Twentieth Century Fox picks marketing chief

Film distributor Twentieth Century Fox Filmed Entertainment has appointed Simon Hewlett as director of marketing and publicity.

Hewlett replaces Thomas Jegeus who becomes vice-president of marketing for Twentieth Century Fox Asia/Pacific office.

Hewlett was previously director of marketing for home entertainment, in charge of marketing Fox’s retail video business. The division is currently retailing The Full Monty on video, which is the most successful British film to date. It has so far made over 200m worldwide.

His job will be to handle the UK consumer marketing of upcoming releases such as animated feature Anastasia; its summer titles such as X-Files – The Movie; Dr Dolittle, starring Eddie Murphy; and thrillers like The Thin Red Line, which stars John Travolta, George Clooney, Sean Penn and Woody Harrelson and will be released in September.

John Stanley, formerly the division’s sales director, will take over as director of marketing for home entertainment.

Twentieth Century Fox’s film and video divisions spent 9.2m on advertising 12 releases in the past year, according to AC Nielsen- MEAL.

The Nineties have seen a resurgence in the 100-year-old film industry in the UK and across Europe. There are currently 2,400 screens in the UK and film research consultancy Dodona estimates 700 more will open by the year 2000.