By Harshita Mary Varghese
Nov 9 (Reuters) – Skydance is replacing DC Studios chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran with former Marvel Studios executive Jeremy Latcham as it overhauls its superhero business following the Warner Bros acquisition.
Latcham will take over on December 1 and lead DC’s film, television and animation slate, overseeing its creative pipeline, production, talent and strategy.
He will report to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, co-chairs of Skydance Motion Picture Group, the company said on Monday.
The appointment comes as DC looks to close the commercial gap with Marvel, which has enjoyed greater box-office success in the superhero movie business this year.
Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has become this year’s top-grossing film as it raked in more than $2.5 billion worldwide, compared with about $126 million for DC’s “Supergirl”, according to Box Office Mojo.
“This move could make DC look too much like Marvel but the major Hollywood studios are out of new ideas and this is a less risky move to sell than hiring someone outside the comic book movie terrain,” said Ross Benes, senior analyst at Emarketer.
Gunn and Safran have led DC Studios for four years and will continue to work as filmmakers and producers.
Latcham was part of the founding leadership team at Marvel Studios under Kevin Feige and worked on films, including “Iron Man”, “The Avengers” and the “Spider-Man: Homecoming” franchise. He previously worked with Gunn on the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films.
He left Marvel in 2017 to launch Latcham Pictures, where he produced “Bad Times at the El Royale” and “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”.
Paramount completed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery last month to form Skydance, bringing two major Hollywood studios, Paramount+ and HBO Max, CBS, CNN, and a deep stable of franchises under one roof.
Skydance is expected to report its third-quarter results after the market closes on Monday.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
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