Usual suspects lead in the film industry
As the movie business changes, the people in top executive roles remain the same.
Last week’s shakeup at Warner Bros. Pictures in Burbank prompted the usual metaphors involving musical chairs (including in my write-up) to describe the ongoing cycle of familiar faces atop the Hollywood studios.
Indeed, during the last few years, executive intrigue at the major studios has been best characterized by a sense of monotony, with familiar names always popping up for whatever big jobs become available. The more the film industry changes, the more the people running it stay the same.
The prime example is Michael De Luca’s ascension to the top of Warner Bros. Pictures. Or sort of the top. He and his former MGM partner Pamela Abdy will serve as co-chairpersons of the studio, but the job formerly held by Toby Emmerich will eventually be split into three divisions reporting to Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav. Separate executives to-be-determined will shepherd the DC superhero films and Warner Bros. Feature Animation.
Those caveats aside, it’s the ultimate full-circle move for De Luca, who as a young up-and-coming executive ran production for New Line Cinema under Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne until his ouster in 2001 when he was replaced by Emmerich. De Luca and Abdy will now oversee both Warner Bros. and the New Line label. And round and round they go.
This is an extreme version of a common quirk of the movie business, where the names put forth for the top studio roles have long been the same people who ran the dream factory one or two decades ago. The New York Times described the shuffle as the latest continuation of a “longtime game of rearranging executive deck chairs,” only leaving out the phrase “on the Titanic.”
Tom Rothman, who once presided over Fox Filmed Entertainment for more than a decade, has led Sony Pictures’ film group since replacing Amy Pascal in 2015. His fellow Fox co-chair Jim Gianopulos guided Paramount Pictures until being replaced by Nickelodeon’s Brian Robbins last year, representing a chink in the old guard’s armor. Alan Horn only just left Walt Disney Studios at the end of last year. Horn’s exit followed a distinguished run at the Mouse House, itself a late-career act after he was pushed out of Warner Bros. for, ironically in retrospect, being too old-fashioned.
The business has been ripe for a broader generational changeover as the world of entertainment warps around the gravitational pull of streaming and the technology giants. We’ll see how that takes shape.
Zaslav still has to pick someone to run the DC universe, which will be a key
perch within the newly combined company, though that person will inevitably suffer comparisons to Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige. Amazon’s Prime Video head Mike Hopkins is considering new film leadership for MGM. Among the names always mentioned for such roles in various rounds of speculation is Emma Watts, a former Fox and Paramount film executive.
The repetition has started to abate somewhat, with the inclusion of less obvious-seeming choices.
Robbins comes from the world of kids television from his child acting role in “Head of the Class” to running Awesomeness TV and Nickelodeon. Abdy, the incoming Warner Bros. Pictures co-chair, has cut her teeth in the business of quasi-independent commercial movies, leading production at Arnon Milchan’s New Regency before producing movies like “Queen & Slim” as a partner with Brad Weston at Makeready and later joining MGM.
Still, a veteran media executive recently bemoaned to me the lack of a new generation of young hotshots to take the studio mantle, a frequent complaint in the often staid film business. There are several competing and not-mutually-exclusive theories for the slow churn.
First, young would-be studio heads would rather run tech companies.
An ambitious and smart aspiring businessperson looking to make a name for oneself might think twice before going into an industry that so many people think is in a state of managed decline. They might want to get into a growth industry instead. And for those seeking the stable, yuppie suit-and-tie lifestyle, law school might be a better bet than the talent agencies and entertainment companies at this point.
There’s not much of a clear farm system for developing new talent.
That role used to be filled by companies like New Line, where not only De Luca and Emmerich but also current Universal Pictures chief Donna Langley made their marks. De Luca and Emmerich were 30-somethings during their first do-si-do. Today’s business has few shingles, if any, like the old New Line, which bridged a gap between independent and mainstream commercial cinema. The ones that do, like A24, are more powerful as independents and are totally different from the franchise-obsessed, conglomerate-owned studios. Those who run businesses with more autonomy and lucrative deals, like Legendary film head and “Dune” producer Mary Parent, tend to like it that way.
Businesses in flux often want a “steady hand” to steer the ship.
That often means going with someone who’s done it before.
At Disney, Bob Iger needed a respected veteran like Alan Horn to serve as head-of-state at its studio business after flops like “John Carter.” He wanted someone with the gravitas to manage the increasingly unwieldly empire of Marvel, Pixar, Disney Animation, live action, Lucasfilm and the Fox assets. In Horn’s case, it worked.
With the whole industry in flux, the tried and true bet sometimes looks attractive, even when an innovator would be the more forwardthinking choice.
Despite the turmoil, these are high-profile, well-paid jobs.
Studio chiefs tend not to surrender these roles willingly. Despite the total corporatization of the studios, there’s still some veneer of glamour to them. When people do step down, it’s often for a lucrative production deal with their former employer, like Emmerich’s new pact with Warner Bros. Discovery, which lasts for five years and covers movies and TV shows.
It’s also a clubby business, where decisions are made based on established relationships.
All this to say that people in the film business love to stick with what works, especially in times of change.
In a world in which 59year-old Tom Cruise is still the world’s biggest movie star, and arguably bigger than ever, that shouldn’t be very surprising.