Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Longtime Fox 2000 EVP Carla Hacken is leaving the studio to become president of production for New Regency. It is the latest move in a restructuring of the company since Arnon Milchan reemerged as an active chairman and installed former Paramount Pictures production president Brad Weston as CEO with a mandate to become a more filmmaker-driven concern.

New Regency is partly owned by News Corp, whose 20th Century Fox distributes and often co-finances Regency-generated films. The move was orchestrated with the cooperation of Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman and Fox 2000 president Elizabeth Gabler.

“Jim, Tom and Liz have been great partners and are incredibly gracious about Carla,” Weston told me in confirming the move. “They see this as a terrific opportunity for her, and a great way to help support New Regency. Arnon and I couldn’t be more appreciative.”

Hacken was an ICM agent when she was brought into the Fox 2000 fold 15 years ago by Laura Ziskin. She has worked closely with Gabler and developed such films as Unfaithful, The Devil Wears Prada, Walk The Line, Bride Wars, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and its sequel, Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Love & Other Drugs and In Her Shoes.

There has long been a tradition of cross pollination between Fox and New Regency (which is based on the lot). That includes Sanford Panitch (who moved from Fox to Regency and now steers Fox International Productions) and most recently Hutch Parker and Bob Harper, who steered New Regency and exited in late August. Hacken joins Alexandra Milchan, who rejoined her father’s company as executive vice president, after a long stretch as a producer.

“Bringing Carla in is a big part of reshaping New Regency,” Weston said. “She has made terrific movies like Walk the Line and The Devil Wears Prada, she has great talent relationships and terrific taste in material. She’s the perfect fit for where we are going with the company.”

Arnon Milchan’s goal is to reestablish New Regency as a filmmaker-driven company that generates six to nine movies per year. New Regency is in production on the Mark Wahlberg-Russell Crowe-starrer Broken City; production will start next spring on the Darren Aronofsky-directed Biblical epic Noah, in partnership with Paramount; The Gray Man starts late summer with Brad Pitt and director James Gray; and the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed The Revenant starts production in September. Sean Penn and Leonardo DiCaprio are circling the lead roles in that drama.