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Top Gun: Maverick<\/em>\u00a0producer David Ellison emerged out from behind the shadow of his centibillionaire father on Sunday after his Skydance Media company clinched a $28 billion deal to take control of ailing entertainment giant Paramount.<\/p>\n Oracle<\/a> founder Larry Ellison\u2019s son, a fifteen-year financing partner of the Hollywood studio, announced he reached terms with company chair Shari Redstone to acquire her controlling stake as part of a\u00a0two-stage merger<\/a>. <\/p>\n It followed months of high drama, including competing bids from tycoon\u00a0Byron Allen<\/a>\u00a0as well as Sony<\/a>, the\u00a0abrupt departure<\/a>\u00a0of Paramount CEO Bob Bakish, and a last-second collapse in the talks after Redstone\u00a0changed her mind<\/a>\u00a0in June.<\/p>\n Ellison likely wouldn\u2019t have crossed the finish line had his lifelong passion for flying not led to a fateful encounter that put him on the path to becoming a movie mogul.\u00a0<\/p>\n An accomplished stunt pilot who took his first flying lesson with his father at 13 and went on to learn aerial acrobatics a year later, Ellison shared the same instructor as a Hollywood filmmaker Tony Bill, best know for\u00a0The Sting<\/em>. <\/p>\n The latter, who met Ellison when the latter transferred to the University of South California, tapped the young man to star in his 2006 film Flyboys. According to Ellison\u2019s own account, Bill insisted on having a bonafide pilot in the lead cast, although the Oracle heir is believed to have helped finance the picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n The movie proved a commercial failure, but Ellison seemed to have decided that Tinseltown was his calling.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor a career, I\u2019d really want to act and make movies, and keep flying as much as I can. If I can act and I can fly, I\u2019ll be happy,\u201d he\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Smithsonian Magazine<\/em>\u00a0on the sidelines of an airshow where he was performing to promote the film. \u201cMy dream project is a move that takes place in the world of aerobatics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But his acting career proved ephemeral, appearing in such low-budget flicks as\u00a0Hole in One<\/em><\/a>, a teenage comedy marketed as \u201cAmerican Pie Plays Golf\u201d, where he met his future wife Sandy Modic (they married in 2011 with their nuptials attended by none other than Tom Cruise himself).<\/span><\/p>\n Not exactly a natural in front of the camera, Ellison retreated behind it. <\/p>\n Invariably Ellison was peppered with unflattering portraits decrying both him and his sister Megan, a producer as well and founder of Annapurna Pictures, as the quintessential\u00a0nepo babies<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0trust fund kids<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet money talks in Hollywood and banks affected by the global financial crisis began pulling back from high-risk movie deals. It was then that Ellison\u2019s star began to rise.<\/p>\n After Paramount Pictures\u2019 negotiations over with Deutsche Bank<\/a> collapsed in 2008, leaving the studio without a movie-slate financing deal, Ellison later stepped in to\u00a0save the day<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In what would prove a seminal moment, he strung together a $350 million package in 2010, the same year that he founded Skydance in a hangar at the Santa Monica airport.<\/p>\n This made him a vital partner to Paramount, giving him the right to co-produce a number of films, starting with Cruise\u2019s own \u201cMission Impossible\u201d sequel,\u00a0Ghost Protocol.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n His record since has been hit and miss. <\/p>\n Alongside the Mission Impossible tentpoles and critically acclaimed streaming series like Amazon\u2019s\u00a0Reacher<\/em>,\u00a0he also bankrolled two failed attempts to revive the\u00a0\u201cTerminator\u201d franchise<\/a>, a soft reboot that reunited original stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ellison\u2019s 2019 action vehicle\u00a0Gemini Man,<\/em>\u00a0about a contract killer facing off against a younger clone of himself, likewise flopped despite pairing proven star Will Smith with acclaimed director Ang Lee.<\/span><\/p>\n The Skydance founder finally landed his biggest blockbuster to date by linking up with Cruise for\u00a0Top Gun: Maverick<\/em>. <\/p>\n The film, for which he underwrote a quarter of the financing, hauled in more than $700 million domestically to become the\u00a0fifth highest-grossing film of all time<\/a>, despite hitting theaters in the aftermath of the pandemic.<\/p>\n According to Skydance, its films have now earned more than $8 billion at the global box office, not including revenue from its other businesses like TV and sports.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a period of time where people just looked at us as money, and we knew that,\u201d Ellison\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0a few months before the film debuted. \u201cBut there has been a shift. Our content \u2013 the ideas, the execution \u2013 has become more important than our capital.\u201d<\/p>\n Now the passionate stunt pilot has swooped in to bag his biggest deal yet, after\u00a0reportedly bonding<\/a>\u00a0with Paramount chair Redstone over growing up under someone else\u2019s shadow.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sumner Redstone<\/a>\u2014who had a strained relationship with his daughter\u2014began forging the Paramount empire with the 1987 acquisition of Viacom.<\/p>\n Next in line for Ellison is an eighth Mission Impossible sequel and the next instalment of\u00a0Top Gun<\/a>, which the newly crowned media mogul is once more expected to co-produce alongside his still youthful-looking 62-year-old<\/span> star.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so easy to get David to commit to a movie,\u201d one industry insider\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Vanity Fair<\/em>\u00a0back in 2013. \u201cIt just has to have a plane.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nOnce in front of the camera, Ellison opts for new career behind it <\/h2>\n
Former nepo baby becomes vital Paramount partner<\/h2>\n
Checkered track record <\/h2>\n
No longer dumb money<\/h2>\n
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