Big Film Producers Make the Small Scene

If television is seen by many as the less-glamorous kid sister of the feature-film business, it hasn’t stopped those associated with the latter from trying to crash little sister’s party.

Several new programs this season feature big-name feature film pedigrees, among them Fox’s “Dark Angel,” whose production team includes James Cameron, the writer-director responsible for such movies as “The Terminator” and all-time box-office champ “Titanic.”

Other programs coming from producers associated with big-screen blockbusters include CBS’ “The Fugitive,” from Arnold Kopelson, who produced the 1993 movie starring Harrison Ford and its sequel; “C.S.I.,” a CBS show about crime-scene investigators from “Armageddon” and “Top Gun” producer Jerry Bruckheimer; and “Freedom,” a futuristic UPN show in which a group skilled in the martial arts rebels against a military force that has taken over America, hoping to recall the action producer Joel Silver served up in the theatrical smash “The Matrix.”

Fox is also promoting a new macabre drama, “FreakyLinks,” as being from the producers of “The Blair Witch Project,” who actually will have little to do with the show itself but were involved with the concept and a related Web site. The low-budget “Blair Witch,” of course, parlayed a savvy Internet marketing campaign into a whopping $250 million in worldwide box office.

While feature film names have been associated with their share of failures on television--including two canceled series from Silver last year, Fox’s “Action” and UPN’s “The Strip,” as well as Bruckheimer’s earlier adaptation of the movie “Dangerous Minds” into an ABC drama--there are success stories as well.

Popular franchises “The West Wing” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” come from feature writers Aaron Sorkin and Joss Whedon, respectively, while “ER’s” producers include director Steven Spielberg and series creator Michael Crichton.

Of course, there are frequent charges these feature film names are just that--producers in name only. When Spielberg’s big sci-fi concept “seaQuest DSV” premiered in 1993, one executive behind ABC’s competing “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” suggested wryly that the acclaimed director--who was occupied that year directing eventual Oscar winner “Schindler’s List”--had yet to see the show himself.

It is sometimes difficult to get such talent to focus on television, as demonstrated by Crichton’s proposed series for Fox, which was scheduled to make its debut in January and has been delayed while the network waits for the prolific novelist to deliver a script.

So what keeps attracting networks and studios to such projects?

“There’s clearly a benefit on the promotional front,” says Dana Walden, president of 20th Century Fox Television, which is responsible for “Dark Angel” and “FreakyLinks” as well as such shows as “Buffy” and its spinoff “Angel.” “Someone like James Cameron has an incredible marquee name. ... [With] all the shows premiering in October and November, how do you stand out? Being in business with someone like Jim Cameron is clearly one of the ways you do that.”

Indeed, most of the series mentioned lack well-known stars (“The Fugitive’s” Tim Daly, a veteran of “Wings,” would be one exception), relying mostly on youthful casts they hope will blossom into household names, a la “ER” or “Friends.” In a sense, then, the producer becomes the star, at least from a promotional standpoint in the initial stages.

Although networks and studios clearly relish promoting the connection to a Silver or Crichton--allowing them to bill a project as being “from the producer of ‘The Matrix’ ” or “the

creator of ‘Jurassic Park’ “--they say that’s not the only reason for ordering such projects. The other is the creative input someone like Cameron or Bruckheimer brings to the table.

“The networks are very savvy about filmmakers’ commitment [to a project], or lack thereof,” Walden says. “The promotional side of this is only one reason why you make a deal with someone like Jim.”

Yet movie producers and directors of that magnitude are seldom on the front lines in producing TV series on a daily basis. In the case of “The Fugitive,” for example, John McNamara (most recently on ABC’s “Vengeance Unlimited”) is overseeing production of the show, while Cameron has teamed on “Dark Angel” with Charles Eglee, whose credits include such Steven Bochco productions as “Murder One” and “The Byrds of Paradise.”

For his part, Eglee says he has no problem with seeing Cameron’s name in lights. “In a universe of branding, he’s a big brand name,” the producer says. “This represents a real amalgamation of our sensibilities.”

Understanding why film producers want to dabble in television isn’t hard to fathom. The distinction between the two media has blurred as people increasingly view entertainment as “content,” to be delivered through all kinds of distribution apparatus.

Dick Wolf, who presides over NBC’s “Law & Order” empire, demonstrated as much by lining up director Arthur Penn (“Bonnie and Clyde,” “The Miracle Worker”) to oversee the series’ New York production in its 11th season and director Michael Ritchie (“Downhill Racer,” “The Candidate”) to occupy a similar position on the new NBC drama “Deadline,” which stars Oliver Platt as an investigative reporter.

Television also moves at a faster clip than the world of films, where the process of getting all the stars to align--from having a script approved to securing a cast--can drag on for years. In addition, episodic series provide the freedom to flesh out a concept gradually over time, as opposed to the diminished emphasis on storytelling in blockbuster movies.

“TV affords you the opportunity to develop characters [in a way] that you can’t do in features, and it’s so fast, I love it,” says Bruckheimer, who recently signed to produce a new reality show for CBS in addition to “C.S.I.” Once the running time passes two hours in movies, he notes, in order to tighten the action, “The character usually gets thrown on the floor.”

Bruckheimer adds that directors such as Cameron and Spielberg generally possess more cache in the public’s mind than film producers, one reason his credits haven’t been splashed around much in promoting “C.S.I.” Set in Las Vegas, the show stars William Petersen and “China Beach” alumna Marg Helgenberger leading a team of forensic investigators.

Currently overseeing “Pearl Harbor,” a feature budgeted at well in excess of $100 million, Bruckheimer concedes it’s necessary to trust those working with and for him on his TV commitments.

Getting producers juggling film and TV projects to focus on the latter can be challenging. Silver didn’t return phone calls in time to be interviewed for this article, which may shed some light on relative priorities.

Still, Silver did offer one explanation for his interest in TV a decade ago, when he produced an NBC pilot titled “Parker Kane.” Addressing a group of advertisers, the producer told them he decided to get into television after visiting TV producer Aaron Spelling’s palatial home.

“Some people get into television to make art,” Silver quipped. “I got into television to buy art.”

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“The Fugitive” premieres Friday at 8 p.m. on CBS; “C.S.I.” premieres Friday at 9 p.m. on CBS; “Dark Angel” premieres Tuesday at 9 p.m. on Fox; “Freedom” premieres Oct. 27 on UPN.