DISNEY HIRES HOLLYWOOD VETERAN HORN TO RUN STUDIO

Former Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox president Alan Horn has been named chairman of Walt Disney Studios, succeeding ousted boss Rich Ross. In a statement, Disney CEO Robert Iger said that Horn has “earned the respect of the industry for driving tremendous, sustained creative and financial success, and is also known and admired for his impeccable taste and integrity.” In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Horn said that, unlike Ross, he will oversee all of Disney’s product, including animation. “I didn’t want to come into a situation where I would have no say over a number of components in the release mix,” he said. Flexibility, he suggested, will be the name of the game at the studio, which, he said, could turn out six to eight movies a year. “It could be four,” he added. “Bob [Iger] did not give me any budget constraints. It’s ‘just make good movies.’ … Every movie will be, as best we can conceive and execute it, a good movie.”