Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment, grappling with slumping DVD sales and a worsening economy, plans to cut about 300 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce, through layoffs and by eliminating open positions, according to a person familiar with the situation. The cuts could come as early as next week, the person said.

Sony Pictures could begin to look more like Disney. The studio most identified as the home of high-testosterone action flicks aimed at young male audiences -- think "Spider-Man," "Men in Black" and most recently, James Bond -- has aggressive plans to tap into one of the few rising segments of the filmgoing public.

In an ending worthy of a comic-book cliffhanger, Spider-Man has been rescued from the clutches of . . . lawyers. The nearly eight-year legal battle over the movie rights to the last major untapped superhero ended Monday on the eve of trial, with MGM relinquishing its claim to the rights in favor of Columbia Pictures, which said it would move swiftly to place the property into production.

Jeff Blake has been elevated to chairman of worldwide marketing and distribution for Sony Pictures' Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group. Blake, a distribution veteran who previously worked at Paramount Pictures and Disney, joined the studio in 1992.

Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to announce today that it has signed an agreement with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to create made-to-order DVDs of some of the studio's movies and TV shows.

Filmland Corporate Center, a downtown Culver City landmark occupied by Sony Pictures Entertainment, has been acquired by a group headed by veteran Southland real estate figure Shurl Curci.