Wasserman, Sheinberg Vacate Posts at MCA : Hollywood: The long-expected moves mark the end of an era. Sheinberg announces plans for a production company.

Marking the end of an era and the demise of Hollywood’s longest reigning partnership, MCA Inc.’s two top executives officially vacated their posts Tuesday, with Sidney Jay Sheinberg disclosing plans for a production firm with his two sons and Lew Wasserman moving into an honorary chairman emeritus role.

Both moves had been expected for several months. Wasserman, MCA’s 82-year-old chairman and chief executive, will also join the board of directors of new MCA majority owner Seagram Co., will remain on MCA’s board and will retain his office in the company’s Universal City headquarters. Wasserman, widely considered the patriarch of Hollywood and confidant of Presidents and other powerful dignitaries, first joined MCA in 1936 when he was hired by founder Jules Stein.

Sheinberg, 60--who had worked at MCA for 35 years, the past 22 as president and CEO--will also continue to serve as a consultant on corporate strategic issues to Seagram and its chief executive, Edgar Bronfman Jr. Sheinberg’s new production company will occupy temporary office space in the Alfred Hitchcock bungalows on the Universal lot until permanent quarters can be found off-site.

The official resignations come as Bronfman is putting his handprint on the company with Monday’s appointment of super-agent Ron Meyer as president and chief operating officer. Meyer, who succeeds Sheinberg, assumes his post Aug. 1.

Sheinberg--flanked by his sons Jon, 37, and Bill, 35, in a Tuesday morning interview at the elder Sheinberg’s Beverly Hills mansion--said he is ready to close the door on the past and looks forward to embarking on a new adventure.

“That bubble has burst,” said Sheinberg, referring both to his long tenure at MCA and the moniker of his new company, Bubble Factory, which he and his sons hope to build into a full-spectrum entertainment concern.

The new company’s first piece of business was signing a multiyear deal with MCA for the financing and distribution of features in all media. The parties expect shortly to enter into discussions about other areas of the entertainment business, including music and TV ventures.

The deal anticipates three to four studio-sized budgeted movies a year over five years that Universal will finance, market and distribute, and also selected low-budget films that the studio has first crack at handling but has no contractual obligation to do so. Should Universal pass on the smaller projects, the Sheinbergs would be free to set them up elsewhere.

Sid Sheinberg said that although Universal is underwriting all costs of the company’s overhead and development and production, Bubble Factory will operate with autonomy.

In what he described as a “very complicated” deal that took 10 drafts and “an interminable amount of time” to complete, Sheinberg said he and his sons can green-light their own movies up to $35 million. Higher budgets must get MCA management approval.

“Could we make ‘Waterworld?’ ” quipped Sid Sheinberg, referring to Universal’s coming $175-million summer release, “No.” When asked if he would want to, he did not blink: “No.”

Sheinberg explained that although Universal has the distribution rights to its films, “we are joint owners of the copyrights . . . we share in the revenues.”

The Sheinbergs have already embarked on their first movie venture, the pre-existing, currently shooting Universal project “Flipper,” being produced by Perry Katz and will be a Bubble Factory presentation.

Although it seems the emphasis of the company is on family entertainment, the three insist they will in no way limit themselves to films in that genre. They stressed that the company’s first priority is to produce theatrical features, though they expect to expand into several different arenas, including television, publishing, merchandising, interactive and soundtracks.

In addition to specific media-based businesses, Sheinberg said they plan to create a fund for strategic investments in areas that are “in a broader sense of the word related,” which might involve anything from restaurants to specialty retail.

But, for the time being, TV tops their list as the next likely area of expansion because the senior Sheinberg started in that medium and son Bill has spent his entire career developing programming for the small screen. Bill most recently served as senior vice president of Spelling TV, where he developed the NBC sitcom “Madman of the People” as well as all Spelling series for the coming 1995-96 season. He previously worked at MTM TV since 1986.

The elder Sheinberg brother, Jon, has some TV experience, having been director of TV movies and miniseries for Lorimar, but he

largely comes from a feature film background. He served as head of production for Orion Pictures, where he was involved in such movies as “RoboCop,” and production president at the Lee Rich Co. Most recently, he was a vice president of the motion picture literary department at William Morris Agency.

In Tuesday’s interview, Sid Sheinberg quickly corrected Jon when he described the company as “a family business.”

Said Sid Sheinberg: “I do not want to refer to it as a family business.” Although all three are assuming titles as partners, he said it is conceivable that other creative partners could join them.

Frequently confusing his own company’s name with rival DreamWorks (several times calling it Bubble Works by mistake), Sid Sheinberg said the name Bubble Factory represents fantasies the three share about where their company is headed.

“I’ve always had a fantasy of doing something like this, and I was hoping fate would not keep me at MCA,” Sheinberg said.