John Calley

Shortly before John Calley left Warner Bros. in 1980, his then-boss, Warner Communications chief Steve Ross, asked him if he'd like to stick around until a successor could be found. "It doesn't make any sense because I'll be perceived as a lame duck," Calley recalled telling Ross. Ross' response: "A lame duck is better than no duck." Calley agreed to come back, staying for another six months until Bob Daly joined the company from CBS as the new chairman.

Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman John Calley, who at 71 was expected to retire at the end of this year, will instead remain head of the studio until early 2003. The contract extension from Calley's boss, Sony Corp. of America chief Howard Stringer--expected to be announced today--is a stop-gap measure that does little to alleviate uncertainty and instability at the studio caused by the nagging question of succession that has plagued Sony for more than a year.

Black Jack. That's what John's friend Terry Southern, the "Dr. Strangelove" screenwriter, called him. The renegade producer. The executive outsider. Not quite true but close enough. If you were in a room with John Calley and Southern it was often impossible to tell which one was speaking; John had picked up Terry's lingo and rhythm perfectly: a mix of hipster, marijuana farmer and showbiz double-talk, to which John added a strain of his own: used car salesman. "Let me put you in this unit" was one of his favorite phrases, the "unit" being, depending on circumstances, a car, a suit or a movie.

For Sony-owned Columbia Pictures, the weekend's stupendous opening of the Adam Sandler comedy "Big Daddy" at $41.5 million is the first piece of box-office business the studio brass has had a genuine reason to brag about in a long time. The movie, which cost $34.

A who's who of Hollywood -- Alec Baldwin, Warren Beatty and Steven Spielberg among them -- turned out Saturday night for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 2009 Governors Awards. The academy bestowed its honorary awards during a three-hour-plus ceremony at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on 85-year-old actress Lauren Bacall, who made her film debut opposite Humphrey Bogart in 1944's "To Have and Have Not"; noted cinematographer Gordon Willis, 78, who brought new meaning to shadow and light in such classics as "The Godfather" trilogy; and maverick 83-year-old producer-director-writer Roger Corman, who excelled in making stylish films on a shoestring budget while giving up-and-coming directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and Jonathan Demme their start.

Tom Hanks has been cast in the lead role in the movie adaptation of Dan Brown's bestselling novel "The Da Vinci Code," producers of the film confirmed Tuesday. Ron Howard will direct the film, co-produced by Brian Grazer and John Calley. Akiva Goldsman, an Oscar winner with Howard and Grazer for "A Beautiful Mind," will write the screenplay. The film is slated for release in 2006. Production will begin next year in the United States and Europe.

Sony Pictures Entertainment promoted Bob Wynne to the position of co-president, formalizing his role in assuming day-to-day control of the Culver City-based studio's operations. Wynne, 55, remains corporate operations chief and continues to report to studio chief John Calley, the studio said. Jeff Sagansky, the other co-president, is in charge of worldwide TV, international business and strategic planning.

Dennis Miller, one of the Sony's top television officials, resigned Friday after a two-year run as executive vice president of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Miller was left without a portfolio after a recent management restructuring at Sony brought in John Calley as president and chief operating officer and Jeff Sagansky as co-president. Sagansky, the former president of CBS Entertainment, oversees the television operation, making Miller's position duplicative.

Former counterterrorism advisor Richard Clarke's best-selling book may be a movie. Sony Pictures Entertainment has bought the film rights to "Against All Enemies," Sony Vice Chairwoman Amy Pascal said. In the book, Clarke, a counterterrorism advisor to the last three presidents, charges that the Bush administration gave Iraq priority above Al Qaeda before and after the Sept. 11 attacks.