Last month Disney announced it was shutting down the production studio Fox 2000 after the company acquired 21st Century Fox. The studio is responsible for films like The Fault In Our Stars, The Devil Wears Prada, and Life of Pi and the announcement was a big deal considering the head of Fox 2000 is Elizabeth Gabler, a beloved film executive known in the industry for championing women’s stories.
Vanity Fair reports on how the closure has already hit people in the industry. Gabler’s team was small, with just five executives working under her, and Fox 2000 is described as a “unicorn” in a bro-filled industry where assistants and interns actually moved up in the company and risk-taking scripts for a big studio were celebrated. “I watched her push that thing up the hill, and saw it fall back down over and over. But she was relentless,” film executive Nina Jacobson told the magazine of the film Life of Pi. Gabler’s bread and butter were mid-budget, female-centered movies that became hits at the box office. For example, Hidden Figures had just a $25 million budget but made over $230 million worldwide.
Gabler is now reportedly being courted by other studios and The Wrap reports that Fox 2000 will close after its last release, an adaptation of The Woman in the Window starring Amy Adams.