Company Town : Simpson-Bruckheimer: ‘Top Guns II’? : Once-Red-Hot Producing Duo Back in Limelight

Comebacks aren’t all that uncommon in Hollywood.

Take John Travolta--a down-on-his-luck, one-time star who miraculously rose from the career ashes to again become one the town’s hottest talents after his unforgettable performance in “Pulp Fiction.”

Prizefighter Mike Tyson may not have won a fight in a while. “But, don’t get in the ring with him,” says movie producer Don Simpson, speaking metaphorically to industry naysayers who counted him and his longtime partner, Jerry Bruckheimer, out after what seemed like an interminable dry spell for the last decade’s most successful filmmaking duo.

And guess what? With last weekend’s strong $15.6-million opening of their action comedy “Bad Boys” and the tremendous heat on Tony Scott’s upcoming submarine thriller “Crimson Tide,” all of Hollywood is now abuzz with word that . . . “they’re baaaack! “

After a phenomenally successful run at Paramount in the ‘80s with such hits as “Flashdance,” “Beverly Hills Cop” (I and II) and “Top Gun”--which collectively grossed $1.5 billion worldwide--the high-octane producing pair fell from grace. They admittedly over-courted the media and over-bragged about their windfall and unique “visionary alliance” with Paramount when it served up an unprecedented deal in 1988 that gave them mega-fees and mega-autonomy to make five movies of their choice.

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The hyperbole backfired when controversy erupted over their first movie under the deal, “Days of Thunder,” which cost more than $50 million and under-performed domestically. An ugly public feud and acrimonious split with Paramount ensued. The media had a field day, branding the producers egomaniacal overspenders who personified the excesses of the ‘80s--a label they still flatly reject and resent to this day.

It’s no wonder the now-humbled duo are uneasy about being back in the spotlight, which they have virtually ducked since moving their filmmaking outfit to Disney in 1991 under a five-year deal that reportedly pays them a shared $3-million producing fee per movie and a nice share of the profits after the studio recoups its investment.

At a recent dinner at Santa Monica’s ultra-exclusive Buffalo Club, a private establishment founded by “Miami Vice” creator Tony Yerkovich, the producers get cranky when a Times reporter broaches (or in their words, “rehashes”) certain touchy subjects, and agitated when a photographer suggests a certain angle they deem unflattering.

“It’s one thing to be fair game and have the truth printed, be it warts and all, but when they (the media) can full-out lie about you and you have no recourse, then it’s time to stay home,” says Simpson, who still bristles at what he claims were “defamatory, libelous and declaratively false rumors and innuendo” printed about his personal “bad boy” habits.

Simpson, an investor in the chic private nightclub along with International Creative Management President Jim Wiatt, actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith and supermodel Christy Turlington, says it was “scary and painful” to think “we were like movie stars being written about in the tabloids.”

He doesn’t disagree with a suggestion that in their heyday, he and Bruckheimer were just as much celebrity figures as the Tom Cruises and Eddie Murphys who starred in their movies.

Bruckheimer, the quieter, softer-spoken partner, makes no apologies even today for doing what’s needed to get audiences to see their pictures. “Our job is to promote our movies, and if we can promote them by using Don and Jerry, we’re going to do it.”

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However, in a follow-up interview, Bruckheimer was quick to clarify: “We’re not the guys who are beating on our chests anymore and taking all the credit. . . . We stepped over the line, but we’ve learned from our mistakes. Everything has been toned down. The concentration, at least for me, is on the work.”

Disney Motion Picture Group Chairman Joe Roth vouched that the producers actually turned down the studio’s offer to throw a glitzy premiere for “Crimson Tide,” which premieres May 12, in favor of that money being used to fatten the film’s TV campaign.

“That’s great for us because we’d rather have a direct TV buy to get people out of their houses than have a premiere,” Roth says. Adds a Disney source: “It’s the sign of good producers--knowing where the value is. They’re older and definitely wiser and more humble than they used to be.”

