Paramount Pictures

Gerry Rich has resigned as president of worldwide marketing at Paramount Pictures, despite having nearly two years left on his contract. Rich declined Friday to specify why he had asked his bosses for an early out other than to say, "I felt it was time to leave. I'm going to take some time and regroup and figure out what comes next."

Google Inc.'s YouTube has struck a movie-rental deal with a fifth major Hollywood studio, Paramount Pictures, adding 500 titles to its expanding online library. The addition of Paramount's films brings YouTube's rental library to nearly 9,000 titles, featuring such popular mainstream movies as Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning "Hugo" and director Michael Bay's action-packed "Transformers" and classics including "The Godfather. " The deal reflects YouTube's strategy to provide its millions of online viewers with a range of entertainment options, from its trademark user-created video and polished Web originals to professional long-form content.

Wanda Sapp often visited movie sets to watch her daughter perform stunts. She never dreamed she'd watch her daughter die. Sapp and two of her other children were present in November, when Sonja Davis fell to her death while working as a stunt double on the upcoming Eddie Murphy film "Vampire in Brooklyn." The family is suing Paramount Studios and Eddie Murphy Productions for $10 million, alleging that the film crew failed to provide proper safety equipment.

A craft beer frenzy has taken over Los Angeles in recent years with gastropubs and eateries specializing in artisanal brews popping up across the city. Beer tasting is the new wine tasting, and Saturday's fourth annual Los Angeles Beer Festival invites beer enthusiasts and novices alike to kick off the holiday weekend with food, music and of course, a few brewskis. Local event company DrinkEatPlay has moved this year's fest from its previous home at Sony Studios in Culver City to Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, where the studio's famed New York City street backlot will be transformed into a springtime block party for an expected 8,000 revelers.

Sherry Lansing is staying. That much is certain. Lansing, who has headed Paramount Pictures for the past 14 months, has quietly informed her staff that she has accepted an offer to remain in her post after the mega-merger between Viacom Inc. and Paramount Communications Inc. is completed. Still uncertain, however, is what the future holds for Lansing's boss, Stanley R.

Moving Up: Wayne Lewellen has been named president of distribution for Paramount Pictures' motion picture group. He will report to Barry London, president of worldwide distribution. Lewellen already oversees domestic distribution for the studio. His new duties will include working with United International Pictures, Paramount's joint-owned foreign-distribution arm. David Gross has left 20th Century Fox as vice president of international marketing and distribution.

Paramount Pictures took the plunge into the specialty film business Friday, saying it is starting a new division to be headed by former Fine Line Features President Ruth Vitale and former Fox Searchlight executive David Dinerstein. Paramount is the latest--and one of the last--of the major Hollywood studios to get into the business, whose films, until just a few years ago, were relegated to "art house" theaters and generated little in the way of box-office revenue.

Actor Brad Pitt, as expected, moved his Plan B production company from Warner Bros. to Paramount Pictures, now headed by his former producing partner and manager Brad Grey. Grey and Pitt founded Plan B along with actress Jennifer Aniston, who has filed for divorce from Pitt. Although the company is now solely owned by Pitt, Aniston will continue to be involved in a number of Plan B projects remaining at Warner.

A man who rented out his vintage jet for the filming of the television show "MacGYVER" filed suit against Paramount Pictures and producer Henry Winkler, claiming they cut the plane up without permission.

The scramble for the largest available film studio account in the nation ended on Monday when Paramount Pictures handed the bulk of its estimated $60-million to $70-million advertising business to the Los Angeles office of Ogilvy & Mather. Ogilvy's Los Angeles office will split a portion of the business with the giant firm's New York office.

At the height of Eddie Murphy's popularity, millions of Americans flocked to his hit films like "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Coming to America. " Paramount Pictures executives are crossing their fingers that even a fraction of that interest surfaces for the actor's "A Thousand Words," a comedy that arrives in theaters this weekend nearly four years after it was made and seemingly a lifetime removed from Murphy's 1980s heyday. Going out with minimal publicity support from the star, the DreamWorks production has generated tepid interest in pre-release surveys, and analysts expect an opening weekend box office of less than $10 million.

