By Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer
Walt Disney Co. veteran Alan Bergman has been named chairman of Disney Studios, the company said Monday. Bergman will be succeeding Alan Horn, who will remain chief creative officer. Horn and Bergman have been operating as co-chairs since May 2019.
"The Walt Disney Studios' achievements under the leadership of Alan Horn and Alan Bergman have been nothing short of extraordinary," said Bob Chapek, Walt Disney Co. CEO, in a statement. "Having worked closely for years with Alan Bergman, an exceptional leader and proven executive, I couldn't be more pleased to name him as Chairman."
The position involves overseeing everything from creative and operations to production and marketing for all Disney Studios content from its myriad brands, including Disney Animation, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Studios. The heads of each studio, from Kevin Feige to Kathleen Kennedy, will report to Horn and Bergman.
"I believe deeply in our people, culture, and the work we do," Bergman said in a statement. He'll assume the position officially on Jan. 1.
Bergman has worked at Disney for 24 years and served as president of Walt Disney Studios from 2005 to 2019, helping to integrate Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel and Twenty-First Century Fox into the Disney stable of brands.
Both Horn and Bergman will report to Chapek, who took over from longtime CEO Bob Iger in February.
Horn, who joined Disney as Chairman in 2012, said in a statement that, "The time feels right to shift my focus solely to our enormous creative slate."
Disney earlier this month unveiled ambitious plans for its streaming service Disney +, including 10 "Star Wars" series spinoffs, 10 Marvel series and 15 live-action, Pixar and animated series.
The studio has been a market leader for the past few years and last year surpassed a record $11 billion in box office. But with the launch of Disney+ last year and the unforseen complications of the pandemic, much focus has been placed on streaming.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More