Spike Lee says Paramount-Warner Bros. merger will make ‘one less place’ for his films - The Independent

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Spike Lee is not happy about the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. merger.

Paramount finalized its $81 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery last month, creating the Hollywood giant now known as Skydance. The acquisition has drawn intense scrutiny over the CEO David Ellison and his father, billionaire Larry Ellison, and their ties to Donald Trump.

When asked about the Ellison family’s new place in the media empire, 69-year-old Lee told Variety in an interview published Monday: “You know… It might be one less place I’m going to be making films!”

“I’m not hoping for that, but it could be,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a crazy statement based on my politics and them guys.”

The Independent has reached out to Skydance for comment.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Oscar-winning filmmaker and New York Knicks super fan reacted to a previous report that Knicks owner James Dolan claimed that the team accepted an invitation to the White House.

“He can’t force them!” Lee said of Dolan when asked about the report. “It's been years since the last NBA team has gone. They're not going. I hope they don't go! I hope they don't go.”

He then added that it “was not just an accident” that the Knicks lost the one NBA Finals game that Trump attended in June.

Lee has been public about his distaste for Trump in the past. At the 2025 Cannes Film Festival ahead of the world premiere of his film, Highest 2 Lowest, the director subtly criticized the president when asked about the effect of social media on American morals.

“Well, I don’t know how much we can talk about American values considering who is the president,” Lee said at the time.

When he was later asked directly about Trump’s plan to impose 100 percent tariffs on foreign-made films, Lee admitted that he did not have the answer, but that “people are definitely hurting.”

“No one’s working,” the BlacKkKlansman director said at the time. “The guy just said he wanted to put a tariff on every film that shot… I don’t know how that’s going to work.”

Lee is not the only celebrity who has spoken out against the Paramount-Warner Bros. consolidation amid fears of cost-cutting measures and Trump-friendly editorial changes at CNN as a result.

Earlier this year, an open letter protesting against the merger was signed by stars like Kristen Stewart, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ben Stiller and Joaquin Phoenix.

In May, Mark Ruffalo said in an opinion piece for the New York Times that his fellow actors were scared to protest against the decision.

“There are many reasons to block this deal, but we now believe the most fundamental one is what we encountered when asking artists to use their voices: fear. A deep, ugly and pervasive fear of speaking out,” he wrote.

“We heard time and time again from artists, when asked to sign this letter, that they supported it but were afraid of retribution. Their fear is not unjustified.”