Yair Landau, president of Sony Pictures Digital, is leaving the company after 17 years. Having established Sony Pictures Animation, he is planning to start up his own games and animation venture, and will stay on as an exec producer on the studio’s animated feature Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which is scheduled to hit theaters in 2009. He will make his exit in April after heading Sony’s digital business for the past ten years.
Under the direction of Landau and the leadership of president Tim Sarnoff, Sony Pictures Imageworks developed into a state-of-the-art, Oscar-winning digital animation and visual effects company. In 2003, the unit completed its first animated short, The ChubbChubbs!. Sony Pictures Animation was born in 2002 and, under the supervision of Penney Finkelman Cox and Sandra Rabins, yielded the features Open Season and Surf’s Up, which collectively have earned more than $350 million in worldwide box office. Surf’s Up was nominated for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Academy Awards.
‘When Yair came to us a few months ago and said he was ready to move on, we wanted him to stay, but it became clear that he wanted to do on the outside what he had been doing here on the inside for so long and so well’building a new business in the new media environment,’ says Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Michael Lynton. ‘He helped bring us into the digital age with the Sony Pictures Digital division, which has served as our very own new media incubator. His strategic vision, technological savvy and business acumen helped us keep pace with the rapid changes affecting our industry.’
During his time at Sony Pictures, Landau also oversaw Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), which has grown into a worldwide leader in massive multiplayer online games such as Everquest, Untold Legends, PlanetSide and Star Wars Galaxies. He joined the team at Sony Pictures in 1991 from the investment banking world, serving as exec VP of corporate development and vice chairman of Sony Pictures. He was named president of Sony Pictures Digital in 1999. His replacement at the studio will be named soon.
