好莱坞各界花了数年时间试图了解天舞影业的首席执行官大卫·埃利森——如今他掌管着原派拉蒙及华纳兄弟探索旗下的多家公司。现在，他们又多了一个需要了解的新人物：埃利森新任命的联席首席执行官伊农·克雷兹。预计克雷兹将于周二晚间与埃利森共同出席一场新闻发布会。他此前在美泰公司任职，最为人熟知的两件事是：促成美泰与华纳兄弟及女演员玛格特·罗比的合作，制作了大获成功的电影《芭比》；以及大幅削减公司开支，一次性裁掉了22%的员工。
Hollywood has spent a couple of years trying to figure out Skydance CEO David Ellison, who now runs the companies formerly known as Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. Now they have a new character to get to know: Ynon Kreiz, Ellison's newly appointed co-CEO. Kreiz, who is expected to co-host a press event with Ellison on Tuesday night, comes to Skydance from Mattel, where he is best-known for two things: engineering a deal with Warner Bros. and actress Margot Robbie to produce the colossally successful "Barbie" movie — and taking an ax to the toymaker's payroll, by laying off 22% of its workforce in one fell swoop.
在天舞影业，没人指望克雷兹去与各大制片公司或艺人洽谈合作事宜——那属于埃利森的职责范围。相反，克雷兹要承担的艰巨任务是：在三年内为公司节省60亿美元开支，而这一任务很可能需要大规模裁员来实现。这份工作常让人联想到华纳兄弟探索的前首席财务官古纳尔·维登费尔斯——后者曾通过裁员及其他成本控制手段大幅削减公司开支，甚至叫停了不少影视项目的制作。
At Skydance, no one expects him to be making deals with studios and talent — that will be Ellison's purview. Instead, Kreiz will be expected to take on the grim task of finding a $6 billion in savings over 3 years — a job that will likely involve meaningful layoffs. It's a job that has drawn repeated comparisons to Gunnar Wiedenfels, the former CFO at WBD, who repeatedly hacked at that company's P&L via layoffs and other cost-saving measures, like mothballing TV shows and movies.
本周，克雷兹的一位朋友对我说：“他就是第二个古纳尔。”不过，公司外部很少有人知道维登费尔斯是谁；好莱坞圈内外的关注焦点与指责对象，始终是爱出风头的华纳兄弟探索首席执行官大卫·扎斯拉夫。这一次，显然埃利森将成为天舞影业在公众面前的形象代表，负责与明星们联络等轻松的工作；而克雷兹则要承担最棘手、最繁琐的任务。
"He's Gunnar," one of Kreiz's friends told me this week. But few people outside the company knew who Wiedenfels was. Instead, people in and out of Hollywood focused their attention and ire on David Zaslav, the spotlight-loving WBD CEO. This time around, it seems clear that Ellison will be the public face of Skydance, and the one who gets to do fun stuff like schmoozing with stars.
曾与克雷兹共事过的人认为他完全能胜任这一角色。“他非常严肃认真，”坎德尔传媒联席首席执行官凯文·梅尔说道。梅尔此前在迪士尼担任高管时曾与克雷兹洽谈合作事宜，当时克雷兹是网络视频初创公司Maker Studios的首席执行官，而迪士尼最终于2014年收购了这家公司。
Kreiz will be the one getting his hands very dirty. People who've worked with him in the past say he's cut out for the role. "He's very serious," says Candle Media co-CEO Kevin Mayer, who negotiated with Kreiz when Mayer was a top executive at Disney, and Kreiz was CEO of Maker Studios, a web video startup Disney ended up buying in 2014.
“他沉着冷静，愿意承担最艰巨的任务。” 克雷兹婉拒了本次采访请求。他拥有出色的媒体行业履历：曾执掌荷兰顶级电视制作公司Endemol；协助由一群年轻的YouTube创作者创办的Maker公司迅速壮大，最终促使迪士尼以5亿美元的价格将其收购；还主导了美泰公司在知识产权授权领域的拓展，促成了今年《宇宙巨人希曼》电影的问世。
"He's unflappable, and is willing to take on the heaviest of heavy lifts." Kreiz, who declined to comment for this story, arrives at Skydance with a résumé stocked with media bona fides: He ran Endemol, the Dutch TV production company, back when it was a powerhouse; he helped Maker, founded by a group of young YouTubers-makers, scale up into something Disney was willing to buy for $500 million; and he led Mattel's move into IP licensing, which also gave us this year's "Masters of the Universe" movie.
