Tom Rothman to replace Amy Pascal as Sony Pictures chairman

HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Sony Pictures Entertainment on Tuesday named Tom Rothman as its new chairman, replacing Amy Pascal, who left earlier this month after an embarrassing hacking scandal.

Rothman, 60, ran Sony's TriStar Productions and previously headed Fox Filmed Entertainment from 2000 to 2012.

"Tom's creativity, strong talent relationships and track record of enduring films and commercial success are unparalleled in this industry and exactly what we are looking for to grow our film business," said Michael Lynton, chairman and chief executive officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

"I have had the benefit of working with Tom both as a studio executive and a producer, and I think Tom is one of the better people at balancing creativity and business," Jon Landau, who worked with Rotham as the producer of Avatar, told Deadline. "He is extremely smart in both areas. He has the ability to be at the top of his game in both business and creativity at the same time. Tom has an opinion about things. Watching dailies as a studio executive, you have a responsibility. It's not a pleasure, it's something that you look at and you're supposed to look at it with a business sense, and sometimes Tom has an opinion about casting and editing and he should have an opinion about that. Oftentimes, people don't and as a studio executive you must because you have that responsibility."

Pascal announced her departure Feb. 5 after hackers accessed thousands of Sony executives' emails, including hers.

Emails between Pascal and producer Scott Rudin revealed opinions of President Barack Obama for which both publicly apologized. The hackers were attempting to stop the company, a division of Tokyo-based Sony Corp., from releasing the film The Interview, a comedy about the attempted assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.