FACES ‘94: More Names to Be Reckoned With in the Performing Arts : MOVIEMAKING : Ron Mita & Jim McClain

They were obscure graduate students at Loyola Marymount University last year when they beat the odds and sold a screenplay, about a terrorist plot to blow up the English Channel tunnel, to Columbia Pictures--for a whopping $1 million.

As hot writers of the moment, Ron Mita, 31, of Santa Clarita, and Jim McClain, 32, of North Hollywood, say they’re enjoying being pursued by producers eager to pitch them ideas. Even though they finally (after five years of going to school part time) got their master’s degrees, they find it hard to break the habit of living like students and have yet to see the inside of Spago.

This month they will put up for auction a newly completed action script with the unlikely title “The French Teacher.” Meanwhile, the pair is undaunted by the stalling of their million-dollar debut, “Track Down,” now that Jodie Foster is no longer slated to play the engineer who staves off disaster. They are in fact pleased that Columbia has brought in high-priced screenwriter Kevin Jarre (“Tombstone,” “Glory”) for a rewrite. Don’t they remember what happened to two other fledgling screenwriters who saw their highly touted script develop into last year’s most embarrassing flop?

“We’d hate for this to be the ‘Last Track Down Hero,’ ” says Mita. “But the studio seems to be treating the script with some respect. The changes they’re talking about are all reasonable.”