Matt Tolmach Steps Down From Columbia Pictures to Produce Spider-Man

In a major reshuffling for Columbia Pictures, longtime production chief Matt Tolmach is leaving his post to launch a production company.
 
He will also become a producer on the new installment of the Spider-Man franchise.
 
Doug Belgrad has been promoted to sole president of Columbia Pictures.
 
As part of the transition, Hannah Minghella, who has been the president of Sony Pictures Animation since 2008, becomes president of production for Columbia Pictures. The 31-year old exec becomes one of the younger execs to hold such a title.

Tolmach and has company have signed a three first-look deal with the studio. Tolmach will spend the next month transitioning and ramping up the new company, in time to be on the set of the Spider-Man movie when its cameras roll in December.
 
(He joins Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad as producers on the movie.)

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Tolmach had been mulling the move for the last year, according to Columbia, but Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal said she tried to get him to stay within the studio fold.

“We tried to convince him to stay in his current job, but we understand the time has come and completely support his decision,” said Pascal in a statement. “Spider-Man has been a big part of his life for the past ten years, and this is the perfect segue. We know he is going to be a killer producer for us.”

“With this move, the studio is gaining a new producer whose taste we know and whose creative skill we implicitly trust,” said Sony Pictures Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton. “We are very fortunate to have such a deep bench of executive talent at Sony Pictures. That allows us to recognize and encourage the leadership potential of extraordinary colleagues who can make very valuable contributions to our studio. We also have the benefit of making this change from a position of strength, given the amazing track record of Matt and Doug and their team over the past several years.”

The Tolmach and Belgrad team has been one of the most successful partnerships in the studio world, and helped the studio become not only of the more stable of companies, but also one of the more profitable.

The duo have shared the role of president of Columbia Pictures since 2008 and have worked as team in 2003.

Tolmach has been with the company since 1997, when he came on as vp of production, Belgrad since 1989.

Minghella joined the company in 2005 as director of creative affairs working in the office of the chairman of the Motion Picture Group under Pascal.