Inside Skydance's Two-Studio Machine: Paramount and Warner Bros.

"Paramount and Warner Bros. will keep separate creative slates under Skydance, but a single leadership team will coordinate them, TheWrap reported Tuesday in a breakdown of how the merged company's film operation will work. Motion picture group heads Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein oversee both studios, while marketing and distribution chief Josh Goldstine is integrating Warner's 39 slated films into Paramount's pipeline. Warner Bros. Pictures chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have departed. Warner's distribution head Jeff Goldstein and marketing leaders Dana Nussbaum and Christian Davin are staying, as are New Line's Richard Brener and Warner Bros. Animation's Bill Damaschke.

Co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz said the studios will operate independently on the creative side, with the release calendar coordinated by genre and audience. Ellison has promised 30 theatrical releases a year, rising to 32 by the third year, a commitment also written into the company's settlement with state attorneys general. TheWrap called 2027 the real test. Planned releases include a fourth Sonic the Hedgehog and a fourth A Quiet Place, James Mangold's High Side with Timothee Chalamet, a Michael Bay Transformers film and a World War Z sequel at Paramount, and Man of Tomorrow and J.J. Abrams' The Great Beyond at Warner Bros.

The company is carrying roughly $80 billion in debt and has targeted $6 billion in cost savings, which Ellison said will come mainly from technology, procurement and real estate rather than layoffs. Ellison acknowledged the merger process was ""ugly"" and said Skydance wants to rebuild trust with the creative community."