Scaled Down

Universal sources relate that Arnold Schwarzenegger (who’s reportedly been commanding $10 million per pic), Danny DeVito and director Ivan Reitman have agreed to take scale pay for their work in “Twins”--in exchange for a piece of the profits. The film, which started filming Friday for Christmas release, casts the two actors as unlikely siblings in an equally unlikely set of misadventures.

“It’s an unusual deal,” said a studio insider. “It allows us to make the film for under $15 million. If it’s a hit, the three of them will see more money than they would have seen from large, up-front salaries; if it bombs, the studio will have saved a lot of money.”

The actors’ reps weren’t commenting, but Reitman confirmed that yes, “We’re all working for scale. We developed the idea together because we wanted to work together. We wanted it to be fun, so questions of money weren’t the most important thing to us.” Reitman said that several studios bid on the project and were prepared to pay their going salaries, but “we preferred to do it this way.”

Some details weren’t available, but, we’re told, the three will have participation in the gross revenue, giving them earnings from the first box-office dollar, with the guy with the biggest muscles getting the heftiest share--half--and DeVito and Reitman splitting the remainder of the participation returns.

According to the Universal source, the deal’s in the area of 35% of the gross, which makes it comparable to Clint Eastwood’s deal at Warner Bros.