UPDATE 2: Our WB sources add the firing was a surprise even internally, with reports of a heated call the morning after.
UPDATE: The exit tops the list in our rundown of Skydance’s alarming first week, with Taylor Sheridan already gone.
Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy thought they were staying at Warner Bros.
“They were led to believe they would still be here post-merger,” a studio insider tells THR about the exiting film bosses.
“They met with David months ago and felt secure,” the insider added. “Clearly a lot has changed since then.”
Per our insiders, De Luca and Abdy were dealing with the wrong Ellison.
Everyone Thought They Were Staying
It wasn’t just them.
On September 29, sources on both sides of the merger told us the pair would stick around, with one calling them too valuable to lose.
Then Matthew Belloni reported De Luca and Abdy are out, and Deadline added the pair found out from the overnight reports themselves.
David Ellison never called.
Larry And Kreiz Chose Goldberg And Greenstein
Our insiders explained the decision in the Ynon Kreiz story: it came from the top, and the top is not David.
“LARRY Ellison and Kreiz chose these two (Goldberg and Greenstein) over De Luca and Abdy,” the insider told us. “Cut cut cut.”
Larry Ellison is personally on the hook for over $40 billion of the financing. His money, his call.
Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, who run Paramount’s film studio, now take both.
‘People Thought They Were Gonna Deal With David Ellison’
The same insider described why promises made before the close don’t hold up.
“Nobody knows what’s gonna happen. Promises that were made are ignored. People thought they were gonna deal with David Ellison.”
The insider continued: “Reality is he’s just the figurehead. Daddy is pretty much in charge. Kreiz is his proxy.”
So the meeting that made De Luca and Abdy feel secure was with the one Ellison not making the calls.
Worth a mention is that in Deadline’s report about Abdy and De Luca exiting, it says they could stay on as producers.
James Gunn Just Had The Same Meeting
On Thursday, James Gunn and Peter Safran sat down with David Ellison and were told to “keep doing what you’re doing,” with no new deal and no guarantees.
A meeting with David Ellison once made De Luca and Abdy feel secure, too.
In September, our sources said the new company opens with months of kumbaya “before the ax falls.”
De Luca and Abdy never even made it to the kumbaya. The ax fell four days before the new company exists.