与他共事过的人皆称他是一位精力极其旺盛的管理者。“只要事关紧要，伊农会立刻乘飞机赶往全国各地开会，第二天一早再飞回来，”Upfront Ventures的风险投资人马克·苏斯特说道，他的公司正是Maker的主要投资方。与克雷兹相识数十年的华纳音乐集团首席执行官罗伯特·金克尔则表示，克雷兹外表强硬，但这其实容易让人产生误解。
People who've worked with him describe him as an exceptionally high-energy executive. "Ynon will get on an airplane and fly across the country for a meeting if it's critical, and fly back the next morning," says Upfront Ventures' Mark Suster, whose VC firm was the primary investor in Maker. Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl, who has known Kreiz for decades, says Kreiz has a tough demeanor that's a little misleading.
“伊农可不是个温顺的人，但他内心十分热情，”他说。金克尔还透露，在他的紧急联系人名单中，克雷兹夫妇位列首位——倘若他本人与妻子遭遇不测，他的孩子们就要向他们求助。不过克雷兹的履历也并非毫无瑕疵：迪士尼始终未能妥善运营收购后的Maker公司，而克雷兹也在交易完成几年后便离开了迪士尼。此外，虽然他成功削减了美泰公司的运营成本，却未能推动公司业务增长：2023年《宇宙巨人希曼》电影大获成功后，芭比玩具销量一度飙升，但随后两年又出现下滑，最终回落至电影上映前的水平，美泰公司的股价也长期表现不佳。
"Ynon's not a teddy bear. But he's a warm person," he says. Kyncl says Kreiz and his wife are the first people in Kyncl's emergency file — the people his kids are supposed to ask for help if anything happens to Kyncl and his wife. Kreiz has demerits on his record: Disney never figured out what to do with Maker, and Kreiz left Disney a couple of years after selling to them. And while Kreiz cut Mattel's costs, he struggled to grow the company — while Barbie sales shot up after the movie's blockbuster success in 2023, they fell again over the next two years, and eventually returned to pre-movie levels. Mattel's stock has been listing for some time.
尽管克雷兹是经验丰富的高管，但他从未担任过类似职务：虽然身为这家大型媒体集团的联席首席执行官，他实际上并未掌控全局。真正的掌舵人是大卫·埃里森——正是他凭借父亲拉里·埃里森的巨额财富促成了派拉蒙及华纳兄弟探索集团的收购。值得注意的是，大卫·埃里森的头衔始终是首席执行官，而非联席首席执行官。
And while Kreiz is a veteran executive, he's never been in a position like this: While he's co-CEO of the giant media conglomerate, he's definitely not running the place. That person is David Ellison, who engineered acquisitions of Paramount and then WBD, backed by his father Larry Ellison's fortune. Tellingly, Ellison's title remains CEO, not co-CEO.
虽然天舞影业不会像扎斯拉夫在华纳兄弟时代那样承受来自股东的巨大压力——埃里森父子二人实际上掌控着整个公司——但克赖兹仍需应对那些持有该公司高达800亿美元债务的债券持有者。这些债券持有者或许早已对天舞影业的前景心存担忧。天舞影业并未回复我的置评请求。至于克赖兹，他将因承担这些重任而获得丰厚报酬：其第一年的薪酬总额将达4750万美元。
And while Skydance won't have the same kind of pressure from shareholders that troubled Zaslav at WBD — the two Ellisons have effective control of the whole company — Kreiz will have to contend with the people who own the company's staggering $80 billion in debt. And those bondholders may already be worried about Skydance's prospects. Skydance didn't respond to my request for comment. Kreiz will be paid well for his troubles. His first-year pay package will total $47.5 million.