JACOBSON FIRED AS PARTNER GIVES BIRTH, DISNEY UPS AVIV AND CUTS STAFF BY 650 (NYT, LAT, WSJ, THR, VAR)

By Stephen Saito

Disney has a new production president and a new organization after the studio gave six-year production prexy Nina Jacobson and 650 other employees around the world their walking papers on Tuesday. According to various media reports, the studio also will be reducing its production slate to between 10 to 13 films per year, with about three coming from the live action unit Touchstone.

Jacobson recently reupped her contract and was coming off the success of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and her decision to pass on M. Night Shyamalan's badly buzzed about "Lady in the Water." She was expected to leave at some point, but few expected she would would be let go of now. The studio's domestic marketing president Oren Aviv, who is also credited for the story idea behind 2004's "National Treasure," will replace her.

Writes the New York Times' Laura Holson:

"He's well suited to the job," Richard Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said of Mr. Aviv. "He's got a great sense of marketing and how to sell something."

Mr. Cook declined to comment on Ms. Jacobson's departure. But people apprised of the studio's plans said Mr. Aviv did not want to share responsibility with Ms. Jacobson.

"The studio is undergoing a major reorganization, and there simply isn't room for everyone in the new structure," Ms. Jacobson said in a statement. "I'm sorry to go, but I am proud of what I've left behind - a vibrant movie studio with major franchises and thriving relationships with some of the most talented filmmakers in the world."

The Los Angeles Times' Claudia Eller reports that Jacobson was offered a production deal, which she declined. Eller also reports that Jacobson's partner was giving birth when she discovered the bad news.

Writes Eller:

Jacobson, 40, one of Hollywood's most respected movie executives, was fired Monday morning by her boss, studio Chairman Dick Cook, when she called him from the hospital room where her partner was about to deliver their third child. Despite the record-breaking performance of Disney's current release, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," she was hearing rumors and wanted reassurance that her job was safe. It wasn't. Cook told Jacobson - who had two years to go on her three-year contract - that Oren Aviv, the studio's marketing chief, was replacing her as president of production.

Cook offered Jacobson a production deal at the studio, which she declined.

"I would rather start fresh with something new," she said Tuesday. "I feel very sad to be leaving a job that I have loved."

Cook called Jacobson a "good friend, great colleague and tireless worker." Acknowledging that the timing was bad, Cook said, "I begged to see her face to face and she wanted to talk to me right then. This was not what anybody wanted."

The Los Angeles Times also reports reaction to the news from around the industry, writing:

"Alamo" producer Mark Johnson said as disappointed as she was (with that film), Jacobson "never turned on" the director of the film or Johnson himself.

"She is the best studio executive I have ever worked with. You know where you stand with her," said Johnson, who went on to produce "Narnia."...

"She is one of the best executives in the business," said Sony Pictures movie chief Amy Pascal. "Talent loves her and she knows how to walk the tricky tightrope that all of us in these jobs have to walk, navigating commerce and art."

Meanwhile, Variety's Chris Gardner writes that the others getting the pink slip will be split equally between U.S. and international employees with 325 jobs cut primarily in the home entertainment and theatrical disitribution divisions.

Writes Gardner:

Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook on Tuesday also confirmed that the studio will reduce its annual bigscreen output to 10 live-action and animated films, along with two or three Touchstone pics. The studio averages close to 18 pics a year currently. Sources said that cuts to the studio's production groups will not be significant. Also likely to remain unaffected are Walt Disney Feature Animation, Pixar Studios, Miramax Films, Buena Vista Music Group and Buena Vista Theatrical Prods.

On Tuesday, Disney also announced the restructuring of several business units under two umbrellas: Buena Vista Worldwide Marketing & Distribution and Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment.

