Hitting the Jackpot : Broadway: The screenplays for ‘Prelude to a Kiss’ and ‘A Bronx Tale’ have sold for mega-dollars. But the playwrights also raised eyebrows by retaining creative control.

Of the big money Hollywood has spent on screenplays in the last few months, the mega-dollars showered on stage plays--and the creative control the playwrights have won--have raised the most eyebrows.

The sale of Craig Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss” to 20th Century Fox for $1 million-plus, and the sale of the relatively unknown Chazz Palminteri’s “A Bronx Tale” to Universal for $1.5 million, are stunners more for the terms they include than the price each has commanded. (“Prelude” received a Tony nomination, but the award for best play at Sunday’s ceremonies went to “The Grapes of Wrath.”)

Both plays had their start in Hollywood’s own back yard. Palminteri’s one-man piece opened in March 1989 at the West Coast Ensemble’s 75-seat theater on Hollywood Boulevard and later moved to the 200-seat Theatre West. “Prelude to a Kiss” first played in January 1988 at Costa Mesa’s South Coast Repertory, which had commissioned the play for $12,000.

“Prelude” and “Bronx Tale” did not go entirely unnoticed by the industry during their Southern California runs, but the circumstances were not ripe for a sale to films. “Prelude” was extensively rewritten after its debut at South Coast and went on to an interim production at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 1989 before opening this year--first Off Broadway then on Broadway.

“The show at South Coast was a first draft,” Lucas said on the phone from New York. “It’s been rewritten a great deal. The story line has been (strengthened) and it has many fewer characters. When we did the play at Berkeley Rep, it was already a lot stronger. And it’s even stronger in New York.”

“It’s not different but deeper,” added Norman Rene, who has directed all productions of the play. “Its lyricism is more high-flown and the romantic core of the story clarified.”

Palminteri, on the other hand, was a cocky young newcomer who turned down million-dollar offers during his play’s L.A. run, secure in his conviction that he could get more than money--and he did.

Is the stepped up interest in stage properties a fallout from the unexpected success of “Driving Miss Daisy,” bought for a mere $375,000 and made by the Zanuck Company for $7.5 million, with grosses topping $100 million?

William Morris agent Michael Peretzian, who handled the deal on “Prelude” with his New York-based associate Peter Franklin, allows only that the glowing reviews for the Off Broadway and Broadway productions, plus “Daisy’s” high grosses, were factors that drove up “Prelude’s” price.

His partner Franklin also sees “Daisy’s” success as “an influence, certainly,” but believes the sale of “Prelude,” described as an adult fairy tale, is merely “further evidence that Hollywood these days is looking for good stories and depth of character. The price is higher than usual, but romance is Hollywood’s stock in trade. If you look back over the years, all of the best writing in Hollywood has been done by playwrights. What I see is a return to that kind of depth.”

The strength of the play and the support it received in New York won Lucas unusual control over the film. Although none of the participants would confirm it, a source close to the deal makers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that in addition to the basic $1 million for “Prelude,” the deal’s so-called “escalator clauses” included an additional $100,000 for Lucas if the play won the Pulitzer Prize (which it did not). Lucas did receive an additional $50,000 for the Tony nomination and would have been given another $50,000 had it won a Tony. The deal also provides $50,000 for each month that the play remains on Broadway (it opened May 1), with a ceiling of $300,000.

According to Peretzian, there were seven serious bidders: independent producer Ed Pressman (“Talk Radio”), Columbia, 20th Century Fox, Quincy Jones (for Warner Bros.), Alan Pakula (for Touchstone) and the Sam Goldwyn Jr. company (which just released the Lucas/Rene film “Longtime Companion”). Steven Spielberg and Dawn Steel showed interest, Peretzian said, but came too late.

Lucas’ conditions were that Rene must direct the film, that no other producers could be brought on without his and Rene’s approval and that he could not be rewritten. The amount that Rene will earn was also stipulated. No one is saying how much, but, quipped Rene, “It’s more than I’m used to.”

