Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos has inked a new multi-year contract with Viacom, the film studio confirmed to Kidscreen sister publication Realscreen.

Viacom first tapped Gianopulos to helm the studio in 2017. Prior to that role, he served as chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, overseeing Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox International Productions, and Twentieth Century Fox Animation/Blue Sky Studios. Under his tenure, Paramount Pictures has put out several new kids and family titles, including Sherlock Gnomes, Wonder Park and Dora the Lost City Of Gold.

The live-action Dora movie, based on Nickelodeon’s iconic Dora the Explorer series, opened fourth at the box office last week below Disney’s new Lion King installment and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

Paramount has a raft of kids and family titles coming out in 2020 under Gianopulos to compete at the crowded box office such as the live-action reimagining of Clifford The Big Red Dog (Paramount Animation, eOne and Scholastic), a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount Animation and Sega), The SpongeBob Movie: It’s A Wonderful Sponge (Paramount Animation, Nickelodeon Movies and United Plankton Pictures) and Rumble (Paramount Animation, Walden Media).

News of the deal comes as talks reportedly escalate between Viacom and CBS. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the two media congloms were on the brink of merging as negotiations edged toward the finish line. The merger would reunite the two National Amusements-owned companies, which split in 2006, bringing Viacom and CBS subsidiaries–such as Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures–under one roof.

Copied from Realscreen