Japanese telecom giant SoftBank is determined to get a foothold in Hollywood. For the second time this week, the company has been linked to another studio.
SoftBank is in talks for a minority stake in Legendary Pictures, Thomas Tull’s studio responsible for financing Godzilla, Man of Steel and other blockbusters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the talks have been ongoing for weeks and have no link to the recently exposed talks with DreamWorks Animation.
THR’s sources say that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is working with the Raine Group, which has an expertise in media deals. Nikesh Arora, a former Google executive, is also involved in SoftBank’s new SoftBank Internet and Media Inc. unit. So, it’s just a matter of time before we finally hear SoftBank closing some deal to get its feet in Hollywood.
The news came just two days after THR broke the story that Jeffrey Katzenberg’s DWA was in talks with SoftBank. The Japanese company was said to be interested in acquiring the studio, but now THR claims that the talks are on the rocks. It’s not known what the cause is, but it could be the same reason that past DWA acquisition talks have ended - Katzenberg may have overvalued his company once again.
Legendary could be worth as much as $3 billion. Tull signed a deal to move from Warner Bros. to Universal last year, but his biggest hits are still coming from WB. The studio took part in Godzilla this past summer and will work with WB again on a Godzilla sequel. It also worked on Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which will likely be a big hit this winter. The studio also has several outstanding projects in development for television.