On Wednesday, the animation industry was rocked by two major events: Ousted Pixar/Disney leader John Lasseter resurfaced as head of upstart Skydance Animation, and DreamWorks Animation TV head Margie Cohn took over feature animation from Chris deFaria (who served as president for two years, signing Guillermo del Toro to a film partnership deal and launching the shorts program).
It’s indicative of the changing post #MeToo landscape amid high-stakes corporate strategies to tap a growing global audience for animation.
The post-Lasseter era at Pixar and Disney has already begun, with the promise of greater inclusion, diversity, and originality from chief creative officers Pete Docter and Jennifer Lee. Plus, there’s the ambitious animation build-up at Netflix (including del Toro’s “Pinocchio,” “Wendel & Wild,” from Henry Selick and Jordan Peele, and “Over the Moon” from Glen Keane), and the shot in the arm for Sony Pictures Animation as a result of its disruptive “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which won a Golden Globe last weekend.
But it took only nine days after officially leaving Pixar and Disney for Lasseter to join Skydance. He starts later this month in L.A., reporting to Skydance Media’s CEO David Ellison. Which makes perfect sense, considering everything that’s at stake for both parties.
It’s the first opportunity for Lasseter to redeem and reinvent himself after last year’s workplace sexual harassment debacle forced him out as chief creative officer of Pixar and Disney. And it’s a chance for indie Skydance to build a strong animation presence.
“I’m grateful to David and the Skydance team and know that I have been entrusted with an enormous responsibility,” said Lasseter in a prepared statement. “It is a distinct privilege that I will relish. I have spent the last year away from the industry in deep reflection, learning how my actions unintentionally made colleagues uncomfortable, which I deeply regret and apologize for. It has been humbling, but I believe it will make me a better leader.
Margie Cohn
Universal
“I want nothing more than the opportunity to return to my creative and entrepreneurial roots, to build and invent again. I join Skydance with the same enthusiasm that drove me to help build Pixar, with a firm desire to tell original and diverse stories for audiences everywhere. With what I have learned and how I have grown in the past year, I am resolute in my commitment to build an animation studio upon a foundation of quality, safety, trust and mutual respect.”
It’s certainly a risky roll of the dice for Skydance, but the creative and financial upsides far outweigh Lasseter’s liabilities as a tarnished leader. Ellison even addressed anticipated concerns in a letter to his colleagues, admitting that he “employed outside counsel to thoroughly investigate the allegations,” and promising that Lasseter “will comport himself in a wholly professional manner.”
The key in the long run, of course, will be Lasseter’s ability to instill confidence, attract major talent, and to take creative risks “to tell original and diverse stories for audiences everywhere.”
For his part, Lasseter is gambling on the potential for Skydance to become a major player. But Ellison has already started to lay the groundwork. The first two animated features are already in place with Madrid’s Ilion Animation Studios: “Split,” a female-driven coming of age fantasy, directed by Vicky Jenson (“Shrek”), and “Luck,” a comedy about good and bad luck, directed by Alessandro Carloni (“Kung Fu Panda 3”).
In addition, Skydance signed a multi-film agreement with Disney director Nathan Greno (“Tangled”), the first of which is “Powerless.” And Skydance has a distribution agreement with Paramount to supplement its new animation division run by former DreamWorks Feature Animation co-president Mireille Soria.
Speaking of DWA, with the elevation of Cohn as the head of Feature Animation, reporting to Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Pictures, there should be greater synergy between feature and TV, even though they will continue to operate separately. Prior to DreamWorks, Cohn served as a producer at Nickelodeon (“SpongeBob SquarePants,” “The Fairly OddParents”).
There will also be closer unity with sister animation studio, Illumination, led by CEO Chris Meledandri, especially since Illumination will be actively involved in the making of DreamWorks’ “Shrek” and “Puss in Boots” sequels.
Moving forward, though, DreamWorks will release two movies a year, beginning with “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” (February 22) and “Abominable” (September 27). In addition, the studio has sequels “Trolls World Tour” (April 17, 2020), “The Croods 2” (September 8, 2020), and “The Boss Baby 2” (March 26, 2021).
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