The Hollywood Reporter also discusses how the move will affect the international divisions, writing:

In addition, the studio is reorganizing its international businesses under two global units. Mark Zoradi, who has overseen international distribution, will add domestic distribution to his portfolio. He has been appointed president of Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, overseeing the distribution and marketing of all Disney and Touchstone films worldwide through Buena Vista Worldwide Marketing and Distribution. Robert Chapek, who has headed Disney's domestic home video efforts, will now look after international home video as well. He was named president of Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment, overseeing the worldwide distribution and marketing of the studio's films on home entertainment platforms through BVWHE.

Aviv, Zoradi and Chapek will report to Cook. Gallagher will report to Zoradi.

"It's a global business, no longer in L.A. and New York," Cook said of the reorganization. "As emerging markets become more important to us, we have to think about how best to organize and find efficiencies." Thus, it made sense for Cook to merge international and domestic marketing, he said.

Meanwhile, reaction from across the blogosphere has been mostly incredulous as to why Jacobson would be kicked to the curb now. Writes Nikki Finke, who broke the story this afternoon:

I'm told that Jacobson, president of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, was under tremendous pressure from corporate as part of the so-called "Iger strategy" to slash and burn the movie division. But Hollywood is shocked that the Disney CEO made this major personnel change on the heels of the tremendous success of Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest. I'm told that the uber-ambitious Aviv, president of marketing for Buena Vista Pictures, helped set the stage for Nina's descent (and his ascent) by telling Disney a while ago that Paramount's Brad Grey had offered him the same position that Gail Berman eventually took. So now that makes two marketing guys running Disney films: Aviv, and Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook. Talk about irony of ironies, Jacobson's ouster comes just when M. Night Shyamalan has been reported complaining how she wouldn't greenlight his Lady in the Water. Well, Warner Bros. is stuck with that film, which opens this weekend, and the buzz is that it's a big fat bomb. Which makes Nina look really, really smart.

Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells has also posted his reaction to the firing, writing:

This is ridiculous! In the wake of her recent image upgrade as one of the shrewdest and most perceptive studio execs around because she told M. Night Shyamalan that his Lady in the Water script needed work (Michael Bamberger's description of their disagreement is the most riveting portion of The Man Who Heard Voices) and with hundreds of millions rolling into studio coffers from the recent success of Pirates 2, Disney -- of all the times to do this -- has axed Nina Jacobson as president of production and replaced her with marketing president Oren Aviv...

This is one of the most bizarre and nonsensically out-of-the-blue whackings in Hollywood history.

Meanwhile, Claude Brodesser-Akner at TMZ.com writes:

As one talent agent put it, "Disney's made a business decision not to make Nina Jacobsen-type movies [that is, Coen Bros. or Wes Anderson-type adult comedies and dramas] at Touchstone, so what do they need her for in that case?"

We also expect that Karen Glass, a senior production executive responsible for most Walt Disney Pictures-branded movies will receive additional responsibilities and possibly a new title as well.

We also hear good things about Aviv from those who've worked with him in the past.

Said one producer and studio co-financier: "He's a winner, corporately, creatively. His ascendancy comes as no surprise."

And David Poland of Movie City News writes:

The idea that Nina Jacobson somehow improved her standing because M. Night Shyamalan's The Lady In The Water looks like a miss is myopic idiocy. Just because we have had a chance to read this story does not make it a landmark in Disney history. The fact is, Lady In the Water will make money for Warner Bros, no matter how bad it is. And that's how things are measured in Hollywood.

Bottom Line: Jacobson was not fired for cause. Almost no one is ever fired for cause in the upper echelons. She is being replaced by Oren Aviv because there was no room for both of them in a scaled down company. She wasn't the happiest camper over there, but no one gives up a production chief job of their own volition.

And is anyone really surprised in this era of marketing first that a marketing brain, who has been training himself for years to do this job, is taking the production reins at a company that is narrowing its focus to its core brand?

JACOBSON FIRED AS PARTNER GIVES BIRTH, DISNEY UPS AVIV AND CUTS STAFF BY 650 (NYT, LAT, WSJ, THR, VAR)

By Stephen Saito

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