Former Warner Bros. Television Group president Bruce Rosenblum has been named to the same position at Legendary Entertainment's television and digital media division, the company announced Monday.
Rosenblum will oversee launching the division charged with producing programming for linear and on-demand platforms as well as developing digital distribution opportunities for broadband, mobile and emerging technologies. He will report to Thomas Tull, founder and CEO of Legendary Entertainment.
"Bruce has an outstanding track record in the business, and he will be instantly additive to the team in our efforts to continue to make world-class content for consumers, however and wherever they access that content," Tull said. "We are pleased to have him join Legendary and look forward to working together to continue to build value for the company."
Legendary and Tull, who transitioned to entertainment after earlier stints in finance, are known to have a strained relationship with Warner Bros., though over the years the partnership has yielded such major film franchises as The Dark Knight, The Hangover and 300. Over the weekend, the pricey, Legendary-backed Superman reboot Man of Steel scored big at the box office, opening to $128.7 million domestically and another $71.6 million overseas.
Tull's deal at Warner expires at year-end, so speculation about a new arrangement for Legendary has long percolated. On July 12, the studio will release Pacific Rim, a Guillermo del Toro-directed sci-fi movie whose costs are mostly shouldered by Legendary, a test for Tull's creative and financial acumen.
On the TV front, the question is whether Legendary can join high-end companies from Imagine to Bruckheimer to Bad Robot in having comparable levels of success in both the film and TV arenas. Known for his fanboy enthusiasm and self-made success, the 42-year-old Tull is a presence at fan events like Comic-Con when he's not rooting on sports teams in his adopted hometown of Pittsburgh. The addition of Rosenblum gives him the kind of veteran leadership on the TV side that he has not had in other parts of his company.
Rosenblum ended his two-decade career at Warner Bros. in May after being passed over for the chairman post, which went to Kevin Tsujihara. During his tenure, the TV group generated huge profits for Warner Bros. with hits like The Big Bang Theory, Person of Interest and 2 Broke Girls.
He is also chairman and CEO of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Dade Hayes contributed to this report.
