MUMBAI: Mike Phillips will to return to UK pubcaster BBC's commercial arm BBC Worldwide in a consultative capacity.

He will work as an executive producer, theatrical films, on projects such as Earth, the feature film produced in parallel with the series Planet Earth and other factually based theatrical titles that BBC Worldwide plans to develop in the future. Before relinquishing corporate duties, Mike was deputy CEO at BBC Worldwide, responsible for managing the relationships with BBC production departments and with independent producers; for rights acquisition and investment in programmes; for marketing and communications and for exploiting programme formats through the international production business.

BBC Worldwide director of content and production Wayne Garvie said, "Mike has an incredible passion for films and is also very well connected in the industry. There's no-one better to work with producer, Alastair Fothergill and our partners in Greenlight Media to ensure that Earth is an outstanding production and to develop other ideas for the international market."

Phillips said, "The success of our oceans movie, Deep Blue, alongside other factually based films like Fahrenheit 9/11, Touching The Void and March Of The Penguins has created tremendous international interest in the genre. With Earth we have a uniquely ambitious project, already pre-sold in key territories. In addition, we are developing a number of other strong stories both with BBC producers and with UK independent firms."