David Zaslav on Warner Bros. exits for Toby Emmerich, Michael De Luca, and Pam Abdi – Deadline

Warner Bros.. Discovery CEO David Zaslav On Wednesday he dropped his memo to employees about Toby Emmerich to step down as Chairman of Motion Pictures Group And the three new studio divisions are under construction. It’s a structure somewhat similar to the way Disney deals with franchise brands, hoping DC has its own maestro Kevin Feige to exploit IP across all media.

At the same time, the studio sent out an official press release announcing the former MGM executives. Michael De Luca and Pam Abdi, Co-Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures, which currently includes Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, DC-Based Film Production, Warner Bros. Feature Animation.

“Michael and Pam are very talented creative leaders with a proven track record of success. We are delighted to welcome them both. Warner Bros. Discovery and we look forward to seeing them take this iconic nearly century-old studio to even greater heights of film excellence,” Zaslav said in a statement.

“Warner Bros. is home to the best innovators in business and Pam, and I look forward to executing on David’s direction of “Dreams Big, Dreams Bold” as we strive to create the next generation of successful films with the potential to entertain and thrill,” said De Luca. We are grateful to Toby for the tremendous impact he has had on this studio and our industry, and we are thrilled to be able to continue to benefit from his extensive experience and creativity.”

Emmerich and Zaslav just traveled to Cannes for the world premiere of a movie Elvis , What the last Deadline said at the after-party was dazzled by him. Zaslav also enjoyed a cell phone video and captured it for a light show themed Elvis Presley’s music. Announced today a five-year Emmerich production deal — which includes Warner Bros. Discovery financing the Emmerich project and has distribution rights to his film and television series — indicates that the former Warner Bros. president won’t be far away in Burbank, CA despite the change here from an executive in New Line to another.

As Zaslav says below in his memo, Emmerich is “a great leader and friend to me and to many,” while praising Emmerich’s outstanding achievements including 2018 as a notable year for the studio with $5.6 billion at the global box office; Aquaman, DC’s most successful movie; pics like Ready Player One, Meg, A Star Is Born And the Crazy Rich Asians;In addition to the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, grossing $1.08 billion joker, Which won two Oscars.

Zaslav note to staff below.

everybody,

This morning, Toby Emrich He informed his team of his decision to step down as Warner Bros. Group Chairman. Pictures and launching his own production company. I’ve known Toby for years, he’s a great leader and friend to me and so many, I’m so happy for him, and even more so thrilled that he’s chosen to remain part of the Warner Bros. Discovery family through this new production project. We are also grateful to him for agreeing to remain at the helm of the Warner Bros. group. Pictures during a transition period this summer.

Over the past few months, Toby and I have been talking about the best structure for Warner Bros. photo collection. And the idea of ​​creating three distinct movie clips around Warner Bros. Pictures / New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Feature Animation and DC-based movie production. I greatly appreciated his vision and partnership during this process and feel confident that this is the right strategy for our company going forward.

During these same discussions, Toby first shared with me his desire to start his own production company. I told him he had my absolute support. He is incredibly talented and has a reputation throughout the industry as a bold and creative visionary. While he was president of New Line Cinema and then Warner Bros. Picture Group, has been the driving force behind a variety of highly successful films and series, including The Notebook, Elf, Crazy Rich Asians, A Star Is Born And the Batman. I have no doubts that he will provide even more extraordinary and unique stories in his new capacity, and I look forward to continuing our working relationship for many years to come.

We have a deep history of world-class production here at Warner Bros. Discovery, and our goal going forward is to tell and share more of the best stories with a larger audience around the world. Toby and his team will play an important and valuable role in this endeavour, and we are thrilled that they have joined us, and we can’t wait to see what they create in the coming months and years.

David