A week ago, Saudi Arabia was reportedly part of a Paramount Skydance bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery.

The country’s ambition to own a piece of the Hollywood studio was dashed on Friday by Netflix winning the bidding process with a $72 billion offer, but the deal was very much a talking point at its Red Sea Film Festival on Saturday.

International execs participating on a Red Sea Souk panel on ‘Futureproofing our Industry’, steered by Library Pictures International David Taghioff, shared their thoughts on the deal as a preface to the main topic of the discussion.

Not surprisingly, Gaetan Bruel, president of France ’s National Cinema Centre ( CNC ) was less than enthusiastic about Netflix owning WDB.

France and Netflix have long had a thorny relationship, with the streamer sub

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