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Disney Studios Combines Movie Operations

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

As expected, Disney Studios has consolidated its movie development and production operations into one unit, in keeping with its strategy to make fewer live-action features each year.

David Vogel, a nine-year Disney veteran, has been put in charge of the merged entity in his new role as president of Buena Vista Motion Pictures, which now encompasses the Disney, Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures banners.

The announcement follows the departure of Touchstone President Donald DeLine, who recently left the studio after 13 years.

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Vogel served as president of Walt Disney Pictures since 1993, overseeing such family hits as “George of the Jungle,” “101 Dalmatians” and the upcoming “The Parent Trap.” He took on added responsibilities for some adult-oriented movies last year under the Hollywood Pictures label, which caused strained relations and turf wars with DeLine.

Vogel, who will now oversee more than a dozen executives, said the studio is scaling back its annual production slate to 15 to 18 movies, of which five or six will be family movies and the majority general-audience fare.

At one time, Disney was releasing more than 30 movies a year in addition to the 40 or so specialized films put out by New York-based subsidiary Miramax Films.

Vogel joined Disney in 1989 as a vice president of production, before which he ran his own production company based at Universal Studios. He worked for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment from 1985 to 1987, where he produced all 44 half-hour segments of “Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories” series for NBC.

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