George Clooney has parted ways with Warner Bros., moving the Smokehouse Pictures shingle he runs with Grant Heslov to Sony.
The pair landed the two-year first-look pact at a time when studios are cutting back on production deals, no matter how big the producer may be.

"While we have been trimming production deals overall for the last few years, we see real value in opening our doors to producers with their critical and commercial track record and their artistic point of view," said Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chair Amy Pascal.

Clooney and Heslov had been based on the WB lot as producers for the past nine years, initially working together at Section Eight, co-founded by Steven Soderbergh, before launching Smokehouse in 2006. Clooney has been closely associated with the studio since he became a breakout star on the WB-produced "ER" in 1994.