Warner Bros. Pictures Chairman Toby Emmerich Stepping Down, Replacements Named

Warner Bros. Pictures Group Chairman Toby Emmerich is reportedly stepping down from his position at the studio, with Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy being named as co-chairs to replace Emmerich as heads of both WB and its subsidiary New Line Cinema. De Luca and Abdy previously headed MGM studios, until it was sold to Amazon in 2021. According to THR, De Luca and Abdy are simply waiting for Amazon to release them from current contracts before making the jump – which could be as soon as next month. Emmerich is reportedly going to hammer out a production deal of some kind with WB. 

 Toby Emmerich was first named WB chairman back in 2017, and presided over the studio through two big buyout upheavals: AT&T acquired WarnerMedia in 2018 (after lengthy court fights against the merger); when AT&T decided to abandon the media business altogether, Warner Bros. was acquired by Discovery in early 2022 to form Warner Bros. DIscovery. Emmerich's reputation as a shrewd studio head while working as production head at New Line Cinema in the 2000s – a job he got (ironically enough) by replacing Michael De Luca in the role, after a string of failed movies cost De Luca his job. Emmerich and/or De Luca's names appear as executive producers on so many key New Line releases of the time: Blade II, The Austin Powers movies, Blow, John Q., the Rush Hour, and Final Destination franchises, Elf, etc... 

Meanwhile, Pamela Abdy tends to keep an eye on the prestige/indie side of things, with Awards season films like Garden State, Man on the Moon, Kill the Messenger, and Queen & Slim. She's also backed some serious b-movie genre fare like Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman's Identity Thief (2013), Method Man and Redman's How High, or the failed Keanu Reeves samurai actioner, 47 Ronin. 

The shift comes as Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav is re-structuring the company into three distinct verticals: 

• Warner Bros. / New Line – Run by Michael De Lucas and Pamela Abdy
• DC Universe – Run by Walter Hamada (reporting to De Luca and Abdy
• Animation – Lead executive TBA

It doesn't take two blinks to realize it's a strategy that very much mirrors Disney's approach to its content verticals, with divisions like Disney Films and Animation, Marvel Studios, Star Wars' Lucasfilm and Disney•Pixar animation all having clear lanes and leadership. Looking at the current landscape of the entertainment zeitgeist, it's definitely a strategy that has worked for Disney, as Star Wars (Obi-Wan) and Marvel (Ms. Marvel) are about to rule TV throughout summer 2022. 

Zaslav has reportedly looked to former WB and Disney studio chairman Alan Horn for advisement – but Horn is said to be waiting until a formal executive team is formed to make his decision. Zaslav also reportedly approached Joker director Todd Phillips about serving in some kind of expanded advisory role (Phillips allegedly doesn't want a formal executive position). 

Despite all of these new shuffles of personnel, Warner Bros, still, notably, lacks a single creative controlling hand for its DC Universe, like Kevin Feige does for Marvel. The search for that executive is said to be ongoing.