Company Town : With ‘Scavengers,’ Fox TV Hunts in New Territory : Broadcasting: The sci-fi game show is a truly international effort.

Although Britain’s Pinewood Studios is enjoying a small renaissance this spring, with two Hollywood movies being produced there, the most significant action at the famous facility is not “Mary Reilly” with Julia Roberts and John Malkovich or “First Knight” with Sean Connery and Richard Gere. It’s a 20th Century Fox International TV show called “Scavengers.”

The first U.S. game show based on a fantasy science-fiction competition may point the way to future American TV productions in Europe under the recently approved General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade: It represents a true international effort.

“The European television market is a mature business,” said Doug Schwalbe, vice president of marketing and co-production of 20th Century Fox International Television. “There is no more growth in selling U.S. shows to Europe. With the quotas now in effect, we have to find a way to expand. Making European productions is the best way to grow.”

American companies have made many programs in partnership with European broadcasters. What makes “Scavengers” different is that it has been funded by European broadcasters and does not rely on the deep pockets of U.S. production companies.

“Scavengers” also represents a case of Fox looking outside Hollywood for original ideas to redo. Normally, if Hollywood likes a European idea, it buys it and rebuilds it. “All in the Family” was based on the British TV series “Till Death Us Do Part,” and “Three’s Company” was based on Britain’s “Man About the House.” “Scavengers” was conceived as an international production from the start.

The show is not targeted to any particular national audience. Fox and producers Julian Grant and Jean Paul Chapple are bringing in contestants from Britain, Spain, Germany and Denmark to shoot their own-language versions of the show.

With its $275,000-an-hour budget, “Scavengers” is considerably cheaper than most American game shows, not to mention the $1.4-million-per-episode “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” to which “Scavengers” immodestly likes to compare itself.

“The idea of ‘Scavengers’ is that you can be in an action movie. People want to play at being Schwarzenegger--that really appeals,” Chapple says.

One look at the $2.3-million third-millenium set and it is easy to see what he means. It’s dark and smoky, with flashing lights and various alien forms--rather like “ ‘Alien’ Meets ‘American Gladiators.’ ” It represents the inside of the Cyclops, an abandoned spaceship whose dangerous interior contestants must negotiate to retrieve deadly debris in order to win.

Each culture has a different approach to the game, though. “The Spanish are far less concerned with the fairness of the game, which is very important to the British,” Chapple says. They are concerned, however, with the amount of flesh visible on female contestants. Whereas the British women cover their midriffs and sport rubber bra cups on their torso armor to match their knee and elbow pads, the Spanish female contestants bare their midriffs and wear breast-enhancing foundations.

Action-adventure game shows have had some success in Europe, with “The Crystal Maze” in Britain and “Le Fort Boyard” in France, but neither show has made it across the Atlantic. Though Fox is not counting on American television picking up the show right away, it is hoping to sell a version to the syndication market at a later date.

When the idea for “Scavengers” first came to Fox, Fox Broadcasting Co. Chairwoman Lucie Salhany put up $80,000 for its development. Half the $3-million production cost for the show is covered by the license fees from international partners. Fox’s $1.5-million deficit on “Scavengers” is typical for a write-off on a U.S. pilot.

Should Fox’s current partners order another season, it will cover its costs. However, with sales to other world markets such as Japan and Australia, both under discussion, and licensing by a U.S. broadcaster, the show is likely to be a hit.

If “Scavengers” works and a market for related products develops, the rewards for Fox will be big. There is a video game in development by Fox and Probe, the European company that produced the “Aliens” game, which will go ahead regardless of whether the show succeeds.

There are also plans for the set to be transported to an airline hangar and transformed into a tourist attraction.