Dame Donna Langley-Shamshiri DBE (born 1968 in London, UK) [1] [2] is a British film executive who is Chairman of Universal Studios and Universal Filmed Entertainment Group and Chief Content Officer. [3] [4]
Langley began her career as a production executive at New Line Cinema. In 2001, she became senior vice president of production at Universal Pictures. [5]
In her time at Universal, Langley has overseen the films Fast & Furious , Despicable Me , and Bourne . [6] She is known for cultivating strong relationships with filmmakers and writers. Langley backed Jordan Peele's directorial debut, Get Out , and his follow ups, Us and Nope . [7] Langley was also credited with recruiting director Christopher Nolan to Universal from Warner Bros. His movie Oppenheimer was added to a streak of successes for Langley in 2023, after M3GAN , Cocaine Bear , and The Super Mario Bros. Movie . [8]
Her work includes overseeing the global specialty division, Focus Features, as well as Illumination and DreamWorks Animation, the latter being acquired by Universal in 2016. [6] Langley's role was expanded in 2023; as Chief Content Officer, she is not only responsible for overseeing Universal's film slate, but also the company's TV and streaming strategy. [7]
Throughout her career, she has supported mentorship opportunities for women. [9] Langley helped launch The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Film Mentorship program. [10] She also serves as an ambassador and board member for the nonprofit Vital Voices. [11]
Langley was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to film and entertainment. [12] [13]
Langley was adopted, and was brought up on the Isle of Wight [2] and attended carisbrooke college. She was a pupil at Kent College in Canterbury. [14] She is married with two children, and lives in Los Angeles with her family. [9] [10]
Elizabeth Banks is an American actress, producer and director. She is known for playing chaperone Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015) and an ICCA commentator in the Pitch Perfect film series (2012–2017). She made her directorial film debut with Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), whose $69 million opening-weekend gross set a record for a first-time director. She has since directed the action comedy Charlie's Angels (2019) and the horror comedy film Cocaine Bear (2023). Banks founded the film and television production company Brownstone Productions in 2002 with her husband, Max Handelman.
Nina Jacobson is an American film executive who, until July 2006, was president of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. With Dawn Steel, Gail Berman and Sherry Lansing, she was one of the last of a handful of women to head a Hollywood film studio since the 1980s. She established her own production company called Color Force in 2007, and was the producer of The Hunger Games film series.
Laeta Kalogridis is an American screenwriter and television and film producer of Greek descent. She has written scripts for Alexander (2004), Night Watch (2004), Pathfinder (2007) and Shutter Island (2010). She also served as an executive producer for the television series Birds of Prey and Bionic Woman, and she co-wrote the screenplay for Terminator Genisys (2015) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019). She is the creator and executive producer of the Netflix series Altered Carbon (2018).
Annapurna Pictures is an American independent media company founded by Megan Ellison on April 2, 2011 and based in Los Angeles, California. It is active in film, television and theatrical production, film distribution, and video game publishing.
Warner Bros. Pictures Animation (WBPA), formerly known as Warner Animation Group (WAG), is an American animation studio that serves as the animated feature film label of Warner Bros.' theatrical film production and distribution division, Warner Bros. Pictures. Established on January 7, 2013, by Jeff Robinov, the studio is the successor to the dissolved 2D traditional hand-drawn animation studio Warner Bros. Feature Animation, which shut down in 2004, and is also a sister to the regular Warner Bros. Animation studio.
DC Studios is an American film, television, and animation studio that is a division of Warner Bros., which is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). It is dedicated to the production of films, series, and animations based on characters from DC Comics, among them is their flagship franchise, the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). James Gunn and Peter Safran assumed control of the company, on November 1, 2022. Previously, Walter Hamada was the president of DC Films from 2018 until his departure in October 2022.
The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that appear in American comic books published by DC Comics. The DCEU also includes comic books, short films, novels, and video games. Like the original DC Universe in comic books, the DCEU is established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
Christina Hodson is an English screenwriter. She is best known for writing the films Bumblebee (2018), Birds of Prey (2020), and The Flash (2023). Her film Shut In (2016) appeared on the 2012 edition of the Black List, an annual list of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays, but its resulting film was critically panned; two more of her screenplays remain on the Black List.
Storyteller Distribution Co., LLC, doing business as Amblin Partners, LLC., is an American independent entertainment production company. It develops and produces films under the Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures banners, as well as television series through Amblin Television. The company's investment partners include Reliance Group's Reliance Entertainment, Lionsgate, Alibaba Group's Alibaba Pictures, and NBCUniversal/Comcast's Universal Pictures. Films produced by Amblin Partners are primarily distributed by Universal in North America and select international territories, and by third-party distributors through Mister Smith Entertainment in other countries.
The Grinch, also known as Dr. Seuss' The Grinch, is a 2018 American animated Christmas comedy film produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures. The third screen adaptation of Dr. Seuss' 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, following the 1966 television special and the 2000 live-action feature-length film, the film is Illumination's second Dr. Seuss film adaptation, after The Lorax in 2012. The plot follows the Grinch and his pet dog Max who plan to stop Whoville's Christmas celebration by stealing all the town's decorations and gifts.
Monkeypaw Productions is an American film and television production company founded in 2012 by Jordan Peele. The company is known for producing horror films, such as Get Out, Us, Candyman, Nope and Wendell & Wild.
Walter Hamada is an American film executive and producer. He joined New Line Cinema in 2007, where he served as an executive producer on horror films such as The Conjuring (2013), Annabelle (2014), The Conjuring 2 (2016), Lights Out (2016), and It (2017). In January 2018, he was appointed the President at Warner Bros. Pictures for DC-based film production before departing from the company in October 2022. He was hired by Paramount Pictures to oversee their horror film franchises beginning in 2023.
Brownstone Productions is an American film and television production company founded by actress, director and producer Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman. It is known for producing films in the Pitch Perfect franchise, Charlie's Angels (2019) and Cocaine Bear (2023).
Mattel Films is the film production division of Mattel originally formed on October 16, 2013, as Mattel Playground Productions as part of Mattel Global Brands, a unified media structural and strategy unit.
Batgirl is an unreleased American superhero film based on the DC character Barbara Gordon / Batgirl. Produced by Burr! Productions and DC Films for the streaming service HBO Max, it was intended to be an installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah from a screenplay by Christina Hodson, and starred Leslie Grace as Batgirl, alongside J. K. Simmons, Jacob Scipio, Brendan Fraser, Michael Keaton, and Ivory Aquino.
Joker: Folie à Deux is an upcoming American musical psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips from a screenplay co-written with Scott Silver. Loosely based on DC Comics characters, it is the sequel to Joker (2019), and stars Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker and Lady Gaga as his love interest, Harley Quinn. Zazie Beetz also reprises her role from the previous film, while Brendan Gleeson and Catherine Keener join the cast. It is produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, and DC Studios in association with Joint Effort.
Renfield is a 2023 American action comedy horror film directed by Chris McKay and written by Ryan Ridley, based on a story by Robert Kirkman, who also served as a producer alongside McKay, Samantha Nisenboim, David Alpert, and the duo of Bryan and Sean Furst. Inspired by characters from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the film stars Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Brandon Scott Jones, Adrian Martinez, and Nicolas Cage.
External videos | |
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Donna Langley - Chairman of Universal Pictures interviewed by Madison Moellers, February 19, 2014 | |
Making it as a female movie mogul in Hollywood, Felicia Taylor, CNN, October 9, 2012 |