Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein’s Mission Impossible: Skydance Math

Fourteen months ago, Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein took over Paramount Pictures. With a slate that’s entirely their own a year out, the duo haven’t had enough time to prove whether they have hits or misses under their belts. David Ellison just handed them the keys to arguably the most storied studio in history — Warner Bros. — anyway.

Their new empire comes with a mind-boggling 30-plus movies a year (what is this, Netflix?!), nine labels, three animation divisions and an unavoidable trap: a mandate to cut. And deeply. In other words: Before Goldberg and Greenstein can even show Hollywood what they want to build, they have to decide what gets killed. All while attracting and fluffing the best talent in town.

Questions, as they do, were already mounting over whether the well-liked and respected Goldberg and Greenstein had enough experience to run Paramount — or whether their biggest qualification was being trusted by the boss (no small feat, and often the most important part of any job). Now they’re being handed Lord of the Rings, New Line and the rest of Warner Bros., too, after talent-magnet veterans Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy were shuttled (unceremoniously, in the view of many).

“It’s really crazy to put those two in this role. The whole town is talking about it,” a Paramount insider says. “You’re trusting these guys with Lord of the Rings…. They’ve never done anything like this.” 

Another industry veteran puts it more bluntly: “I know it’s David’s favorite son and daughter, but it seems odd to me to put two untested people in charge of not one but two studios. If you haven’t had experience running one studio, how are you going to run two?”

Skydance and Paramount declined to comment.

Mind you, this is an industry where hairdresser Jon Peters once ran Columbia Pictures — and a former clothing executive and failed actor, Bob Evans, led Paramount into one of its greatest eras.

Even so, decades of major experience may not matter. The real test begins with a much messier question: When you suddenly control nine labels, three animation divisions and more than 30 movies a year, and Wall Street is spooked by your company’s debt, what do you keep — and what (and whom) do you kill?