Paramount Global Content Distribution held its traditional screening at its studios to present its new TV and film productions, featuring a mix of new IPs, successful franchises being revived, and some of the most anticipated titles of the new season.
*Produced by Luis Cabrera, Los Angeles
Kicking off the major studio screenings in Los Angeles, Paramount Global Content Distribution held its traditional event this past Saturday, May 16, at the beautiful Paramount Theatre, located at Paramount Pictures Studios, to present a wide slate of titles they have prepared for the upcoming season.
Kevin MacLellan, President of Paramount Global Content Distribution and International, opened the screening with a few words about joining the group last year from NBCUniversal, where he served as Chairman of Global International Distribution.
“It’s been a few years since I’ve done an LA Screening, but I am really pleased to be here and see a number of familiar faces”, the executive said. “I wasn’t actually looking to come back to entertainment. But I got a call from David Ellison, and I go and I meet with him. We spent the first hour talking about storytelling and movies and creativity. I had not felt that since working at HBO early on, because over the years, we as an industry became more and more transactional. It was just such a refreshing meeting, and then I was super excited to do it”.
“I am so excited to see what the next phase of entertainment is going to be. And I think you’re going to feel that in what you see today, and in the weeks and months to come from now”, he noted. “We are a storytelling company first. We’re not just making franchises. We’re also making original IP. Every culture, every religion, every country, there are certain things that are very human. And those are the things that I believe include global stories. I think today what you’re going to see in our slate is a lot of global stories. So these are stories that travel”.
“Our TV slate is the biggest and best in the world designed to reach the widest global audience through partners like you”, added Don McGregor, President of Content Licensing at Paramount, highlighting the success of titles presented at the 2025 edition of its traditional screening. “CBS Network airs 13 of the top 20 primetime series, including all four of the top new shows. That’s an achievement that no broadcast network has matched since the early 1990s”.
“We have an impressive five new shows to present”, he summarized, giving way to the start of the content presentation for the attendees.
The first title presented was Einstein, a one-hour drama, produced by CBS Studios. Andy Breckman serves as showrunner, with Breckman, Randy Zisk, Michael Rauch, Tariq Jalil, Rose Hughes, Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia and Laura Beetz serving as executive producers. Matthew Gray Gubler also serves as a producer.
Einstein stars Matthew Gray Gubler as Lewis Einstein, the brilliant but directionless great grandson of Albert Einstein. He spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his reckless antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective (Melissa Fumero) solve her most puzzling cases.
Then, the group presented Cupertino, another one-hour drama from CBS Studios. Robert and Michelle King will serve as executive producers and co-showrunners under their King Size Productions banner, with Robert directing the premiere episode. Liz Glotzer and Sam Hoffman also serve as executive producers.
Cupertino is a David vs. Goliath legal drama set in the heart of Silicon Valley that follows a lawyer (Mike Colter) who is being cheated out of his stock options by his former employer, a tech startup. Refusing to back down, he joins forces with another recently fired attorney (Rachel Keller) to represent those taken advantage of by the tech elite and help them fight back in a high-stakes battle against the Goliaths controlling Silicon Valley.
Another one-hour dramas from CBS Studios, the group presented NCIS: New York, with R. Scott Gemmill, Byron Balasco, LL Cool J and Jason Barrett as executive producers, and Balasco serving as showrunner.
In the series, legendary NCIS Agent Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) returns to his hometown of New York City to their field office, partnering with a roguish agent (Scott Caan) and helping lead a new team as they are tasked with high-stakes missions to defend one of the most vital cities and ports in the world.
Lastly in the drama slate is The F Ward, co-produced by Roadshow Rough Diamond and CBS Studios for Australia’s Stan. It follows failed medical interns who get their last shot at Sydney’s underfunded Pines Hospital, where they battle to overcome personal shortcomings and past mistakes in the hope of finally becoming doctors.
And on the comedy side, the group presented the half-hour comedy series, Eternally Yours, produced by CBS Studios. Joe Port, Joe Wiseman, Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum, and Jason Wang serve as Executive Producers. The pilot was executive produced and directed by Trent O’Donnell.
It is a single-camera family comedy centered around Charles (Ed Weeks) and Liz (Allegra Edwards) – a vampire couple whose once-passionate romance has devolved into a pulseless marriage after 500 years together. Living in present-day Seattle with their oddball coven, they’ve settled into an eternal rut, until their daughter’s earnest human boyfriend unexpectedly enters their lives and forces them to confront whether their love can survive forever… or if forever is a life sentence.
In addition to TV series, Paramount Global Content Distribution also presented its latest feature films, straight from the Paramount Pictures factory.
“The sky’s the limit for Paramount Pictures”, said McGregor. “We’re creating movies with the industry’s leading talent, with more relatable human stories and incredible size and scale. We’re releasing 15 films in theaters this year, nearly double our previous output. And for 2027 and beyond, we’re nearly tripling our production spend to become leaders in the theatrical feature space”.
“The driving force behind the new Paramount is our creative community. We’re partnering with the biggest and best filmmakers, including the Duffer Brothers, James Mangold, and John M. Chu. We’re taking big bets on originals, and we’re proud to be a studio that supports filmmakers who take big swings. We’ll also have IP-driven tentpoles, including the first ever Call of Duty film from Peter Berg and Taylor Sheridan. Plus, new installments of our iconic franchises, like Sonic the Hedgehog, Paw Patrol, A Quiet Place, Transformers, World War Z, and even Top Gun“.
Straight from CinemaCon, the group presented a slate of four new films to attendees in Los Angeles, beginning with Heart of the Beast, an action adventure film, directed by David Ayer and written by Cameron Alexander, starring Brad Pitt, who also serves as a producer. It follows a former Navy SEAL and his retired combat dog attempt to return to civilization after a catastrophic accident happens deep in the Alaskan wilderness.
Second, the group presented Children of Blood and Bone, a fantasy film directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tomi Adeyemi, based on the 2018 novel by Adeyemi. The film stars Thuso Mbedu, Tosin Cole, Amandla Stenberg, Damson Idris, Lashana Lynch, Idris Elba, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cynthia Erivo, Viola Davis, and Regina King. A woman blessed with magical powers by the gods and living in a place where you are forbidden to use them, teams up with a princess to summon the gods and bring down the oppressive regime.
Lastly, the group presented the trailer for Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol, a dark, thrilling reimagining of the classic Charles Dickens tale, directed by Ti West and starring Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge; and teasers for the highly-anticipated fourth installment of the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, set to premiere in 2027; and the movie based on Call of Duty, one of the most successful video game franchises of all-time, set to be released in 2028.
