Warner Bros. has promoted Walter Hamada to president of the DC Films production unit, Toby Emmerich, President and Chief Content Officer, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, announced Thursday.
Hamada, a veteran executive at the studio’s New Line division who oversaw the successful “Conjuring” franchise and “It,” will oversee the DC Films unit after December’s departure of Jon Berg, Warner Bros.’s co-president of production. Berg is now a partner at Vertigo, the production banner run by Roy Lee. Hamada most recently served as EVP of Production and New Line.
Hamada will oversee DC’s upcoming slate and is set to work closely with Geoff Johns, President and Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment.
“Walter is creative, resourceful, and committed to excellence, and will bring those qualities to his oversight of our superhero films,” said Emmerich in a statement. “He’s a terrific production executive and served as an executive producer on two of the summer’s most popular films, New Line’s ‘IT’ and ‘Annabelle: Creation.’ I’m confident Walter and Geoff, working with our filmmaking partners, will deliver films that will resonate with both broad global audiences as well as DC fanboys and fangirls. Walter’s a great addition to the Warner Bros. Pictures team, and I look forward to working with him in his new post.”
Before coming to New Line, Hamada served as a producer and manager with H2F Entertainment. He began his career at TriStar and later became vice president of production at Columbia Pictures. During his decade-long tenure at New Line, he worked on films including “Friday the 13th,” “Final Destination” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
Warner Bros. started to restructure the DC Films unit after the release of “Justice League.” As TheWrap exclusively reported, “Justice League” had a lot of things going against it before its release last month: a looming corporate merger, a family tragedy, an internal clash between light and dark themes. But its greatest enemy was time.” “Wonder Woman” was a hit at the box office as well as among critics and audiences, but “Justice League” and “Suicide Squad” didn’t quite resonate with audiences as much.
“Aquaman,” directed by “Conjuring” filmmaker James Wan, will open on Dec. 21.