De Laurentiis Unveils Projects for New Production Company

Giving all signs of rising from the ashes of his bankrupt public company, famed movie producer Dino De Laurentiis unveiled an ambitious slate of films Wednesday for his latest--and private--production company, Film & Television Co. Personally, he said cheerily, he has no financial problems “whatsoever.”

The 68-year-old native of Italy, a naturalized American, had a lawyer at his side as he held forth vivaciously in strongly accented English liberally infused with good-humored profanity.

Following advice from his lawyer, De Laurentiis tried to avoid saying much about De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, in which public stockholders lost millions of dollars.

However, the man who founded DEG only two years ago did say that he feels “very bad” about what happened to the company.

DEG filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings Aug. 16. Six months earlier, De Laurentiis himself left the helm of the ship, which was sinking in a sea of red ink after an unbroken string of box-office flops. He has been unavailable to the press since last fall.

While acknowledging “some responsibility” in the matter, De Laurentiis quickly added that his chief mistakes were having a publicly traded company, going into U.S. film distribution and “selecting the wrong people around me.”

He did not say who those people might be. A spokeswoman for DEG management had no comment on his remarks.

The film maker is a defendant in a shareholder lawsuit against DEG and others, including his daughter Rafaella, who resigned as head of film production in August, 1987. The suit alleges, among other things, that the firm entered into many transactions with De Laurentiis family members on terms “less favorable” to the company than if they had been negotiated “at arm’s length.”

Several times during the press conference, De Laurentiis said he would be ready to talk about DEG in about two months. Neither he nor his lawyer, Thomas P. Lambert, would give a reason for such a delay.

Ironically, the producer owns the building that houses both DEG and his present company, but he claimed that he never talks to DEG’s current management. He said he expects DEG to leave the premises soon, noting that Beverly Hills is “too expensive for companies in Chapter 11.”

Meanwhile, except for losing most of the value of his 61% stock interest in DEG, the producer indicated that the company’s financial disaster has not derailed his nearly four-decade career in film making.

He said he has a deal for Paramount Pictures to put up 60% of the estimated $20-million cost of making his next picture, “Over My Dead Body.” A comedy about three American couples caught up in murder and mystery in Monte Carlo, the film is projected to go into production next March.

And he said he has been in Russia recently to discuss plans for his production of “Catherine the Great,” which would be his first film made in the Soviet Union with backing of its government since “Waterloo” in the late 1960s. A two-hour theatrical film and a five-hour television version are planned.

Five other films were outlined by the producer as projects in development.

De Laurentiis said he continues to have available financing, as he has for many years, from Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland of Holland. The bank also has financed other independent Hollywood producers, including Cannon Group, Carolco Pictures, Scotti Bros. Pictures and Hemdale Film Corp.

And he intends to continue using his favorite method to finance part of the cost of his projects--pre-selling foreign rights for theatrical, television and videocassette use.

In reflecting on his career, De Laurentiis said he is proud of the Academy Award garnered by one of his first films, “La Strada,” a 1956 Italian picture directed by Federico Fellini. He listed among his favorite productions “Three Days of the Condor” and the 1976 remake of “King Kong.”

Of the more than 40 films that he produced in his career, he contends that all but “a couple” made a profit.

Objecting to his public image as “a big spender, which is completely untrue,” De Laurentiis said the average cost for all of his pictures was under $10 million, while the 1987 average for major studios was $20 million.

DEG made nine pictures during its first two years, and De Laurentiis said they also cost an average of less than $10 million.

De Laurentiis said he has no intention of operating another public company, adding: “I like to be a free man, a happy man.”