EXCLUSIVE: We may have the first casualty of the prolonged — and unpredictable — regulatory approval process of Skydance‘s proposed $8 billion Paramount takeover. Skydance is pausing new spending on a high-profile drama series starring and executive produced by Jeremy Strong and written and executive produced by Tobias Lindholm, sources tell Deadline.
Tentatively titled 9/12, the series, which was originally set up at Sister in 2021 as The Best Of Us before moving to Skydance late last year, tells the story of the first responders of 9/11, relying on heavily researched accounts, and pays tribute to those impacted.
It is the first and only so far Skydance production budgeted against the new Skydance-Paramount deal; it had been moving ahead for a targeted August filming kickoff. That tentative start of production timeline remains in place for now but Skydance executives have informed the series’ creative team that new spending is being put on hold as of today, I hear.
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That would impact new hires that have been in the works but work on the series able to continue under pre-existing budget allocations, sources said.
The funding freeze is limited to series earmarked for the combined company, I hear, and does not affect any of Skydance’s core development and production, including three upcoming series, 12 12 12 starring Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan for Apple TV+; Ride or Die, starring Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer for Amazon; and Brothers, starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey for Apple TV+.
A rep for Skydance declined comment.
The 9/12 move comes with just several days left on FCC’s 180-day “shot clock” for the Skydance-Paramount transaction, an informal timeline for the agency to review mergers. FCC chairman Brendan Carr referenced the timing during a press conference this past Monday.
“On the transaction itself, we are getting close to the informal 180 day clock,” he said. “I think we’re somewhere in the 160s but we’re just running our normal process across a lot of different transactions right now.”
Carr insisted that the regulatory review, which is crucial when transfer of broadcast licenses is involved — like is the case with Paramount as owner of CBS — is not connected to other ongoing Paramount-related matters, including a potential settlement in President Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against CBS over its 60 Minutes Kamala Harris interview.
“The settlement and any discussions around that have nothing to do with the work that we’re doing at the FCC,” Carr said. “There’s at least three different things are going on: There’s the litigation, which we’re not a part of and there’s been no discussions about, there is the transaction that’s before us and there is the CBS news distortion [complaint].”
The FCC could extend the clock on the Skydance-Paramount review. Still, the initial window coming to an end amid lack of significant FCC engagement on the proposed merger — the first evidence of talks between the watchdog agency and Paramount came only last week — likely raised enough concern for Skydance brass to halt spending against projects budged under the combined company.
This is the first sign of Skydance pumping the breaks on its post-merger plans as uncertainty over the deal grows in the new regulatory climate under President Trump. Up until now, Skydance and Paramount had been moving full-speed ahead under the presumption that the transaction will be completed soon. With the two companies now in the first of two automatic 90-day under the terms of the merger agreement they reached last summer, there may be impact on the other side too, with Paramount facing potential new cost-cutting measures if the merger is not approved in the near future.
Working behind the scenes during the past few months has been former Sister Global CEO Cindy Holland, a Senior Advisor To David Ellison and Skydance, who has been putting together a programming strategy for Paramount+ post-merger. 9/12 would’ve been the first new series specifically designed for the new, Skydance-controled Paramount+.