Christopher Woodrow Abruptly Exits as CEO of Worldview Entertainment

Christopher Woodrow is out as CEO of New York-based financing and production company Worldview Entertainment.

His abrupt exit comes only weeks after Worldview announced it had raised $200 million in new capital and, separately, signed a five-year co-production and distribution deal with The Weinstein Co. Woodrow and Worldview also had a major presence at the Cannes Film Festival, where Michel Hazanavicius‘ Chechnya war drama The Search played in competition.

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Longtime Worldview COO Molly Conners will serve as acting CEO, while newly installed motion picture group president Clifford Werber will help her with day-to-day management of the company.

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Insiders say Woodrow left amid allegations of personal misconduct, and that an investigation is underway.

Woodrow founded Worldview in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2011 that the company’s portfolio expanded dramatically with the arrival of equity investor Sarah Johnson Redlich (daughter of Franklin Templeton mogul and San Francisco Giants owner Charles B. Johnson). Redlich and Maria Cestone are partners in Worldview.

Repped by CAA, Worldview will have eight films in theaters this year, including Eli Roth‘s The Green Inferno, which Open Road Films debuts Sept. 6. Worldview hasn’t yet launched a commercial hit but has built credibility by backing this year’s Oscar-nominated documentary The Square and the gritty Nicolas Cage drama Joe.

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Worldview has financed 25 movies in four years, including New Regency’s upcoming Birdman, from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Worldview also is financing Inarritu’s New Regency project The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio).