Overview
- U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson ordered the two-day, in-person conference on Sept. 11, which requires the parties to pick specific dates for late October and includes the Writers Guild and a coalition of 12 state attorneys general.
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta says he will accept only structural remedies such as divestitures, while Paramount has offered behavioral commitments like film-release pledges, leaving a wide gap over what a settlement would look like.
- A contractual ticking fee of about $7 million per day starts Oct. 1, a financial pressure point that Paramount has cited in urging a deal and that company leadership has said could prompt moves of operations out of California.
- Paramount has also asked the court to require the plaintiffs to post a roughly $1.88–$1.9 billion bond to cover delay costs and a hearing on that request is set for Sept. 24; the March 2, 2027 merits trial in Oakland remains on the calendar.
- Most U.S. and foreign regulators and the Justice Department cleared the merger, leaving the state and WGA lawsuits as the main U.S. obstacle and raising risks for California jobs, local production, and further legal fights including separate Supreme Court filings.