What’s Their New Line? Dealing for Big Dollars : With Ted Turner’s backing, the studio has moved from genre films into expensive star vehicles

Even in a town where big deals are commonplace, this one grabbed Hollywood’s attention.

New Line Cinema, known for modestly budgeted genre-driven film series such as “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” had paid a staggering $7 million to comedian Jim Carrey to star in a movie called “Dumb & Dumber.”

The movie company had paid him only $450,000 to star in its upcoming release, “The Mask,” but that was prior to the surprise box-office success of his comedy “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” for Warner Bros., which has grossed more than $64 million to date.

But the comedian, perhaps best known for his zany characters on the Fox-TV show “In Living Color,” had no previous track record in feature films.

“Everyone was stunned (by the Carrey deal),” said one industry source. “I think the guy made $350,000 (for “Ace”), and all of a sudden someone was handing him $7 million.”

At the same time, New Line paid $3.3 million for Marlon Brando to star opposite Johnny Depp, who received $2.75 million, in “Don Juan De Marco and the Centerfold.” Francis Ford Coppola was paid $1 million to produce the movie.

In rapid succession, New Line also paid a high six-figure sum for a romantic comedy spec script called “Desperate Measures”; spent $400,000 to option a script called “Mango” (described as an “Odd Couple”-type story in which the Felix character is played by an orangutan); and won a seven-figure bidding war for action director John Woo (“Hard Target”) to do a film about a Florida cop tied up with the mob. They also spent $300,000 to option “Second Defense,” a big sci-fi movie with Arnold Kopelson (“The Fugitive”) producing.

If that wasn’t enough, sources told The Times that New Line currently is in discussions with Carrey on yet another $7-million deal to star in a sequel to “The Mask” and talks also are under way inside the company on whether he will star in a movie called “The Best Man.”

“They’re all over town throwing gobs of money at everything,” quipped one entertainment attorney.

There was a time not long ago when the 27-year-old New Line Cinema would not have been a player in Hollywood’s high-stakes bidding wars. The old New Line never could afford to make movies for more than $15 million and most often they were well under $10 million.

Then Ted Turner arrived.

In one decisive move, the Atlanta-based cable broadcasting mogul acquired New Line last year in a $550-million deal while also negotiating a separate deal worth $200 million for another independent, Castle Rock Entertainment, which has released such hits as “In the Line of Fire” and “A Few Good Men.”

New Line suddenly had the means to compete for hot scripts and A-list actors, directors and writers.

“Now, if we found the right vehicle,” said New Line founder and chairman Robert Shaye, “it would only take a telephone call to Ted and he would provide us with the wherewithal required.”

Shaye’s deal with Turner was so lucrative, in fact, sources said, that as a way of thanking people for his success he invited dozens of close friends to show up at midnight last Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport for a mystery charter flight to an unknown warm-weather destination for a four-day vacation.

Before Turner, New Line officials said, the company had already decided to expand, but now the process has been accelerated.

“We had gone from producing seven films a year to 11,” said Michael De Luca, New Line’s president of production. “Post-Turner, we’re going to try and do 15 a year and three to five of the extra films will be bigger--directly competitive with the major-studio type of movie. For those films, our budgets will be anywhere from $18 million to $25 million.”

Shaye said that Turner has not broached the subject of what films would be taboo under his ownership and has assured company officials they have autonomy to choose projects.

“As he said to me,” Shaye recalled, “ ‘I’m not into horror films, but when I was a kid I was. I understand when you are making films for a particular market, you have to understand the market you are making them for.’ His perspective is that whenever possible, take the high road.”

Turner told a theater exhibitors convention in Las Vegas recently that his newly purchased companies have more than $500 million in negatives in progress and that he intends to “kick that up over the next couple of years to over $1 billion.”

While Castle Rock has already proven it can attract big stars like Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise to its productions, New Line must persuade a wary town that it can do likewise. This “mini-major” studio located in Beverly Hills and New York must show the creative community that it has the marketing savvy to bring out hit films.

The task of selling the town on New Line has fallen on De Luca, 28, and Richard Saperstein, 32, the executive vice president of production.