After taking in $15 million over the Thanksgiving weekend, one of Hollywood's boldest movie bets of 2011 is now pressing ahead with one of the year's riskiest distribution strategies. Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," the Academy Award-winning director's first family film and first 3-D production, was originally conceived as a traditional family movie, perfect for a holiday weekend release. Budgeted at $150 million to $170 million, and based on the beloved children's book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," the movie would typically have been placed on 3,000-plus movie screens nationwide.

Paramount Pictures withheld profit from such hit movies as "Mission: Impossible 3," "Jackass 2" and the "Transformers" trilogy, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by one of the studio's key co-financing partners. The complaint was filed Tuesday on behalf of investors in the Melrose 2 co-financing fund, named after the street where Paramount is headquartered. Among the accusations is that the studio underestimated revenue on films by up to $16.3 million and that it improperly attributed $3 million in charitable donations to movie budgets.

Paramount Pictures is laying off 120 of its approximately 2,400 employees as it merges its DVD, television and digital divisions and moves the headquarters of its international operation to Los Angeles from London. Some cuts were expected as part of a reorganization of Viacom Inc.-owned Paramount's business operations announced last month. Like many studios, Paramount is seeking to reduce expenses in the face of dwindling DVD sales revenue and to reorient its business as the gaps between releases of movies on different platforms narrow.

When it comes to making and releasing summer blockbusters such as "Transformers" or horror sequels like "Paranormal Activity 3," Paramount Pictures is right at home. But this January at the Sundance Film Festival, its executives sparked to a film way outside the studio's wheelhouse: a low-budget, largely improvised love story called "Like Crazy" without any big-name actors involved. The studio grabbed the movie, which stars Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones, after an all-night bidding war in a Utah condominium, beating out Fox Searchlight, Focus Features, Summit Entertainment and the Weinstein Co. Yet that was only half the battle.

It has already had star-studded, red-carpet premieres in three major cities. It's being promoted everywhere from Gap stores to McDonald's to the side of trains. And, early ticket sales indicate it could enjoy a big opening. Yet, American audiences won't see Steven Spielberg's much-hyped family movie until Christmas. The director's big-budget 3-D animated movie "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," produced by Peter Jackson, is opening this weekend in Europe — nearly two months before it opens in this country.

Paramount Pictures has effectively locked up a "first look" deal with the independent Zanuck Co., producer of the current Warner Bros. hit "Driving Miss Daisy," with a four-year deal that guarantees Zanuck greater participation in front-end profits than it would normally get from a major studio release. At the same time, by sweetening the terms, Paramount has guaranteed itself the right of first refusal to projects developed by one of the most reliable producers in Hollywood.

Paramount Pictures promoted Cheryl Boone Isaacs to executive vice president of worldwide publicity for the studio's motion picture group. Isaacs is in charge of Paramount's theatrical motion picture publicity. She continues to report to Arthur I. Cohen, president of worldwide marketing. Isaacs, an 11-year Paramount veteran, formerly worked at Ladd Co., Melvin Simon Productions and Columbia Pictures. * Time Warner named former Ford Motor executive Frederick C.

Paramount Pictures Corp. unveiled plans Tuesday for $700 million in improvements including new sound stages and offices for its storied Hollywood lot. About 1.4 million square feet of development would take place over the next two decades at Paramount's Melrose Avenue headquarters and some adjacent properties owned by the company, if city officials approve. "We have run out of options for creating more production space," said Frederick Huntsberry, Paramount's chief operating officer.

In public comments accompanying DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s second-quarter financial results, Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg punted questions about the company's uncertain future with distributor Paramount Pictures and a pending deal with Netflix Inc., focusing instead on the soft domestic performance of "Kung Fu Panda 2" and the future of 3-D. His statements came as the Glendale studio reported sales of $218.3 million, well above most...