Personal Paramount highlights for Lee include the first feature he supervised Varsity Blues; Rango, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams, and its sequels; working on every Mission: Impossible film, and awards favorites Rocketman, Fences, The Big Short, and True Grit. Prior to Paramount, he began his Hollywood career as a Staff Coordinator at Walt Disney Pictures and Television (1989-1994).
Lee was previously at Paramount for 27 years, and most recently served as a consultant at Nickelodeon since August of last year. In this newly-created role, Lee will return to the Melrose Lot to oversee physical production across Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Nickelodeon Animation and Live Action. He will be responsible for discovering and maximizing our efforts and efficiencies across these businesses; and creating more opportunities for physical production teams to gain experience in live action and animation across both film and television. Moving forward, the physical production teams across all these divisions will report directly to Lee while still working closely with their respective creative and business affairs leads. While the post production support for Nickelodeon Studios will continue to be served under the ViacomCBS Media Nets infrastructure with a dotted line to Lee, the VFX and post production teams at Paramount Studios will directly report to Lee in this new structure.
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In an internal memo first obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Robbins stated that Rosenthal’s new role was designed after carefully considering ways in which both the Paramount and Nickelodeon brands could achieve greater “singularity.”
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“He will be responsible for discovering and maximizing our efforts and efficiencies across these businesses, and creating more opportunities for physical production teams to gain experience in live action and animation across both film and television,” Robbins said.
Max Weinstein is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. He is the Editor-at-Large of ‘Dread Central’ and former Editorial Director of ‘MovieMaker.’ His work has been featured in ‘Cineaste,’ ‘Fangoria,’ ‘Playboy,’ ‘Vice,’ and ‘The Week.’
Rosenthal has been with Paramount Pictures for 27 years – most recently as President of Physical Production – also serving as a consultant with Nickelodeon. In his new position, he will oversee physical productions out of Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, and Nickelodeon Animation and Live Action. In his previous role, he managed physical production, staffing, budgeting, and troubleshooting on such features as A Quiet Place Part II and Top Gun: Maverick.
Robbins added that Rosenthal’s position “not only reflects Lee’s outstanding business acumen and strong filmmaker relationships, but the leadership he has demonstrated over his meaningful tenure as well.”
During his tenure at the studio, Lee most recently served as the President of Physical Production for Paramount Pictures, where he oversaw the production management department. He was responsible for supervising physical production, staffing, budgeting, and troubleshooting for Paramount’s full slate of films, from pre-production through filming, visual effects, and post-production on films including Top Gun: Maverick and A Quiet Place Part II. Lee started at Paramount in 1994 as an assistant to the Vice President of Production Management and was elevated to Production Executive and Vice President before eventually becoming head of the department in 2009.
Read the full memo below:
As Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon move closer together through our overarching franchise strategy, I have worked hard and methodically to identify areas that bridge the business in ways that enhance and best support each brand’s singularity. Physical production is an area where there is significant opportunity for alignment and optimization across Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Studios. As a result of this strategic alignment, I am pleased to announce that studio veteran Lee Rosenthal has been named President, Worldwide Physical Production, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Studios, effective immediately and reporting to me.