Said Peretzian: “We told the (bidders) the criteria: First: Did they see the darker elements of the play and would they protect the integrity of the piece? Second: How much money did they offer? Whoever came in highest in both categories became our first choice. We would then talk to them exclusively. It stopped the craziness.”

Producers Michael Gruskoff and Michael Levy at 20th Century emerged the victors. They met with Lucas last June after reading the script. He gave them the green light to run with the play and approach some studios. “It worked mostly thanks to my partner’s relationship with Lucas,” Levy said, “and his feeling for the material. We were all in sync.”

Gruskoff and Levy agreed that Rene should direct. They knew Joe Roth, head of production at Fox, who is a fan of Alec Baldwin (he played one of the leads in “Prelude” during its Off Broadway run). Roth put in his oar after he too had read the script.

“I was counseled that Fox would be a good way to go,” Lucas said. “Roth was quite terrific. I don’t mean to sound like a Pollyanna, but even the other Hollywood people we talked to seemed quite reasonable. Nobody tried to ram anything down our throats.”

A later conversation with Roth, “not hinged on who you cast, but on how you handle the property,” Peretzian said, cinched it.

“Peretzian told me it wasn’t about offers,” Roth concurred. “He said he could negotiate with anybody. So I called Rene and Lucas and told them how much I liked the script. I told them I was trying to make Fox a place where filmmakers felt comfortable and have their vision shared. I kept calling during the week they were deciding. I told them who to call on my behalf and assured them they would have this play faithfully reproduced.”

South Coast Rep won’t get much out of this deal. “Our contract stipulates that if a commercial production opens within two years of ours, we should have a participation in the gross receipts,” SCR artistic co-director David Emmes explained. “But it’s been more than two years, and we don’t believe the production on Broadway was caused by our production.” Because it commissioned the play, however, the theater retains a five-to-seven-year participation in the author’s subsidiary rights.

Emmes wouldn’t say how much South Coast stands to gain from the movie sale of “Prelude,” but when asked if the $25,000 reported in a trade publication was correct, he answered, “I imagine it would be in that ballpark. Depending on how it goes, it could even be more--probably somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000.”

Lucas is currently writing the screenplay, though he has no shooting date. “I don’t feel pressure (to set one),” Roth explained.

“There’s no casting imperative, no competing projects. A story that good, as long as we faithfully execute it, people will come. Alec (Baldwin) would like to do it. We hope he will.”

“The planets were all lined up for this negotiation,” Peretzian said, citing the coincidence of the good reviews, the quasi-simultaneous release of “The Hunt for Red October” (which features Baldwin, drawing ancillary attention to the play) and the “buying fever” that has gripped Hollywood.

“What’s wonderful,” he added, “is that a play as intelligent as this one can find a film market. But fundamentally, good art sells.”

Palminteri’s case is somewhat different and perhaps more remarkable. He blew in out of nowhere, with no “name” and no track record, developed “A Bronx Tale” in a Theatre West workshop, and took an unprecedented David-like stand against the Hollywood Goliath.

He had written his one-man play based on childhood memories as a vehicle for himself, turning down lucrative offers for film rights to the piece from Robert De Niro and others during the consecutive Los Angeles runs of the show. He vowed to write his own screenplay and star in it.

“We first saw the show at the West Coast Ensemble,” said William Morris agent Fred Westheimer who, with Lee Cohen, offered to represent Palminteri. “Every agent and producer we knew was in that little theater. There was a buzz going on about Chazz and the play at that time. It involved a number of stars, including De Niro and (Al) Pacino, (directors) Rob Reiner, John Avildsen, Peter Weir, Jim Brooks,” among others.

Palminteri held on. In addition to money, he wanted a New York run of the show (for his family to see) and major creative control--the kind he eventually got. Offers in the $1-million range came in before there was a film script. He started writing his screenplay in Los Angeles, finishing it on the day of his New York opening.

There was a reading of it in De Niro’s Tribeca studios. De Niro loved it. It also turned out to have Universal appeal.

