Donna Langley is a dame in ready no extra.
The veteran film government, with deep ties to Hollywood filmmakers and a knack for shepherding blockbusters to the display, ascended to NBCUniversal’s content material throne on Thursday, one of many large winners in a sweeping reorganization made by firm CEO Mike Cavanagh.
In her new function as chief content material officer, Langley received’t simply be overseeing Universal’s slate of movies. She may also take possession of its TV and streaming artistic technique. It’s an elevation that many trade gamers noticed as inevitable – in spite of everything, how for much longer may the corporate hold the in-demand government with out increasing her portfolio?
However, that additionally shortchanges Langley’s expertise for C-suite survival, one which’s seen her stand up to mergers and gross sales, in addition to a revolving door of leaders and associates resembling Ron Meyer, Adam Fogelson and Jeff Shell, all of whom departed earlier than they meant to go away the corporate. Her victory right here was the results of a company bake-off, one which noticed her elevated over a number of viable candidates, lots of whom hailed from buzzier components of the media enterprise resembling tv and streaming. Her transfer up the ladder meant there wasn’t room for a few of these executives. Susan Rovner, the top of content material for NBCUniversal’s tv and streaming arms, is notably exiting as a part of the reorganization.
What Langley supplied was simple. Over greater than a decade, she has routinely pushed Universal to the highest of the movie studio heap, and achieved so with out controlling mental property like Star Wars or the Avengers. She’s managed to ship and develop homegrown franchises – a lot credit score goes to Langley for returning to the park with the rebooted “Jurassic World” and for holding Vin Diesel behind the wheel of the “Fast and Furious” sequence nicely past the purpose the place most opponents would have stalled.
Plus, Langley has earned the respect of the trade for her willingness to again edgier fare and rising expertise. She threw down for Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, “Get Out,” and has made Universal the house of his follow-ups “Us” and “Nope.” Langley additionally made a wager that Elizabeth Banks may transfer past appearing into producing and directing, giving her the “Pitch Perfect” sequence and the latest gonzo field workplace hit, “Cocaine Bear.” And, underneath Langley, comedy maestro Judd Apatow has turn into a model onto himself, delivering arrested improvement comedies resembling “Trainwreck” and “Knocked Up,” in addition to milestone films like “Bros.” And always remember, on the 2015 premiere of “Straight Outta Compton,” rapper Ice Cube referred to as the chief “the sixth member of N.W.A.” Not that every little thing Langley did labored — the much less mentioned of “Cats,” as an example, the higher.
Recently, Langley’s fame for offering a supportive dwelling for artists helped Universal lure Christopher Nolan away from his longtime dwelling at Warner Bros. to make “Oppenheimer.” Studio executives don’t are typically terribly fashionable among the many creative group, however Langley, whose velvet glove strategy can disguise her fierce resolve, has managed to foster a number of the strongest ties with filmmakers and writers in Hollywood.
“When you ask who’s doing the most effective job of any of the studio chiefs proper now, Donna’s identify frequently comes up,” one former media CEO enthused earlier than the information of her elevation even broke.
What, then, does Langley’s promotion sign in regards to the course that NBCUniversal plans to take because it competes extra fiercely with the tech giants like Apple and Amazon shouldering into the enterprise, in addition to legacy media firms like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery?
Perhaps tapping Langley indicators that NBCUniversal needs to construct an artists-first fame, particularly after years of watching opponents falter with tech and finance management. And that is perhaps a sensible transfer.
After all, Disney noticed the perils of placing numbers man Kareem Daniel above the corporate’s creatives (underneath the course of the exiled CEO Bob Chapek). When Bob Iger got here again, Daniel was proven the door. And David Zaslav is making an attempt to proper the ship at Warner Bros. Discovery with cinephiles Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy after Jason Kilar, one other government with a tech background, managed to alienate a lot of the artistic group throughout his stormy tenure at WarnerMedia. So with Langley, Cavanagh will get the pedigree and institutional information of a longtime firm participant – one who has confirmed again and again she will ship repeat enterprise from stars and filmmakers to larger and greater outcomes.
In addition to “Fast” and “Jurassic,” she has shepherded vital partnerships with Illumination (“Despicable Me,” the smash hit “Super Mario Bros”) and DreamWorks Animation (“Puss in Boots”) to generate household money cows. Universal’s Blumhouse deal has elevated the low-budget horror store to billions in worldwide grosses. Her rolodex could as nicely learn just like the over 20 first-look and total offers she retains on the Universal lot: Peele, Amy Pascal, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Dan Lin, Charlize Theron, Banks, Diesel, LeBron James, Will Packer, Apatow, and newly minted Oscar winners The Daniels.
The query, in fact, is will her many years of movie expertise translate simply into tv and different types of media the place she has not spent the majority of her profession coping with showrunners and disruptors. Hollywood, in spite of everything, shouldn’t be all the time variety to executives who don’t keep of their lane. She’ll should get comfy veering into visitors. While Peacock has proven spectacular development in its quick life, it lacks the sizzle of opponents like Disney+ and Netflix. On the TV entrance, Variety chief TV critic Daniel D’Addario famous that “a scarcity of religion within the core of what NBC is and does” is palpable in its programming. When your largest latest hit is a reboot of “Night Court,” it’s possible you’ll be creatively adrift.
Knighted as a Dame of the British Empire in 2022, Langley is infamous for a shiny sort of diplomacy (one filmmaker mentioned she’s so good at gracefully delivering unhealthy information that you just “hardly really feel the sting”). But she’s not afraid to make strikes that may ruffle feathers. In 2020, she solidified her present enterprise legacy by placing a take care of AMC Theaters that altered the normal theatrical window, shortening the period of time a function movie would completely run in theaters earlier than heading downstream to paid and streaming video-on-demand channels. Other studios would quickly observe swimsuit.
“She appears to have the capability to be forward-looking and cheap about placing the appropriate product in the appropriate place on the proper time,” mentioned Peter Newman, head of New York University’s MBA/MFA twin diploma program. “She’s had greater than a modicum of understanding of the should be versatile.”
Langley had been out and in of discussions about assuming a bigger function at NBCUniversal for years, in keeping with quite a few insiders, however languished in a holding sample whereas former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell had her engaged in mentioned company bake-off. During that interval a number of different gamers, together with one monolithic streamer, engaged Langley over leaping ship to run a brand new studio. She by no means budged.
At final 12 months’s SXSW convention, Langley waxed in regards to the important operate of her job.
“We actually focus and attempt to create an atmosphere for filmmakers the place they will do their greatest work and reduce the friction and noise, and complement their movie with a wonderful distribution and advertising and marketing marketing campaign,” she mentioned. “That’s what Hollywood is searching for.”
Now, it appears, they’re trying to her.
