COO Brian Edwards ankles Relativity

After less than six months on the job, Brian Edwards has left his post as Chief Operating Officer at Relativity Media, the fifth high-level exec to ankle Ryan Kavanaugh's fledgling studio in less than a year. The long string of departures began in January, when CFO Bill Sutman quit, followed by marketing and distribution prexy Peter Adee in April; president Michael Joe in May; and senior VP of acqusitions Joe Matukewicz, news of whose exit broke Monday. And the exodus may not be over: Current prexy Steve Bertram, promoted from COO when Joe left the company, reportedly said he's weighing whether to stay at Relativity, where his contract expires at the end of the year. The turnover also comes as the studio's talks with JP Morgan, which was being courted as a replacement for primary investor Elliot Management, have ground to a halt, as Variety first reported Nov. 10. Elliot, the NY-based hedge fund that helped get Relativity off the ground by backing its co-financing deals with Universal, is in the process of cutting its ties to the studio, leaving Kavanaugh on the hunt for a new backer. Edwards joined the company in May from Mark Burnett Prods. and left Relativity in October, the studio confirmed Thursday. A veteran entertainment attorney, Edwards is a former COO and general counsel at DreamWorks, and he also held the same posts at Burnett's company. The company's big-budget epic "Immortals" has grossed $77 million in North America, and its $100 million Snow White pic "Mirror, Mirror" hits U.S. theaters in March. Contact Jeff Sneider at jeff.sneider@variety.com