Disney’s Marvel superhero actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming, and Benedict Wong have joined together to urge regulators in the U.K. to reject the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery claiming that the deal “threatens to inflict immense harm on the British public.”
The trio published an op-ed under their names ripping the proposed merger that has already been approved by American regulators, according to Variety.
The actors claim that the merger will result in fewer films, canceled productions, and a tendency to avoid taking on risky projects. They insist that the decision over approving the deal will “prove one of the most important decisions any culture secretary has taken for UK film, television and media in a generation,” referring to U.K. culture minister Lisa Nandy.
Nandy must decide if the merger is in the public interest, but the actors claim “it most certainly is not.” And they worry that since Paramount already owns Britain’s public service broadcaster Channel 5 as well as CBS in the U.S.A., it would be a bad idea for it to gain control of CNN and CNN International, which is now owned by Warner.
“If one commercially interested owner controls access to both [the CNN and CBS news archives], they control the raw material of our historical memory,” the actors claim.
They add that Nandy should reject the merger “for the sake of everyone who makes U.K. television and film – and everyone who watches it.”
“If she does not, we will be left without the ability to protect our industry and our culture from this consolidation. We must not push the public’s interest aside; we must stand up for it and block this merger,” they exclaim.
Nandy has signaled that she is seriously considering scotching the merger plans but has not yet announced any final decision.
Meanwhile, the merger has been put on hold in the U.S., as Paramount announced it has agreed to put the deal on ice while several lawsuits wind their way through he courts.
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