Roth, who joined Disney when the movie was already in production but is responsible for helping create the marketing-distribution plan along with Dick Cook and Terry Press, also vouched for the producers bringing “Crimson” in “within 3% of the budget,” which was reportedly just under $55 million. “This is the least expensive of the major action pictures of the summer, and they did a terrific job,” Roth says.

After a three-year slump, during which they struggled to bring projects to fruition (they executive-produced the Disney-assigned movie “The Ref”), Simpson and Bruckheimer finally broke the lull with a trio of back-to-back productions: the current Columbia Pictures release “Bad Boys,” starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith; the tentatively titled “Dangerous Minds” with Michelle Pfeiffer (due July 28), and “Crimson Tide,” teaming Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman.

“Dangerous Minds,” based on the book “My Posse Don’t Do Homework” about a real-life ex-marine (Pfeiffer) who becomes an inspirational teacher in Northern California, is a vast departure from the producers’ signature action-packed “boy” movies.

While “Bad Boys” is yet another macho action movie, those associated with “Crimson” say that upcoming film transcends the standard genre.

“It’s not just a boys-with-toys action movie, it’s a very intellectual political thriller with real human drama and great performances,” says Mike Stenson, a production vice president at Disney’s Hollywood Pictures. He conceived the movie’s idea and helped develop it along with former Simpson-Bruckheimer Productions head Lucas Foster, the two producers, technical consultant and submarine novelist Richard Henrick, and screenwriter Michael Schiffer.

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Simpson says “Bad Boys” is “representative of why we go to the movies--it’s pure entertainment”--and “Crimson” is “representative of why we make movies--it’s extremely smart and works on all levels.”

The political thriller set on a naval submarine involves two well-minded men at odds over whether to launch nuclear weapons. While this time the producers are careful not to grab all the credit, many involved in the film say they clearly helped make “Crimson” the potential hit it is.

After hiring their three-time collaborator Tony Scott (“Beverly Hills Cop II,”

“Top Gun,” “Days of Thunder”) to direct, and his manager Bill Unger to executive-produce, the producers agreed that Bruckheimer would oversee the actual shoot because Simpson had “spent day and night” getting the right rewrite on the script-troubled “Bad Boys.”

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“When it came time to actually shoot (‘Crimson’), that was my time to go to (Arizona’s Canyon) Ranch and go to Hawaii,” says Simpson, who spends so much time hiding out at the industry-popular Arizona health retreat fighting off weight and the spotlight that he’s earned a reputation for being somewhat of an eccentric recluse.

Simpson, who is single and very self-conscious about the recent 36 pounds he’s gained, makes no excuses for his lifestyle and says unabashedly, “I still appreciate sex and rock and roll enormously.” He credits the longevity of his 12 1/2-year partnership with Bruckheimer to their being “relatively interchangeable” in their movie roles and to their disparate styles and approaches to problems.

“There is no more dogged, shrewd, intrepid pursuer of a line to follow that you ever met,” Simpson said of his best friend of 20 years. “Jerry will never give up. He is a warrior of the spirit in a way nobody can imagine.”

And just how does the admittedly introverted, more conservative Bruckheimer size up his polar opposite?

“Extremely intelligent. A veracious appetite for knowledge. He’s a very complex, complicated individual. Neither one of us are easy.”

Amen.

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Busted! Despite vowing to have “no personal interest in being a movie mogul,” some unconfirmed reports circulating Thursday said MCA’s new owner-to-be, Edgar Bronfman Jr., had a power meal at Morton’s on Wednesday with Lew Wasserman and Sid Sheinberg. Meanwhile, rumors were still flying by the week’s end that Sheinberg may be inching closer to the possibility of setting up his own production company at MCA’s Universal Pictures and leaving the executive ranks behind and that Wasserman would be offered a seat on Seagram’s board and a chairman emeritus status.