Josephson to Head Columbia Production

Columbia Pictures on Monday made official its appointment of Barry Josephson as president of production.

Josephson’s promotion had been anticipated in Hollywood for weeks. The executive joined Columbia in 1991 as senior vice president of production, moving up to executive vice president in 1992. He previously worked for producer Joel Silver as a senior vice president.

Columbia-released films Josephson has worked on include “In the Line of Fire,” “Nowhere to Run” and “Last Action Hero.”

* Another long-awaited official announcement comes from Universal Pictures, which named Buffy Shutt and Kathy Jones to head its marketing team. The two are expected to start work next week. They formerly headed TriStar’s marketing department.