Company Town : Kangaroos and Costner at Cannes

Nothing seems out of place or weird at the Cannes Film Festival. Not even sitting with Dennis K. Law, a Chinese American surgeon who along with his three doctor brothers sold Hollywood an action-adventure movie idea based on kung fu kangaroos just before coming here this week to attract foreign buyers.

No doubt their new domestic distribution deal with a major American studio, MGM, will help international sales veteran Kathy Morgan pre-sell the foreign rights to overseas distributors in the market portion of the festival.

The family entertainment movie, titled “Warriors of Virtue,” which Law said will cost “certainly north of $30 million,” will begin production in mid-September in Vancouver, Canada, and Los Angeles, and will be financed entirely by the Laws, whose many family businesses include one of the largest toy-manufacturing companies (Smile Industries) in China and Hong Kong.

An extensive marketing campaign is planned, including merchandising, interactive games, a soundtrack album and a digitally animated TV series for kids.

But all of these related markets “need to be launched” by “making a great film first,” Law stressed, “. . . and everything else is subsequent.” He insisted that the potential movie franchise will not be driven by a toy line, but vice versa.

MGM President Mike Marcus, who stays in frequent contact with the Laws on the creative front, said last week in Hollywood that the studio is passionate about the project and hopes to release the movie in the summer of 1996.

Law acknowledged that he and his brothers--Christopher, Jeremy and Ronald, all of whom live and practice medicine in Denver--have already spent “in the multiples of seven figures” on pre-production costs, including the design and construction of models.

Based on the brothers’ original idea and collaborative script by a team of writers that includes Michael Vickerman and Anna Waterhouse, “Warriors” is a metaphorical tale about a troubled, rebellious 15-year-old boy from Los Angeles who is transported to a parallel universe where he helps five kangaroo-like super heroes defeat the evil force Komodo.

The Rooz, as the creatures are called, embody the five classic virtues--benevolence, righteousness, order, wisdom and loyalty--and the five forces of nature, and only together do they represent goodness.

Law believes the movie will transcend the traditional action-adventure “kick-boxer-versus-machine-gun” genre, which “over the last 10 to 15 years has reached diminishing returns,” he says.

He views “Warriors” as “an action property that goes beyond the classic story of good and evil.”

“We will combine Chinese-style action,” Law says, which he describes as more “dance-like and artful” and less violent than most martial arts action movies, with “a story with a lot more depth and characters who generate some sort of values.”

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While Law seems perfectly comfortable discussing creative matters, he doesn’t exactly see himself as Hollywood’s latest movie mogul. However, he says his medical practice has slowed down progressively “because of my interest in my family business,” which for years has been involved in movies by manufacturing toy lines for companies involved with such films as “Star Wars.”

To help bring their vision to the big screen, the Law brothers (who are the film’s executive producers) have assembled what Law calls the “Asian Dream Team” with some of Hollywood’s top behind-the-camera talent, including production designer Bruno Rubeo (“Sommersby,” “Driving Miss Daisy”), costume designer Bob Ringwood (all three “Batman” movies) and special effects artist Tony Gardner and his Alterian Studios (“Addams Family Values”). Don Davis (“Star Trek: Generations”) will compose the score.

Prominent entertainment attorney Peter Dekom is representing the Laws and helped set up the MGM deal, and former Paramount executive Patty Ruben will produce.

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One of Hong Kong’s hottest action directors, Ronny Yu (“The Bride With White Hair”), will make his American debut with “Warriors,” with another famed Hong Kong director, Tony Ching (“Chinese Ghost Story”), choreographing the action sequences. Yu’s longtime cinematographer, Peter Pau, will serve as director of photography.

The genesis of the project and its unconventional trek to Hollywood began about 2 1/2 years ago when the Laws placed an ad in the Hollywood Reporter seeking screenwriters.

One of the first people to answer the ad, Michael Vickerman, a former runner and assistant to Sylvester Stallone who has since become a screenwriter, is still with the project and will probably get final credit with Waterhouse. Vickerman was one of many writers asked to write a short story based on (the original) concept of kung fu kangaroos.

If Vickerman and the Laws are betting right, they might have a new movie franchise in the making. And stranger things have happened in Hollywood--and at the Cannes Film Festival.

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News From La Croisette: Miramax is reportedly planning to announce a major first-look deal with international box office star Sharon Stone, who will be just about the biggest celeb to come to this paparazzi-infested beach resort when she arrives to promote “The Quick and the Dead” (which closes the Cannes festival) and a benefit for the American Foundation for AIDS Research. The festival, which historically attracts such heavyweights as Madonna, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Clint Eastwood, is short on that kind of star power this year.

While Kevin Costner won’t be here, his controversial upcoming “Waterworld” is very present. Over the famous terrace of the historic Carlton Hotel looms a giant billboard of the $175-million movie, erected by United International Pictures, Universal Pictures’ overseas arm. An ominous-looking Costner is pictured in one corner, staring out at the crowds as if to say, “You’d better come see this movie, or else!”