Rich Ross named chief of Walt Disney Studios

Rich Ross, the television executive who helped revive the moribund Disney Channel, now has to prove he can work movie magic at Walt Disney Studios.

The 47-year-old former talent department head has been, as expected, tapped by Disney Chief Executive Robert A. Iger to fill much of the studio post formerly held by Dick Cook, who was ousted last month after clashing with his boss and failing to deliver enough hits over the last year.

Iger will look to Ross to reinvigorate Disney’s flagging box-office fortunes and develop film franchises that can be sold across the entertainment giant’s lines of businesses — including theme parks, consumer products and television — as well as grapple with a host of technological issues that are quickly reshaping Hollywood.

By picking an executive from outside the clubby precincts of the movie business, Iger hopes Ross can shake up a studio that the Disney chief views as entrenched in the past, from the kinds of high-priced stars hired for films to the way pictures are made and marketed.

For the rest of the article by Dawn C. Chmielewski and Claudia Eller…please go to the Los Angeles Times