David Beaubaire Hannah Minghella Palak Patel Split - H 2015
Courtesy of Sony PicturesAs Sony Pictures motion picture group chairman Tom Rothman puts his stamp on the studio, it was announced Thursday that Hannah Minghella, who had been serving as president of production at Columbia Pictures, is moving over to the studio’s Tristar Pictures unit, which she will head as president.
Sony’s TriStar label had served a number of functions over the years — two years ago when former Fox exec Rothman joined the studio, it was charged with producing up to four movies a year, with an emphasis on more adult-oriented titles with mid-range budgets.
In other moves announced Thursday by Rothman and motion picture group president Doug Belgrad, David Beaubaire, who had been working at Tristar as executive vp, is shifting over to Columbia, where he will be executive vp production. Palak Patel, who currently works as a producer with Joe Roth’s company, has been recruited to serve as another Columbia exec vp production. Beaubaire and Patel, along with current Columbia executives Andrea Giannetti and Jonathan Kadin, will report to Belgrad.
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In the process, the position of president of production at Columbia, which Minghella had held, has been eliminated. Until February, Columbia actually had two execs sharing that title: Minghella and Michael De Luca, who exited the studio at that time for a production deal at Universal.
In the wake of the executive realignment, the studio said that several films in development, including The Rosie Project, which Minghella has shepherded and which has Jennifer Lawrence attached, will move over to TriStar.
Beaubaire will oversee completion of the TriStar films currently in the pipeline, including Robert Zemeckis‘ The Walk; Jodie Foster‘s Money Monster, starring George Clooney; and Ang Lee‘s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.
In announcing the reorganization, Rothman said, “Doug and I believe that studios often have too many layers of development executives to be fast and effective, and that’s surely what we need to be. We want seasoned, empowered execs who can make decisions and have direct responsibility to get films made. I know firsthand that David can do that, and that’s why we drafted him over to Columbia, which needs to be making big films. Palak is a driven self-starter who has made great films happen with Joe, and there is no better mentor. Finally, I’m obviously a believer in TriStar’s mandate to make commercial films for adults, and Hannah’s impeccable taste and strong connections are exactly what the label needs to lead that charge. She will do much better than me there.”
