As chatter about a possible Warner Bros. Discovery sale keeps circulating across the industry (and will likely continue throughout the Holidays as WB has set Christmas as a deadline for their decision), a new piece from political outlet Semafor adds another, somewhat humorous wrinkle to the story.
According to the report, Larry Ellison, Oracle founder and one of Trump’s major political backers, has been getting some “creative input” from the former president.
With Trump’s experience in reality TV and his well-documented love of old-school action fare, he’s reportedly nudging Ellison toward reviving the kind of loud, crowd-pleasing hits that he loved from the ’80s and ’90s.
Through the newly formed Paramount–Skydance entity, where Larry’s son David holds controlling interest, Trump is said to be championing the return of big, energetic action comedies.
Semafor's sources claim he’s especially fond of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport and has been urging Ellison to fast-track another Rush Hour movie with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
All of this is unfolding against reports that the current administration seems more receptive to the Ellison family’s Paramount–Skydance proposal than to other potential buyers, including Universal, Netflix, and Amazon.
Still, questions remain about whether a merger of that size could survive antitrust scrutiny.
According to these reports, Trump has signaled he’d be open to helping the Ellisons push a deal through Congress and the courts, so long as certain films and genres receive priority in the studio’s slate. Chief among them, more Rush Hour films and more movies similar to Bloodsport.
On the former, the last update on the next Rush Hour film came while Chan was promoting Karate Kid: Legends in the U.S. The action icon stated, "I don’t know. Ask the director, ask the studio, ask the writer. Hurry up! Otherwise, Chris Tucker and me [will be] 100 years old. We’ll be old men doing Rush Hour."
WB distributed the original Bloodsport film, although recent reports state that A24 is currently in talks to acquire the rights. The Rush Hour franchise belongs to New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
In addition to this report, it seems Trump also backs Ellison's bid for Warner Bros. as he wants to see certain CNN (which is owned by WBD) political correspondents axed.
These current talks between Paramount Skydance and the White House also include planning the upcoming UFC fight, currently slated to take place on the White House front lawn. It's believed that this spectacle will be streamed on Paramount+.