They are an unlikely pair.

De Luca, who grew up in the company and has been there since he was 19, wears an earring and trimmed beard, speaks with a soft Brooklyn accent and is just as likely to arrive at work in Nikes and jeans astride a Harley-Davidson as in an Armani suit at the wheel of his teal Mercedes.

Saperstein, a former agent at International Creative Management, seems most comfortable in a blue suit, black shoes and white shirt (with red polka-dot tie). He has studied English literature, dabbled in poetry and once wrote speeches for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

De Luca said that his favorite film is “Lawrence of Arabia,” although he longs for a return of the anti-hero films of the 1970s like “Serpico” and “Dog Day Afternoon.”

“To make a ‘Taxi Driver’ today would be ideal,” he said.

Saperstein said that he would like to make movies like “When Harry Met Sally . . .” or “Terms of Endearment.”

“One of my favorite movies is ‘The Man Who Would Be King,’ ” he said.

For the past few months, these men with starkly contrasting styles have been meeting with many of the top agents in town, explaining how New Line will now go after bigger-budget films.

“I want a ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ so bad . . . ,” De Luca said, referring to the Robin Williams comedy that has grossed more than $200 million for 20th Century Fox.

With Turner’s deep pockets, New Line has made it known that it is willing to spend the big bucks.

“For the right actor, we’d offer $15 million,” Saperstein said.

De Luca conceded that the bidding for Carrey probably went too high at $7 million. “Maybe we overpaid a little bit, but (Carrey) was already up for $4-million and $5-million offers (from Universal and 20th Century Fox),” De Luca said. “If we overpaid, it was only by $1 million or $2 million.”

What also moved New Line to act decisively, De Luca said, was that Carrey’s next film, “The Mask,” is already in the can for New Line and company officials think that it will be a monster hit this summer. So do exhibitors, judging from the strong positive reaction they gave the film’s trailer at ShoWest Convention in Las Vegas last month.

At $20 million, “The Mask” is New Line’s biggest in-house production to date. Based on a dark, best-selling comic series, the PG-13 film will feature state-of-the-art special effects with a visual effects budget exceeding $7 million. Ken Ralston and Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic have created digital and optical special effects for the movie.

Carrey plays Stanley Ipkiss, who finds a mask and is instantly transformed into a whirlwind of light and power, a human top spinning around his apartment, until he becomes a green-faced contortionist who knows how to fulfill every desire, satisfy every whim and play all kinds of pranks.

Carrey said that it was a combination of his success with “Ace Ventura” and what they saw in “The Mask” that made New Line not want him to jump to another studio with his next film.

“For them, it’s a vote of confidence in ‘The Mask,’ ” Carrey said of his multimillion-dollar deal with New Line. “They wouldn’t be going this far out with anybody unless they thought they had something that was very cool.”

Besides “The Mask,” New Line’s 1994 lineup includes “Corrina, Corrina,” in which Whoopi Goldberg stars as a housekeeper hired by a recently widowed father (Ray Liotta); “In the Mouth of Madness,” John Carpenter’s psychological horror film about an insurance investigator who must find a missing writer whose latest novel wreaks havoc on the life of anyone who reads it, and “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare,” a return of Freddy Krueger by the creator of “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

New Line’s emergence as a deal maker has not come without controversy. A small film company called Outlaw Productions recently filed suit against the company, claiming that New Line stole “Don Juan De Marco and the Centerfold.”

“For whatever reason, these guys with their new-found muscle, decided to take over the project,” said one Hollywood source. “They wanted to be seen in a high-profile project in which Marlon Brando and Francis Ford Coppola were working together again (since “Apocalypse Now”).” New Line would not comment on the suit.

Despite its longevity, New Line has had to reinvent itself to keep competitive. No longer just a niche marketing and distribution company, the independent movie operation now must earn respect from Hollywood’s more mainstream creative community.

“I think Richard and I are in the ‘We need to prove it to the town’ phase of our existence,” says De Luca, “because whenever you start doing something you haven’t done before, the attitude is ‘Prove it to us.’ ”