Miramax Films' chief Daniel Battsek out

Daniel Battsek, head of Disney's specialty movie label Miramax Films, is being forced out of his job after a series of flops failed to turn around the struggling company whose brighter moments included such prestige titles as "No Country For Old Men," "The Queen" and "Doubt."

Earlier this month, Disney slashed 70% of Miramax's workforce, to 20 people, reduced the number of movies it will now release to just three a year and folded much of its key marketing and distribution operations into its own studio. Battsek was noticeably absent attending the London Flm Festival while most of his team was being pink-slipped.

Now, by the end of January, Disney will shut down Miramax's New York headquarters and its Los Angeles office and maintain a small dedicated staff at its Burbank lot.

Battsek, who was hand-picked to run Miramax four years ago by then-Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook (who also recently was ousted) had a weak track record as of late with such misses as "The Boys Are Back," Mike Judge's "Extract" and "Cheri" starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

"With the change in direction at Miramax, we have reached a mutual agreement with Daniel Battsek that he will leave his post as president, effective January 2010," Disney's new movie chairman Rich Ross said in a statement.

Battsek had worked for the Disney organization for 18 years, mostly in the studio's international operation in London.

Disney did not name a replacement for Battsek.

-- Claudia Eller

Photo: Exiting Miramax President Daniel Battsek, left, with former Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook in 2007. Credit: Kevin Winters/Getty Images.

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Disney plans new soundstage and production facility in Santa Clarita Valley [Updated]

The Walt Disney Co. today filed plans to build a sprawling soundstage and production complex on the northwest corner of its Golden Oak Ranch in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The proposed Disney/ABC Studios at the Ranch would occupy 56 acres of the sprawling, 890-acre ranch just off Route 14 at Placerita Canyon Road, just south of Santa Clarita. Plans call for six pairs of soundstages, talent bungalows, administrative and production offices, storage and a commissary and other amenities.

The project would be a much-needed boost to Los Angeles' entertainment-industry economy, which has been buffeted by a production slowdown triggered by the recession and the decade-long outflow of film and TV jobs to other countries and states such as New Mexico, Lousiana and New York that offer generous tax breaks and credits. Disney-owned ABC moved its own sitcom "Ugly Betty" from Los Angeles to New York last year, which helped spur the state Legislature to implement its own film tax credit program this year to curb so-called runaway production. Still, as Disney's announcement attests, the bulk of television production remains in Los Angeles.

Richard Ballering, executive director of production for ABC Studios, said the project would address the studio's shortage of production facilities.The network can have as many as 16 to 23 television productions taking place during the height of pilot season. With only seven soundstages on the Walt Disney Studio lot, production ends up scattered at facilities throughout the region, he said.

At the same time, Ballering said audiences are demanding more varied settings for prime-time dramas like "Brothers & Sisters," which now occupies four of Disney's seven soundstages. With indoor space at a premium, Ballering said, more and more production is taking place on location throughout Los Angeles -- a costly proposition, at a time when ad revenues are shrinking.

These needs set the stage for ABC Studios at the Ranch, whose 216,000 square feet of soundstage space -- 18,000 square feet per soundstage -- could accommodate four established shows or six freshmen series.

"This will help us to better manage our portfolio of shows," Ballering said.

Miramax's Battsek is absent as ax swings

Some folks at Disney's specialty movie unit Miramax Films are dismayed that their leader Daniel Battsek jetted off to the London Film Festival this week while the ax is falling on many of his employees and the company is basically being dismantled. Earlier this month, Disney announced plans to slash 70% of Miramax's staff to 20 people and slice by half the number of movies it releases to a mere three a year.

While Battsek, who's based at Miramax's New York headquarters, told a handful of his direct reports that they would be losing their jobs before he left, he didn't stick around to offer any comfort to other employees who were told the bad news by HR. Some of the 55 people who Miramax plans to let go are still awaiting word on their fate.

Disney has agreed to pay people through the end of January.

Battsek, who went to the London Film Festival for a screening of Miramax's current release, "The Boys Are Back," could not be reached for comment. While the executive may have felt compelled to go to the festival to support the film's star Clive Owen and director Scott Hicks, who were also there, his timing seems poor given all of the drama unfolding under his own roof.

The fate of Miramax's smaller Los Angeles operation on Sunset Boulevard is still unclear,  though many are betting that it will ultimately be shut down. The L.A. office is headed by Battsek's production chief, Keri Putnam, who is among those leaving the company.

