We're offering a 2-week trial of WrapPRO for $1. If you’ve been wanting to check out our full coverage, now’s the time. Greetings!When news broke that Paramount had hired Max Landis to write a script for a reboot of "G.I. Joe," it should have been a celebration of the revival of a much-beloved media franchise. Instead, much of the conversation around the news was about the return of Landis, who has been shunned by Hollywood since several women accused him of sexual assault, abuse and on-set harassment in an explosive Daily Beast article from 2019. But as our Umberto Gonzalez notes, Landis is just the latest man with a problematic history that Paramount counts in its ranks. Others include Johnny Depp, former Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, director Brett Ratner and Paramount President Jeff Shell. The career rehabilitation of these men at Paramount Skydance comes nearly a decade after the #MeToo movement exposed abusive conduct throughout entertainment and media, ending the careers of dozens of men, from star NBC anchor Matt Lauer to the once-untouchable CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves. Harvey Weinstein himself remains in jail, convicted of rape. This spate of hirings is a trend that appears to be in line with the anti-DEI retrenchment of this era, led by President Trump, who has made a priority of rolling back diversity initiatives. So why court this controversy? Industry observers say Paramount isn't making a statement about second chances, but practically hiring individuals who would have previously commanded high salaries at a lower rate. But for women in the industry, it’s a problem. “When companies rehire or promote men accused of sexual harassment, they send a blunt message to every woman in the room: your safety is negotiable, and your voice won’t change the outcome,” Kirsten Schaffer, CEO of Women in Film, told TheWrap when asked about Paramount. “In an industry built on power, that choice doesn’t just erode trust — it reinforces the very silence we’ve fought to break.” Samantha Sheppard, an associate professor of Cinema and Media Studies and chair in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University, added: “The boys are back in charge. That’s really what this is: The boys club has returned, and they can do this because they’ve essentially bought up all the competition.” Roger Cheng 
While Hollywood’s reckoning with sexual misconduct pushed many men out of the industry forever, Paramount has opened the door to taking some of them back... 
| ||||||||||||
