Former Disney Exec Named Chief of Pop.com

Former Walt Disney Co. executive Kenneth Wong on Sunday was named chairman and chief executive of Pop.com, an Internet entertainment company whose founders include filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard.

Wong will be the top executive of the company started by Spielberg’s DreamWorks SKG, Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, and Vulcan Ventures, the investment arm of Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen.

Wong had been president of Walt Disney Imagineering, the company’s resort, theme park and real estate division. He resigned in October.

“We wanted to attract a proven executive whose experience would complement our own roots in film and television,” said Brian Grazer, Howard’s partner at Imagine.

Los Angeles-based Pop.com centers on a planned Web site, https://www.pop.com, that would be an outlet for short live-action and animated films, live Internet events and other interactive entertainment. The Web site is scheduled to be launched in the spring.

The company represents a significant step by some of mainstream Hollywood’s heavyweights into a medium that some believe is poised to upend traditional filmmaking.

Dozens of companies are already airing similar online programming, but few consumers have so far been willing to endure the slow streaming speeds and poor sound and image quality of viewing films on the Internet.

In October, when DreamWorks and Imagine unveiled plans for the company, spokespersons for both firms’ said the financial prospects for such sites are uncertain, but added that Pop.com was launched mainly out of creative curiosity. They said the company would depend largely on advertising revenue.

“I am thrilled to join Pop.com at its inception, which offers the kind of entrepreneurial challenge I enjoy, while combining my career-long interests in entertainment and technology in a groundbreaking new medium,” Wong said Sunday.

During his eight years at Disney, Wong oversaw several key projects, including Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, Tokyo DisneySea, Times Square Studios, Disney’s California Adventure under construction in Anaheim and two Disney cruise ships.