Battsek's own fate remains murky. He was picked by Disney's recently ousted movie chairman Dick Cook to run Miramax four years ago after its founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein were run out of the company. While Battsek has continued Miramax's penchant for releasing acclaimed films such as "No Country for Old Men," "The Queen" and "Doubt," his more recent track record has been weak, with misses like the drama "The Boys Are Back," which has grossed just $600,000 since release a month ago, "Cheri" and "Extract."

It will be interesting to see what happens to Miramax once Disney's new movie chief Rich Ross gets around to restructuring it. His boss, Walt Disney Co. chief executive Bob Iger has a bigger appetite for broad audience movies than he does for the more narrow offbeat adult dramas for which Miramax is known.

You can almost bet that if the market for independent films were better, Disney would put Miramax's lustrous library up for auction -- it includes such modern classics as "Pulp Fiction" and "Shakespeare in Love" -- and that would be end of it. Many in Hollywood's creative community are distressed by what's happened to Hollywood's specialty film business with the demise of Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse and Paramount Vantage, and now they have Miramax to worry about.

-- Claudia Eller

Photo: Daniel Battsek. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Life decisions as Lifetime is merged into A&E Networks

Senior executives and staff are on pins and needles at Lifetime Television and A&E Networks these days. Now that the deal to merge Lifetime and its sister channels into A&E Networks has closed, the brass at A&E (which stands for Arts & Entertainment) has started the unpleasant task of figuring out who's staying and who's going at their various channels. 

Exits -- either voluntary or forced -- were expected when the deal was announced last summer. Even the press release detailing the sale said combining the channels into one entity would "yield substantial cost efficiencies." While A&E is offering some senior staff the option to stay on, that does not guarantee the same position or salary, people familiar with situation said. In other words, the lawyers are working overtime figuring out exit packages. The cuts could be as much as 10% of the 1,100 staffers.

Still to be determined is how Lifetime CEO Andrea Wong's management duties will change. Before the merger, she reported to a board of executives from Lifetime's parent companies, Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp. Under the new ownership, which brought NBC Universal into the mix with Disney and Hearst, Wong now reports to A&E TV Networks CEO Abbe Raven. There is talk that while programming and marketing will continue to report to Wong, other business units at Lifetime including sales, affiliate relations, legal, human resources and public relations will report to Raven and her team.

Industry watchers are curious to see if Wong and Raven can coexist. Wong, a flashy executive and MIT graduate with close ties to Disney CEO Bob Iger and TV co-chief Anne Sweeney, has been at Lifetime for a little over two years. Before that she oversaw alternative programming for ABC. Raven, who keeps a lower profile, has quietly risen through the ranks of A&E to become one of the most powerful executives in the cable industry.

So far, the biggest name opting to leave Lifetime is Patricia Langer, the executive vice president of the network's legal, business and human resources units. Chief Financial Officer Jim Wesley may also leave the network in the next few months. Expected to stay on are marketing chiefs Bob Bibb and Lew Goldstein, and JoAnn Alfano, the well-regarded executive vice president of programming there.

For Lifetime, the changes come as the channel has looked to build its audience with more original programming and an expensive acquisition in "Project Runway." The track record so far is mixed. "Drop Dead Diva" has turned into a surprise hit for the network, but "Project Runway," which Lifetime snagged from Bravo in an ugly legal battle, has seen its ratings take a fall after a strong premiere.

-- Joe Flint

Photos: Top right: Abbe Raven. Credit: A&E Networks. Bottom left: Andrea Wong. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger outlines role of modern studio chief

The recent upheaval at Walt Disney Studios — with the departure of Chairman Dick Cook and the  appointment of former Disney Channel Worldwide President Rich Ross — has spurred debate over the role of the modern studio chief at the Walt Disney Co.

Is the studio chief a creative leader, the visionary who identifies original stories that blossom into full-grown franchises, or, as Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein suggested, a brand manager who is deft at wringing value from familiar, established properties, as is suggested by the planned $4-billion acquisition of comic book giant Marvel Entertainment?

Walt Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger weighed in on the issue today in a keynote address at a business and entertainment conference sponsored by the USC Gould School of Law and the Beverly Hills Bar Assn.

The answer is: both.

"The primary responsibility, aside from creating value for the shareholders, is to choose good movies," Iger said. "I also think it's really important that the person who's making those decisions has a business sense as well. Those two go hand in hand."

