Thriller Ski Films Give ‘em a ‘Rush’ : Movies: Warren Miller’s features have earned him cult status among ski lovers. ‘Black Diamond Rush,’ his latest installment, is playing in theaters throughout L.A.

November? Must be Miller time--Warren Miller time, that is.

Yep, the annual ritual is here. While most moviegoers settle back in the darkness, shushing their neighbors so they can enjoy some Hollywood-produced Oscar contender, somewhere across town Warren Miller fans take their seats and start screaming. And pounding the floor. And talking back to the screen: “Awesome,” “Wow, cool,” “ Arrrrrright !” Or laughing.

On-screen, the featured “star” has just (choose one of the following): done a ballet-like aerial; zoomed down waist-deep powder in some far-off place no ordinary soul can dream of getting to; survived a 30-foot fall over a cliff without tumbling; run head-on into a tree).

Never heard of Warren Miller? Impossible--if you’re a skier.

Since 1949, Miller, now 70, has become an icon to the hundreds of thousands of can’t-wait-for-ski-season-to-begin hot-doggers who pack auditoriums all over the country between Oct. 1 and Dec. 15 every year to experience the latest Warren Miller production. The 1993 version--the 44th in the series--is “Warren Miller’s Black Diamond Rush,” which is playing throughout the Los Angeles area through Dec. 5.

Miller writes the scripts and does his singular brand of color commentary for certain scenes, although he no longer does the live narrations that have earned him a loyal, some might say, cult following. Here’s a vintage line from his latest: “You need a lot of things to go skiing. Sun screen, passport, vacation time, cellular phone, Visa card, medical insurance, trail map, brain bucket, mileage plus upgrade, free demo skis, hair dryer. . . “

The usual fans are expected to crowd the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium shows on Friday, Nov. 20 and 21, where Miller will make one of four personal appearances out of 500 screenings--the others are Costa Mesa, Portland and Seattle--if only to make a few corny jokes to rev up the audience.

Now that Miller is making fewer appearances, the film’s soundtracks are peppered with more rock music and interviews with “extreme” skiers (risk-takers), which hype up the action--a little less Miller, a little more MTV.

“You get to a certain age and you don’t want the pressure you had,” he said from his home near Seattle. “Being an entrepreneur was tough and after a lot of years it got to be too much. But as long as the public wants me in the movies and it’s fun to participate, I’ll be doing my bit.” These days, Miller’s writing a syndicated ski column, “Warren’s World,” and is working on a book of his adventure travels.

The movies and the income they’ve generated have brought him an enviable lifestyle--houses in Hawaii; Vail, Colo., and on Orcas Island, Wash.--since he first began chronicling the then-unsophisticated sport of skiing with a hand-held Bell & Howell camera, nourished by little bags of oyster crackers and the encouragement of a few friends in high places who noticed his talents both as a ski racer and eager filmmaker. (The friends are still around--he’s just got more of them: John Sununu, Jack Kemp, Irving Azoff and Blake Edwards, to name a few.)

Miller’s movies may have limited runs, but they have higher per-screen averages than most Hollywood blockbusters. “Steeper and Deeper,” for instance, was ranked by Variety as among the Top 5 films nationally in 1992--ahead of “A League of Their Own” and “Under Siege.”

Son Kurt, 34, is towing the ropes now. Miller pere is under contract to Miller junior, who describes himself more as the marketing and advertising type than a personality.

“At 13, I started to ski race, then reconsidered. Who wants to hear, ‘There goes Warren’s son’ all the time?” Kurt said, sitting in his sun-filled headquarters at Warren Miller Entertainment in Hermosa Beach, a maze-like place of three connecting buildings functioning as one.

Kurt Miller took up sailing instead. He competed through college, barely lost out on making the Olympic team and then started a sales marketing and television syndication business with partner Peter Speek before buying his father out five years ago.

When the younger Miller talks about his father, he refers to him as “Warren,” not “Dad.” Examples: “Warren’s basic (movie) formula survives . . . we’ve just updated it.” “Warren’s goals and objectives were to take all the money out every year and enjoy it. We reinvest it in order to grow.” “Warren used to conduct focus groups at home in the living room. We do them here,” opening the door to reveal a funky-looking screening room with rows of old-fashioned wood theater seats.

The Miller catalogue--with titles like “Extreme Winter” and “White Winter Heat”--are the same frenetically paced productions they’ve always been, with scenes on snow shot from every angle imaginable. They are an adrenaline rush through 20 or so of the United States’ chic, trendy, difficult (and lamest) skiing spots plus a visit to a handful of incredibly exotic places on the globe (Cariboos helicopter skiing in Canada; expedition skiing in Antarctica) that even people accustomed to paying for an expensive sporting habit would have a hard time funding.

A few yuks and a couple of teary stories are mixed into the formula--as long as the best thrills and chills “open the movie, close the first half (there’s always an intermission) and end it,” Kurt Miller said.

Gone are scenes with the elder Miller out on the slopes hamming it up with his friends. Today, he might fly to one or two resorts--his part taken over with profiles of crazed “shredheads” plus at least one profile of a real ski character. “Black Diamond Rush” features A.J. Snow, age 102, whose enthusiasm for the sport is summed up thusly: “Take your age, subtract it from 102 and that’s how many years left you have to ski.” And champion women skiers have finally come into Miller movies. Miller Sr. got tired of being accused of being a chauvinist, his son said.

Miller Entertainment does it all for about $1 million per picture. (Costs are cut way down through promos and sponsorship.) And all the “talent” is free. Skiers in Miller movies--some ranked, others amateurs--beg for a chance to get themselves on camera (even if most who try out fail since the test run is against Miller cameramen--all double black diamond, or expert, skiers).

The joke to Kurt Miller is that making a Miller ski movie is like being on a paid vacation. “Up at 4 a.m. Spend the day with your feet in snow . . . freezing your butt off. Off the slopes at sunset, then eat and clean the cameras before hitting the hay.” Oh, and production lasts 19 months. Already, next year’s yet-untitled feature is in the works.

If he can swing it, Miller’s ambition is to see the company-owned screenplay “Beyond the Edge” made into a feature film Kurt Miller-style--with “humor, emotion and skiing” for about $5 million, a fifth of what the studios spend on average. Producer Laurence Mark, for whom Miller did second unit work on “True Colors,” is a possible co-producer.

But Miller wouldn’t totally give up Hermosa for Hollywood--at least not yet.

“We are the best freedom-oriented sports filmmakers in the business,” he said. “As long as we keep that focus we’ll be successful. I’m not ever willing to risk this for the other.”