
Netflix has recruited longtime Hollywood producer Dan Lin (pictured) to take the reins at its movie division. Replacing Scott Stuber as chairman of film, Lin starts on April 1 and will report to chief content officer Bela Bajaria.
With more than two decades of experience under his belt, Lin’s most notable family-friendly credits include the LEGO movie franchise, Cartoon Network’s Unikitty! and Disney’s live-action film adaptation of Aladdin.
He began his career in the late ’90s at Warner Bros. Pictures, moving up the ranks there to SVP of production and overseeing films such as 2004 comedy Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and the Oscar-winning crime drama The Departed (2006).
In 2008, he set up his own LA-based studio Lin Pictures, which was later rebranded as Rideback. This shingle—which is currently prepping a live-action Lilo & Stitch movie for Disney+—will continue to operate under the leadership of co-CEOs Jonathan Eirich and Michael LoFaso.
It was announced last month that Stuber, who joined Netflix in 2017, will depart in March to launch a new production banner. So the search for a successor to spearhead Netflix’s film unit has been a fairly quick one.
It’s worth noting that Lin had a pre-existing working relationship with the streamer, most recently serving as an EP on Avatar: The Last Airbender, its live-action adaptation of a same-name Nickelodeon toon. He also previously produced 2019’s Oscar-nominated movie The Two Popes.
Netflix has been tinkering with its film strategy since 2023. With layoffs hitting the feature animation team and a number of projects cancelled, the streamer is doing more deals with third-party producers now, as evidenced by a multi-year agreement it signed with Skydance Animation in October.
Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has reiterated that animated movies are a priority for Netflix, given their strong performance on the platform. Happy Madison Productions’ CG-animated family comedy Leo has generated more than 108 million views worldwide since debuting in November, for example, and December’s Aardman stop-motion pic Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is up to around 44 million views.
Image credit: Adam Rose