Paramount is racing to reassure Hollywood that its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, with its HBO streaming service, isn’t aimed at killing movie theaters.

“Theaters will continue to be an essential part of the moviemaking business and social fabric,” Paramount legal chief Makan Delrahim, a former Justice Department antitrust regulator, wrote to California attorney general Rob Bonta in a letter last week viewed by Semafor. “Paramount and WBD have every intention, and, importantly, incentive to keep filling California theaters (and theaters across the world) with a wide range of titles as we look to raise the standard for content production and distribution.”

The letter was sent before Bonta’s Monday press briefing, where he left the door open to filing a suit to try and kill the deal. “There are red flags everywhere for us,” Bonta said. “We’re looking at things like higher prices, lower wages, fewer jobs, less quality, less choice, less competition — the things that you look at when you’re looking at an antitrust case and a proposed merger.”

Bonta’s office didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

It shows that Paramount’s big challenge now — having won over skeptical shareholders, Warner’s skeptical board, and a skeptical White House — is convincing Hollywood talent that it means no harm. Creatives have good reason to be afraid: The combination of Disney and 21st Century Fox led to fewer movies hitting theaters, not more.