<\/a>Three weeks ago, the sudden departure of Dick Cook left people wondering exactly who would be taking his place as Disney Studios Chair.<\/p>\n

Many analysts speculated that the position would be filled by current Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter. In reality, he’s got more than enough on his plate right now and, in my opinion, is just where he belongs. The other popular guess was that Rich Ross, former head of Disney Channel Worldwide, would take over. <\/p>\n

Turns out Ross has now been officially named chairman of the Walt Disney Studios<\/a>. This announcement<\/a> came today, confirming the aforementioned rumors. Anyway, the position of studios chairman is a huge responsibility encompassing production, distribution and marketing of all Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone, Miramax and Pixar films.<\/p>\n

I don’t quite know how to feel about this decision. He did<\/em> launch the mega-hits that are High School Musical and Hannah Montana, so he’s unquestionably avid at marketing. On the other hand, those franchises aren’t seen as creative genius by most. Then again, he won’t be able to interfere with Pixar’s heavily guarded properties (although he did collab. with Lasseter on Cars Toons) so it shouldn’t be that <\/em>big of a deal. Let’s just hope for the best especially when it comes to the other Disney owned studios!<\/p>\n

Congratulations Rich Ross on the new and prestigious position… don’t disappoint us! Your thoughts?<\/em><\/p>\n

(via NY Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"