Cooling Off on a Hot Property

By Sidney Urquhart

With hard-core rappers Ice-T and Ice Cube as stars and plenty of shoot-'em-up, burn-'em-up action, Universal Pictures' The Looters seemed certain to be one of this summer's box-office winners. But that was before the Rodney King verdict brought real flames and gunshots onto the nation's TV screens. The project, officially described as an "urban suspense adventure," will eventually be renamed and postponed, a decision that "didn't take any grand marketing meeting," said one Universal executive last week. "It was already decided by Monday morning when we all came back to work. It was also clear that the name and the stars might make some people misconstrue the message."