The Plan To Reboot Paramount

Ten months ago, Jim Gianopulos was forced out as Fox chairman after 16 years. Now, in his first interview after landing atop Viacom’s struggling film arm, he lets loose on starting over, getting fired by the Murdochs, how Trump has changed his job and the strategy he hopes will bring stability (and profits) to a money-losing studio: ‘It’s surprising it got so bumpy here … because all the elements are in place’

- Pamela Mcclintock

A Hollywood studio chief is blindsided and fired after 16 years of service to a powerful family, only to rise from the proverbial ashes and take the helm of a rival family-owned studio in desperate need of rescue. In August, Jim Gianopulos was on his annual summer sojourn to the Greek isle of Antiparos, his parents’ homeland, when news broke in Los Angeles that his new bosses, James and Lachlan Murdoch, were replacing him with Stacey Snider at 20th Century Fox a year ahead of schedule.

Gianopulos, 65, suddenly found himself without a job for the first time since he delivered newspapers in his youth. Rumors immediately swirled that he would replace Brad Grey at Paramount, where a disastrous run at the box office and leadership turmoil at parent company Viacom under CEO Philippe Dauman had left the storied studio in shambles, capped by an operating loss of $445 million in fiscal 2016. After flirting with the top roles at Sony Pictures and Wanda’s Legendary Pictures, Gianopulos decided on the Paramount job once he was assured by Viacom vice chairman Shari Redstone — daughter of Viacom founder Sumner Redstone, who now guides her ailing father’s empire — and new Viacom CEO Bob Bakish and CFO Wade Davis that he would enjoy the autonomy traditionally afforded studio heads. It took some negotiation, but the Viacom board offered Gianopulos full green light authority for films with budgets up to about $100 million. In March, he closed a deal to run the studio where he once worked in business affairs (for five years starting in the late ’80s) before moving to Fox.