ENTERTAINMENT : Interscope President to Resign; Parting Amicable, Partner Says

Robert W. Cort is resigning as president of Interscope Communications, ending an 11-year partnership with music mogul and company founder Ted Field that led to the company’s production of more than 40 movies.

Since teaming up in 1984, the two have jointly produced such hits as “Three Men and a Baby,” “Outrageous Fortune” and “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.” More recently they have also produced such box office flops as “Dumbo Drop,” “Roommates” and “The Tie That Binds.”

Cort, previously an executive at Twentieth Century Fox and Columbia Pictures and a CIA employee in the early 1970s, said he will remain with the company until the end of the year. He then plans to return to independent production.

A settlement arrangement for the 12% stake he owns in Interscope is currently being worked out. Field, the Marshall Field heir who founded Interscope in 1982, will retain Cort’s shares. Together, they own 49% of Interscope, with 51% controlled by PolyGram.

Cort said he is leaving because under PolyGram ownership, Interscope took on much more of a corporate environment than it had before and that consequently his role had become more like an executive’s than a producer’s.

“This is truly about not wanting to be an executive at all,” Cort said. “I want to re-create what I had before Interscope became bigger and more corporate.”

He will remain as producer or executive producer on all Interscope movies in post-production, including TriStar’s upcoming “Jumangi” and Disney’s forthcoming release “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” and on some new productions.