Iger talked about the effect of eroding DVD sales on the movie business. The chief executive was the first in Hollywood to publicly address the elephant in the room, telling investors earlier this year that the lucrative home entertainment business was suffering from more than just an economic downturn. It's undergoing permanent change.

The average household with a DVD player has amassed 80 titles, Iger said, but the era of such libraries "already has waned." Although the new-generation Blu-ray DVDs offer high-definition images and enhanced sound, the players also work just fine with the old discs — so consumers don't feel any urgency to replace their entire video catalog, Iger said.

Meanwhile, other forms of entertainment like updating Facebook statuses and playing online games are vying for viewers' free time. 

"As I look at our company, the business model that formed the underpinning of the modern-day motion picture business is changing right before our eyes, in profound ways," Iger said. "That means you're going to have to change your business in profound ways, or you will no longer have a business."

Movie theaters are feeling the heat too.

Iger applauded theater owners for investing in digital projection and 3D exhibition, but he said the pressure's on to keep improving customer service and the overall experience if the cineplex hopes to compete with ever-larger-screen TVs that have Internet connections.

The Disney chief hinted of another impending threat: shrinking periods between films' theatrical release and their availability on DVD.

"In order keep the DVD business vital, that product has to be perceived as being fresh in the marketplace," Iger said. "Things in demand and viewed as successful and great can lose their luster quickly because so much more is released into the marketplace every day. The press to move the DVD window up, be it  physical or digital, will grow will because of that phenomenon."

Iger acknowledged it's a sensitive topic; it elicited howls of protests from the National Assn. of Theater Owners when he first broached it in 2005. "I don't want to make too many headlines today."

--Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo credit: Bob D''Amico / Disney

Disney names new president of Disneyland Resort

George Kalogridis, a 38-year Disney veteran who got his start as a busboy at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., has been named president of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.

As president, Kalogridis will oversee a workforce of 20,000 employees -- whom Disney refers to as "cast members" -- and the 506-acre resort, which encompasses Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure theme parks, three hotels and the Downtown Disney shopping district.

The 55-year-old executive most recently served as chief operating officer for Disneyland Resort Paris. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of resort operations for Disneyland in Anaheim, where he played a significant role in the opening of California Adventure and Downtown Disney.

"I am thrilled to be returning to Disneyland, particularly during this time of significant expansion," Kalogridis said in a statement, referring to the $1-billion expansion of California Adventure.

Kalogridis succeeds Ed Grier, who is retiring from the company. He will report to Al Weiss, president of worldwide operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: George Kalogridis. Credit: Disneyland Resort Paris

Next decision for Disney: how to replace Rich Ross

Now that Rich Ross has been bumped up from president of Disney Channels Worldwide to chairman of Walt Disney Studios, attention will soon turn to who will be taking his old job.

No word from Disney yet on whom that will be, but in e-mail to staff, Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of Disney's Media Networks unit, said a replacement for Ross would be named in the next few weeks.

There is, of course, a list of usual suspects within Disney for Ross' job. One name that naturally leaps to mind is Gary Marsh, who is president of entertainment for Disney Channel and the top creative executive beneath Ross. Under his watch, Disney Channel launched "Hannah Montana," "Wizards of Waverly Place" and "That's So Raven." Marsh has been at Disney Channel for 21 years, so he certainly knows all the turf there. However, it remains to be seen if Marsh is interested in giving up his passion for programming to assume all the other, less fun parts that go with the top job, including the politics and number-crunching.

Speaking of number-crunching, there is Jewell Engstrom, chief financial officer and executive vice president of the Disney-ABC Cable Networks Group. Engstrom, who reports to Sweeney, oversees all the financial operations for Disney's cable networks (with the exception of the ESPN unit) domestically and abroad, which include 23 Disney Channels and eight Toon Disney channels. 

Another candidate could be Giorgio Stock, executive vice president and managing director of Disney Channels, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Stock, who just took that post in March, has been with Disney since 1997 and prior to his current job was head of Disney Channels, Italy.

A dark horse could be Paul Lee, who has had a strong track record turning around ABC Family. The channel's ratings have improved dramatically under Lee over the last five years, and it has a successful series in "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and a franchise in its "25 Days of Christmas" programming.

