Alan Horn Joins Warner Bros. Discovery as Senior Advisor
Former Disney CCO and chairman of Disney Studios under Bob Iger’s reign, Alan Horn, has been tapped by newly appointed Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to help them during the transition period.
In a memo obtained by The Wrap, Zaslav wrote:
“I am thrilled to share with you that Alan Horn, one of the most respected studio executives in the industry, has agreed to assist me in a consultant role during this transition period, starting August 1.
No one knows this business better than Alan does. He has had an extraordinary career spanning nearly half a century. Most recently, he served as chairman and later co-chairman and chief creative officer of The Walt Disney Studios, where for a period of nearly 10 years, he oversaw the production of all motion pictures and the integration of Lucasfilm and the Fox film studios, as well as the expansion into producing content for Disney’s streaming services.
Over the past six months, I have been fortunate to spend time with Alan. He has been generous and hugely helpful to me, and I’ve learned a ton about the business from our conversations. I could not be more excited to be able to continue to tap into his thinking, expertise and stellar instincts as we transition our film business and hone our motion picture strategy for the future. And I know Mike and Pam are equally excited to have Alan’s ear and to be able to benefit from his wealth of experience gained from such an illustrious track record.
In many ways this is a homecoming. Alan began his career with the legendary Norman Lear and partners Jerry Perenchio and Bud Yorkin, and later co-founded and led Castle Rock Entertainment before serving as president and COO of Warner Bros. for 12 years. He knows the ins and outs of this studio and helped build it into the powerhouse it is today. He also has wide-spread talent relations and great respect and appreciation for our unparalleled collection of IP, and will be able to provide a unique and valued perspective to the overall creative process. We’re so glad to have him join us.”
Alan Horn was brought out of retirement by Bob Iger in 2012 to act as chairman of Disney Studios, and has since help establish Marvel Studios as the biggest moneymaker in the film industry, overseeing the MCU’s gigantic success up until and including the release of Avengers: Endgame, which for a short period of time became the highest grossing movie of all time worldwide. He also helped the merging of Lucasfilm after the acquisition of the George Lucas company in late October 2012. He saw the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which became the highest-grossing movie of all time in the U.S., almost crossing the $1 billion mark. The Force Awakens also brought innumerable box office records and helped establish December as a viable box office market — something that Warner Bros. would put to good use in 2018 with the release of Aquaman, which is still to this day the only DCEU movie to cross $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
On the downside, Horn was responsible for firing James Gunn as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after some tone-deaf tweets he’d written years prior resurfaced in the summer of 2018. Ultimately, Gunn was brought back after fans online and Marvel Studios execs, including Kevin Feige himself, lobbied for it. In the short time he wasn’t in Disney’s payroll, all studios in Hollywood extended Gunn a blank check to make any movie he wanted for them — the director chose to make The Suicide Squad, a movie that was released in August 2021 to poor box office reception but that got splendid reaction from fans and critics alike and was a smash success for HBO Max. While a sequel has not been put into work, Gunn was signed on to develop multiple projects for Warner Bros., including a Peacemaker series that was released earlier this year (and that has been renewed for a second season), and an Amanda Waller-centric series that will spin-off from Peacemaker season one’s finale. Gunn will finally release his highly-anticipated Vol. 3 in May 2023 — the movie is currently in post-production and screened its first teaser trailer at San Diego Comic-Con, exclusively to Hall H attendees.
Alan Horn is no stranger to Warner Bros. — he was President and COO of the company for 12 years, starting in 1999. During that period, he helped turn the Harry Potter film franchise into a global, billion-dollar hit, saw the release of the Dark Knight trilogy, and was behind a long stream of Academy Award-winning films. David Zaslav was put in charge of Warner Bros. Discovery after the merger was complete in April (he was previously the head of Discovery for 15 years), and has since been putting in order a studio that he found in total disarray. It’s probably a similar story to what Horn found in Disney when he joined back in 2012, and it’s probably the reason why he decided to hire him back.
The changes the company is now making will probably not be noticed for another two or three years, but they are coming, and hopefully, they will be able to put WB back in a good place again.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
