<i> Really </i> Early Reviews

Cameras don’t roll until September on the Robin Hood saga “Prince of Thieves,” and the thriller “Basic Instinct” doesn’t shoot until January, but already weekly Variety has run reviews--of the films’ screenplays .

Editor Peter Bart admits it was “a bit unorthodox” to review the first-draft scripts--which are subject to revision through production--but says, “We have this extraordinary development of scripts that are selling for a million dollars or more. . . . Once you reach this stratosphere, the work achieves its own stature. It becomes, if you will, a cultural event.”

Joe Eszterhas made headlines--and $3 million--for “Basic Instinct,” for Carolco Pictures. Co-writers Pen Densham and John Watson got $1.2 million for “Prince,” for Morgan Creek Prods.

Neither of the high-priced scripts drew raves from Variety. “Basic Instinct,” reviewed by Bart himself, was found to be “devoid of any noticeably redeeming social merit,” with “the requisite chases and plot twists.” And “Prince” was likened to “any number of second-rate, postpubescent sex comedies,” by Joe Gillis--a pen name for a writer whose identity Bart declined to reveal. (William Holden played a hack screenwriter named Joe Gillis in “Sunset Boulevard.”)

Bart’s barb reportedly stung the “Prince of Thieves’ ” writers and producers. Though they declined an official comment, a source close to Morgan Creek says “they are not happy.” Eszterhas, we were told, was vacationing and couldn’t be reached for comment. His agent didn’t return our phone calls.

Writers Guild of America president George Kirgo says the reviewing was “premature and unfair”--but calls the attention paid to writers “long overdue.”

Bart admits industry reaction to the ultra-early reviews has been “mixed.” He says it’s uncertain if the publication will continue them, but adds there is talk about reviewing some of the “great unproduced screenplays.”