home at Paramount Pictures under the previous Grey/Moore regime, has instead signed a new four-year deal with the studio now operating under its newly installed chairman Jim Gianopulos.
The deal will keep the key co-financing and co-production partner housed at Paramount and will see the pair release new installments in the Mission: Impossible, Top Gun and World War Z franchises along with the James Cameron-led re-launch of the Terminator franchise.
Paramount and Skydance will also partner on the potentially Sam Raimi-directed mystery thriller Bermuda Triangle, the Will Smith and Ang Lee clone assassin thriller Gemini Man, and releases from Skydance’s new animation studio. Skydance plans to make 3-4 live action and at least one animated film a year.
The deal comes as one of Paramount’s other major film financing partners, China’s Huahua Media, isn’t so happy with the studio following a disappointing 2017 slate including Ghost In The Shell, Baywatch and Transformers: The Last Knight.
Paramount and Skydance have the Gerard Butler-led Geostorm hitting this Fall, and Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller Annihilation opening in the Spring.
