Ex-Sony Exec Named to Universal Marketing Post

Universal Pictures on Wednesday named former Sony Pictures marketing executive Marc Shmuger to its top marketing post, replacing recently ousted marketing co-presidents Buffy Shutt and Kathy Jones.

Shmuger is expected to join the studio on May 26 as president of marketing for Universal Pictures.

Shmuger most recently had a production deal with Sony and acted as a marketing consultant to the studio after departing as executive vice president of worldwide marketing last year.

Seagram-owned Universal has made a number of high-level executive changes in recent weeks, as it seeks to break a string of recent box-office disappointments, including “Primary Colors,” “Mercury Rising,” “Blues Brothers 2000” and “Black Dog.”

Universal is counting on such upcoming films as “BASEketball,” “Meet Joe Black” and the sequel “Babe: Pig in the City” to get its film division back on track.

Shutt and Jones were given a production deal with Universal after they were forced out of their posts with two and a half years left on their contracts. The two could end up working at Walt Disney Co., sources said.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Universal Pictures Chairman Casey Silver--to whom Shmuger will report--praised Shmuger’s “strategic and creative thinking.” “This is a business of creativity and ideas. . . . I was impressed with his perspective and intelligence,” said Silver, who said he had interviewed a number of people before settling on Shmuger.

Silver declined to state the term length of Shmuger’s contract, saying only that it is “multiyear.”