To the editor: Paramount’s Larry Ellison now desires to push on and purchase Warner Bros. (“Democratic lawmakers say Paramount bid for Warner raises ‘severe nationwide safety considerations,’” Dec. 10) He hopes to take action partly with newly coffered funds of $41 billion of fairness, greater than half of which might be offered by the royal households of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
Meaning the involvement of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who, in accordance with a declassified 2021 intelligence report launched by the Biden administration, accredited the homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose protection of the royal household wasn’t glowing. Jared Kushner’s personal fairness agency, Affinity Companions, additionally has an possession stake within the providing.
Do we actually need these folks to have any affect on the content material and route of which tales get made and the way they’re obtainable to us?
The film enterprise is a enterprise — after all it’s. However there was a time when pleasure and duty for good movies walked hand in hand with revenue, when nice craftsmanship and imaginative and prescient was the collaborative objective with field workplace returns.
If this group of billionaire businessmen takes management of Warner Bros. — and pursues a objective of dominance via revenue and management — all of that will likely be misplaced. Nero is fiddling as Rome burns.
BJ Hegedus, Valley Village
