Jon Jashni named president of Legendary Entertainment

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Legendary Entertainment has promoted its longtime chief creative officer to president as the film finance and production company behind ‘The Hangover’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ is in the midst of a significant expansion.

Jon Jashni, who has overseen Legendary’s movie production and development since the firm’s early days in 2006, will now expand his duties to include some oversight of business affairs, physical production, television and comics. He continues to report directly to Chairman Thomas Tull.

The move comes as Legendary is moving into fully financing its own movies, starting with the Guillermo Del Toro-directed tent pole ‘Pacific Rim,’ which is in pre-production. The company also recently launched a joint venture in China called Legendary East, which will make English-language movies in the world’s most populous nation. Jashni is on the board of Legendary East.

Legendary has also in the last year formed television production and comic-book units.

This past summer it closed a new $700-million credit facility to help finance its activities, and Tull has bought out a number of prior investors in order to more closely control Legendary’s future.

The company also continues to co-finance movies at Warner Bros., where it has been based since 2005, including the upcoming sequels ‘Wrath of the Titans’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’

-- Ben Fritz

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