New Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff faces questions about her role in the streaming era
On the scripted side, Sarnoff led the team that brought iconic hit, a brand-defining program for that network, and managed the relationship with the Emmy-winning series' studio, Temple Street Prods. "She oversaw the L.A. production business for the BBC in all its glory and complexity," notes her friend and former colleague Clare Reichenbach, who now runs the James Beard Foundation.
It's one example of what colleagues describe as Sarnoff's talent for constituent management, which should serve her well in ego-driven Hollywood. But the executive structure set up by Stankey could present its own hurdles. Toby Emmerich, chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, and Peter Roth, president and CCO of Warner Bros. Television Group, will report to Sarnoff. Like Greenblatt, she will report to Stankey.
A producer with business at the studio likewise is pessimistic. "The only way I can see [this hire] making sense from the AT&T side is if they had a five-year plan of completely folding the theatrical side," he says. "I can see an old-school AT&T exec saying, 'Why are we splitting half the grosses with these exhibitors?' "
But Emmerich also will have to protect his flank from the WarnerMedia streamer, which has hired Jessie Henderson, co-founder of Paul Feig's production company, as executive vp of original films. A source says Henderson has been contacting producers in recent weeks, dangling the idea that some of the service's original movies will play in theaters and might even get an awards push.
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