Skydance Media Completes $400 Million Funding Round Led By New Investor KKR, Values Company At Over $4 Billion

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“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” Matthew Perry reportedly writes in his forthcoming memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, which comes out Nov. 1. In the book, which is excerpted today in the New York Post, the Friends actor repeatedly expresses such sentiments about Reeves, who counted Phoenix among his closest friends.

Matthew Perry‘s journey to sobriety wasn’t easy, and it has cost him a pretty penny.

A necessary expense. Matthew Perry opened up about the cost of battling drug and alcohol addiction for more than half of his life.

EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media has acquired U.S. rights to The New Abolitionists, a documentary about the movement to end sex trafficking in Southeast Asia directed by Christina Zorich and produced by her mother, the late Olympia Dukakis. 

The Alec Baldwin western Rust is set to scout locations in California next week, near Palm Springs and the Nevada border, though no final decision has been made where the Joel Souza directed movie will actually be shot when it resumes production in January.

A new report is revealing that production on Rust will restart relatively soon.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer “Rust” will resume production in January, more than a year after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on set. But the production will not return to New Mexico, where a criminal investigation and state workplace safety proceedings remain unresolved. The production is still looking for a new location, but California is a possibility, said Melina Spadone, the attorney for Rust Movie Productions LLC. The production company announced a settlement on Oct. 5 with Matthew Hutchins, the widower of the cinematographer. Under the agreement, the production will be able to resume after a 15-month hiatus. Matthew Hutchins said in a statement that completing the film would be a way “to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”

EXCLUSIVE: Michelle Monaghan is set to co-star opposite Mark Wahlberg in Apple Original Films and Skydance Media’s action comedy The Family Plan. Simon Cellan Jones, who recently collaborated with Wahlberg on Arthur the King, will direct.

slated to hit newsstands on November 1.Perry — best know for his portrayal as Chandler Bing in the NBC hit show “Friends” — revealed that at the age of 49 he almost died due to a gastrointestinal perforation and spent month months in the hospital, reports People. According to the doctors, the “Friends” star had a slim chance of living. “The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live,” said Perry.

Salford city mayor Paul Dennett is demanding a Government-funded rent freeze during the cost of living crisis. Mr Dennett has spoken out and published an open letter alongside the city's MPs Barbara Long-Bailey (Salford and Eccles) and Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) after the city council took part in the government’s rent cap consultation.

David Ellison’s Skydance has secured a $400 million investment to expand its operations, particularly its animation, sports and interactive ambitions, pushing the company’s valuation above $4 billion. The investment came from investment firm KKR and joined by the Ellison Family (who remain the company’s majority shareholders), as well as other existing backers supporting the “Top Gun: Maverick” studio.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer David Ellison’s media company Skydance has completed a $400 million investment round, led by global firm KKR and the Ellison family. Previous investors RedBird Capital and Tencent have also upped their contributions, bringing the total valuation of the producer behind “Top Gun: Maverick” to over $4 billion. The Ellison family remains the majority stakeholder in the venture. “Skydance has already created a diverse collection of premium content across multiple formats, and we are only in the early stages of what they can accomplish. We look forward supporting the Skydance team as they continue to build their business across TV, film, animation, gaming and sports and tell compelling stories in new and innovative ways,” said KKR parter Ted Oberwager, who leads the gaming, entertainment, media and sports verticals within KKR’s Americas Private Equity business.

The Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli is suing an air charter firm that specialises in luxury jet service, alleging the company provided him an older, noisier plane than agreed upon during a portion of a US tour last year. The case filed in September by Bocelli, 64, in federal court in New Hampshire also says Private Jet Services of Seabrook violated the terms of its contract when the crew on one flight announced that Bocelli and his party should expect a bumpy ride before landing on a flight from California to Cleveland.

Several media outlets criticized Melania Trump’s fashion choice in 2017 when she left to go visit victims of a hurricane, however the same media outlets neglected to mention First Lady Jill Biden’s similar fashion choice during her post-Hurricane Ian Florida visit on Wednesday.  Both President Biden and his wife were photographed leaving for Florida to meet with Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., about ongoing recovery efforts following the Category 4 hurricane hitting the state.