NEW YORK -- David Linde's promotion from co-president of Focus Features and president of Rogue Pictures to Universal Pictures co-chairman will not lead to radical changes at either Uni specialty division. Linde said Focus co-president James Schamus will run Focus and oversee its Rogue label alone, and no one from inside or outside the company will replace him.

Schamus will oversee Focus and Rogue with the senior executive team already in place, including Rogue president of production Andrew Rona. The company has no plans to name a new Rogue president.

"We're not bringing anyone in. People are going to assume different and greater responsibilities," Linde said. "Those responsibilities are going to be assumed in a different configuration by the executive group, which is very cohesive, well-organized and talented.

"I'm certainly going to maintain my relationship with Focus and Rogue," he added. "I'm not going to be involved on a day-to-day basis as I have been in the past, but I'll be there to support their process."

When asked whether Schamus was enthusiastic about running Focus alone, Linde replied, "Absolutely."

The promotion does change what has proven to be a strong and successful partnership between Linde and Schamus. The two have worked together since 1997, first at production outfit Good Machine -- where Linde served as co-president with Schamus and Ted Hope -- and since 2002 at Focus Features, the Universal specialty arm that resulted from the studio's May 2002 acquisition of Good Machine.

"James and I are incredibly close, and we're going to stay very close," Linde said.

Schamus, who was on vacation Thursday cross-country skiing with his family, had a much more tongue-in-cheek take on their relationship.

"For 10 years, I've tried to figure out the best way to dissolve my partnership with David, and I finally found the perfect way -- they make him my boss," Schamus said. "David is simply the best executive and best colleague I've ever worked with, and he and (new Universal Pictures chairman) Marc (Shmuger) are going to be the most formidable team in the business. And while everyone at Focus and Rogue will miss having David all to ourselves, he'll remain a vital force here, at a company so finely tuned his transition will be seamless. So good-bye, David, and hello boss."

Linde plans to move from Focus' New York headquarters to Universal's Universal City headquarters by midsummer, after his children finish the school year and he and his wife find a new West Coast home. He also said he will spend the same amount of time at the Festival de Cannes -- four or five days -- as he has in the past two years at Focus.

The bigger question is how Focus' slate will be affected, or its relationships with a host of production companies.

"I assume they're going to continue making the same type of films they've made before, which are the type we're interested in making," said This Is That partner Anthony Bregman, who runs his company with Hope and has a multiyear, first-look deal with Focus. "I'm hoping it will be business as usual."

Linde insists the existing slate will remain unchanged. "The plan will remain the same," he said. "Focus will continue releasing five to six movies a year, and Rogue will graduate to five or six as well."

Intrepid Pictures partner Marc Evans, whose company recently inked a five-year production and co-financing deal with Rogue, said the promotion "illuminates the talent pool and promotes a lot of stability and growth for Universal and Focus."

"Having someone there move up the ranks is definitely good for us," said a production exec who deals with Focus. "It looks like there won't be the raft of executive firings or projects being dumped. (Universal parent) GE and NBC Universal obviously didn't want to take that 'throw out the baby with the bathwater' approach" after the resignation of Uni Pictures chairman Stacey Snider, who is bound for Paramount Pictures as co-chairman and CEO of DreamWorks, though she remains under contract to Uni through year's end.

Linde is "as good as Stacey Snider," said Peter Gethers, president of Random House Films, which recently was founded in a pact between Focus and the book-publishing giant. "I can't imagine one negative thing coming out of this."