WarnerMedia Reorg: Toby Emmerich to Oversee HBO Max Original Films

Toby Emmerich will now have oversight of HBO Max original films as part of a reorganization at Warner Media. As part of the shift, Jessie Henderson, the EVP of Original Feature Films at WarnerMedia, has decided to leave the company, and Nikki Ramey, SVP of Original Feature Films at HBO Max, is moving over to New Line and will report to Richard Brener, president and chief creative officer, and Carolyn Blackwood, chief operating officer for Warner Bros. Pictures Group. The goal for WarnerMedia will be to combine HBO Max with Warner Bros. Pictures group and break down silos between the company’s divisions. Moving forward, Emmerich will have oversight over all motion picture output for WarnerMedia, be it streaming or theatrical. And all development and production of original feature films for HBO Max will be consolidated under Emmerich and the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, working in conjunction with Casey Bloys on overall platform goals. Oversight of original feature films for HBO Max was previously shared by the leadership at WarnerMedia Entertainment and the WB Pictures Group. Emmerich’s development and production team is led by Courtenay Valenti (Warner Bros. Pictures), Richard Brener (New Line Cinema) and Walter Hamada (DC-based films), and they will continue to develop and produce titles that will be distributed theatrically for the Pictures Group, as well as for direct to streaming on HBO Max. Currently in production for HBO Max is Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move,” and the studio just recently dropped Robert Zemeckis’ “The Witches” with Anne Hathaway. Henderson, a co-founder of Paul Feig’s Feigco, joined Warner in June 2019 and headed development and production for films targeted at kids, family, teens, young adults and adults broadly for HBO Max.