Paramount Pictures’ new animation business suffered a setback yesterday when its president abruptly stepped down after just four months on the job.
Viacom-owned Paramount said David Stainton, a veteran animation executive who spent 17 years at Walt Disney Co., was leaving for “personal reasons,” without elaborating.
While the company looks for a new animation chief, Adam Goodman, the president of Paramount’s motion picture group, will oversee the unit.
The studio launched the in-house unit in June following the release of its first fully owned animated hit “Rango,” which grossed more than $240 million.
Paramount said it was eager to meet growing demand for family-friendly flicks, but the move also put it in direct competition with longtime partner DreamWorks Animation.
Although it wasn’t made official until a few months later, Paramount was positioning itself to go it alone after the two failed to agree on new financial terms to renew their deal that expires at the end of this year.
DreamWorks Animation, the studio behind “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda,” is now shopping for a new deal with other studios while also weighing distributing its own movies.
“We intend to evaluate a wide rangeof options because we see this as an important and significant strategic opportunity for thecompany, particularly given the size and the value of our business today,” DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said during an earnings call in October.
Paramount and DreamWorks will face off this weekend at the Academy Awards. Paramount’s “Rango” and DreamWorks’ “Puss in Boots” are contenders for best animated feature.
Meanwhile, Paramount said yesterday that it has renewed a deal to keep “Super 8” director J.J. Abrams in-house through December 2015.