Paramount Reshuffles Executives

Continuing to remake Paramount Pictures, new Chairman Brad Grey on Thursday jettisoned two top production executives in favor of a relative studio newcomer to oversee its movie slate.

Allie Shearmur was named co-president of production, reporting to new Paramount President Gail Berman.

Shearmur was an executive vice president under former Paramount President Donald De Line, who lost his job last month when Grey recruited TV veteran Berman from the top job at Fox Entertainment.

A quadruplet, Shearmur, 41, joined Viacom Inc.’s Paramount just a year ago. She previously worked at Universal Pictures on such films as “The Bourne Identity” and also with De Line at Walt Disney Co.

“This is something that Donald definitely initiated, but I’m overjoyed that Brad and Gail supported the idea,” she said.

During her short tenure at Paramount, Shearmur has worked on developing this summer’s release “Bad News Bears” and the soon-to-shoot “Failure to Launch.”

Grey, who assumed the top job at Paramount last month after a long career as a talent manager and TV producer, called Shearmur “exceedingly bright and someone with great taste.”

Losing their jobs in the reshuffling are production co-Presidents Tom Jacobson, who said he was discussing a production deal with Paramount, and Karen Rosenfelt. A 15-year Paramount veteran, Rosenfelt said she was considering her career options. She is credited with serving as an liaison between Paramount and its sister labels, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, on such releases as “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.”

It’s widely expected that former Dimension Films executive Brad Weston will join Shearmur as co-president of production, although he has yet to clear up contractual obligations with his former boss, Bob Weinstein.