Joe Pichirallo, one of theoriginal executives who founded Fox Searchlight Pictures in 1994, has left thecompany to join USA Films as executive vice president of production.

Reporting to president ofproduction Glenn Williamson, Pichirallo will be responsible for bringing inprojects and supervising them through production; he will be based in thecompany's LA offices when he starts the job on April 29.

At Searchlight, he was mostrecently senior vice president of production, having endured through the company'sthree regimes under Tom Rothman, Lindsay Law and currently Peter Rice. He mostrecently oversaw The Antwone Fisher Story directed by Denzel Washington, The Banger Sisters starring Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn and OneHour Photo starring Robin Williams.

"Joining USA Films isa terrific new career challenge for me," said Pichiralli in a statement."It allows me to grow professionally by expanding the types of films Ican work on, and to build upon my Searchlight experiences, particularly myrelationships with filmmakers and writers. I really appreciate being given thisopportunity by Glenn Williamson and Scott Greenstein."