Seagal makes `Exit' plans with Bartkowiak and Silver.(Brief Article)

NEW YORK Steven Seagal has signed a pay-or-play deal with Warner Bros. to star in "Exit Wounds," an action drama to be produced by Joel Silver and directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, the pair behind the Jet Li hit "Romeo Must Die."

Deal marks the first film Seagal will do for WB since 1997, when he exited after "Fire Down Below," his seventh pic at the studio that transformed him from Mike Ovitz's aikido instructor to a highly bankable action star. During that run, which began in 1988 with "Above the Law," his salary eventually rose to the $15 million he was paid for "Under Siege II."

Seagal's WB deal ended as his grosses waned. The problem? He gained weight and …