“Instead of spending $120 million on The Stepford Wives, we could have made three pictures targeted at a younger audience that could be a lot more profitable.”
Tom Freston

If you want to know who will be chief at Paramount next, these words, though just a few of many, should give you a big fat clue. After all, Freston was very conciliatory to Paramount Classics’ Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein after his off-the-cuff remarks about pushing the Classics division to a higher level, but every indicator is that he is still well into the process of replacing them. (Ironically, they have done a nice job launching The Machinist and Enduring Love, but it is still on an arthouse, profit-but-not-cash-cow level. And more ironically, he is allegedly talking to Bob Berney, whose massive success distributing The Passion of The Christ could have been Paramount’s success had Jon Dolgen been willing to let Vitale and Dinerstein swing for the fences.)

My point is, when he says something, it seems to be something that is seriously percolating in his head.

In other words, it’s a good thing that Donald DeLine has producing projects still in the hopper.

But who will take the lead role at Paramount Pictures?

The obvious answer? Peter Rice.

There is no one out there who has made more from less than Rice in recent years. He has long been thought to be in the grooming spot for big Fox. He has worked on various levels, has been feted by the media for years and this year, has brought three major highly-respected directors to the marketplace for less than $25 million each.

The Weinsteins are never going to be given a machine that big to run wild with by Sumner Redstone and really, it would probably eat them whole. They are brilliant, but there is such a thing as too much.

Bill Mechanic would be a great choice for Paramount, with a real understanding of the entire marketplace for films, not just production and domestic theatrical, but he has been on ice and will probably be seen as too old school for the job.

The bold move would be to steal Scott Stuber and Mary Parent from Universal and to make them co-chiefs, but I’m not really sure that either of them is in such a rush to have the Stacey Snider job. The protected position of being one step below on the food chain is quite glorious… most of the perks and a lot less daily pressure.

Parkes & MacDonald will be sticking by Steven, no matter what happens at DreamWorks.

Joe Roth doesn’t seem to be up for a return to the hottest seat in town.

Chris McGurk, whose name will be thrown into the ring soon by Chris McGurk, would really be suited for the Freston role, not the Lansing role, and I don’t see any chance of Freston bringing a fox into the hen house, even if the fox is really interested in spending more time focused on the creative side. (I still think McGurk would be, in tandem with Dick Cook, a great play for Disney.)

And that is the whole realistic list of name contenders.

Of course, you can add Tom Rothman and/or Jim Gianopulis to the list if Fox decides to keep the Murdoch-friendly Peter Rice in house by giving him their current job(s). And that would not be a huge shock. Like I wrote above, people have been waiting for that show to drop for a long time. The Fox boys had a strong summer… ironically, in the style that Freston spoke of, combined with the high-priced worldwide success of The Day After Tomorrow, in spite of the turdal nature of the film itself.

And finding the right person to take over at Searchlight would be no mean feat, though I suspect that Peter would bring up one of his lieutenants, loyal and talented, with an eye to maintaining the studio troika, the other arms of which are Gilula and Utley, at least for a while. Both would probably move up to big Fox after someone new settled in and Utley was less occupied with some personal matters that would make running marketing at the big studio a punishing choice. (I apologize for even mentioning personal issues, but most of the industry is already aware of them and they are significant in looking the overall chess board. Peter’s faith in and support of Nancy are beyond any doubt and I certainly have great respect for her and wish all good things for her and her family, now and in future.)

If an outsider was brought in, Rice would realistically have to decide to go more arty or commercial with the division. Whoever came in could be talking about the middle, but very few indie minds have been successful doing both… which is why Searchlight is so revered. The two candidates I would see as really interesting would be Valerie Van Galder (who, for disclosure’s sake, is a friend of mine, but it still holds) on the commercial side and Wellspring’s Ryan Werner on the arty side. Or both.

Van Galder’s eye for, passion about and relationship skills with indie directors has been impressive. She would need a strong physical production partner and a flexible marketing head (post-Nancy), willing to let Val lead without getting paranoid, but Val knows how to target an idea and get the idea out there in a focused way. Werner’s taste and relationships, as he builds one of the new generation of true indies has really impressed me. He doesn’t have the production experience on the $10 million & above level that Searchlight is involved with and he might be a little more Lindsay Law than Peter Rice, but it would be a daring choice.

But I’m a few dominos away from this part of the discussion meaning anything…

Back at Paramount, Tom Freston hold the cards. I don’t think that Redstone is going to be in a rush to find a young hotshot to roll the dice with. And I don’t think that it is in his nature to want someone whose strings Freston holds too tightly either. Just look at how Sumner played Dolgen and is still playing Freston and Moonves. He likes vigorous competition.

Peter Rice. He’s the one that makes sense.

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