The Walt Disney Company is still making adjustments after its acquisition of 21st Century Fox back in March. The most recent change is the closure of the Fox Research Library, the contents of which will be folded into the Walt Disney Archives, according to Variety.
- The Fox Research Library has served as a resource for filmmakers and was used in the making of classic films like The King and I, The Grapes of Wrath and Titanic.
- It includes a collection of 19th century books, British newspapers, 1920s fashion magazines and a variety of materials on World War II.
- The teams at the Walt Disney Archive, which was founded in 1970, and the Imagineering Research Library will handle the collection and process of merging the libraries.
- It is not known at this time whether or not the Fox Research Library archivists will be let go.
- In addition to this news, Disney also enacted another round of layoffs this week.
- According to Variety, “several dozen” employees at the studio and Fox were let go, bringing the total number of layoffs since the acquisition to roughly 250.
- Among those who were laid off was head of visual effects John Kilkenny, executive VP of feature production Fred Baron, executive VP of physical production Dana Belcastro and executive VP of post-production Fred Chandler.
- This was the fourth round of layoffs enacted since the acquisition.