-- Joe Flint

Rich Ross named chairman of Walt Disney Studios

Rich Ross, the television executive who helped revive the moribund Disney Channel, now has to prove he can work movie magic at Walt Disney Studios.

The 47-year-old former talent department head has been tapped by Disney Chief Executive Robert A. Iger to fill the post formerly held by Dick Cook, who was ousted last month after clashing with his boss and failing to deliver enough hits over the last year.

Iger will look to Ross to reinvigorate Disney’s flagging box-office fortunes and develop film franchises that can be sold across the entertainment giant’s lines of businesses — including theme parks, consumer products and television — as well as grapple with a host of technological issues that are quickly reshaping Hollywood.

“Rich has an outstanding record of creating high-quality family entertainment that delights audiences around the world,” Iger said in a prepared statement. “With his success in building the Disney brand across many of our businesses, his astute marketing sensibility, his proven ability in working effectively with talent and his skill at navigating complex global markets, I’m confident he’s the perfect leader for our studio group.”

By picking an executive from outside the clubby precincts of the movie business, Iger is signaling that he wants Ross to shake up a studio that the Disney chief views as entrenched in the past, from relying on high-priced, aging stars to open films to spending extravagantly on movie marketing.

To achieve this, Ross may be borrowing liberally from the playbook he followed to turn around Disney Channel, which has eclipsed the movie studio in recent years as a hothouse for talent and ideas that could be packaged and resold across the company’s various platforms. Ross has proved himself adept at turning entertainment into brands -- high profile examples include "Hannah Montana," which launched pop star Miley Cyrus' career, and "High School Musical,' which was created for television but quickly found life — and revenue — in recorded music, a big-screen blockbuster and a stage show.

Indeed, at a company that stresses team playing among its executives, Ross may be the ultimate team player.

Disney restructures specialty film label Miramax Films

Walt Disney Studios is dramatically scaling back its specialty film label Miramax Films, slashing 50 jobs, cutting back the number of movies it releases and consolidating its marketing, distribution, operations and administrative support functions into the parent studio in Burbank.

Miramax President Daniel Battsek will continue to oversee development, production and business and legal affairs out of the unit's New York offices. Battsek, the British executive who was handpicked by recently ousted Disney Studios chief Dick Cook to run the company four years ago, will report to Cook's soon-to-be-announced successor.

With the elimination of 50 positions, some 20 people will be left to work out of MIramax's New York and Los Angeles offices.

The move, which had been anticipated, will see Miramax cut its annual release slate in half. The distributor will now release just three films a year, down from six to eight.

"This restructuring maximizes operating efficiencies and provides significant cost savings while allowing Miramax to focus on its greatest strength: the creation of high-quality entertainment," said Disney Studios President Alan Bergman.

Disney is the latest major media company, including Time Warner, Viacom and News Corp., to either scale back or shutter its low-profit margin-specialty label in recent times.

Update (Oct. 3, 12:30 PM): For more on the Miramax restructuring, see the story in today's Times.

--Claudia Eller

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Disney Channel's Rich Ross headed to the movies

Disney Channel chief Rich Ross will figure prominently in the new management structure at Walt Disney Studios following the ouster of former studio Chairman Dick Cook, according to people close to the situation.

It is unclear whether Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger will discuss Ross' appointment with the company's board of directors at their regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow on the Burbank lot. People believe the announcement could come as soon as next week.

Iger hasn't commented publicly about his plans for the studio, but industry observers speculate he may divvy up Cook's job among two or more executives.

A Disney spokeswoman declined comment.  

Ross' departure from Disney Channel, which he built over the last dozen years into a tween programming juggernaut that reaches nearly 100 million U.S. households, would leave a new management void that would need to be filled in short order.

A person familiar with Iger's thinking said the Disney chief, in naming a new studio head, is looking to create an openness that didn't exist under Cook.  

Iger has been publicly critical of the studio's movie picks and the high cost of some of the films, including Jerry Bruckheimer's money-losing summer 3-D family movie, "G-Force." The studio's most recent big-budget release, "Surrogates," starring Bruce Willis, debuted last weekend with a paltry $14.9 million.

This weekend, the company re-releases Pixar Animation's two "Toy Story" movies in 3-D in a two-week run, followed by the reissue of "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" later this month.  

--Claudia Eller and Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Rich Ross, left, president of Disney Channel pictured with "High School Musical" director and choreographer Kenny Ortega. Credit: Myung J.Chun / Los Angeles Times