2019-10-16 The Hollywood Reporter

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 73 OCTOBER 16, 2019

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58 PETE DOCTER

Chief creative officer

Pixar Animation Studios

THE WALT DISNEY CO.

JENNIFER LEE

Chief creative officer

Walt Disney Animation Studios

Since stepping into their roles more

than a year ago, Docter, 51, shep-

herded and released Toy Story 4 in

June, grossing $1 billion, and Lee,

47, is gearing up for the November

debut of Frozen II (which she co-

wrote and produced). Pixar has

two releases in 2020 (the first is

Docter-directed Soul), while Disney

has Raya and the Last Dragon and a

slew of content for Disney+, includ-

ing short film series Short Circuit.

BEST THING ABOUT HOLLYWOOD’S

MERGER MANIA Docter: “The

name ‘merger mania.’ ” Lee: “The

opportunity to tell stories on

new platforms.”

WORST THING Lee: “The parking

lot is fuller.”

59 AVA DUVERNAY

Director-producer

Her Netflix limited series When

They See Us collected 16 Emmy

nominations — the most for any

of the streamer’s shows — and

rewrote the story of the Central

Park jogger case in the public

consciousness. Other 2019 wins for

DuVernay, 47, who has a major voice

on Hollywood issues of gender

parity and inclusion: Signing on to

produce and direct DC’s DMZ for

HBO Max (part of her $100 million

deal with Warner Bros. TV), scoring

a fifth season of OWN’s Queen

Sugar and opening a theater in her

headquarters in L.A.’s Echo Park.

GO-TO PODCAST FOR A LONG DRIVE

“Hear to Slay with Roxane Gay and

Tressie McMillan.”

60 STEPHEN KING

Director-producer

The 72-year-old author is

Hollywood’s most potent source

of IP, thanks to the $1.13 billion the

It movies raked in. Warner Bros.’

Doctor Sleep — a sequel to The

Shining — arrives Nov. 8, and the

studio has two other King proj-

ects (Salem’s Lot and The Long

Walk), while over at Paramount,

Pet Sematary grossed $112 mil-

lion off of a $21 million budget. He

has series at Amazon (The Dark

To w e r), HBO (The Outsider), CBS

All Access (The Stand) and Hulu

(Castle Rock), and is writing all

eight hours of Apple’s Lisey’s Story,

based on his novel (J.J. Abrams is

exec producing).

61 CHRIS MELEDANDRI

CEO Illumination

COMCAST/NBCUNIVERSAL

The Secret Life of Pets 2 was a

furball, grossing $429 million, less

than half the original’s haul. But

Meledandri, 60, still has some

magic up his sleeve with Minions:

The Rise of Gru and Sing 2, both

due in 2020. He also oversees the

Shrek franchise, one of the most

valuable properties at corporate

sibling DreamWorks Animation.

62 JOE AND

ANTHONY RUSSO

Directors

What do you do after directing

the biggest hit of all time? For the

Russos, both 49, whose Avengers:

Endgame grossed $2.8 billion, the

answer is: run as far as you can

from superheroes. Next up: Cherry,

an indie about heroin addiction

starring Spider-Man’s Tom Holland,

as they work to grow fledgling film

collective AGBO into a major player.

63 JEFF SKOLL

Founder/chairman

DAVID LINDE

CEO

PARTICIPANT

Nobody has a better eye for Oscar

material. In 2018 they backed not

only the winner (Green Book) but

its biggest rival (Roma), as well

as doc contender RBG. In fact,

Participant (it dropped “Media” this

year as part of a rebrand) scored

17 noms in 2019, a company record.

For Skoll, 54, and Linde, 59, the

coming awards race looks promis-

ing too, with Michael B. Jordan legal

drama Just Mercy and Obama-

produced doc American Factory.

GO-TO PODCAST FOR A LONG DRIVE

Linde: “Anything news-oriented is

vital — starting with The Daily.”

64 PHIL LORD AND

CHRIS MILLER

Directors

Getting booted off Solo: A Star

Wars Story led Lord and Miller, both

44, to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-

Verse, which grossed $375 million

and won the animated feature

Oscar. They’re now developing a

web of sequels and spinoffs for

Sony TV, as well as Sony feature

The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and

in August signed a first-look deal

with Universal.

THE LAST APP SOMEONE UNDER 13

HAD TO EXPLAIN TO YOU Both (via

email): “All of them, especially Neko

Atsume: Kitty Collector, where you

collect pretend cats.”

65 SCARLETT JOHANSSON

Actor

She’s the top-grossing female star

of all time thanks to her Avengers

films. But Johansson, 34, is also

a prestige player in two awards

contenders: Noah Baumbach’s

Marriage Story (Netflix) and

Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit (Fox

Searchlight). In 2020, she’ll be back

to superheroes, exec producing

and starring in Black Widow, the

first female-fronted action movie to

open the summer box office season.

A TOP TALENT (NOT ON YOUR

PLATFORM) WHOM YOU ADMIRE

[Playwright] Ming Peiffer.

66 MICHAEL B. JORDAN

Actor-producer

Actors can sometimes convince

studios to take on bold new proj-

ects. But Jordan, 32, persuaded

WarnerMedia to launch an entirely

Kenya Barris

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