Paramount Shuffle Hits Top Execs
A restructuring at Paramount Pictures has led to the exits of head of physical production Georgia Kacandes, senior vice president of production Ben Cosgrove, executive vice president of production Dan Levine, head of casting Gail Levin, Paramount Vantage topper Guy Stodel, senior vice president of visual effects Kim Locasio, and Aimee Shieh, head of Paramount's New York literary office.
The bad news was delivered early Tuesday, and move came shortly after the exits of John Lesher and president of production Brad Weston, and the appointment of Adam Goodman to president of Paramount's film group.
Goodman sent out a memo to employees that discussed the number of layoffs but not the specific casualties. Goodman, who attributed the move to a need for "streamlining the leadership of the production organization," wrote in the memo that 31 people were cut from the production workforce. The timing of the layoffs coincided with the end of Par's fiscal quarter, sources said. The cuts were accomplished with a "mix of job eliminations, layoffs and reorganizations in creative, casting and physical production, as well as the Paramount Vantage label," Goodman wrote in the memo.
Some streamlining was inevitable. When DreamWorks got its divorce from Paramount, Goodman was named to be president of production, the same title Weston held. The studio developed parallel production divisions, with Goodman initially focused on percolating a multitude of projects that Paramount kept in its custody settlement with DreamWorks. Among those projects are "Matt Helm," which is being scripted by Paul Attanasio and produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
Goodman, who was hands on with the studio's blockbuster "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" when that film took shape as a DreamWorks/Paramount co-production, is consolidating his own team. Not surprisingly, the exiting execs were aligned with Lesher or Weston.
For instance, Lesher brought in Kacandes to replace Mark Bakshi, and he also was aligned with Levin and Vantage's Stodel, the specialty film shingle which Lesher ran before being promoted 18 months ago.
Cosgrove and Levine were closely aligned with Weston, who is negotiating to become a producer on the Par lot. Both production execs are well thought of in the community.
Cosgrove shepherded such projects as "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and "Dreamgirls" and was prepping the David O. Russell-directed drama "The Fighter" with Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams, as well as "Interstellar," a Jonah Nolan-scripted drama that has Steven Spielberg attached to direct, and "The Lost City of Z," which James Gray is writing as a Brad Pitt star vehicle. Cosgrove previously worked for six years for George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's Section Eight and was exec veep of "Syriana" and "Good Night and Good Luck," Levine joined Weston from Dimension Films, ans his films include "Cloverfield" and "Shooter."
Levine was an exec at Dimension Films when Weston was co-president, and left for Par soon after Weston did. Levine has shepherded such Par films as "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," the Stephen Sommers-directed film that Paramount releases Aug. 7; "Cloverfield," "Friday the 13th," "Stardust" and "Shooter." He has been overseeing the reboot of the Jack Ryan franchise, the Robert Ludlum thriller "The Chancellor Manuscript" with Marc Forster and Leonardo DiCaprio, "Black Monday" with Stephen Gaghan, and "Falcon's Tale" with Bill Monahan and Brad Pitt attached.
Stodel came to Vantage from New Line, where his films included "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Friday the 13th" (a New Line/Paramount co-production). He acquired the remake of "The Orphanage" that Guillermo del Toro is producing, and Alejandro Amenabar's "The Sea Inside."
Locasio's exit begs the question of whether Paramount will continue to have its own visual effects department. Said Rob Legato, visual effects supervisor on the upcoming Martin Scorsese-directed "Shutter Island:" "Having someone so knowledgeable there made my job that much easier. It's a shame."
Shieh ran the Gotham literary office for the past year, and she, director of development Mac Hawkins, and assistant Megan McIlroy were all let go and the office shuttered. Paramount has always had a strong Gotham lit presence, and the longest-running dedicated New York office, for about 20 years. The studio famously received early looks at trophy books like "The Godfather" and "Rosemary's Baby" because of New York-based scouts. Speculation is that Goodman will restructure that department and house it on the Par lot.
The restructure isn't entirely surprising. Reporting to chairman-CEO Brad Grey and vice chairman Rob Moore, Goodman is being relied on to bolster a slate that in the near term gets event-caliber films from DreamWorks Animation and Marvel. The studio's 2010 slate looks strong, but Goodman has slots to fill for 2011 and beyond.
Down two production execs, Goodman's exec team has David Beaubaire, Greg Mooradian, Geoff Stier and Marc Evans.
According to the Goodman memo, those laid off were getting the news today, and that supervisors were working through a transition plan with those employees.
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Wow, that is pretty nuts.
Posted by: The Pit | 06/30/2009 at 04:27 PM
When will Paramount/Viacom buy Lionsgate? That could be their "B" unit and a great library buy.
Posted by: Bert Duckwall | 06/30/2009 at 04:48 PM