Paramount began marketing a massive $44.4 billion debt offering today to fund its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery as it awaits a decision by a federal judge that’s the last remaining hurdle to clinching the deal.

“The actual closing date of the acquisition is uncertain,” Paramount said in an SEC filing. The merger “will only be consummated following the satisfaction or waiver of the closing conditions in the WBD merger agreement.” It set an Oct. 7 marker for the purposes of the offering.

The David Ellison-led company has satisfied all conditions but one, a federal court judge must approve the proposed settlement of an antitrust lawsuit against Paramount by 12 State Attorneys General led by California’s Rob Bonta. Ellison and Bonta unveiled the agreement a week ago but U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin declined to approve it at a Sept. 24 hearing, Instead, she set aside a few days for opposition briefs. Responses were due by noon PT today with the AGs and Paramount both defending the settlement.

Meanwhile, Paramount introduced the $44.4 billion offering, which includes about $32 billion in investment-grade debt, in both dollars and euros, and the equivalent of $12.4 billion in high-yield (junk) bonds, which have higher interest rates. According to Bloomberg, Bank of America and Citigroup were hosting calls today to market the debt and racked up enough demand to cover the offering.

Paramount said it will use the proceeds, along with cash on hand, borrowing under previously announced term loan financings, and equity financing, to fund the purchase of WBD.

A total $51.9 billion in debt financing transactions include a $7.5 billion seven-year Term B loan that lenders started marketing last week. The company has set a $49 billion bridge loan as contingent financing if the permanent financing isn’t in place by deal close.

In the filing, and assuming the Oct. 6 close, Paramount calculated its total cash consideration payable to WBD common stockholders at $78 billion including the $31 a share payout, about a week of a so-called ticking fee that kicks in Oct. 1, and payments at closing of about $1.1 billion for vested WBD equity awards.

Paramount unveiled its planned WBD acquisition in February with an equity value of about $80 billion and an enterprise value around $110 billion. Equity value reflects what WBD shareholders walk away with in cash. Enterprise value is equity value, plus debt, minus cash — or what the whole deal is worth.

Warner had about $34 billion in debt and $3.4 billion in cash as of June.

With a market capitalization of $11.5 billion, Paramount Skydance is significantly smaller than WBD (market cap of $77.4 billion). The merged company will carry over $80 billion in long term debt as Par assumes WBD’s obligations and piles on more to finance the acquisition. Annual interest expenses will be well over $6 billion, a level that has alarmed deal critics. Ellison has targeted $6 billion in synergies across the combined company.

Equity funding includes up to $46.7 billion, plus ticking fees, from the Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust and $250 million from RedBird Capital. But they won’t be paying that amount as both have assigned their subscription rights to other parties, including sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, and U.S. investment bank LionTree. The outside investors will each receive newly issued nonvoting shares of Paramount Class B stock at close. The Trust has committed to backstop the equity financing.

The Ellisons were also said to be eying Elon Musk and other wealthy individuals to come on as equity investors.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day fans could soon have a new reason to snag another ticket for the record-setting blockbuster.

A theatrical rerelease is in the works from Sony Pictures that would add previously unseen footage, including a scene involving Rosario Dawson that did not make the version that hit screens July 31, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. A theatrical date has not yet been revealed for the potential rerelease that is expected to include other unspecified footage.

Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink and Jon Bernthal star in director Destin Daniel Cretton‘s superhero movie that stands as the highest-grossing title ever at the domestic box office with more than $950 million. It also ranks No. 3 on the all-time worldwide chart with $2.49 billion. Hailing from Marvel Studios, Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues chugging along at the box office, collecting $4.1 million domestically over the most recent weekend.

This news follows Marvel Studios’ Avengers Endgame: Encore having topped the domestic box office over the weekend, with the rerelease of the 2019 box office smash grossing $26 million to prevail over a slew of newcomers. That rerelease was timed to drum up additional excitement for Disney’s release of Avengers: Doomsday on Dec. 18.

During a fan event in July, Dawson told the crowd that she had filmed a scene for Brand New Day as Claire Temple — the Marvel character she previously portrayed on the series Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders — but that it ended up on the cutting room floor.

“My character is somewhere in that same universe, and I really love that,” Dawson said at the time. “I hope I get to be Claire again.”

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is just shy of becoming the first title to surpass $1 billion at the North American box office, meaning that the rerelease could push it over the edge. Endgame stands just above Brand New Day at No. 2 on the global chart, with the former’s recent return to theaters having brought its worldwide cume to $2.885 billion.

