Double Feature: Two Execs Fired at Universal Pictures

Less than a week after news broke that Comcast was considering buying part of NBC Universal, Universal Pictures co-chairs Marc Shmuger and David Linde have been fired. Adam Fogelson and Donna Langley will replace them.

The Los Angeles Times' John Horn, Ben Fritz, and Rachel Abramowitz called the firings "Hollywood's biggest slasher story." Looping in the firing of Disney's Dick Cook in late September, the reporters said (with just a hint of hyperbole) "sacking of studio executives has reached epidemic level." (BusinessWeek also went with the slasher theme: "Real Life Slasher Movie: Hollywood Heads Continue to Roll.")

The Universal firings are being blamed on a series of high profile-flops, including Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost (budget: $100 million; worldwide gross: $62.4 million) and Judd Apatow's Funny People (budget: $75 million; worldwide gross: $60.6 million) and an industrywide DVD sales slump.

"This is a move [Universal head] Ron Meyer had to make," an unnamed "senior Universal executive" told Variety's Peter Bart and Michael Fleming. "He had to demonstrate a sharp change in direction."

According to the Wall Street Journal's Lauren A.E. Schuker, the firings won't be cheap for the company: "In January, Universal renewed lucrative employment contracts for both Messrs. Shmuger and Linde after they achieved record performance for the studio during the first two years they had held their posts."