Paramount Players Merged Under Studio Co-Heads Mike Ireland and Daria Cercek; Jeremy Kramer Departing

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Players is being merged under Paramount Motion Picture Group co-heads Mike Ireland and Daria Cercek. As a result of the strategic realignment, Jeremy Kramer will be stepping down as president of Paramount Players. Kramer previously reported to Paramount Pictures president and CEO Brian Robbins.

Mike Ireland and Daria Cerek - Credit: Paramount
Mike Ireland and Daria Cerek - Credit: Paramount

Paramount

More from Deadline

“Partnering with our filmmakers across a range of genres and budgets is critical to our studio’s vibrancy and our business’ long-term success,” Robbins said Tuesday. “In uniting Paramount Players within the larger Motion Picture Group, our goal is to optimize the power of one division to scale the expertise and skill set of an incredibly talented team of executives under Daria and Mike.”

Robbins added, “Over the last couple of years, Jeremy has played an integral role in further establishing Players as a youthful, entrepreneurial production arm throughout the industry and within our own company, and I want to thank him for all of his contributions and leadership.”

Upcoming projects for Players include Apartment 7A, starring Julia Garner and being produced by John Krasinski and Allyson Seeger’s Sunday Night, and Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller’s Platinum Dunes; On the Come Up, a feature take of Angie Thomas’s No. 1 New York Times bestselling follow-up book to The Hate U Give, with Sanaa Lathan making her directorial debut; the sci-fi thriller Significant Other starring Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy, directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen; the comedy Senior Year, starring Rebel Wilson; and writer-director Parker Finn’s Something’s Wrong With Rose, starring Sosie Bacon with Temple Hill producing.

As part of the reorg of the creative group, Cercek and Ireland are promoting three of their key creative executives: Ashley Brucks, previously SEVP Production, will now be Head of Development, Paramount Players, while Jonathan Gonda and Vanessa Joyce will both be promoted to EVPs of production after previously serving as SVPs.

“This is the start of a new chapter for the Paramount Motion Picture Group,” said Cercek and Ireland. “Ashley, Jon and Vanessa are standout executives, and their promotions are well-deserved. At Players, Jeremy has assembled a strong team and this newly combined group is going to energize our efforts to make smart, fun, commercial movies across a wide range of budgets and genres.”

As co-heads of the Motion Picture Group, Cercek and Ireland have been leading development on the studio’s upcoming event films including the latest installments of the Transformers and Mission: Impossible franchises, Sandra Bullock’s March 25 theatrical release The Lost City (making its world premiere at SXSW on Saturday), a sequel to the hit hybrid animation film Sonic the Hedgehog, and Dungeons & Dragons among other titles. The two were named co-heads in September 2021 following the departure of Emma Watts. They previously served as co-presidents of production.

Brucks has been with Paramount Pictures since 2008. During her tenure on the Melrose Ave. lot, she has been key in shepherding the production of several hit movies including Scream, A Quiet Place and Paranormal Activity. Brucks began her career at DreamWorks as a production and development executive.

Joyce first joined Paramount Pictures in 2012 as a creative executive. Prior to that, she was a development assistant at Summit Entertainment.

Gonda came to the studio in 2017 as a VP of Production. Previously, he was at Warner Bros where he served as a creative executive in the Feature Film Production Group. Prior to that, he was a director of development at Fox Writers Studio.

Kramer joined the studio as president of Paramount Players in 2020 after being an executive and a producer at 20th Century Fox, Red Hour Films, DreamWorks and Miramax. He has overseen more than 60 movies including She’s All That, Blades of Glory, Disturbia, Tropic Thunder, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and the Deadpool franchise. Kramer began as an independent producer with Jason Blum on Noah Baumbach’s first film Kicking and Screaming.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.