AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Osher named Sony Digital president - Variety

Minghella to head up animation production

Bob Osher has been named president of the digital production division of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Yair Landau ankled the post last week, and Osher’s appointment helps quell concerns that the division — formerly known as Sony Pictures Digital and consisting of Sony Pictures Animation, visual f/x shop Sony Pictures Imageworks and myriad mobile and online operations — would be dismantled. The studio raised eyebrows recently when it announced that Sony Online Entertainment, a promising unit of Sony Pictures Digital, will now be part of Sony Computer Entertainment.

As part of the restructuring, the studio has also tapped Hannah Minghella president of production at Sony Pictures Animation. Sandra Rabins, who had been in charge of SPA as senior executive VP, will segue to producing and will continue to collaborate with SPA in that role.

Imageworks, which had been up for sale, is now off the market, Osher said. Headed by Tim Sarnoff, Imageworks has become one of the leading vfx companies in the industry and has created the effects for such films as “Beowulf,” “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “Superman Returns.”

More