“Casey Silver, president of Universal, was the engine that drove this deal,” Westheimer said. “He loved the play, wanted the property, wouldn’t let it go. We didn’t know if it would be best for Chazz to go studio or go independent. But Universal offered us the controls usually given by independent producers. We chose to go to Universal because they basically said they were interested on the same grounds that we were. The way Universal distributes markets and promotes their films was also key in our decision to be there.

“With the support of Tom Pollock (chairman of Universal) the whole thing came together.

“Chazz is locked in to play in it, locked in to write it, has mutual control over who directs it, who casts it--things that usually only go to people with a lot of clout.”

“Chazz was very brave to hold on to (his play) and not give it away,” Cohen said. “But good things sell,” he said, echoing Peretzian. “This is a top flight deal--a seven-figure deal,” he offered, declining to say how high.

“I have no trouble with that,” Palminteri replied when asked.

“It was $1.5 million.”

So when the movie is made (target date: Spring, 1991), Palminteri will have written the screenplay and will play Johnny, the gangster who befriended him as a kid. De Niro will make his directorial debut with the film and play the father. De Niro is also co-producing with Peter Gatien, entrepreneur and friend of Palminteri, who co-produced the play in New York and owns an international chain of nightclubs.

“I worked as a doorman at Peter’s nightclub in New York in 1982,” Palminteri said. “We became good friends. I left when my career started taking off.” But they remained close and when Palminteri needed money to stage “Bronx Tale” in Hollywood, he called Gatien, who sent $25,000 by express mail. “Peter stood by me when I needed it. I was determined to stand by him,” Palminteri said.

“Chazz got what he wanted,” Westheimer emphasized, “an all-inclusive services deal--a vehicle for Peter, himself and De Niro. The only thing they’re not doing is catering the food.”

Aside from the unprecedented surge of power to the writer, the pattern remains as inconclusive as ever. There was a lucrative movie in Robert Harling’s “Steel Magnolias”--and a terrible one in “A Chorus Line,” which Universal bought for a whopping $5.5 million.

During the last two years, Terrence McNally’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” was sold to Paramount for a reported $600,000 (with an escalator deal). And Ken Ludwig’s “Lend Me a Tenor” was optioned by the Price Company for an unconfirmed $150,000 (to include screenplay and option, in a complex deal that could go as high as $750,000 if the movie gets made and the author gets sole screenplay credit).

Some deals are less terrific than others, as in the case of “Other People’s Money” (which, ironically, topped $1 million in operating profits at the Minetta Lane Theatre early in May). There was a low-cost resale of Jerry Sterner’s hugely popular Off Broadway hit to Norman Jewison for Warner Bros. (Alvin Sargent, who won Oscars for “Ordinary People” and “Julia,” is writing the screenplay). Sterner had made his own deal, selling the rights to producer Devina Belling before his play ever hit the stage. Belling took it to King’s Road Productions.

“That was 1986-87,” Sterner said from New York, declining to name a dollar amount. “For an unknown, unproduced play by an unknown playwright, the offer was very flattering. At the time, it was a fortune. And King’s Road was small enough that I was told it would not get lost in the machinations of a larger company.”

But when King’s Road stock fell from $8 to less than $1, Belling took the script to Warner Bros. and a renegotiation took place, which, this time, was handled by Sterner’s agent, Esther Sherman, who says she’s not proud of it.

“It would have been great to have had an auction,” she said. “That’s good agenting. But I had to choreograph Devina’s making a deal with Warner’s when Jewison and Warner’s became involved.”

For how much? Sherman would only venture a ballpark figure:

“Under $500,000. I also did the deal for ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ For about $500,000. Today it would be $1.5 million. But it was Howard Ashman’s first film, and he just won the Oscar for ‘Little Mermaid.’ ”

“Esther did great and I’m thrilled,” Sterner insisted. “Listen, I’m a businessman. Money has never been an object. If ‘Other People’s Money’ never made a dime it wouldn’t matter,” said the 51-year-old writer who only started writing at age 42. “In the rush for the numbers we sometimes lose sight of the real success.”