John Batter, the president of production at DreamWorks Animation since 2007, is leaving to become CEO for MediaNavi, a subsidiary of Technicolor, TheWrap has confirmed.
Under Batter, MediaNavi will be focusing on emerging content distribution models, with a large consumer launch aimed for 2012. As an extension of DreamWorks Aimation's current strategic alliance with Technicolor, the company is entering the business of 2D to 3D conversion and is working on DWA's "Kung Fu Panda" as its first project.
DreamWorks Animation knows its 3D. All of its recent films have been released in 3D, and the format has found no bigger booster than CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Batter joined DWA in 2006 as head of production operations. Prior to that, he worked at Electronic Arts Inc., as GM of Electronic Arts Mobile, among other positions. And 1995 until 2000 — before the animation division split into its own public company — he worked at DreamWorks, where he was, among other positions, chief financial officer of DreamWorks Interactive.
Variety first reported the news.
