A New Act

The president and v-p of Robert Redford’s Wildwood production company, Andy Meyer and Sarah Black, respectively, have defected to Norman Lear’s Act III Communications, according to our sources.

Meyer quietly moved his office to Act III before taking an extended Christmas vacation. Black will join him in early January, when a formal announcement is planned. But the switch has been in the works at least since last September, when Meyer and Black first informed Redford, who was said to be unhappy with the news (to say the least).

The move suggests that Act III plans an increase in production, up from the two films (“Stand by Me” and “The Princess Bride”) that it made in its first two years.

In two years at Wildwood, Meyer and Black saw one movie that they brought to Redford, “The Promised Land,” developed to fruition, and worked on “The Milagro Beanfield War,” a pet Redford project now in final editing.

The Meyer-Black team developed five projects at A&M; Films, which Meyer helped found with A&M; Records pres Gil Friesen in July, 1981: “Birdie,” “Breakfast Club,” “Better Off Dead,” “One Crazy Summer” and “Bring on the Night.”

Nobody was returning our calls for confirmation--not the principals, Redford, Lear or agent Sandy Climan of Creative Artists, charged with staffing Wildwood during the transition period. But an Act III source confirmed the hiring.