Following his departure as the president for DC Studio at Warner Bros Discovery, Walter Hamada has landed at Paramount Pictures in an exclusive, multi-year production deal which will see him returning to his horror roots, Deadline has reported. Amid the overhaul at the WBD studio in the past year, news broke out in August that Hamada was on the verge of quitting after new CEO David Zaslav made the controversial decision to axe the straight-to-video Batgirl movie. Though he stayed back for Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam release and officially stepped down in October.
In his new role starting January 1, next year he’ll be the new architect of Paramount’s horror genre movies. He’d be instrumental in releasing several low to mid-budget films per year encompassing theatrical and streaming releases. This year Paramount hit jackpot with the success of Smile which was initially slated for the streaming service but pivoted to a theatrical release where it grossed close to $210 million worldwide. Speaking of Hamada’s new role, Paramount Pictures president and CEO Brian Robbins said, “With his track record for groundbreaking success, Walter is the ideal partner and visionary to build out our mainstream horror genre franchise business.” He cited Smile’s success adding, “As evidenced by the fantastic performance of Smile, there is a tremendous appetite for original, high-concept storytelling in the global marketplace, and we look forward to a long and successful partnership.”
Hamada shared that he “can’t wait to start” his new stint, saying, “I am thrilled to collaborate with Paramount Pictures with the singular goal of creating exceptional movies in the horror genre.” He further said that over the course of his career, “nothing has been more gratifying than discovering emerging, first-time filmmakers and writers and unleashing their brilliance in a studio setting.” Over the years during his DC Studio stint, the producer was responsible for features like Academy-award winning Joaquin Phoenix-led Joker, the billion-dollar grossing Jason Momoa-led Aquaman, along with shepherding titles Matt Reeves’ The Batman, The Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman franchise, and Shazam! among others. Upcoming projects from the studio that he worked on include, The Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Shazam: Fury of the Gods.
Prior to heading the DC Studios, he was EVP of Production at New Line Cinema where he gathered fame with horror features like The Conjuring series and the adaptation of Stephen King’s iconic horror novel IT, which went on to become a global phenomenon and the highest-grossing horror film in history with more than $704 million in the global box office. It will be interesting to see how his move to Paramount pans out.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.