MGM Names Jonathan Glickman as New Head of Motion Picture Group

UPDATED

Jonathan Glickman has been named president of MGM’s motion picture group, effective immediately. He segues to the job from Spyglass Entertainment, where he was president.

The MGM position was vacant after Mary Parent, the previous chairman of the motion picture group and co-CEO, left the company Oct. 15. She had held the office for about 2 1/2 years.

The appointment was announced Wednesday in a statement by MGM co-chairmen and Chief Executive Officers Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum and is effective immediately. “Jonathan represents the best in the business. We recognized his talent, taste and acumen when we first hired him 12 years ago at Spyglass and can’t wait to continue the journey with him here at MGM,” they said.

“Between MGM’s storied history, the promise of the new leadership team and the chance to continue working directly with Gary and Roger, I can’t wait to get started,” said Glickman.

MGM has no releases scheduled for 2011, and it’s not known whether Glickman’s appointment will affect that. The studio’s next scheduled movie is The Hobbit in 2012. Warner Bros. will handle the domestic and foreign theatrical release, with MGM taking care of home video and television duties.

Hobbit is currently in production in New Zealand. Also underway is the as yet untitled Bond 23. That film is in pre-production, according to a source, with MGM and the Broccoli family “actively having talks” with potential studio partners.

With Glickman in place, it’s expected the studio will start making announcements to fill out its slate. He’ll have some coin to play with, as MGM has a post-bankruptcy $500-million line of credit for motion picture and television production. None of that is allocated to Hobbit: Warners is bearing the movie’s full production cost in exchange for worldwide theatrical rights.

Barber and Birnbaum continue as co-chairs of Spyglass, which is a non-operational role according to a source. Glickman will not be involved with Spyglass. Indeed, his plate at MGM seems like it will be full. His duties will include overseeing development and production for all feature films, and helping to identify co-financing opportunities with other studios.

Glickman will report to Barber and Birnbaum, and will begin forming the motion picture group immediately. He graduated with honors in English from the University of Michigan and attended University of Southern California’s Peter Stark program, and prior to Spyglass was president of Caravan Pictures.

Glickman’s father, Dan Glickman, is a former chairman and CEO of the MPAA, but it’s not a case of father helping son – Jonathan Glickman’s first job in Hollywood preceded his father’s appointment by over a decade.

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