Skydance Boss David Ellison Reassures Employees During Coronavirus Crisis: “We Are In This Together”

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read

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EXCLUSIVE: As Skydance Media’s staff, like many around town, split off and head to their homes to work remotely during the coronavirus climate, CEO David Ellison shared his immense gratitude in an email to them, and reassured that the studio can “weather this storm”.

“Let me assure you that we are in this together — and I’m confident we will emerge from the challenges before us stronger and more united than ever,” Ellison wrote to staff today.

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Indeed, once the nation’s exhibition structure gets back on track, Skydance, is a huge co-financier and producer of several Paramount event features this year including Top Gun: Maverick (Wednesday, June 24), the Charlize Theron action fantasy movie The Old Guard, Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse (Sept. 18), Snake Eyes (Oct. 23) and the sci-fi Chris Pratt movie The Tomorrow War (Dec. 25). To date, Skydance counts well over $5.8 billion at the worldwide box office.

Recently, due to the outbreak of Covid-19 in Italy, the studio and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible 7 was put on pause, as well as their 11x Emmy nominated Netflix series Grace and Frankie out of safety here in Hollywood, as well as their AppleTV+ series Foundation.

Below is Ellison’s note to staff:

Dear Colleagues,

At the close of an unprecedented week for our business and for the world, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone at Skydance for your continued commitment not only to the company, but to each other.

Let me assure you that we are in this together — and I’m confident we will emerge from the challenges before us stronger and more united than ever.

Skydance is uniquely positioned – structurally, financially and creatively – to weather this storm. We have taken smart precautionary steps to ensure we can work remotely in a collaborative and safe manner for as long as we need to.

Although I realize there will be challenges ahead, we will work diligently to maintain business operations. Thank you to Kathy Dossett, Max Miller and the incredible HR, Operations and IT teams for working non-stop to make this temporary transition run as smoothly as possible.

While you will remain in regular contact with your managers and divisional leaders, please do not hesitate to reach out to HR, IT – or me directly – with any questions or concerns in the coming days. Senior management and I are here for each of you.

I’ll continue to be in regular communication as we move forward together.

Thank you,

David Ellison

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