Sony Studio Chief Calley to Retire, Associates Say

By Claudia Eller

Aug. 6, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

John Calley, a Hollywood legend, plans to retire as chairman of Sony Corp.’s film studio this fall, according to associates.

The move would close the books on a storied executive career during which Calley, 73, ran three studios, championed pictures that ranged from “Clockwork Orange” to “Spider-Man” and shocked the movie industry by taking a 13-year hiatus before returning to help salvage faltering United Artists in 1993.

People close to Calley said he had told his immediate boss, Sony Corp. of America Chairman Howard Stringer, that he wants to relinquish his duties and focus on producing movies for the company’s Sony Pictures Entertainment unit. Calley has headed the Culver City-based studio, which owns Columbia Pictures, for almost seven years.

Instead of naming a successor, Stringer intends to put day-to-day control of Sony Pictures in the hands of its three vice chairpersons: Amy Pascal, who is head of Columbia; Jeff Blake, who oversees worldwide marketing and distribution; and Yair Landau, who runs Sony’s digital and television operations.

Sony executives wouldn’t confirm Calley’s planned resignation and said neither Stringer nor Calley, who is on vacation, was available for comment Tuesday. But sources indicate that negotiations are underway to settle Calley’s contract.

The retirement plan ends long-running speculation over Calley’s future and appears to formalize a management structure that has been largely in place since last fall. At that point, Pascal, Blake and Landau assumed their current positions in a realignment that followed the departure of Chief Operating Officer Mel Harris.

As Calley began spending less time in the office, the three became de facto co-chiefs of the studio, trafficking directly with New York-based Stringer, to whom they will now report.

Calley’s retirement will further empower Stringer, who is in charge of all Sony operations in America and who is known to be a favorite son of the brass at Sony Corp.’s Tokyo headquarters. This year, Stringer was promoted to corporate vice chairman.

In anticipation of Calley’s retirement, Stringer several months ago set up a seven-person operating committee, headed by himself, to monitor spending at the film unit.

Along with Calley, Pascal, Blake and Landau, the group includes Sony Corp. of America Chief Financial Officer Rob Wiesenthal and Joe Roth, head of Revolution Studios. Sony is an investor in Revolution and distributes its films. Calley is expected to remain on the committee after he leaves his current post.

Such group management has become more common in Hollywood, where the rising cost of films has led to shared responsibility and the gradual elimination of old-style studio chieftains. News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox, for instance, is run by co-chiefs, and several studios have seen a proliferation of vice chairmen.

Roth, who previously headed the Fox studio and Walt Disney Co.’s Disney Studios, had long been thought of as a successor to Calley; but he will not be stepping into the chairmanship role, sources said.

Sources said Stringer’s efforts to persuade Calley to ride out his two-year contract had failed. Calley agreed to his current deal in February.

Since taking charge of Sony in late 1996, Calley has known the full range of hits and embarrassments that are typical of the volatile film business. In 2002, the company posted its best year at the box office, with $2.8 billion in worldwide ticket sales, thanks to the spectacular success of “Spider-Man,” “Men in Black II,” “XXX” and “Mr. Deeds,” among others.

Lately, however, Sony has been burned by “Gigli” and “Hollywood Homicide,” a pair of costly flops from Revolution, and the soft performance of its hugely expensive “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.” The studio’s “Bad Boys II,” another costly bet, has taken in about $113 million at the box office but saw business drop dramatically after its strong opening.

With a sharp wit and charm that seduced some of the industry’s finest filmmakers, Calley was a key player in the careers of directors Stanley Kubrick and Mike Nichols, among many others.

Calley was born in New Jersey, graduated from Columbia University and served in the Army. He worked in the television and advertising industries before joining Filmways Inc., a production company that made “Catch-22,” directed by Nichols, who would become Calley’s best friend and lifelong associate.

Joining Warner Bros. in 1969, Calley eventually became the studio’s president, a position in which he won his reputation as an urbane and self-assured executive who relied heavily on his own taste in picking films. During 11 years with the Burbank studio, he worked repeatedly with Kubrick, while often scoring with such offbeat bets as “The Exorcist,” “Chariots of Fire” and “Woodstock.”

In 1980, just after signing a seven-year deal for $21 million, Calley suddenly told his bosses he wanted out. He was 50 years old and, as he later told The Times, “I felt in some wacky way that I had lost myself and was being described to myself by my phone list and the invitations which I never responded to.”

The resignation began a years-long personal hiatus during which he initially lived alone on Fishers Island, N.Y. Turning his back on Hollywood, he was asked by an actress at a party for one of his successors, “Are you John Calley?” He answered, “I was. The guy you want is over there.”

Eventually, Calley began producing films, including “Remains of the Day” and “Postcards From the Edge,” in partnership with Nichols.

Later, Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz persuaded Calley to return to the executive fray as chief of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.’s United Artists unit, which he revived with hits such as “The Birdcage,” “Get Shorty” and “GoldenEye.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Calley would stake his new status as a producer for Sony on some of the studio’s existing projects.

According to associates, one of the executive’s pet projects at the moment is “Closer,” based on Patrick Marber’s acclaimed play; that film is set to shoot in London with Nichols directing.

Calley also is said to have a strong interest in “The Da Vinci Code,” based on Dan Brown’s bestselling thriller novel. Ron Howard has discussed directing the film, and his partner Brian Grazer may produce it.

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Career highlights

Highlights of Sony Pictures Chairman John Calley’s career:

1951-57: Director of nighttime programming and sales at NBC

1961-68: Executive vice president at Filmways Inc.

1969-75: Executive vice president of worldwide production at Warner Bros.

1975-80: President, Warner Bros.

1980-87: Consultant to Warner Bros.

1989-93: Independent film producer

1993-96: President of United Artists Pictures

1996: Joins Sony Pictures Enter-

tainment as president and chief operating officer