EXCLUSIVE: With the Skydance merger expected to close on Thursday, the exec shuffle continues at Paramount Studios as sources tell Deadline that Motion Picture Group Chief Mike Ireland is exiting the studio. Insiders say Ireland will stay on in a consulting role to help with the transition and is considering an offer for a producing deal with the studio.
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This comes following a number new of roles being announced which include Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein being named Co-Chairs of Paramount Pictures with Goldberg being Chair of Paramount Television and Greenstein being Vice Chair of Platforms and Don Granger leading film at the studio.
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Ireland joined the studio in November 2020, and the well-liked exec quickly was named co-president of production alongside Daria Cercek in January 2021. The two would be named co-heads of the Motion Picture group in fall of 2021 and over the next four plus years would oversee a strong slate of hits that include the massive relaunch of the Top Gun franchise, which would not only gross more then a billion dollars at the box-office but land a best picture nomination. During that time the studio also released two more Mission: Impossible pics, expanded the Quiet Place universe with A Quiet Place: Day One and rebooted the Transformers franchise with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
Prior to joining Paramount, Ireland worked at Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way in 2007, where he helped develop projects including The Wolf of Wall Street. He left Appian Way to join then-20th Century Fox in 2012, where he was most recently SVP Production and oversaw a slate of big-budget movies including the upcoming Ryan Reynolds action comedy Free Guy.
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