Latest in Megan Ellison

In the wake of the surprise $43 billion merger between Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia, rumors are racing that Amazon is poised to scoop up MGM in a deal that is reportedly worth under $10 billion. Much of this coming from a speculative report Monday in The Information. Deadline separately hears from sources that…

Megan Ellison spared Scott Rudin no quarter today. "This piece barely scratches the surface of Scott Rudin's abusive, racist, and sexist behavior”, the Annapurna CEO said online after a scathing Hollywood Reporter cover story published today on alleged misconduct by the volatile EGOT producer. "Similarly to Harvey…

EXCLUSIVE: Annapurna Pictures has won an auction and landed the rights to Rachel Yoder's upcoming debut novel Nightbitch. The novel will be developed as a star vehicle for six-time Oscar nominated actress Amy Adams. The author will adapt the novel and will be executive producer alongside Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, and…

EXCLUSIVE: Looks like Hollywood’s biggest lenders are about to call off the dogs on Annapurna, Megan Ellison’s taste-maker production/distribution company. Sources said that Ellison’s father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, has submitted a “last and final offer” to pay Annapura’s key lenders, offering between 80…

UPDATED EXCLUSIVE with Megan Ellison memo to staff: A showdown that has lenders on one side of the table, with Annapurna's Megan Ellison and her father and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison on the other, is about to take place, and it will decide whether Annapurna continues as a taste-making studio or a Chapter 11…

BREAKING: MGM and Annapurna Pictures have branded a joint venture United Artists Releasing. The revived label will pool the distribution resources of Annapurna, MGM and Orion into a cohesive apparatus that will release films generated by all three, supplemented by select third party films. The hope is to create a more…

Annapurna has promoted Sue Naegle to chief content officer of Annapurna, where she will expand her role as president of the Megan Ellison company’s television division to oversee development and production the film slate. She will also have the company's Theatre division in here purview and will manage the…

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit. Welcome to a special Monday edition of Notes on the Season. Hey, Academy members, you have just moments left to make your mark on this year’s increasingly heated Oscar race. Ballots for nominations for the 91st annual Academy Awards are due today at…

Tuesday’s news about Annapurna shockingly pulling out of two projects –Jay Roach’s untitled Roger Ailes movie and the Jennifer Lopez feature Hustlers — in addition to its head of production Chelsea Barnard exiting, has raised serious questions in Hollywood about the independent studio’s financial livelihood moving…

Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this occasional column, two old friends get together and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business. BART: Summer forecasts are risky. In the year-end stories of 2016, studio mavens predicted that summer 2017 would embrace a…

EXCLUSIVE: Annapurna has set The Shallows helmer Jaume Collet-Serra to direct Waco, a drama scripted by Zero Dark Thirty's Mark Boal and Kubo and the Two Strings' Marc Haimes about the 1993 standoff between the FBI and Texas state law enforcement and the David Koresh-led Branch Davidians that turned the sleepy town of…

In only a few short years, Megan Ellison—who started up Annapurna in 2011—has taken a small, vibrant, indie production company and methodically turned it into an impressive mini-major. Those in town are comparing Annapurna to the heyday of Harvey and Bob Weinstein's Miramax, which dominated the '90s, but a more…