Reeves Weidemann

Just do it.

I think it was really good timing because that movie came out, did incredibly well.

Everyone in Hollywood loved it.

Tom Cruise is here to save the movies.

David Ellison is, you know, the one who's supporting him.

Maybe he's not so bad.

And right at that moment was when David had started his pursuit of Paramount.

It became public at the end of 2023 that he was interested in buying it.

The Redstone family was going to sell the company.

And so there was this real moment where, you know, Hollywood, like many industries, but maybe Hollywood in particular, is going through this real period of disruption.

Spending was down, money was down, COVID sort of changed the movie business in particular.

And so I think there was this feeling, at least at that moment, that, you know, if not the savior of Hollywood, that David was maybe the best possible person you could have to take over a studio like Paramount.

I think where the opinion of him started to change was in the year between 2024 into 2025, between when the deal was announced and when it actually went through.

A lot of things happened during that point.

And the biggest was that Donald Trump was elected president.

And Paramount is not just a movie studio.

Paramount owns CBS, most notably.

And

People will, I'm sure, remember all of the drama that surrounded 60 Minutes and Trump's lawsuit against 60 Minutes.

And David spent a good portion of that year basically catering to the Trump administration's needs and wants and desires in order to get this deal approved.