TriStar Chief Enjoys Learning the Rules of a New Game

It’s tough enough to be a success in Hollywood, let alone break into a club whose membership is generally rooting for you to fail.

“What has been interesting to me is realizing I’m entering into a different kind of culture with its own rules,” says former HBO Pictures chief Bob Cooper, who has been haunted by rumors of his own demise practically since the day he took over the presidency of Sony’s TriStar Pictures unit last August.

Cooper says he’s shocked by all the negative talk and scrutiny when he’s only been on the job a short while. “Why me?” he asks.

What he doesn’t understand is that the rites of passage are as much a part of Hollywood culture as how the game itself is played.

Taking on his first job at a motion picture studio, the former cable TV executive has entered a world he knows little about and is under pressure to learn at a speed-dial pace.

“I didn’t know what to expect and have learned so much in the seven months I’ve been here,” says Cooper, whose appointment to a top studio post surprised many in the industry because of his lack of experience in Hollywood.

Despite his obvious smarts and intriguing background as an organized crime prosecutor, on-air investigative journalist and independent producer, some of his Sony colleagues wonder whether his intense style--some describe him as an opinionated autocrat--will work for him at TriStar. After he took the job, Sony hired new top management for the entertainment division headed by John Calley, who is known for his collegial, collaborative approach to putting movies together.

Then, there are those (agents in particular) who question whether the unapologetically direct Cooper--who’s unafraid to tell a filmmaker or screenwriter “I don’t get it”--has the finesse it takes to win over talent that needs constant coddling.

Rumors surfaced last week that Cooper was disenchanted with his new job. That it wasn’t what it was cracked up to be and that he was looking to get out.

Nonsense, says the Canadian-born Cooper, 52, whose wire-rimmed glasses, short-cropped beard and understated office give him more the appearance of an English professor or a shrink than a studio executive.

“I’ve never had so much fun in any job that I’ve had,” Cooper said in an interview Friday afternoon. “I’m very excited when I wake up in the morning and spend my day talking to [movie directors] Sydney Pollack and Wolfgang Petersen and David Fincher. I am so engaged in passionate ideas that I love what I’m doing.”

In an interview Monday, Sony Pictures President Calley denied rumors that he was unhappy with Cooper. “I think he will fit in,” said Calley, who’s only been at Sony for 3 1/2 months himself. “He’s getting into the movie business, which is quite a different business than the one he’s been in.”

While Cooper admits being “riled” by the gossip, he says he has no problem being viewed as an outsider. “My whole life I’ve been an outsider,” says Cooper, who was in a similar position when he first became an executive at HBO, having never worked for an entertainment company other than his own production outfit in Canada.

“As an outsider, I felt I brought a fresh perspective to HBO,” says Cooper. “Now I come here and people say, ‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ ”

Though he had a successful run at HBO, where he worked with Michael Fuchs to brand the premium channel with such acclaimed works as “Barbarians at the Gate,” “And The Band Played On” and “The Josephine Baker Story,” Cooper says people forget that his first few movies “were disastrous.”

“I had my learning curve,” he said.

If there’s one thing Cooper doesn’t lack, it’s confidence. When told that many in Hollywood find him to be a tough cookie who is neither warm nor fuzzy, he laughs, “That goes to show you how out of touch I am.”

At the same time, he acknowledges having to make personal and professional adjustments to the movie business. As someone with a reputation as a hands-on executive who now has neither the authority to green-light a movie nor buy a significant script without approval, Cooper says, “I’ve adapted to the fact that I’m no longer in a monopolistic situation like we had at HBO.”

He says he now “has to deal and wants to deal with very talented filmmakers in a way that gets the best out of them.”

Cooper notes it was “a matter of learning a new culture where style is as important as substance and the rules of how you engage are extraordinarily important.”

His style has earned him the respect of some top Hollywood filmmakers, including Jim Brooks, who produced TriStar’s current hit “Jerry Maguire” and whose other credits include “Broadcast News” and “Terms of Endearment.”

“He is very straightforward and I love that he’s totally involved with his work,” says Brooks, impressed when Cooper told him he was recently awake at 3 a.m. trying to come up with a new title for the director’s latest movie, “Old Friends.” Brooks credits Cooper with coming up with “key points” in a new marketing campaign for “Maguire” two weeks before it opened.

“He’s someone who really works on solving problems,” Brooks said.

But Cooper is not always sensitive to Hollywood protocol where talent is concerned. A few months ago, he inadvertently offended a major screenwriter-director when he neglected to make a congratulatory call immediately after the premiere of that filmmaker’s movie.

A prominent agent says of Cooper, “Being smart and having the personality and charm you need to woo talent in this town is another thing.”

When Cooper first came aboard, a number of things struck him, not the least of which was how much it cost to make theatrical movies relative to HBO movies. One studio executive recalls how the new boss pitched a fit when he found out how much a top movie composer was going to be paid to score a project.

Cooper claims it wasn’t so much the $1 million or so it cost--but that “no one could lock in the budget.” He remembers saying to his staff, “What’s with us? Lock in the amount and force everybody to do it.”

At HBO, Cooper was used to making films for a price. He never made a cable movie for more than $10 million, and mostly they were in the $3 million-$6 million range. He’s now overseeing the completion of such mega-budgeted movies as “Starship Troopers,” at $100 million, “Godzilla” at around $85 million and “Zorro” at $65 million.

Cooper’s first slate of movies, most of which originated under the former TriStar regime, are more modestly budgeted, though the executive says that’s “a matter of what is really ready to go.” The projects Cooper is readying for production include “Stepmom,” a drama starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon to be produced by Wendy Finerman and directed by Chris Columbus; “Jakob the Liar,” a low-budget World War II drama to star Robin Williams as a potato pancake vendor who unwittingly becomes a hero of the underground resistance; and “The Big Hit,” a $10-million comedy to be produced by John Woo about a hapless hit man who has an intense desire to be loved.

Cooper also has some more expensive projects in development, among them a special-effects comedy about giant bugs called “Exterminators” and an effects-laden, sci-fi action adventure titled “After the Visitation.”

Cooper says he wants to find stories with accessible themes and ideas “big enough to carry the movie and get out of the clutter.”

To stand out of the crowd as a movie executive, Cooper knows he has a lot to prove.

“I have always believed my biggest strategy in life, personally and professionally, is make your liability your asset and when I die, that I hope is on my gravestone,” says Cooper. “Instead of hiding the fact that I’m new, I’m using the fact that I’m new as a way to attract exciting business.”

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Profile: Robert Cooper

* Title: President, TriStar Pictures

* Age: 52

* Born: Montreal

* Early career: Performed magic at age 12 under the name “the Great Roberto.”

* Education: Bachelor’s, master’s and law degrees from McGill University in Montreal.

* Professional: Counsel to the Quebec commission on inquiry into organized crime. Was the “Mike Wallace of Canada,” hosting the weekly TV show “Ombudsman” for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Independent producer of TV and movie projects. Hired in 1988 to head HBO Pictures, which during his tenure won best-picture Emmys five years in a row for such acclaimed works as “Barbarians at the Gate,” “Indictment: The McMartin Trial” and “And the Band Played On.”