ENTERTAINMENT : Fox Names Tom Rothman to Head Film Production

Twentieth Century Fox on Tuesday tapped Tom Rothman to succeed Tom Jacobson as president of film production. Jacobson resigned Monday to start an independent production company.

Rothman, who joined Fox in July, 1994, to launch the studio’s specialized film division, Searchlight Pictures, will assume his new post immediately. Fox is expected to seek a permanent replacement for Rothman at Searchlight.

Fox Chairman Peter Chernin said the company wants “to keep Searchlight strong and aggressive, and we’re looking at staffing issues now.”

Chernin said Rothman was his first choice to succeed Jacobson. “This guy walked in the door a year ago with just a Rolodex and put together an amazing slate of pictures,” he said.

Rothman said he looks forward to “the big challenge” of running Fox’s main movie division, which produces nearly 20 pictures a year but will cut back to between 10 and 15 once the studio’s other three recently formed divisions are up to speed. Chernin said he expects Searchlight to contribute another seven or eight films a year, with the Fox 2000 division contributing five to 10 and its family unit another four to five.

Since the formation of Searchlight last summer, Rothman has set up such films as Spike Lee’s “Girl 6,” which is in post-production and will be released in the first quarter of next year; Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel “The Secret Agent,” with a March release planned; Stephen Frears’ “The Van,” currently shooting in Dublin for release in April, and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty,” expected to be released in May.

Production begins Wednesday in New York on director Ed Burns’ second feature, “She’s the One,” which is targeted for release next summer. Searchlight’s first and current release is Burns’ debut hit film, “The Brothers McMullen.”

Rothman came to Fox from Samuel Goldwyn Co., where he served as president of worldwide production from 1989 to 1994. Before that he was executive vice president of production at Columbia Pictures under former heads Dawn Steel and David Puttnam. Previously, he was a partner in the New York entertainment law firm of Frankfurt, Garbus, Klein & Selz.