Thirty years after getting squeezed out in an epic battle for control of Paramount Pictures, Barry Diller appears to be trying again.
The 82-year-old media titan is among the suitors who have expressed interest in buying the Redstone family’s Massachusetts-based holding firm, National Amusements Inc., which controls the voting shares of media company Paramount Global, according to two knowledgeable people who were not authorized to comment publicly.
Paramount Global includes the historic Hollywood studio, broadcast network CBS and a collection of cable TV channels such as MTV and Nickelodeon.
Back in 1994, media mogul Sumner Redstone famously triumphed over Diller in a hard-fought bidding war for control of the Melrose Avenue film studio. Redstone ultimately paid $10 billion for the asset, which many in the industry (including some of Redstone’s own executives) believed was way too steep.
Redstone’s media company, then known as Viacom, then bought Blockbuster video chain for its cash flow that the company needed to service the debt on the Paramount purchase.
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Diller, who had run Paramount in the 1970s — overseeing a period of growth and acclaimed movies — withdrew from the bidding with a characteristic shrug. The mogul went on to run Universal, before making a fortune by building a formidable digital media businesses, IAC.
The New York Times first reported Diller’s interest in National Amusements.
Other potential buyers have also surfaced in recent months, making overtures to mogul Shari Redstone who oversees the family’s empire since her father began dealing with health issues eight years ago. Sumner Redstone died in 2020.
The list of potential suitors includes former top Seagram and Warner Music executive Edgar Bronfman Jr., as well as Hollywood producer Steven Paul (“Ghost in the Shell,” “Baby Geniuses”). Any deal is contingent on due diligence and coming up with enough cash to entice the Redstone family to leave a business where they’ve been major players for decades.
Media mogul Barry Diller, pictured here in 2023, has expressed some interest in the Redstone family holding company National Amusements Inc.
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(Charles Sykes / Invision / AP)
Bronfman, the former entertainment executive and liquor scion, pushed his family to acquire Universal Studios Inc. before selling it to France’s Vivendi more than two decades ago. He is backed by Bain Capital and has suggested paying more than $2 billion for the Redstone firm.
It’s unclear whether Diller will submit an offer to NAI, one of the knowledgeable people said.
“IAC does not comment on rumors or speculation,” a company spokesperson said late Monday.
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NAI is struggling under a mound of debt. For months, Shari Redstone worked behind the scenes to sell NAI to tech scion David Ellison in a two-phase, nearly $8-billion deal that would have seen him eventually merge his production company Skydance Media with Paramount.
But in June, after months of high drama and boardroom tension, Redstone reversed course and Paramount Global’s proposed sale to Ellison’s Skydance Media collapsed.
The Ellison deal would have provided about $2.2 billion for NAI, or about $1.7 billion for the Redstone heirs once NAI’s debts had been paid.
National Amusements said it supports Paramount’s recently installed triumvirate of executives serving in an “office of the CEO”: division heads George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins. It also backed their business plan, which includes $500 million in cost-cutting, and the board’s efforts “to explore opportunities to drive value creation for all Paramount shareholders.”
Forget the “video game movie” curse;The Mortuary Assistantis a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul.
What Makes It Work
The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them.
Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you can almost smell the rot and bloat of the bodies through the screen.
The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene) looks so real that I skipped supper after watching it. And that’s saying something. Your girl likes to eat.
Co-written by the game’s creator, Brian Clarke, the movie dives deeper into the demonic mythology. Whether you’ve seen every ending or don’t know a scalpel from a trocar, the story is perfectly self-contained. If you’ve never played the game, or played it a hundred times, the film works equally well, which is hard to do when it comes to game adaptations.
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Nailed It
This film does a lot of things right, but the isolation of the night shift is suffocating. Between the darkness of the hallways and the “residents” that refuse to stay still, the film delivers a relentlessly immersive experience. And thankfully, although this movie is filled with dark rooms and shadows, it’s easy to see every little thing. Don’t you hate it when a movie is so dark that you can’t see what’s happening? It’s one of my pet peeves.
The oh-so-awesome Jeremiah Kipp directs the film and has made something absolutely nightmare-inducing. Kipp recently joined us for an interview, took us inside the film, discussed its details and the game’s lore, and so much more. I urge you to check out our interview. He’s awesome!
The Verdict
This isn’t just a cash-grab; it’s a high-effort adaptation that respects the source material while elevating the horror genre. With incredible special effects and a powerhouse cast, it’s the kind of movie that will make you rethink working late ever again. Dropping on Friday the 13th, this is a must-watch for horror fans. It’s grisly, intelligent, and genuinely terrifying.
A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.
Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.
In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.
As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.
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He is seeking $35 million in damages.
Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.
Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”
Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.
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Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.
Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”
In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.
Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”
At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.
When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.
