Twentieth Century Fox has named Joseph Hartwick its exec VP of physical production, filling the vacancy left after Duncan Henderson ankled the position earlier this month.
Hartwick comes to Fox from Turner Pictures, where he served as senior VP of production, supervising physical production for Turner Pictures Group.
In his new post, Hartwick reports to the heads of Fox's four production divisions: Tom Rothman, prexy, Fox worldwide production; Laura Ziskin, prexy of Fox 2000; Chris Meledandri, Fox Family Films prexy; and Lindsay Law, Fox Searchlight president. He will also have oversight of physical production across those divisions.
"Laura (Ziskin), Chris (Meledandri), Lindsay (Law) and I are very thrilled to have someone of Joe's skill, reputation and professionalism filling this position," said Rothman.
At Fox, Hartwick will have charge of a much wider domain than he encountered during his year at Turner Pictures, although at the short-lived banner Hartwick oversaw the productions of the Nora Ephron comedy "Michael," as well as the upcoming Chris Farley/Matthew Perry starrer "Edwards and Hunt."
Hartwick said that he is "excited about Fox's unique division system, one that allows for such a wide variety of films. My primary interest is helping the filmmaker to utilize all that Fox has to offer to achieve the greatest product possible."
Prior to Turner he served as executive producer on such films as Castle Rock's "Striptease" and New Line's "It Could Happen to You." His other credits include various producing capacities on films, including "A League of Their Own," "Regarding Henry" and eight Woody Allen films.
"I've always said that every creative decision is a financial decision and every financial decision is a creative decision, and with his production and executive background, Joe is someone who really understands this," said Ziskin.
Hartwick replaces Henderson, who ankled his post earlier this month to segue into an independent producing deal at the studio. Henderson had taken over the Fox slot from Jon Landau, who is currently the producer on the Jim Cameron-helmed "Titanic." While "Titanic" is a Paramount/Fox co-production, Henderson's ankling left Landau as the sole exec in charge of the production, the budget of which was reported to be north of $130 million.
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