GREY TO LEAD PARAMOUNT HOLLYWOOD EXEC NEXT STUDIO CHIEF.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

Entertainment executive Brad Grey will succeed Sherry Lansing as head of Paramount Pictures as early as late next month in an expanded job with ultimate authority on film development and production as well as worldwide business operations.

Grey, 47, assumes the job at a time when Viacom Inc.-owned Paramount is enjoying the success of the hit film ``Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events,'' but also after a period of several years where Paramount has lagged far behind rival studios with few breakout box-office hits.

``This is a very exciting day for me,'' Grey said in an interview Thursday. ``I'm honored and thrilled to be here.''

Grey is currently chairman of Beverly Hills-based Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, one of the industry's most successful management and production firms.

``He is exactly what we need: a deal-maker, a successful entrepreneur, and a man with great outreach to the creative community,'' Viacom Chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone said in a statement. ``He has an enviable track record in the entertainment industry and he is a fabulous addition to our team.''

Grey's firm is comprised of Brillstein-Grey Management, which has a client list that includes Nicolas Cage, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. It also includes Brad Grey Television, which produces the HBO series ``The Sopranos'' and other shows. Movie division Plan B is producing the Warner Bros. summer release ``Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,'' starring Johnny Depp.

Grey, who will have the title of chairman and CEO of Paramount Motion Picture Group, must divest himself of Brillstein-Grey before officially assuming the Paramount job.

``The people at Brillstein-Grey are people I've grown up with and built the company brick by brick,'' he said. ``Change is always difficult and there were a lot of conversations with family and friends. What came out was that this was a challenge I wanted to take on.''

News last week that Grey was close to signing on at Paramount stunned those both in and outside the venerable studio because Grey is an unlikely choice with his lack of studio management experience.

``His outside status is a great adventure,'' Tom Freston, co-CEO and co-chairman of Viacom, said Thursday. ``He's an outsider, yes, in a certain way but he's almost an ultimate insider in this town. Brad is a guy of many, many talents. He hasn't had exactly this job but he's a proven winner.''

Freston, who will be Grey's direct boss, said he began talks with the new studio chief around Thanksgiving.

``This is such a relief and a pleasure and honor to have Brad taking this job and to be getting out of the job candidate business,'' he said. ``I've been at this for two months and talked to so many people.''

Lansing's announcement last fall that she would step down came just five months after the resignation of Jonathan Dolgen, who was Viacom's entertainment chief and Lansing's boss for most of her time at Paramount.

Grey inherits an upcoming slate of films that includes ``War of the Worlds,'' starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg; ``Elizabethtown''; and a remake of ``The Longest Yard,'' starring Adam Sandler.

But he takes the reins of Paramount after another lackluster year for the studio, which will have only one 2004 release (``Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'') cross the $100 million mark in domestic box-office grosses.

Although known to be a risk-averse studio, Paramount grew far more ambitious last year. But its crop of films, including ``Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,'' ``Alfie,'' ``Team America: World Police,'' ``The Stepford Wives'' and ``The Manchurian Candidate'' all failed to click at the box office.

Even Paramount's recent hits ``The Italian Job,'' ``School of Rock,'' ``Mean Girls'' and ``The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie'' have all peaked at $100 million or less domestically - small when compared to $200 million-plus grossing hits other studios have enjoyed with the ``Spider- Man,'' ``Shrek,'' ``Harry Potter'' and ``Lord of the Rings'' franchises.

``What we have talked about is making sure that Paramount is thought of and feels like a home for creators, where artists feel comfortable and nurture great ideas. That's the mandate,'' Grey said. ``It's happening here already and I'd like to think we can build on that. I'm confident we will.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

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Brad Grey

New chairman and CEO of Paramount Motion Picture Group