April 13, 2026
We’ve seen many historic moments in Hollywood in recent years, but this one might be in the top ten. An open letter signed by over 1,000 film and television insiders has been posted protesting the merger of David Ellison’s Paramount-Skydance with Warner Bros. Discovery.
“As filmmakers, documentarians, and professionals across the movie and television industry, we write to express our unequivocal opposition to the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger,” the letter begins. “This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries—and the audiences we serve—can least afford it. The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.”
The letter doesn’t raise the topic of AI, which is also frequently cited as a looming cause of Hollywood job losses, instead, the overall tone is focused on big business consolidation in the business and the ripple effects it has already had.
“Alarmingly, this merger would reduce the number of major U.S. film studios to just four. Our industry is already under severe strain, in large part due to prior waves of consolidation. We have witnessed a steep decline in the number of films produced and released, alongside a narrowing of the kinds of stories that are financed and distributed,” the open letter asserts. “Increasingly, a small number of powerful entities determine what gets made—and on what terms—leaving creators and independent businesses with fewer viable paths to sustain their work.”
The list of names signed to the letter reads like a who’s who of the entertainment business, including both actors and directors such as David Fincher (Fight Club), JJ Abrams (Lost), Denis Villeneuve (Dune), Joaquin Phoenix (Joker), Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility), Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Ben Stiller (Zoolander), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Laura Poitras (Citizenfour about Edward Snowden), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton), Alyssa Milano (Charmed), David Chase (The Sopranos), Damon Lindelof (Lost), Rosario Dawson (Sin City), Kristen Stewart (Twilight), John Leguizamo (Moulin Rouge!), Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda), and many more.
Toward the end of the letter, the group mentions the political efforts of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is involved in examining the merger before it is confirmed. The protest against the Paramount-Skydance takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery comes as reports are detailing the slow collapse of the job market in Hollywood that threatens to mirror the historic implosion of the auto industry in Detroit decades ago. The full open letter and complete list of names can be read on a new site created on December 30, 2025, called BlockTheMerger.com. The top of the website encourages others to sign the open letter as well.
Cover: Modified image of the Paramount lot in Los Angeles by Chris Long via Unsplash
