Company Town : Sony Awaits Canton and Bernstein Era

It may not have the same ring as Woodward and Bernstein, but Sony Pictures is said to be razor-close to ushering in the era of Canton and Bernstein. The Culver City-based studio expects to announce the long-anticipated hiring of MCA Executive Vice President Fred Bernstein within a matter of days.

Bernstein will join Mark Canton in running Sony’s Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures divisions. Sources say he will report to Canton but will primarily focus on the management side of the studio operations, while Canton continues to concern himself with the creative end.

Sony’s negotiations with Bernstein have been an open secret in Hollywood for weeks and were recently detailed by the Hollywood Reporter. Sources say the talks were nearly derailed several times by MCA’s hardball tactics over releasing the executive, who has a year to go on his contract. At one stage, MCA even suggested trading Bernstein for the TriStar marketing team of Buffy Shutt and Kathy Jones, according to several sources.

Shutt and Jones are staying at TriStar under a new deal. The executives, who operate as a team and who received much of the credit for the surprise success of “Sleepless in Seattle” and the strong box office opening of “Guarding Tess,” also had overtures from MGM last year.

Sony and MCA declined to comment on Bernstein, who was also unavailable. Sources say his title will probably be Motion Picture Group president. He is expected to assume the post by early next month. One source described Bernstein’s expected role as heavily business-oriented. Besides the two studios, he will oversee Sony Classics, Triumph Releasing and Columbia/TriStar International.

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Sony has been on the lookout for a top management executive to fill the motion picture job since spring, when Jonathan Dolgen left to become chairman of the new Viacom Entertainment Group, which includes Paramount Pictures. People close to the discussions say MCA did not want to release Bernstein until it concluded contract discussions with Casey Silver, who was elevated from Universal Pictures production president to president of the studio last week. The reason, sources explained, is that Uniervsal did not want to risk losing two top executives at once.

Bernstein was largely known as a deal negotiator during his six years at MCA, and was said to be instrumental in setting up the Gramercy Pictures joint venture between MCA and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. A former entertainment lawyer, Bernstein joined the movie business as vice president of business affairs at PolyGram Pictures. He went on to work as president of worldwide production at Columbia Pictures in 1983 before moving to MCA.

While Bernstein will not be on an equal footing with Canton, as Dolgen was, sources say Canton is clearly anxious to re-create the kind of working relationship he had with Dolgen as Sony Pictures tries to rebound from an off year. Sony Corp. recently reported that its movie-TV division revenue sank by 7%, to $3.2 billion, for the fiscal year ended March 31.

Columbia Pictures, in particular, has come under criticism for releasing only two movies during the first five months of this year, compared to seven a year ago. Some insiders have blamed the paltry output on executives being overly absorbed last year with “Last Action Hero,” the big-budget bomb. But studio sources insist that Columbia will soon be back on course.

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The studio has much of its comeback riding on “Wolf,” a romantic horror movie starring Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer. People close to Columbia maintain that “Wolf” is playing extremely well with test audiences. The film opens nationally on June 17. In an unusual move for a star of his stature, Nicholson will put in an appearance at the “Fangoria Weekend of Horrors Convention” at the LAX Hilton on Saturday to promote the movie.

Columbia also hopes to do big business with “City Slickers II,” opening today. The sequel was produced by Castle Rock Entertainment, Columbia’s biggest outside supplier.

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On the development side, sources say Columbia is making a strong push to acquire the rights to Barbie, the perennially popular doll. Canton is a longtime friend of Jill E. Barad, president and chief executive of Barbie manufacturer Mattel Inc. Studio executives are said to see franchise potential in the doll. “She’s hotter than a day at the beach,” said one.

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Stock riddle: Wall Street and Hollywood insiders were at a loss to explain the surge in Viacom’s stock price Thursday. Viacom Class A shares gained $2.75, closing at $33.75 on the Amex in light trading.

Some speculated that a deal could be at hand for Madison Square Garden and the two professional sports teams Viacom acquired in its $10-billion acquisition of Paramount Communications. Viacom is also said to be in discussions over the sale of Paramount’s Famous Music Publishing.

One other theory was that traders were responding to Viacom’s recent progress in settling its differences with cable giant Tele-Communications Inc.