Taakomschrijving van Cook volgens UltimateDisney-forum:
Dick Cook started with Disney in 1970 as a monorail and steam train driver at Disneyland. In the 80's he moved into marketing at the film division and in 2002, he was made president of Walt Disney Pictures, which oversees Disney, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, as well as all of Disney's home entertainment divisions and record labels. He is the man responsible for forming a strong bond with Jerry Bruckheimer and is credited with getting Johnny Depp cast in Pirates of the Caribbean. He is also the main reason that Steven Spielberg wanted Disney as his new distributor for Dreamworks.
His main contributions have been to the films themselves, but he did oversee and have final approval on all home video releases. He probably didn't start the Platinum line, but he was definitely a fan of them and made sure they got the budget and promotional efforts required to make them successful.
Bron: http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... 878#461878
Cook was dus de baas van de Walt Disney Pictures-afdeling binnen de Walt Disney Company, en in die functie eindverantwoordelijk voor de films die onder dat label uitkomen. Hij is nu ofwel opgestapt ofwel ontslagen. Het is nog niet duidelijk wie hem gaat opvolgen.
Why is Dick Cook leaving? (CNBC)
[...] The fact that Disney's studio has gone through a rough patch this year is responsible for this surprise news. The studio lost $12 million in the company's most recent quarter, down from a $97 million profit in the year-ago period and CEO Bob Iger has singled out the studio as a drag on company results.
Blijkbaar gaat het financieel gezien niet zo goed met de Walt Disney Studio, wat natuurlijk gevolgen heeft voor de totale winst van de Walt Disney Company, waardoor baas Iger erg onstemd is geraakt.
[...] Industry insiders tell me—and this makes sense—that Disney could be moving towards a model of dramatically cutting back its own creative development. Instead Disney would focus entirely on distributing films from Pixar, DreamWorks, Marvel Entertainment, and Jerry Bruckheimer films, and perhaps also Disney Animation. DreamWorks plans to release six movies a year, Pixar generally produces one a year, Marvel is shooting for two a year, and if Bruckheimer releases two a year: that alone is 11 films for Disney to release annually.
The idea would be that Disney would reserve its powerful "Walt Disney Pictures" brand for a select few theatrical products (cutting its production overhead way back) and let its crackerjack marketing and worldwide distribution pipeline deploy the DreamWorks, Marvel, Pixar brands. Some of my Hollywood sources are speculating that Mark Zoradi, currently president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, which oversees marketing and distribution, would be a natural fit to take over the studio if it does indeed shift away from production.
Volgens ingewijden zou Disney de eigen creatieve activiteiten drastisch willen terugschroeven en zich willen concentreren op het uitbrengen van films van andere studio's, zoals Spielberg's DreamWorks, waarmee recent een contract is gesloten, en Marvel, dat pas door Disney is opgekocht. Mark Zoradi, de baas van de marketing afdeling zou mogelijk dan Cook's rol over kunnen nemen.
Walt Disney Studios chief Dick Cook abruptly leaves the company (Los Angeles Times)
The news stuns the entertainment industry for its suddenness, revealing a rift between Cook and Disney CEO Robert Iger.
A person close to Cook said the movie chief "didn't see it coming." He was summoned into a meeting and was told the studio "wanted to go in a different direction," said the person. A Disney spokesperson denied the report.
But in a meeting Friday with colleagues, Cook described himself as "a square peg in a round hole," three people said. [...]
Cook, the onetime Disneyland ride operator who rose to head the studio, is viewed as a traditionalist at a time when Iger is seeking new ways of doing business. Cook tended to be uncommunicative to the point of secretiveness -- a personal style that frustrated Iger, who emphasizes collaboration.
Iger nonetheless lauded Cook's contributions to Disney, in a tenure that included the launch of 63 movies that exceeded $100 million in domestic box office, the release of "Toy Story" and the first release of a digital film, "Tarzan."
Dit lijkt me een klassiek geval van een traditionele creatieve geest met hart voor de films, die het aflegt tegen het kille berekenende hoofd van een multimiljarden-bedrijf. Ik zeg "lijkt", want de versies van Cook en de Company spreken elkaar duidelijk tegen.
Wordt ongetwijfeld vervolgd...
Ik zou niet weten waarom je op zo,n hooge functie ontslag zou indienen. Mischien omdat het minder gaat met disney heeft de baas hem ontslagen?