A Foxy Leader of the Pack? : Movies: Studio chief Peter Chernin keeps a low profile, and the industry questions the impact he will have on the company.

Peter Chernin is suffering from an identity crisis of sorts.

Not only is the former TV executive living in the shadow of his popular and powerful predecessor Joe Roth, but he’s fending off speculation that he’s a straw man for Rupert Murdoch--the controversial head of Fox’s parent company News Corp. Eight months into his tenure as the chairman of 20th Century Fox, the low-profile Chernin has yet to put his stamp on the job.

“It takes 18 months to two years before you can get the flavor of a studio chief,” says Jeffrey Logsdon, an entertainment analyst with Seidler Amdec. “But, even so, the new management at Fox has been much less visible than that at Paramount. On Wall Street, at least, Chernin is a virtual unknown.”

Chernin is unruffled by the assessment. Image, observes the ex-chairman of the Fox Entertainment Group, is less important than reality. And, since it’s to Fox’s advantage to be sent all types of material, being an “unknown” can be strategically useful.

“I do not need a lot of self-promotion,” the chairman points out. “I like to see our movies--not me--in the press. At the Fox Broadcasting Co., it was a distinct advantage to develop a ‘brand identity.’ In L.A., people turned to Channel 11 when they wanted irreverent young comedy shows. Since people don’t head for the movies of a particular studio, with the exception of Disney, establishing a brand identity isn’t crucial.”

Compounding Chernin’s difficulty in staking out his turf is his corporate, collaborative management style. In contrast to Roth, whose independent filmmaking roots fostered an inherent distrust of “the suits,” the new chairman is a team player, par excellence.

“With Joe, it was ‘The Joe Show’--and with all the charisma, talent and regard he had, it worked,” says a Fox insider. “Peter is trying to make it the Peter-Tom-and-Executives Show and the executives appreciate that.”

Chernin maintains, however, that Murdoch is less a part of the loop than people assume.

“People believe that Rupert is either micro-managing the company or an absentee landlord,” he suggests, no doubt, sick of denying he’s Charlie McCarthy to Murdoch’s Edgar Bergen. “Neither, in fact, is true. Rupert knows what’s going on, but he doesn’t interfere. We share a sensibility. He’s comfortable that I’m not spinning out of control.”

Inheriting a year’s worth of movies from Roth, says Chernin, enabled him to think long-term, building a “well-managed machine” along the lines of a Warner Bros. or a Disney that he hopes will increase the number of releases from the current 16 to 25 and propel the studio from its sixth-place standing in terms of market share to the top three by 1995 or 1996. More immediately, he’s filling a development pipeline severely depleted upon his arrival. Not to criticize Roth, Chernin emphasizes, who was only following orders, but the 60 to 70 projects in the Fox larder were less than half the amount at other major studios.

“As a former producer, Joe was very effective at ‘packaging’--putting existing projects together with filmmakers and talent,” says Tom Jacobson, Fox’s head of production. “He was comfortable with fewer choices. Peter and I wanted more.”

Though Fox is one of the more aggressive buyers on the market, entertainment attorney David Colden indicates “there’s the perception Chernin has been slow to ‘greenlight’ movies”--or put them into production. Moreover, the seven pictures Chernin has selected--two teen-age comedies, two family films, two action-adventure movies and a female Western--have led to the conclusion that he’s playing it safe.

“There’s a move within the company, spearheaded by Rupert Murdoch, to go into an arena whose budgets are consistently lower and concepts consistently higher,” says one industry higher-up.

Strauss Zelnick, departing president and chief operating officer of 20th Century Fox, doesn’t buck the analysis. Fox, he admits, is “the most conservatively run studio in town”--one whose product is deliberately mainstream. “In contrast to the previous regime, which was willing to take a stab on a ‘Barton Fink,’ the common denominator of our current projects is straight-ahead, high-concept, commercial appeal,” he says. “The ‘family’ bent (as reflected in recent deals with Nickelodeon and Hanna-Barbera) is less a social point of view than a way of attracting a broader audience.”

Jacobson backs him up. “We don’t plan on making a lot of movies we think would be a tough sell,” he notes. “You’ll be seeing very few ‘small audience’ pictures that need to go out delicately in the world.”

