Warner Brothers Inc

In a long-expected move that could lead to other high-level changes in Hollywood, Mark Canton has resigned as executive vice president of worldwide movie production at Warner Bros. Canton--who oversaw production on such hits as "Batman" and "Lethal Weapon"--will formally leave the company today. Warner Chairman Robert Daly said that Canton's job has been eliminated and that movie production chief Bruce Berman has assumed his duties.

Warner Bros., following a trend that is now all too familiar among American companies, is preparing to outsource jobs to India and Poland as part of a studio-wide cost-cutting move. The Time Warner Inc.-owned studio will join other media companies, including NBC/Universal and Viacom Inc., that have initiated cutbacks and layoffs in the face of weakening entertainment industry revenue and the deepening recession.

The court fight over "The Watchmen" is costing Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, but the biggest bill of all could fall to the film's producer, Larry Gordon, his lawyers and their insurers, who could be on the hook for substantially more money. Court documents in the nearly yearlong dispute over the superhero movie's distribution rights show that Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. has emerged as the only bidder for Midway Games Inc., all but assuring that it will take control of the bankrupt video game publisher previously owned by Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone and become a major force in the video game industry. Midway had hoped that the film studio's $33-million offer, made in late May, would spark a bidding war that would boost its price.

Clearing the way to move forward with its two planned films of "The Hobbit," Warner Bros. resolved a nasty legal battle with the heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien over profit from the "Lord of the Rings" films. Last year, two of Tolkien's children, Christopher, 84, and Priscilla, 80, sued New Line, now a unit of Warner Bros., for an estimated $150 million that they claimed was owed from the three "Lord of the Rings" movies, which amassed $2.96 billion at the worldwide box office and at least $3 billion in DVD and other ancillary sales, according to the lawsuit.

Warren N. Lieberfarb, credited in Hollywood as the godfather of the lucrative DVD market, is abruptly leaving Warner Bros., where he was the top home video executive, the studio said Friday night. Lieberfarb could not be reached, and Warner declined to comment on reasons for the departure. The executive was known to have been on tense terms for some time with his bosses at both the studio and at parent AOL Time Warner Inc. and had been critical of them.

Dawn Taubin was named president of domestic marketing at Warner Bros. Pictures. She succeeds Brad Ball, who assumes a newly created post of executive vice president, domestic corporate marketing. Both executives will continue to report to Warner Bros. President Alan Horn. Taubin will be responsible for all aspects of domestic marketing for feature films, including creative advertising, media buying, publicity and market research.