‘Top Gun: Maverick’ producer Skydance worth $4 billion after private equity investment
LOS ANGELES (AP) In the world of big screen action, there are no new faces on the block.
The producer of the “Top Gun” movies — based on the book by Richard P. Scott — has a history of striking out on his own, but he did just that with an impressive deal that has placed Skydance International, the studio he co-founded with his brother, Dan, in the best position it’s ever been in.
Skydance agreed to pump $4 billion into the company the same day it purchased the iconic film, which will be re-purposed for a TV series on the cable channel FX in May.
The sale, valued at $750 million, follows a turbulent few weeks for the studio, which is currently working on three films and a TV adaptation of a novel by Scott himself. In the weeks before the deal was announced, it filed for bankruptcy and agreed to a $200 million deal with Lions Gate Entertainment that raised fears that executives there would take the studio public.
“We have really grown into the top three best-run companies in the entertainment industry,” Skydance chairman John Davis told The Associated Press.
He added: “We have a long and proud history and we’re very excited about the future of our company.”
The former Paramount Pictures president and general manager founded Skydance with Dan in 1997. They built their first studio — in Newport Beach, Calif., then known as Paramount Pictures Studios — from a $2 million investment into the profitable independent studio that now counts Disney, Universal, and 20th Century Fox as its top investors.
Davis, a member of the Screen Actors Guild, said he and his brother Dan weren’t looking to get rich. They simply wanted to build a studio that would make films and get out of a business where they saw plenty of losses.
The deal with Skydance is the most lucrative Hollywood studio investment they’ve made to date, Davis said. It allows them to keep much of the studio they started with $2 million and to spend that cash on the FX series, which will be executive produced by Davis.
The deal was a milestone for Davis, who said he wants to