Jobs’s Death Leaves Hollywood Without Trusted Tech Envoy. (Updates with Iger comment in fourth paragraph. For more on Jobs, see EXT5 <GO>.) Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Steve Jobs’s death leaves Hollywood without the trusted technology envoy who helped push the film, TV and music industries into the digital age. In the 25 years after he bought George Lucas’s digital animation business and renamed it Pixar, Jobs charmed, angered and cajoled Hollywood executives as he pursued his vision for digital entertainment. He clashed with former Walt Disney Co. Apple Inc.’s co-founder relentlessly challenged the industry to change -- ushering in the age of digital animation with “Toy Story,” upending the record labels with the iPod and the iTunes store, and by negotiating to sell TV shows and films online.
“Steve and I were talking for months about delivering TV shows on iTunes, which is when he shows me the video iPod, and I said, ‘We’re in!’” Hollywood executives resisted putting shows online. ‘Getting It’ ‘Rocket Ship’ Clash With Eisner ‘Pretty Simple’ Disney CEO Iger signs new five-year contract - latimes.com. Bob Iger has signed a new five-year contract with the Walt Disney Co. that will keep him at the helm until 2015, when he will step down as chief executive and leave the entertainment giant the following year at age 65. In March, Iger will assume the additional role of chairman with the retirement of Disney's current board chairman, John E. Pepper Jr. Iger will serve in the dual capacity as chairman and chief executive for three years, until a successor is named CEO. At that time, Iger will become executive chairman and serve until June 2016.
Corporate governance experts criticized Disney for re-combining the two top executive positions that the board had separated in 2004 amid growing shareholder dissatisfaction with the performance of Michael Eisner, who at the time had served for two decades as both chairman and CEO. Former U.S. "That would be considered a backward step by Disney," Hodgson said. Disney has already taken steps to groom potential successors to Iger. With Pixar, Steve Jobs changed the film industry forever | Apple. There's never been a movie studio with an unbroken streak of hit movies like Pixar. From the original "Toy Story" to "Finding Nemo" to "Cars," "Ratatouille," and "Toy Story 3," the animation wizards at Pixar have won over the industry, forcing Hollywood to change how it makes films, and it's made billions in the process.
And it never would have happened without Steve Jobs. Pixar began as a division of George Lucas' LucasFilm, working on the development of imaging technology and its own imaging computer. But inside, some were more interested in making animated films than expensive machines, and LucasFilm soon lost interest in the project. According to "The Pixar Touch," by David Price, LucasFilm in late 1985 was on the verge of selling the unwanted division to a partnership of Philips Electronics and General Motors subsidiary Electronic Data Systems. And along came Jobs to save the day. Won over To Price, Jobs was an "accidental visionary" in the film industry. Steve Jobs: Remembering the man who gave us Pixar - Celebritology 2.0.
Posted at 11:49 AM ET, 10/06/2011 Oct 06, 2011 03:49 PM EDT TheWashingtonPost We have Steve Jobs to thank for Jessie, Buzz and Woody. | GALLERY: Click the image to view memorable moments from Pixar films. As the public mourns the death of Steve Jobs and contemplates his achievements, the first word that immediately comes to mind is: Apple. As Hank Stuever writes in his appreciation of the technological visionary — who died Wednesday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56 — it’s the MacBooks and iPods, the iPhones and iPads that are the most obvious, tangible proof of the man’s legacy.
But Steve Jobs also gave us something else. When he purchased the company from Lucasfilm in 1986 and put both his money and support behind it, he laid the foundation for some of the finest children’s films — for that matter, films in general — of the past two decades. As noted in the book “The Pixar Touch” by David A.