DavidLee has stepped down as executive vice president of Asian Operations atThe Weinstein Company, where he was responsible for overseeing creativeaspects of the company's Asian Film Fund.
He will be partially replaced by Steve Squillante who has come on board as a consultant for the fund.
Squillantewill work alongside TWC's internal team - including co-president ofproduction Michael Cole, exec vp, business affairs and production, RobScheidlinger, and Hong Kong-based vp of Asian acquisitions andco-productions Bey Logan - who will all be involved in creative aspectsof the fund.
Thereasons for Lee's departure were not immediately clear, but TWCconfirmed his exit and said he would continue to advise the fund as aconsultant.
Launchedlast year, the $285m Asian Film Fund is backing a slate of around 30Asian-themed films over six years, with TWC controlling worldwidedistribution and Genius Products handling DVD distribution in the US.
Oneof the first projects out of the fund, Mikael Hafstrom's action epicShanghai is scouting for a new location after Chinese authoritiesrefused it shooting permission, but is only expecting a delay of threeor four weeks.
Other upcoming projects include action adventure Forbidden Kingdom,pairing Jet Li and Jackie Chan; a live-action version of Mulan; acontemporary remake of The Seven Samurai, and an untitled Tony Jaaproject.
Squillante and Lee, both former Columbia execs,previously worked together at IDG Films, an LA-based production outfitestablished by venture capital firm, International Date Group, toproduce films in Asia.

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