Tri-Star Pictures Makes Management Changes

Tri-Star Pictures made two key executive changes Monday, naming marketing and distribution chief David Matalon president of the 2-year-old movie company and appointing Jeff Sagansky, a 32-year-old television executive, as its president of production. Matalon, 41, who was executive vice president for worldwide distribution and marketing, will assume only part of the responsibilities held by Tri-Star’s former president and chief operating officer, Gary Hendler, who resigned last December. Matalon, who will remain based in New York, will not be chief operating officer. But Tri-Star Chairman Victor Kaufman said in a phone interview Monday from New York that Matalon will be “the No. 2 man in the company.” Kaufman had earlier stated that he would not fill Hendler’s position. In addition to his executive responsibilities, Matalon will continue to supervise all marketing and distribution of Tri-Star releases, which are expected to total 18 films this year, along with acquiring movies for distribution. Sagansky, as senior vice president of series programming for NBC Entertainment, lacks background in the movie business, Kaufman acknowledged, but said that works to his advantage. “I wanted to go with someone who was out of TV,” he said, citing a similar background in the careers of MCA Motion Picture Group Chairman Frank Price, 20th Century Fox Film Corp. Chairman Barry Diller and Walt Disney Productions Chairman Michael Eisner.

Sagansky, a Harvard Business School graduate, first joined NBC in 1977 after a brief stint at CBS-TV. He left NBC in 1979 to work with producer David Gerber and rejoined the network in 1981 as vice president of series development. Sagansky is credited with being instrumental in NBC’s ratings turnaround this year.