Participant, which produced two Best Picture winners and earned 21 Oscars. is shutting down after 20 years in operation. Jeff Skoll, who founded the company in 2004, informed the staff in a memo that Participant would “wind down company operations.” Their library of 135 films includes “Spotlight,” “Green Book,” “Contagion,” “Good Night and Good Luck,” “Roma,” and “Lincoln.” Sadly, the market for those types of films has been slowly evaporating ever since the pandemic, with audiences shrinking for midbudget movies aimed at adults. Sadly, that’s just the way things have been going and Participant couldn’t continue on in the current state the industry presents itself in.
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.