Focus Features president ofproduction Glenn Williamson is stepping down to become a producer with a dealat Focus. He will make the transition over the next few months after completionon Focus' end of year releases is secured.

Williamson, who will remainbased at Focus' west coast offices, will also work as producer on severalupcoming Focus films including Truth, Justice & The American Way and The Ice Harvest.

Williamson became presidentof production at USA Films in Aug 2001 and continued as head of production whenUSA was absorbed into Focus. He oversaw development and production on ToddHaynes' Far From Heaven,Gary Hardwick's Deliver Us From Eva and Mira Nair's Vanity Fair which is currently shooting in the UK.

He will leave the companyafter he has shepherded through Focus' 2003 fall slate - ChristineJeffs' Sylvia and MichelGondry's Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.

"Glenndemonstrates great instincts and taste on each and every project," saidFocus co-presidents David Linde and James Schamus in a statement. "As ahands-on producer of several of our priority projects, we look forward toworking with Glenn just as much if not more than we already do. Glenn has beenkey to the success of Focus's first year, and now he will be even moreimportant to our future."

"I loveworking and collaborating with filmmakers and talent, and there are a number ofprojects at Focus which I feel so strongly about that I realized now was thetime to make the transition from executive to producer," addedWilliamson. "The only thing more exciting and integral than riding herdover a successful slate of movies is producing them yourself - andbringing in new ones. David and James, as well as our production team here,have been thoroughly supportive of me and this creative partnership willcontinue."

Prior to working at USA andFocus, Williamson was a senior production executive at DreamWorks where heworked on American Beauty and AlmostFamous among others; he beganworking in development with Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, first at theirSony-based Aerial Pictures and then at Amblin Entertainment.

Truth, Justice & TheAmerican Way, which has AllenCoulter attached to direct, is a biopic about TV actor George Reeves who playedSuperman in the 1950s and his mysterious death in 1959.

The Ice Harvest is a black comedy thriller which will be produced byFocus with Bona Fide Productions. It has been adapted from ScottPhillips' novel by Robert Benton and Richard Russo.