Latest in Mary Parent

In a notable turn of events, Legendary Entertainment has closed a $1B senior secured revolving credit facility led by JP Morgan and including a syndicate of top-tier entertainment banks. The studio, which is owned by China's Wanda, will use the funds to continue growing its content coffers across film and…

Veteran entertainment executive Jiang Wei (who also goes by the first name of Wayne) has been appointed CEO of Legendary East. Jiang will be responsible for leading the company’s operations including energizing its local-language and official co-production capabilities, overseeing China-based marketing of all film…

BREAKING: Legendary Entertainment has its first CEO since Thomas Tull exited after selling his company to Dalian Wanda for $3.5 billion in early 2016. Joshua Grode has taken the reins and will team with Vice Chairman of Worldwide Production Mary Parent to build the company’s future. Grode leaves as partner of the law…

EXCLUSIVE: Legendary has won an auction for screen rights to Ernest, a short story by Geoff Manaugh published on Vice.com. Christopher Landon, director of the sleeper horror Blumhouse hit Happy Death Day, will both adapt the short story into a feature and direct the film. Dan Halsted and Nate Miller are attached as…

Dalian Wanda has offered the CEO job at Legendary Entertainment to Irell & Manella law firm partner Josh Grode, sources confirmed to Deadline. The post has been open since Thomas Tull exited his company after selling it to China-based Wanda for $3.5 billion. Grode hasn’t said yes, sources said, and might not. He has…

At an airport hangar on the French Riviera, Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki are presenting a project that promises to birth an entirely new medium. Previous experiments with virtual reality have been promising, delivering a mix of cinema and gaming in an immersive technology that allows viewers a…

There has been much written about the potential of virtual reality as a new medium for artists, but Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s CARNE y ARENA, the first VR project selected for the Cannes Film Festival, might be as definitive for this art form as the Lumières’ L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat was for film; the…

EXCLUSIVE: Legendary Entertainment is in the throes of more executive changes. The company’s CFO Marlin Prager, who has been with the company since 2005 and has been in that post for six years, has exited. Also leaving is chief legal counsel Martin Willhite, who has had the job since 2011. This is the third top…

The week began with the exit of Brad Grey as Paramount chairman and CEO, and ends with a flurry of meetings that Viacom chief Bob Bakish and HR guy Scott Mills conducted with a swelling list of potential replacements. Here’s a little gossip that people will be talking about this weekend, along with a collective dread…

Legendary has bolstered its film production team with hiring of Herbert W. Gains as EVP Physical Production, Valerie Flueger Veras SVP Post- Production and Sara Flamm as SVP Physical Production. "Herb comes to us with a tremendous body of experience working alongside some of the most prolific filmmakers in our…

Cale Boyter and Ali Mendes have joined Legendary from Disruption Entertainment. They follow Mary Parent, who became Vice Chairman of Worldwide Production for Thomas Tull’s global production/financing company. Boyter and Mendes will serve as EVP Production and VP Development, respectively. They join a Legendary…

UPDATE: I’m told that Mary Parent will bring her top lieutenants from Disuption Entertainment, Cale Boyter and Ali Mendes, to Legendary. They’ll leave projects behind, but this instills a formative team as Tull moves forward with Wanda in the production/finance company. BREAKING: In a move that puts Mary Parent back…