Marketing veteran Karen Sortito has joined Spyglass Entertainmentin the new position of executive vice president of worldwide marketing,

Most recently she served as an entertainment consultant forHollywood studios and production companies, where her clients included SonyPictures Entertainment, Revolution Studios and IMAX.

Prior to that her previous appointments have included, amongothers, executive vice president of worldwide promotions at MGM studios and keymarketing executive posts at Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox.

Sortito was named BrandWeek magazine's Entertainment Marketer ofthe Year in 1998 in recognition of her unprecedented $100m worldwideadvertising campaign with diverse global brands for Tomorrow Never Dies.

In a joint statement, Spyglass co-chairmen Gary Barber and RogerBirnbaum pointed to Sortito's "proven track record in securing corporatesponsorships for features and TV programming, which allows Spyglass to maximisethe potential of our content."

Barber and Birnbaum founded Spyglass in 1998 and scored a majorhit with their first release, The Sixth Sense, which grossed $661m in worldwide ticketsales.

The company recently signed a first-look deal with DreamWorks SKG,with whom it is collaborating on the upcoming period horseracing drama Seabiscuit.

Spyglass will handle Seabiscuit in most international markets whileUniversal will distribute domestically.

Topics