Warner Bros film chiefs exit as Skydance completes takeover
Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are out as co-heads of the Warner Bros Motion Picture Group after four years running the film business, Variety reported on 9 October 2026. Variety The dismissals came as David Ellison advanced his acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and installed his own film leadership.
Abdy was already packing. She was seen boxing up her office in Burbank, according to the same Variety report. The report also described Tom Cruise's "Digger", an eco-disaster film, as a project facing losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The change in control was finalised days earlier. Paramount Skydance completed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on 6 October 2026, Reuters reported on the same date. Reuters The combined organisation was unveiled under the name Skydance, which Ellison announced in a post on X on Friday 2 October, Variety reported. Variety Ellison said Paramount and Warner Bros. had shaped more than a century of culture.
The new structure puts Skydance chief executive Ellison at the top, with Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein as co-chairs of the motion picture group, the division that makes cinema films. Goldberg and Greenstein spent a year as heads of Paramount Pictures before being named to preside over all film labels at the combined company, Variety reported on 9 October. Goldberg previously worked at Village Roadshow and Greenstein at Sony Pictures. Their successor to run Warner Bros. Pictures day to day will report to them, not directly to the chief executive as happened under David Zaslav and John Stankey.
Ellison committed in writing to release 30 theatrical films per year, meaning films made for cinemas, across both studios to secure the merger, Variety reported. Goldberg and Greenstein had approved, or greenlit, 20 films since taking office at Paramount Pictures. The pair pledged to embrace filmmakers' vision and back it with marketing and distribution, Variety reported on 6 October. Variety
For audiences, this means the names on the release calendar may stay familiar while the people choosing them change. Skydance lists Warner Bros. Pictures among its brands, and describes itself as a media and entertainment company with studios, direct-to-consumer and TV businesses. The next test is which films get dates, budgets and cinema releases under the 30-film pledge.
