A couple of weeks ago, Dick Cook resigned as Chairman of Dinsey Studios, amid rumours that CEO Robert A. Iger was trying to force him to run the studio in a way that he didn’t agree with, and so rather than submitting to Iger’s demands, he left. Now Rich Ross has been named as his replacement. Ross was previously President of Disney Channels Worldwide and was widely touted as the probable successor to Cook, because of the success he’s had growing Disney’s TV operation.
However while that one was expected, the executive shuffle at Universal has taken many people by surprise. The studio’s co-chairmen, Marc Shmuger and David Linde, have been pushed to one side and replaced by Adam Fogelson and Donna Langley. The move comes after NBC Universal CEO Ron Meyer faced pressure to make some changes following a weak year at the box office for the studio, which hasn’t had any major blockbusters and has seen the likes of Public Enemies, State Of Play and Duplicity underperform at the box office. There was also apparently a lot on in-fighting among executives, which Meyer hopes to quell with the change in leadership.
While the move took many industry watchers by surprise, apparently it shouldn’t cause too much of a problem on the lot, as both Fogelson and Langley have a long association with Universal, and Langley in particular has been instrumental in luring the likes of Judd Apatow, Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee to the studio for various projects.
They’ve got a tough job ahead on them though, with the studio lacking blockbuster franchises and needing a change in its culture in order to produce more hits.