Now All We Need Is an Ending

By Gerald Clarke

Here's the story. A famous Hollywood studio--let's call it 20th Century- Fox --is in trouble. The 300-lb., bear-hugging Denver oilman who bought it in 1981--Marvin Davis might be a good name for him--has presided over a festival of flops with titles like Rhinestone, The Buddy System, A Night in Heaven, Blame It on Rio and Turk 182! Last September he brought in the super-star mogul of Paramount Pictures--let's give him the name Barry Diller--to turn things around. But meanwhile the losses keep on mounting: $85 million in the last fiscal year, $12.4 million in the last quarter for which there are figures. So what does this desperate tycoon do? He sells half the shop to an Australian press baron, whose very name, Rupert Murdoch, causes grown men to shiver with fear and occasionally loathing. The studio is saved.

It is not that the true-life scenario, which reached its climax last week, is too corny to make a movie; nothing is too corny to make a movie. It is rather that the good part is yet to come. A 13-part mini-series might be a more appropriate format to exploit what promises to be one of Hollywood's most interesting sagas, the very real corporate marriage of two of the most flamboyant businessmen in the world.

Intrigue is not new to Fox. Indeed, the dramas inside the company have often been more riveting than those that have come out as movies. Darryl F. Zanuck, one of the founders, caused hearts to pound just by walking down the hall. Zanuck left in 1956, but returned in triumph six years later, following a boardroom coup in the wake of the Cleopatra debacle. He made his son Richard president, then kicked him out, only to be forced aside himself a few months later. (Richard had another stint at Fox, and coproduced such films as The Sting and Jaws.) While other studios, like Paramount and Columbia Pictures, were being swallowed by conglomerates, the purchase by Davis and his partner Marc Rich seemed to presage a return to Hollywood's good old bad days of iron rule.

That has not been the case. Davis, who bought out Rich, behaved like a mogul, buying a $20 million house in Beverly Hills and mixing with the stars. But he did not act like one. He showed little knack for movie management and took $538.6 million from Fox, part of which was used to pay back the loans that had enabled him to acquire the company. With the exception of the Star Wars trilogy, most of whose profits went to George Lucas, Fox had precious few hits.

To the rescue comes Murdoch, who will invest $250 million. What he will receive beyond his 50% of the company is hard to say, but he is already the subject of intense speculation, particularly at Fox, where executives who have never met him are already talking about "Rupert." Some industry observers, who have watched him buy newspapers (the New York Post, the Chicago Sun- Times, the Times of London, among others), magazines (New York) and TV outlets in Europe and Australia, say that he relishes a role in running his acquisitions. "Normally, when you have an egomaniac, or, to be polite, a dominant personality, his taste is reflected in choices that are made," says Lee Isgur, an analyst for the brokerage firm of Paine Webber Inc. "Six to twelve months from now, everybody at Fox will be wondering, What will Rupert say about this?"

But his money will at least enable Fox to make movies, and he may in the end not have much influence on what pictures are made. His one previous expedition into moviemaking, with fellow Aussie Robert Stigwood, actually resulted in a good movie, Peter Weir's Gallipoli. "I don't think anyone should be alarmed about Rupert," says Stigwood. "His clear, sharp business head will be good for Fox. He will be a breath of fresh air in Hollywood, and he may remove a bit of the hot air there." Francis O'Brien, Gallipoli's executive producer, says that Murdoch expected him to justify his budget, but otherwise left him alone. "Rupert will take a very keen interest in the business side," says O'Brien, "but he will defer to Diller on the running of the company."

In fact, most people who know all three principals expect Diller, who is accustomed to domineering bosses, to get along as well with Murdoch as with the man who hired him. Compared with the late Charles Bluhdorn, who was the head of Gulf & Western and Diller's former boss, both Murdoch and Davis are Mr. Nice Guys. "You could add Davis and Murdoch together and multiply them by five, and you still wouldn't have half the trouble of Charlie Bluhdorn," says one former Paramount executive. For his part, Murdoch is not likely to oust Diller, who made Paramount into one of the most successful companies in the business.

Whatever drama comes next from Fox headquarters will probably be titled Battle of the Giants. No one expects either Davis or Murdoch to be content with half control. Most predict that the eventual winner will be Murdoch, who has long hankered for a movie company to provide films for his TV holdings outside the U.S. "Now that he has a studio, he isn't going to be satisfied with half of one," says former New York Editor Clay Felker, who once fought with Murdoch for control of the magazine, and lost. "I'd bet that Davis' time as an equal partner is limited. The clock is ticking."

With reporting by Elaine Dutka/ New York and Dan Goodgame/ Los Angeles