Nathan Kahane Named President Of Motion Pictures At Lionsgate

Nathan Kahane Named President Of Motion Pictures At Lionsgate

Nathan Kahane has been named president of the Motion Picture Proup for Lionsgate. The producer of Juno and Blockers co-founded Good Universe with Joe Drake who is chairman of the Motion Picture Group. Lionsgate had acquired Good Universe last year.

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Other moves includes Good Universe’s Erin Westerman coming in as executive VP of production. Lionsgate has been in the throes of changes with the motion picture division for some time when Erik Feig and Patrick Wachsberger exited the ranks. That followed Rob Friedman’s exit from the Motion Picture unit in August. Both Wachsberger and Friedman had come into Lionsgate about six years earlier after Lionsgate acquired Summit Entertainment.

Feig has since been raising money to launch a new company focused on youth-oriented entertainment properties, one that may include Lionsgate as an investor. Wachsberger said he will build another business while Friedman took a post as Chairman/CEO of Donald Tang’s new venture now named Global Road Entertainment.

Lionsgate said today in announcing the changes that the new execs “are part of a realignment of the Company’s motion picture business under its new leadership team.”

Kahane is also the former President of Mandate Pictures and has served as an executive producer on over 30 films. He is widely regarded as one of the most filmmaker-friendly executives in the industry with longtime talent relationships with comedy superstars Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg of Point Grey Pictures (Flarsky, Neighbors, Sausage Party), Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert of Ghost House Picture whom he has partnered on eight #1 box office hits, and horror maven Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead).

During his 20-year career, the producer has shepherded a diverse array of product, including the aforementioned Juno, as well as the Harold & Kumar comedy franchise, 50/50 and This Is The End, Neighbors, and horror breakouts like Don’t Breathe, The Grudge, and Evil Dead.

Westerman, who also worked at The Walt Disney Company as a production executive, was responsible for Good Universe’s critically-acclaimed aThe Disaster Artist. He is also credited for the horror thriller Don’t Breathe, and the Disney hits Cinderella, directed by Kenneth Branagh, and Rob Marshall’s Into The Woods.

“I have worked alongside Nathan as an executive, entrepreneur and producer for 15 years, during which he has demonstrated a combination of great leadership skills, a game-changing approach to filmmaking, and talent relationships that are second to none,” said Drake. “He has exactly the right skill set to sharpen the focus of our film slate, deepen our relationships with world-class talent, and lead our Motion Picture Group to the next level of performance.”

Lionsgate’s upcoming slate includes the comedy Uncle Drew, Blindspotting, the action comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me, the thriller A Simple Favor, the Seth Rogen/Charlize Theron comedy Flarsky, and star-driven event films The Kingkiller Chronicle, John Wick: Chapter Three and Chaos Walking.