Edition: U.S. / Global

The Talk of Hollywood;At MGM, Doubts Cloud Successes

Published: January 17, 1996

Metro Goldwyn Mayer has endured a cruel fate over the last three decades. Once Hollywood's greatest studio -- "MGM has more stars than there are in heaven," the saying went in the 1930's -- it has in more recent years been crippled by corporate takeovers, financial defaults and the sale of its film library. In 1970, it held what amounted to a gigantic fire sale in which such items as Judy Garland's white dress from "Meet Me in St. Louis" and Johnny Weissmuller's loincloth from the "Tarzan" movies were auctioned off. MGM was given up for dead.

Today, however, the studio is surging again.

MGM and its companion studio, United Artists, have revived themselves with several recent films -- "Stargate," "Species," "Get Shorty" and "Goldeneye," among them -- that have struck box-office gold, and a couple of smaller films, "Leaving Las Vegas," and "Richard III," that have captivated critics.

"We've become a substantial competitor -- that's the fact," said Frank G. Mancuso, a former chairman of Paramount Pictures who was given the job of rescuing MGM/UA in 1993.

John Calley, a top Warner Brothers executive in the 1970's who now runs United Artists, said: "The first year or two were compromise years: you're taking material that's been passed over, you're taking stuff you're not confident in because you have to release films. We're having a pretty good run now, and the next cluster of movies will continue that trend."

Mr. Calley's counterpart at MGM, Mike Marcus, a former agent, echoed this view. "It was tough getting ourselves off the ground," he said. "There was so little going on. We had to convince people that we were serious, that we were here to stay."

There have been duds along the way, and some of them -- "Tank Girl," "Top Dog," "Fluke," "Hackers" and, most of all, "Showgirls" -- make the MGM/UA team cringe.

But what distresses them even more are the doubts that linger about the future of the studio. Credit Lyonnais, a bank controlled by the French Government, owns MGM/UA and recently created a subsidiary to sell it by 1997 under United States banking laws. The investment banking house Lazard Freres has been hired to advise in a potential sale.

The result is that MGM executives remain nervous about their future, and talent agents are not quite as enthusiastic about dealing with MGM as they might be with what they view as more stable studios.

But some Hollywood executives think that this reluctance makes MGM's comeback even more impressive. Against the odds, Mr. Mancuso and his team have managed to climb out of a large hole, through a combination of good choices, luck and the help of longtime personal relationships with directors and stars.

Mr. Calley, for example, managed to get one of his closest friends, Mike Nichols, to direct a remake of "La Cage aux Folles" called "Birdcage," starring Robin Williams, Gene Hackman and Nathan Lane. The film is due in March.

"We have to be a little more resourceful than other studios," Mr. Calley said.

Faces in 'The Mirror'

The joke on the New York set of "The Mirror Has Two Faces," a romantic comedy directed by Barbra Streisand, who also stars in the film, is that the movie should add some other titles, like "The Actor Has Two Faces," "The Director of Photography Has Two Faces," "The Editor Has Two Faces."

It's not unusual for a director to make personnel changes in the midst of shooting, but so far Ms. Streisand has fired an actor, the cinematographer and the film editor. She is also said to have demoted a producer and tried to dismiss an assistant director.

Naturally, no one involved, including Ms. Streisand, will talk about it, but a spokesman for Tri-Star, which is financing the $38 million film, said that reports of problems on the set had been exaggerated and that the studio's brass was delighted with what they'd seen so far.

Ms. Streisand has something of a reputation for being, depending on one's point of view, maddeningly demanding or keenly perfectionist. Either way, the sets of her movies are rarely dull. During the making of "Prince of Tides" on the South Carolina coast several years ago, she created a stir by trying to divert local air traffic because the noise was interfering with the shooting. She has often brushed aside criticisms of herself as sexist, contending that her behavior would seem perfectly normal for a man.

"The Mirror Has Two Faces" is about a homely Columbia University professor (played by Ms. Streisand), who seeks to make herself more attractive after marrying another professor, played by Jeff Bridges. Lauren Bacall (as Ms. Streisand's mother), Pierce Brosnan and Mimi Rogers are also in the cast. By all accounts, the actors have had no difficulty with the director; indeed, they say Ms. Streisand has been supportive. The movie's release is planned for the end of the year.

Even before shooting began there were some unusual events. Tri-Star issued a statement saying that Carrie Fisher, a writer who often doctors scripts, had not written any part of the movie. (The film was written by Richard LaGravenese). Several days after filming began in November, Ms. Streisand replaced Dudley Moore, who was to have played a friend of Mr. Bridges, with George Segal. Mr. Moore had difficulty with his lines, people on the set say.

Then Dante Spinotti, a cinematographer whose credits include "Heat," was replaced by Andrzej Bartkowiak, who worked with Ms. Streisand on "Nuts."

"She had been complaining about the camera work almost from the beginning of the production," said one person on the set. "There were too many gauzes around the lens. Her eyes -- one of her best features -- got very soft."

Shortly afterward Ms. Streisand dismissed Alan Heim, an Oscar-winning film editor, and replaced him with Jeff Werner, who has also worked with her before.

Ken Sunshine, a spokesman for the movie, attributed the various changes to "artistic differences."

"There's no doubt when Barbra gets involved in a project it takes on a life of its own in terms of publicity," Mr. Sunshine said. "But it's hardly the first time that there are changes during the making of a film. The bottom line is that things are going terrifically."

Someone conne'ted to the film put it another way. "There'll be more heads rolling," he said.

Monkey Business

The biggest surprise in recent weeks is the success of Terry Gilliam's "12 Monkeys," a brooding, futuristic drama starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt. The film was No. 1 for two weeks in a row and has grossed about $32 million so far. Although its initial audience tended to be in the late teens and 20's -- attracted by Mr. Gilliam's quirky sensibility and Mr. Pitt -- the film now seems to be luring older audiences, too.

Mr. Gilliam, whose other credits include "Brazil," "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and "The Fisher King," is a director who makes a lot of studio executives uneasy, partly because of his fondness for costly special effects. For "12 Monkeys," the $28.5 million budget was kept largely intact, and the stars even cut their normal fees. The film, written by David and Janet Peoples, was inspired by Chris Marker's provocative 1962 short film, "La Jetee (The Runway)."

Charles Roven, the producer, attributed the success to several factors, including strong positive reviews and a shrewd marketing campaign intended to reach out to older as well as younger viewers by running trailers on television shows like "E.R.," "Friends" and the National Football League championship games. He also cited the decision by Universal Pictures to open the movie nationally after the New Year, instead of around Christmas, a period that was particularly crowded this season.