Rick Sands: New DreamWorks President

Privately held film studio DreamWorks SKG on Monday named Rick Sands president and chief operating officer, hiring him from Oscar-winning Miramax Films, which is grappling with ongoing management issues.

For months, Hollywood has swirled with talk that long-time Miramax executive Sands would join the parent company of publicly held DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.

Sands had been chief operating officer at Miramax, the art-house cinema unit of The Walt Disney Co. that has produced Oscar-winning hits in recent years like "Chicago" and current award favorites "Finding Neverland" and "The Aviator."

The change follows months of turmoil at Miramax, which has slashed staff by nearly 40 percent since Spring 2004. Co-chief executive officers Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein are currently in contract negotiations with Walt Disney.

While contract talks have been called "amicable" by the parties, most industry observers doubt the brothers will stay at Miramax. Their contract officially ends in September.

DreamWorks said Sands will be primarily responsible for day-to-day management of the studio, which focuses mainly on live-action films like this past summer's "Collateral." He will report to partner David Geffen.

Another DreamWorks partner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, is the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, which is

more: reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=industryNews&st (184)

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