Andy Vajna Returns to the Front Lines : Movies: Efforts by the founder of Cinergi seem to be paying off as ‘Tombstone’ heralds a batch of big-budget film releases.

Inside Andy Vajna’s Santa Monica office, a onetime warehouse turned post-industrial showplace, a painting of a staircase ascending to a pyramid hangs directly over his desk, dominating the room. “It represents destiny,” the producer says. “I like it very much.”

Destiny is clearly on Vajna’s mind these days as he contemplates his return to the front lines of show business after a three-year stretch in which his Cinergi productions bought a lot of expensive scripts but put out only one movie, “Medicine Man.”

Cinergi has three event-size films scheduled for release between Christmas and summer, beginning with the Kurt Russell western “Tombstone.” There’s also talk that Cinergi and 20th Century Fox soon will move ahead on the third installment in the “Die Hard” series.

“I’ve got movie projects in every stage of the production process now,” Vajna says.

That’s good news for Hollywood agents and lawyers, whose lifestyles are largely supported by the kind of big-budget movies Vajna makes. The 49-year-old producer, a co-founder of Carolco Pictures, says it took years to put into motion a group of high-concept projects that interested him. He also had to arrange his complex financing, a modified version of the pre-sale agreements he helped pioneer at Carolco.

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Under the business plan, Chemical Bank covers Vajna’s initial costs, which are recouped by selling worldwide rights to his movies. Vajna retains a 10% to 15% stake. He is also a ground-floor investor in Savoy Pictures, the company started by Tristar Pictures founders Victor A. Kaufman and Lewis J. Korman.

Vajna says he made the deal because of Kaufman and Korman’s involvement, rather than any plans to move his business to Savoy. “For me, it’s always the management team that matters,” he says.

The producer sold his interest in Carolco for a reported $106 million in cash and notes in 1989, after the company scored big with testosterone-driven hits such as the “Rambo” series. In the past, Vajna has refused to discuss its subsequent financial problems, or his ex-partner Mario Kassar.

But with Carolco’s reorganization completed, Vajna says, “Mario and I were the most successful independents in the world in the 1980s. It’s unfortunate we did not go forward together, but we had different ideas. It’s all about management style.”

Vajna adds that he and Kassar still talk at least every other day, both “about life and the movies.” While he doesn’t foresee a reunion occurring anytime soon, he also doesn’t rule it out in the future.

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With his celebrated reputation for high living--the yachts, the big cigars, the friendships with Sly and Arnold--Vajna comes across as surprisingly low-key. People close to the producer say he was always the more bottom-line-oriented of the Carolco duo--”the businessman to Mario’s buccaneer,” as one puts it. Because of that, sources say Vajna felt more confident creating a business plan than picking movies when he formed Cinergi.

“He went through a bit of withdrawal after Carolco,” says one associate. “Mario was really the one out there playing the role of the salesman.”

After Carolco, Vajna also developed a reputation for remoteness by avoiding interviews and operating his company in a relatively secretive way. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, some deal makers referred to his yacht moored off the Mediterranean coast as “the fortress.”

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But friends insist that Vajna, who started as an exhibitor and still owns a movie distribution company and casino in his native Hungary, remains one of Hollywood’s sharpest executives and one of the three most influential foreign-born independent producers, alongside Kassar and Arnon Milchan, based at Warner Bros.

“I consider our relationship invaluable,” says Walt Disney Studios Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, who has North American and Latin American distribution rights to Vajna’s films through 1995.

Their confidence will be tested at Christmas, when Disney’s Hollywood Pictures releases “Tombstone,” which has received mixed early reaction. One concern is a competing Wyatt Earp project at Warner Bros. starring Kevin Costner. But Vajna says there’s room in this town for two Earps.

He describes “Tombstone” as an allegory about justice and honor. When Vajna adds that the movie’s message is “justice is coming,” you assume he’s speaking metaphorically until you spot the “Tombstone” poster reading, “Justice Is Coming.”

Vajna admits his approach is driven by marketing--he often visualizes the poster or teaser before the first frame is shot--but says that improves the process.

“If you know how to sell it, you know how to make it,” the producer maintains. “You have to create an event.”

Vajna has three more “events” on tap. “The Color of Night,” a psychological thriller starring Bruce Willis, opens in April. In June it’s “Renaissance Man,” a comedy directed by Penny Marshall and starring Danny DeVito. “Judge Dread,” with Sylvester Stallone playing the comic book cult hero, starts shooting next year.

“This is still a great business,” said Vajna. “The key is just finding the right players and projects.”

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You Gotta Have Friends: Add American Recordings chief Rick Rubin to the list of people standing up for Warner Bros. Records Chairman Mo Ostin in his contract renegotiations. Rubin has written a letter calling Ostin “a rare individual in whose hands we feel totally comfortable placing our careers, our livelihoods, and most important, our art.” American is a Warner label. Ostin’s fate is expected to be resolved by the end of the year.