For Arsenio Hall, His Sony TV-Film Deal Is Paramount

So, whatever happened to Arsenio Hall’s much-anticipated Hollywood career?

He was last seen guest-starring on “Living Single” last season, while his late-night talk show was still on the air. But otherwise he’s been keeping an uncharacteristically low profile.

That may be about to change. Recently he quietly severed his longtime ties with Paramount Pictures. According to a studio spokesman, Hall’s television deal with the studio expired Oct. 15; his movie agreement with Paramount runs out in April.

Like several other ex-Paramount nabobs such as former studio chairman Stanley Jaffe and studio president Ned Tanen, Hall’s company Arsenio Hall Communications has resurfaced at Sony Pictures Entertainment, and last month he signed a first-look deal with Sony for television and film, says his attorney, Larry Rose.

Kim Swann, Hall’s senior vice president and producing partner, says that Arsenio fielded other offers but had been predisposed to Sony from the casual relationship he’d developed with Sony Pictures Chairman Mark Canton whom he saw frequently at L.A. Laker games. “Arsenio had never had an agent,” says Swann. “And when he signed with Richard Lovett and Mike Ovitz at CAA six months ago, he told them Sony was where he wanted to go.”

Before he hunkers down on his new deal, Hall’s parting shot for Paramount is as executive producer on an exercise video, “The Flo-Jo Workout: Mind, Body and Spirit,” starring Olympian Florence Griffith Joyner. Swann says she’s hoping for the same success that Hall had on the last Paramount video, the NAACP Image Award-winning “Time Out,” a 1992 AIDS education title featuring Magic Johnson.

“Black women don’t have a role model (for exercise),” says Swann of the Joyner video. “Flo’s Olympic status could inspire a whole new generation of women who don’t currently take care of themselves.” The video is due in the spring.

The Sony deal calls for Hall to star in and serve as producer on upcoming projects. The top priority at the moment is feature films, in particular a comedy tentatively titled “Senior Year” which will be produced by Tanen. Sony is currently searching for a writer for the project, about which Swann will only say, “It’s not a teen comedy.”

Hall, 37, made his film debut in John Landis’ “Coming to America” (1988) and was also in 1989’s “Harlem Nights.” His syndicated talk show ran from 1989 to early this year.

For television, Hall plans to develop sitcom material for some of the young comics who appeared on his show, including Darrell Heath and Alex Thomas.

Though they’ve only been in their new home at Sony for a few weeks after such a long stretch at Paramount, Swann says that she and Hall have acclimated very quickly. “We’re feeling very safe now.”*