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Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming and Benedict Wong wrote an op-ed Monday citing the dangers to industry competition, jobs and a concentration of power if Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery merge.
“We have watched, with growing alarm, what consolidation does to the breadth and depth of the work we produce: independent film acquisitions at the leading independent film festival Sundance fell by half between 2019 and 2025,” the three actors wrote.
“Award-winning documentaries – films that won Oscars and topped festival juries – have struggled to find commercial distribution because they touched subjects the remaining handful of buyers found inconvenient. Every merger of this kind narrows the funnel through which stories can reach audiences,” they added.
The actors said Paramount Skydance plans to “swallow” Warner Bros. Discovery, which they argue would cause “redundancies, cancelled productions, fewer films commissioned and fewer risks taken.”
Cumberbatch, Cumming and Wong applauded U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy for being “minded” to intervene in the $110 billion Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery merger because of worries over media plurality.
Nandy said she’s considering asking regulators to review the potential merger after 12 U.S. states sued to block it.
“She is correct to investigate this major threat to the UK’s public interest. And she will not be acting alone. … Nandy has opened the door to intervention. She must walk through it, for the sake of everyone who makes UK television and film – and everyone who watches it,” the three actors wrote.
If not, the actors said they will be left without the “ability to protect” the industry and culture from consolidation.
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