Deadline previously reported on the rerelease.

EXCLUSIVE: Scrubs executive producer/showrunner Aseem Batra got most of the OGs on her wishlist for Season 2 of the ABC revival which she shared with Deadline at the end of Season 1 in April.

“Well, we’ve got Johnny Kastl, we’ve got Scott Foley, we would love to have him back, and, of course, Ken Jenkins,” Batra told Deadline at the time. “We want to see more of Neil Flynn. So we have quite a wishlist.”

Flynn’s Season 2 return as The Janitor for multiple episodes after his appearance in the Season 1 finale was confirmed in July, and Deadline in August broke the news that Foley will reprise his recurring role as Sean Kelly from the original series next season.

Now, Deadline can reveal that another Scrubs standout, Kastl, also is expected to be back for Season 2 in his first acting gig in almost two decades. Batra shared the probability of Kastl reprising his heavily recurring role as the highly inept Dr. Doug Murphy during an interview with Deadline tied to Scrubs‘ Sept. 30 Season 2 premiere.

“That that is my plan,” Batra said. “We’ll see how it all shakes up but we’re writing two more [episodes], and we have him planned in one of those last two.”

This week, Scrubs is slated to do a table read for Episode 8 of its 10-episode second season, which will film next, with Batra and her writing team still working on the scripts for Episodes 9 and 10.

What would make Kastl’s return particularly notable is the fact that he quit acting in 2009 as he wrapped his eight-episode arc on Scrubs to go to law school and has worked as an attorney and business executive since, most recently VP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships for Acorn Finance.

Kastl could guest star on Scrubs alongside Foley who may appear in the Season 2 finale (More on that later).

Foley’s marine biologist Sean butted heads with J.D. (Zach Braff) while the former was dating Elliot (Sarah Chalke), resulting in one of Scrubs‘ signature lines, “Nobody cares, Sean,” which jealous J.D. frequently used on Sean.

“We wanted the fun of those dynamics again, he and J.D. have such a fun dynamic of not liking each other, but it’s like, have they grown a little? What’s going on there?,” Batra said about the idea behind bringing Foley back. “We look for chemistry in our cast, and they’ve always had great chemistry with Scott Foley. So bringing him back for some fun, and the challenges of dating after divorce; people are looking for different things now, and just seeing some of that come out too.”

In a recent interview with Deadline, Chalke provided another reason for Foley’s return.

“The writers were like, ‘How do we bring back Elliot’s neuroses?’,” she said. “And so they thought that Scott would be a good way to do that because now that Elliot’s more comfortable in her job and feels super confident as a doctor, this is kind of what shakes her and brings back a lot of her neurotic days.”

Foley is expected to make his return in Episode 203.

“It’s a short arc,” Batra said, adding, “That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t love to bring him back as much as possible. But it’s different telling stories in 10 episodes than it was telling stories when we had 20 plus,” a reference to the original series, which produced 22-25 episodes a year for its first six seasons.

“So things start to feel a little more compacted, and that’s why,” Batra continued. “But we hope that we’re playing the fun and the comedy in a way that people will enjoy with him.”

Foley has done two episodes so far.

“He may make another appearance, we just love him,” Batra said. “As you’re writing the finale, you kind of see how you might weave guest stars that you love back into the show.”

One guest star Batra and the rest of the Scrubs producing team love but have not been able to bring back in Season 2 is Ken Jenkins.

Batra in April confirmed the plan Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence had shared with Deadline in February to have Jenkins reprise his character as Dr. Kelso in the ABC revival’s second season.

That didn’t pan out, and Jenkins will not be in Season 2, Batra confirmed to Deadline.

“We all have to remember that when we reboot a show, we have to go with where people are in their lives and in their health and the things that are happening in their life,” she said. “So it’s not it’s not anything he can control or we can control, it’s just simply the situation. He’s doing great, but let’s all remember that, because we try to bring people back that we love, and it can’t always work with schedules or things happening in people’s lives.”

Scrubs star/executive producer Braff had a similar reaction when asked recently whether Jenkins, who is 86 and retired from acting, would return.

“The fans want this so much, and I so respect that, we do too, but I think we just also need to be respectful of his age,” he said. “I’ll keep trying, but I think, for currently where he’s at, it’s a bit of a big ask, I’ll just say that.”

Scrubs Season 2 launches on Sept. 30 with a two-episode premiere on ABC and streaming next day on Hulu.