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CEO Thomas Tull Resigns From Godzilla, Pacific Rim's Legendary Entertainment
posted on by Karen Ressler
The Wanda Cultural Industry Group and Legendary Entertainment announced on Tuesday that Legendary Entertainment CEO Thomas Tull has resigned. Jack Gao, Wanda's group senior VP and CEO of international investments and operations, will take over as interim CEO.
Tull has been a founding member and CEO of the company since 2005. Collider reports that he personally pushed for Legendary's Godzilla and Pacific Rim films because he was a fan of the material.
Chinese company Wanda acquired Legendary in January 2016. The Hollywood Reporter reports that "Wanda became frustrated with his management and recent projects such as The Great Wall and the currently shooting Pacific Rim 2."
Tull will continue as Founding Chairman of Legendary, and will still act as producer on Monsterverse (Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla 2, Kong vs. Godzilla) and Dune films. He also plans to focus on his Tull Investment Group, which invests in life science, media, and technology companies.
Legendary became an independent studio in 2013, and it has since released films such as Godzilla, Pacific Rim, Jurassic World, and Warcraft. The Godzilla 2 sequel film is slated for June 8, 2018, and Pacific Rim: Uprising is slated for February 23, 2018. Legendary and Warner Bros.' Godzilla vs. King Kong is slated for a 2020 release. Legendary has also acquired the rights for a live-action Pokémon film.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter (Rebecca Ford, Kim Masters), Collider (Matt Goldberg)
