New year, new boss for Hollywood studios

Two Hollywood studios are greeting the new year with new top-level personnel - DreamWorks SKG has lured its new president and chief operating officer Rick Sands from Miramax Films, while Paramount Pictures is close to signing talent agent-turned-producer Brad Grey as its president and chief executive officer.

In his new role, Sands is charged with the day-to-day management of the studio - DreamWorks SKG is the parent company of the animation unit behind The Incredibles and the film studio behind the hit hit-man tale Collateral. He joined Miramax in 1990 and had been chief operating officer at there since 2001.

Over at Paramount Pictures, Brad Grey is in advanced talks to succeed Sherry Lansing, although negotiations are complicated by his ownership of a successful talent agency and his ties with rival studios.

Grey, who owns Brillstein-Grey, the talent firm that counts Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston among its clients, has been beefing up his producer credentials in recent years - his CV includes such films as Scary Movie and The Wedding Singer.

He recently executive-produced Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is to be released by Paramount rival Warner Bros this year, and is a producer on the TV series The Sopranos. He also has a TV production deal with 20th Century Fox, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc.

Back at Miramax, though, the outlook is not quite as optimistic. While being showered with plaudits for such Oscar-winners as Chicago and current favourites Finding Neverland and The Aviator, the studio has retrenched nearly 40% of its staff since last spring, and its formidable co-CEOs Harvey and Bob Weinstein are not expected to stay at the Disney-owned unit beyond their contract, which runs out in September.