All the IP David Ellison’s Skydance Gets in Paramount Acquisition

Now that David Ellison’s Skydance has secured the keys to Paramount Global, what toys await him inside the company’s intellectual property chest?

After a nail-biting federal approval process that inspired backlash, Ellison and team have not only secured a legacy distributor, but a trove of content in various stages of production and development.

As the new Skydance-Paramount team prepares to set leadership (Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy is already out; Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins is expected to depart imminently; CBS honcho George Cheeks is the only leader pegged to stay with the new team), here’s what they’ve got on the board:

Film
Robbins became president and CEO of Paramount Pictures in 2021, following a fraught tenure led by veteran movie executive Jim Gianopulos. Robbins, a teen star who became a powerful family content executive at Nickelodeon, helped boost the volume of original film production and acquisitions at Paramount – a studio that had become known over the past two decades for minimal output compared to its rivals.

The fruits of Team Robbins will continue to manifest in a busy Q4. Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson’s “The Naked Gun” reboot, written and directed by The Lonely Island mastermind Akiva Schaffer, hits theaters next week. In October, director Derek Cianfrance will mount his crime dramedy “Roofman” starring Channing Tatum and Kristen Dunst, followed by the Colleen Hoover book adaptation “Regretting You” with Alison Willians and Dave Franco.

November will see the release of a franchise hopeful starring Hollywood golden boy Glen Powell, “The Running Man.” The studio will close out the year with “The SpongeBob Movie: The Search for SquarePants,” to hit in the family-heavy Christmas holiday window.

There’s more IP on deck for 2026, including: “Scream 7,” a highly anticipated return to the slasher canon produced with Spyglass Media Group, in February; an original swing with an untitled feature from Trey Parker, Matt Stone, rapper Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free for March; a revival of the surprisingly sticky spoof series “Scary Movie” for June; and a new feature in Robbins’ pride-and-joy Paw Patrol franchise for July.

Studio insiders are expecting an impressive performance from “The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender,” an animated actioner featuring the voices of Dave Bautista and Steven Yeun; and equal excitement for new films based on Sonic the Hedgehog, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Angry Birds mobile game and another sequel in the “Meet the Parents” universe with Ben Stiller and Ariana Grande. At the top of 2027, Paramount will court awards with ‘Children of Blood and Bone,” Gina Prince-Bythewood’s fantasy epic featuring Cynthia Erivo, Idris Elba and Viola Davis.

Paramount is in early development for two of its most lucrative film franchises – the worlds of Transformers and Star Trek. It’s unclear if “Mission: Impossible” is on deck for a reboot.

Television
Ellison has previously said that high on his list for the merged Skydance-Paramount was a tech revolution inside the company – including its streaming operations, interface and content model. Paramount Global’s hit shows are spread wide across verticals like linear networks and streaming. Breaking it down by brand:  

CBS
The stalwart network, a lightning rod in the Skydance Paramount deal for several reasons, has plenty going for it despite the overall decline of linear TV viewership. Flagship shows with spinoffs like “NCIS” and “FBI” still resonate across the country. Comedies like “Ghosts” and “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” are two of the most-watched comedies out there, while drama “Tracker” is one of the most-watched shows period. Reality competitions like “Survivor,” “Big Brother,” and “The Amazing Race” also still draw large audiences even this far into their respective runs.

Paramount+
It might as well be called Taylor Sheridan+ at this point, with the prolific creator currently overseeing shows like “Landman,” “Lioness,” “Tulsa King” and “Mayor of Kingstown” at the streamer under his expansive deal with Paramount Global. The “Yellowstone” prequel “1944” is in the works (following “1883” and “1923”), as well as a new spinoff of “Yellowstone” starring Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly as Rip and Beth and a spinoff of “Tulsa King” starring Samuel L. Jackson. Star Trek also has business at the streamer, with the shows “Strange New Worlds” and the forthcoming “Starfleet Academy.” “Strange New Worlds” is currently airing its third season and has been renewed through a fifth and final season. “Starfleet Academy” has been renewed through Season 2. Whether or not the Star Trek TV universe will continue in its current iteration beyond these two shows remains to be seen.

Nickelodeon
This unit looks pretty similar to the film studio when it comes to multi-quadrant offerings, including “Spongebob SquarePants” and the animated “Avatar” content.

Showtime
Once a hotbed of prestige drama, Showtime is down to (well-liked) offshoots of “Dexter,” a prequel (“Dexter: Original Sin”) and a sequel (“Dexter: Resurrection”).

Comedy Central
“South Park,” so valuable that Paramount Global trudged through a reported swamp of contention and hostility to secure another deal with its creators, rules the roost. There’s also “The Daily Show,” and the revival of Mike Judge’s “Beavis & Butthead,” which is moving to Comedy Central for its third season starting in September.

Skydance is set to take full control of Paramount Global on August 7.