Mike Fleming

BREAKING: Universal Pictures Co-Chairman Donna Langley will continue her term through 2014. The studio extended the option on her deal, a move that was widely expected when Universal Pictures Chairman Adam Fogelson re-upped last week and will continue to have full day-to-day operating responsibility for the Motion Picture Group, reporting to Universal Studios President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Meyer (whose contract was recently re-upped through 2015) and NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke. That was a signal that the studio’s production team would remain intact after NBCUniversal was acquired by Comcast. Langley will continue to serve as a key strategic business partner overseeing the company’s production department, Focus Features and the studio’s worldwide acquisitions efforts. She reports to Fogelson and has been co-chairman since October 2009.

This gives Fogelson and Langley the chance to see through their 2012 and 2013 slates. The 2012 slate includes the studio’s major bet, the Peter Berg-directed Battleship, which brings an extraterrestrial storyline to the Hasbro board game; the Tony Gilroy-directed The Bourne Legacy with Jeremy Renner; the Rupert Sanders-directed Snow White and the Huntsman with Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart; the Carl Rinsch-directed Keanu Reeves-starrer 47 Ronin; the Daniel Espinosa-directed Safe House with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds; the American Pie sequel American Reunion; the Seth MacFarlane-directed Ted with Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis; the Wahlberg-starrer Contraband; and the Oliver Stone-directed Savages with Aaron Johnson, Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively and Benicio Del Toro. Judd Apatow has a pair of projects and 2012 will close with the Tom Hooper-directed Les Miserables, which stars Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. For the 2013 slate, there is a sixth installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise, the Robert Schwentke-directed R.I.P.D. with Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds, the Illumination Films sequel to Despicable Me, and the untitled science fiction film that Tron: Legacy helmer Joseph Kosinski will direct with Tom Cruise and Jessica Chastain starring.