Company Town: Ovitz Joins Disney : Ovitz’s Announcement Rates Four Stars From Colleagues in Industry

Surprised friends, business associates, colleagues--and one former foe--gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up Monday to the hiring of Hollywood super-agent Michael Ovitz by Walt Disney Co.

Several prominent producers and studio executives said Ovitz is a brilliant strategist and businessman who will bring top-notch resources and contacts to the already powerful Disney empire.

“It’s the spiritual marriage of the deal maker and the dreamer,” said “Forrest Gump” producer Steve Tisch, in describing the pairing of Ovitz with Disney Chairman Michael Eisner. “It’s very exciting for Disney. With these two working together, there is no limit on what they can do in the next century.”

“In order for Michael to leave Creative Artists Agency, we have to assume that he really does have Eisner’s promise that his level of access and decision making has to be at the highest level,” Tisch said.

Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the current Disney hit, “Dangerous Minds,” and the recent “Crimson Tide” and “Bad Boys,” said: “This is a real coup for Disney. Michael [Ovitz] is an unbelievable executive and a great visionary. He has enormous talent relationships. Both Mikes get the big picture and they will reach out globally. With everyone wanting to get a piece of the entertainment pie, you have here two of the brightest working together.”

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Roger Birnbaum, president of Caravan Pictures, said the two men will make a killer combination: “This is pretty spectacular for Disney and equally as spectacular for Michael Ovitz. Here is a man who is a great manager and leader, and if ever there is a definition of a winner, it’s Michael Eisner and the terrific assets he has put together over the last decade.”

The bravos heard around the industry watering holes during the day at times extended to a bit of gloating.

“I think the other studios might just as well throw in the towel,” said Harvey Weinstein, president of Miramax Films, which is owned by Disney. “At this point, why bother? Stay on vacation. We’ve got the greatest lineup in the history of the entertainment industry. With this kind of brain power, [the other studio heads] should just go look for a government job.”

Even screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (“Basic Instinct,” “Sliver”) was unexpectedly pleased with the news. Eszterhas had a legendary conflict with Ovitz several years ago, when he claimed that Ovitz had threatened him over his decision to leave CAA. He quoted Ovitz as saying, “My foot soldiers, who go up and down Wilshire Boulevard, will blow your brains out.” Ovitz denied making any threats.

Asked for his reaction, Eszterhas said: “I am convinced in retrospect that he lost his temper. In the six years that have gone by, I have seen not one instance where either CAA or Ovitz has in any way damaged or tried to damage my career. As a matter of fact, on my last spec script, ‘Blaze of Glory,’ CAA--though they were not representing me--tried to help me put it together. I genuinely wish him the best.”

Like the announcement of the recent merger of Capital Cities/ABC Inc., the hiring of Ovitz caught many in the industry by surprise.

Said Tisch: “The headline on the paper should read, ‘Disney Reveals They Are Developing Nuclear Arsenal.’ It’s an unbelievable announcement. It means that companies like Disney, MCA, Viacom and Time Warner are all looking into the next century. What you have to ask yourself when thinking about what this means is that you can’t think of the film business in the way we know it. It’s a new frontier. It’s not what this means to movies or television in 1996, it’s what this means on a global scale for worldwide entertainment. They will reinvent the business again.”

Bruckheimer, who along with producing partner Don Simpson has been a client of Ovitz’s, said: “I’m shocked. I knew they were close friends for years. I knew Michael would step out of the agency at some point. If you’re going to run an entertainment company, this is the best one.”

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Others said they thought they might have seen something brewing between the two friends for some time.

Producer-director Barry Levinson, who said Ovitz has been the only agent he has had since entering the entertainment industry in 1969, said: “If I had to speculate, I would have thought something like this would happen, but I didn’t think it would happen now. It just seemed like a likely scenario and one that made sense.”

Prominent filmmaker Ivan Reitman, one of Ovitz’s personal clients, said the super-agent had been gradually easing himself out of the agency for a few years. Reitman said he learned the news when he talked to Ovitz early Monday before the announcement came out.

“The two Michaels and I are very close, we’re all neighbors in Aspen,” Reitman said. “We’ve almost lived together, we’ve been good friends for 20 years. He’s very excited about going. He wanted to get a sense of what his friends felt, but clearly he had made up his mind. It was just his sense of obligation and being proper to some of the people he’s closest to.”

Mark Canton, chairman of Columbia-TriStar Motion Picture Cos., acknowledged that Disney will be a formidable competitor with Ovitz on the team, adding that he was not caught off guard by the move.

“I was not surprised,” Canton said. “Many were, I was not. Ovitz has been very clear and very public about the fact that he wanted to proceed to something else. He was very clear that if the right opportunity could be found, he would go after it.”

Times staff writer Claudia Puig contributed to this report.