HAMMOND UPPED AT COL TRISTAR

By DAN COX

Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Cos. has upped Chris Hammond to creative executive working in development and production for both Col and TriStar studios.

Hammond will report directly to Lucy Fisher, vice chair of Col TriStar, developing projects.

The announcement seemed to indicate that Fisher would be more involved with development and production of specific projects, as opposed to oversight of all the Col and TriStar pics.

But a Sony spokesman said Fisher wanted to have a creative exec beneath her to help handle the numerous projects that are routinely brought to her through relationships with talent, directors and scribes that she developed over the last 15 years at Sony and Warner Bros.

Hammond joined Sony in 1992 as an assistant and worked in several departments, including the offices of Jonathan Dolgen, former prexy of SPE's motion picture group, and Mark Canton, former chairman of Col TriStar.

Before that, he was at DIC Animation as a production assistant.