De Luca and Abdy Exit Warner Bros. Film as Skydance Deal Closes

Warner Bros. film chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy will not join David Ellison’s management team when the Paramount Skydance–Warner Bros. Discovery merger closes, with Paramount film co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein poised to oversee the combined movie studios, Variety and Deadline reported as the roughly $110–111 billion deal heads toward an expected Oct. 6 close.

Variety, citing multiple sources after Puck’s initial report, says it is unclear whether De Luca and Abdy will stay through a transition; Deadline adds that the pair first learned they were not jumping to the new company from press accounts, and that Ellison had not offered a path that kept their existing reporting lines intact. Their Warner contracts, renewed under WBD CEO David Zaslav, run through 2030 and had marketing and distribution reporting into them—terms sources tell Deadline would be difficult for Ellison to honor under a single film leadership bench. Goldberg, a longtime Skydance executive, and Greenstein, a close Ellison ally, are the expected film co-chairs for the merged Skydance-branded company.

The exit lands after a split creative and commercial record. Variety notes the duo’s Warner tenure included a record-tying awards haul—11 Oscars from 30 nominations, including Best Picture for Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another—and earlier hits such as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and A Minecraft Movie. Deadline tallies Warner’s 2026 domestic box office through Oct. 1 at about $448.4 million with no $100 million domestic title yet this calendar year, while Paramount sits near $429.8 million with two $100 million-plus domestic hits. Costly misfires including The Bride! and the Tom Cruise–starring Digger opening weekend have sharpened questions about big-budget risk under the outgoing chairs, both outlets note without treating box-office estimates as audited studio filings.

Paramount will inherit a deep Warner slate and library under the merger’s film commitments—Deadline cites tens of dated titles into 2029 and regulatory expectations around annual release volume—while upcoming Warner titles such as Clayface, The Cat in the Hat, and Dune: Part Three are expected to release under the combined studio, Variety reports. Ellison has separately named former Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz co-CEO for day-to-day integration; streaming leadership changes, including Cindy Holland’s exit and Casey Bloys’s expanded role, remain adjacent context rather than the film-chair decision itself.

Trade reaction since the reports has focused on risk appetite after close. Deadline notes De Luca and Abdy built a reputation for protecting filmmaker vision on expensive originals; Variety flags that several of those swings underperformed theatrically even when awards followed. Goldberg and Greenstein inherit both the Oscar library cachet and the debt-aware mandate Ellison has signaled around the combined company. No producing-deal offer is confirmed in either outlet’s reporting as of early October, and any transition timeline beyond the expected Oct. 6 close remains attributed to sources rather than a studio press release.

Neither Paramount nor Warner Bros. immediately commented to Variety; Deadline likewise reported Paramount could not be reached. The personnel story is distinct from earlier coverage that only tracked the corporate Skydance rename: this package centers on who runs theatrical film after close. For readers following studio power shifts on Studio, verified as of Oct. 1–3 reports: De Luca and Abdy are expected out at close; Goldberg and Greenstein are the reported combined film leads; dual trade accounts from Variety and Deadline support the timeline without inventing settlement terms or unannounced producing deals.