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Chernin insists, however, that off-center fare will be part of an eclectic and broad-based slate. Those interested in sizing up his taste, he says, should look beyond the films he happened to greenlight first and reflect on the 45 properties he’s channeled into development. Among them: “Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend,” a new book by Robert James Waller, the author of the best-selling “The Bridges of Madison County”; the latest novel by Alice Hoffman; and Edith Wharton’s “Buccaneers.” The studio is also negotiating with Kenneth Branaugh to star in and direct a film version of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”

Chernin says he plans on a couple of “event films” a year and is willing to pay top dollar when it makes fiscal sense. He’s yet to put his money where his mouth is, however. A man who’s convinced that good story attracts talent--not the other way around--he’s wary of an over-reliance on big-star vehicles.

Fox is releasing James Cameron’s “True Lies,” a $50-million venture starring Arnold Schwarzenegger scheduled to start shooting in August. But since the studio is only committed to pay 30% on a cap of $40 million or $50 million (depending on whether or not Cameron directs), those looking for a high-wire act will have to stay tuned.

The penny-pinching approach, says a top agent, is short-sighted, at best. “Fox won’t get back in the game unless they’re prepared to pay big numbers,” he cautions. “Brilliant story isn’t enough. Unless Fox springs for the $4-million director or the $7-million star, it can’t hope to compete with Warners. And, coming from TV, Chernin doesn’t have the relationships that permit him to get talent for less.”

Complicating the studio’s determination to turn out more films is a lack of major suppliers. Since Fox lost Largo Entertainment’s new product to Universal, it has no entities such as Columbia’s Castle Rock and Universal’s Amblin to feed its top-notch distribution system. For the moment, Chernin is relying on his two heavy hitters: Cameron (“Aliens”) and “Home Alone” director John Hughes.

Cameron has a 12-picture, five-year deal with the studio. The speed with which his Lightstorm Entertainment delivers the hoped-for two or three pictures a year, however, may be affected by the departure of its president, Larry Kasanoff, on June 9. Though the studio denies it, the Hughes’ connection is also said to have fissures. The director does have a tight relationship with Jacobson, who used to head his production company. But Warners--who shares his overhead and is about to release his “Dennis the Menace”--is said to be putting on the full-court press. Chernin’s recent decision to pass on Hughes’ movie “The Bee,” a project quickly scooped up by Warners, didn’t help.

“It’s a risky move,” says a top studio executive. “Turning him down pushed him into the arms of Warners with its deep pockets and new family entertainment label. And if Hughes refuses to write ‘Home Alone 3,’ Fox made a mistake.”

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In an effort to generate product, Chernin has cut a number of pragmatic deals with producers ranging from Lynda Obst (“Sleepless in Seattle”) to Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald (“True Believer”) to former Fox studio chief Leonard Goldberg.

Murdoch protege Steve Chao (TV’s “Studs”) has resurfaced on the fast track again with a mandate to turn out low-budget features--a public reprieve after his dismissal as president of Fox Television Stations and Fox News Service for hiring a male stripper to perform at a Fox management conference last June.

An effort is being made to avoid the experience of Sony, which overextended itself through a series of high-priced, high-profile, overlapping deals with producers it had trouble servicing. “The philosophy here is ‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,’ ” says Obst, who came over from Sony in January. “Each of us fills a niche.”

Unlike many studio chiefs who clean house when they arrive, Chernin has sought to keep upheaval to a minimum. Executive vice president Tom Sherak praises his “kind management style.” Some in Hollywood, however, agree with what former New York Giants manager Leo Durocher once said: Nice guys finish last.

“Collaboration is fine,” notes a leading producer, “but people need a leader. In the history of the movie business, guys like Harry Cohn, Irving Thalberg, Louis B. Mayer, Lew Wasserman had strong points of view. The test of the company will be Chernin’s ability to develop and implement his vision.”

On-lot producer Jack Brodsky, executive producer of the upcoming “Rookie of the Year,” is betting on the man. “Chernin is strong--deceptively so,” he says. “Pardon the pun, but you don’t get to the place he’s at through ‘the Peter Principle.’ ”