In the run-up to this weekend’s release of its Walden Media co-production Bandslam, Summit Entertainment announced it has hired Eric Kops as senior vice-president of publicity.

Kops replaces Vivian Mayer-Siskind and will report to Summit’s president of worldwide marketing Nancy Kirkpatrick, with whom he previously worked at Paramount.

He starts work on August 19 and will oversee the company’s domestic theatrical and home entertainment publicity campaigns and activities.

Prior to joining Summit, Kops served as senior vice president of entertainment at ID Public Relations. Over the past 15 years he has worked in marketing and publicity at Columbia/TriStar, MGM/UA, and Paramount, as well as at PR firms MPRM and Robert Solomon & Assoc.

Kirkpatrick called Kops “one of the best film publicity strategists and leaders in the business” and added that his impact would extend far beyond the 2009 slate.

“I have loved my time at ID, but the opportunity to work with Nancy Kirkpatrick again as well as on Summit’s amazing slate of upcoming films was an opportunity I could not pass up,” Kops. “Rob, Patrick and Bob and the rest of the leadership team have created a successful studio in an amazingly short amount of time.”

“It’s been a terrific two years working at Summit with talented executives like Patrick Wachsberger, Bob Hayward and Rob Friedman,” Mayer-Siskind said. “It was an exciting experience to, once again, be part of a team in establishing a new studio as well as launching the Twilight franchise and the critically acclaimed film The Hurt Locker. I look forward to what opportunities lie ahead.”

Summit will release Sorority Row on September 11, followed by Astro Boy on October 23 and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year, on November 20.

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