Chairmen of Fox Filmed Entertainment, Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, made a lot of changes in the unit, beginning with naming former president of 20th Century Fox, Hutch Parker, as 20th Century Fox Film Group's new vice chairman. Parker will also be supervising the Fox Animation division while maintaining the oversight of the TCF film department.
Parker also helps solve the problem of past Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri, who left for Universal to help them build their own animation department. Parker has been the president of TCF since 2005. He has been with Fox since 1995.
Also being promoted within the animation division is Vanessa Morrison, who will be the president, and will report directly to Parker. She has overseen a number of films that have had CGI work as part of their makeup; "Garfield" being one of them. She will manage the Fox Animation staff.
The chairmen continued to draw from within the company as they also promoted TFC executive Debbie Liebling to be president of production at Fox Atomic, a new label targeting the youth demographic. She oversaw hits for Fox like "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" and "Borat." She will report to the head of Fox Searchlight and Fox Atomic, Peter Rice.
Moving up to be co-presidents of TCF are Emma Watts and Alex Young who had been production executives. They have overseen such popular hits as "Night at the Museum" and "X-Men: The Last Stand."
I remember meeting Hutch in Salina Kansas while he was filming the movie Up The Academy. I am not going to share my personal views of what I thought of him then but I can say, he is handsome and successful. Congratulations!
Posted by: sabrina | February 20, 2008 11:44 AM | Permalink to Comment