Pretty sure David Ellison and Paramount need another legal battle right now like a perpetually sore Ethan Hunt needs to hear about what near fatal mission he should or should not accept.

Yet, in what may end up revealing more twist and turns than another Mission Impossible sequel, that’s exactly what the Warner Bris Discovery buying Paramount has been saddled with thanks to a scathing age discrimination and breach of contract lawsuit from Chris Aronson.

Having exited the company in late 2025 not long after Ellison’s Skydance took control of the company from Shari Redstone, Paramount’s ex-president of Domestic Theatrical Distribution wants more than $4 million in damages.

Clearly pissed that healthcare coverage for himself and his family was cut off after the very successful in his job 69-year-old refused to go along with Paramount alleged shortening his contract to cut back his compensation by $1.3 million, Aronson also wants to make the point that a deal is a deal.

“This case is about a broken promise and an age-skewed replacement decision,” Aronson’s lawyer Barry Kaufman declares in the 32-page complaint filed in LA Superior Court late last night.

After a strong run (can you say Top Gun: Maverick and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise?) at Paramount starting following Aronson’s jump following the merger of Disney and 20th Century Fox, Aronson was among a gaggle of executives who were shown the door by new owner Ellison in October 2025. At the time, with Aronson hanging around until just before the holidays that year, it was all characterized as amicable. Today’s suit shows that is not the case.

“Paramount asked Aronson, at age 69, to commit the final chapter of his distribution career to the studio through December 1st, 2028,” the four-claim, jury trial seeking filing says. “Less than three months later, after the Skydance transaction closed, defendants terminated him without cause, replaced him with a substantially younger executive, and then tried to avoid paying the full value of a fixed-term contract Paramount had just signed. Paramount’s own workforce data shows that this was not an isolated event: older employees, and especially employees age 55 and above, bore a statistically disproportionate share of the layoffs. Defendant’s conduct stripped Aronson of the benefits of his bargain, accelerated the end of his career in theatrical distribution, and supports a reasonable inference of age-based targeting, pretext, and discriminatory motive. Such conduct – knowing, calculated, and economically motivated – supports an award of punitive damages designed to deter precisely this type of corporate behavior.”

Paramount had no comment on the matter from the current Rentrak board member Friday when contacted by Deadline.

Now, even with Ellison’s $111 billion WBD takeover plan under threat from a state Attorneys General antitrust suit, $4 million and change is sofa detritus to the son of Larry Ellison. Yet, the specifics of this case ensure a sure to be messy affair in so far as neither Ellison likes being backed against a wall. And no one in Hollywood likes having their corporate governance questions.

So, perhaps the real question here may be — will this be another case for Beth Wilkinson to take over? Between the ParaBros vs AGs and more, the Wilkinson Stekloff founder is the busiest and most called upon lawyer in the biz right now.

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