Entertainment

Leonine chief backs Skydance to hit 30 films a year

Putri ArdhanaPublished 3m ago2 min readBased on 3 sources
Leonine chief backs Skydance to hit 30 films a year
Image by 089photoshootings from Pixabay

Leonine Studios chief executive Fred Kogel says he trusts Skydance to deliver more than 30 films a year.

He spoke to Variety about what the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger means for film and TV in German-language territories. His message was short. Back the new team.

Paramount Skydance completed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to Reuters. That deal puts Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery inside the Skydance organisation. The Variety interview was published on 12 October.

Skydance chief David Ellison committed to producing 30-plus movies a year while pushing for the merger. Kogel told Variety he is confident and optimistic that Ellison and Skydance management will hit that number. He said he has complete trust in the people running Skydance.

Kogel described Ellison and Ynon Kreiz as a very strong team. He said Leonine sees openings to produce films for Skydance where the IP is a fit. IP means intellectual property, the characters, books or brands a film is based on.

He also pointed to television drama, meaning scripted series with continuing stories. Kogel said Leonine could produce TV drama series for Skydance. He added that Leonine already does business with HBO Max as a production unit.

HBO Max started in Germany at the beginning of the year, Kogel said. Leonine banner Wiedemann & Berg Television has started production on 'Four Blocks Zero'. It is described as the first major German original for HBO Max, meaning a series ordered specially for that service, and a prequel to TNT series 'Four Blocks', meaning a story set before the events of that show.

Leonine has also delivered 'Clangold' from Beetz Brothers. It is described as the first documentary commissioned by HBO Max in Germany. A commission is an order for a programme to be made.

For viewers in Germany, this means more local titles tied to a much larger Hollywood owner. Kogel is betting that scale creates work for German crews, writers' rooms and producers, rather than shutting them out.

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