The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 339

CALENDAR MOVIES HOLLYWOOD'S HIT MEN 8pP: lllflll Eddie Murphy and Lisa Eilbacher are best friends, trying to solve the murder of another friend in "Beverly Hills Cop," a film theater owners expect to be a hit. By DALE POLLOCK The smart money is betting that Eddie Murphy will be the hottest talent on screen this Christmas as the star of "Beverly Hills Cop." Theater owners who have seen the film say the action-comedy shapes up as the big holiday money maker. Martin Brest, the film's director, is expected to rise in stature, too. His asking price may increase tenfold if the film becomes a box-office smash. But the real movie industry beneficiaries of the anticipated success of "Beverly Hills Cop" will be the picture's producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.

The pair responsible for "Flashdance" and "Thief of Hearts" stand to cement their reputation as two of the most sought-after producers in Hollywood. Twentieth Century Fox wants them. Walt Disney Productions wants them. It is a little over a year until their contract with Paramount Pictures expires, but the courting has already begun by former Paramount executives now heading Fox and Disney. Such desirability can mean a lot in today's Hollywood: plush offices, expensive perks and the ability to make virtually any movie you want, with writers, directors and stars of your choosing.

Most importantly, it means recognition that can lift producers out of the ranks of rich anonymity. "If we can't be the Ted Williams of movie producers, then why produce movies?" asked Simpson, 38, a volatile, bearded former Paramount Pictures production chief who reportedly made close to $5 million for producing "Flashdance "We feel we have a talent for knowing talent," said Bruckheimer, 40, a veteran producer with a soft voice and a salt-and-pepper beard. "We don't rely on agents to make our careers. We're very close to the audience because we love movies." Others say that whatever success Simpson and Bruckheimer have enjoyed has resulted more from luck than talent. Not according to Simpson.

"Gee, being lucky two out of three times, that's a hell of a lucky streak," he responded acerbically. It's difficult to find two more unlikely prospects for Hollywood producers than Bruckheimer and Simpson. A lower-middle-class Jewish kid from Detroit, Bruckheimer came up through the advertising business, learning his trade while shooting commercials. Bruckheimer had no relatives or sponsors in the business, just a talent for putting together visual elements that he displayed on such films as "American Gigolo," "Thief" and "Cat People." "That's where I learned the mechanics of film making," Bruckheimer explained. "I'm more Mr.

Outside, putting things together and then stepping back. Don is Mr. Inside-he knows the studio system inside and out." Simpson began his career as anything but Mr. Inside. His father was a hunting guide in Alaska, and his family was strictly fundamentalist Southern Baptist.

"We went to church four times a week, and then prayer meetings and revivals," explained Simpson, who said he had memorized the Bible by the time he was 12. But Simpson got more than just religion growing up in Alaska. He rebelled against his upbringing, and became what he calls "Baby Face Nelson in Anchorage," convicted of four felonies before he was 16 (they were expunged from his record because he was a juvenile). Simpson turned his life around as a teen-ager and went on to college, but part of his Alaskan heritage remained. "That's my survivalist background, my competitiveness, my combativeness," Simpson said.

"I'm a survivor. I love sports because I'm a total competitor. I love head-to-head combat. Battle is a joy to me. But I've never in my life cheated in a sport.

I believe unequivocally in ethics. I will not lie, cheat or steal. I'll do what I have to do to get the job done within ethical boundaries." Simpson stopped and considered for a moment. "On the other hand, I'll slit someone's wrists or throat in two seconds if they screw with me." They're an unusual pair: the didactic Simpson, alternately bullying and cajoling, and the easygoing Bruckheimer, quietly efficient in an invisible sort of way. In their own way, the pair cause as much discussion in Hollywood as their movies do.

"Don and Jerry are atomic producers," director Brest said with a note of affectionate awe in his voice. "They're like plutonium their energy can either drive a city or destroy it." Yet they are not without detractors. Present and former Paramount executives complain that all three movies made by Simpson and Bruckheimer were handed to them by the studio. "Let me respond directly to that," Simpson said of the assertions. "We've never been handed a movie in our lives, except for 'Thief of which was a studio movie we were asked to produce." Michael Eisner, formerly president of Paramount and now chairman of Disney, remembered it differently.

"These films, for good, bad, or worse, were all Paramount projects we gave to Simpson and Bruckheimer to produce. They wouldn't have worked without Don and Jerry, but the idea that they developed 'Flashdance' and 'Beverly Hills Cop' all by themselves is just ridiculous." Said one executive, who pleaded for anonymity, "Don and Jerry tend to be credit-grabbers, and the idea that they don't need anyone but themselves may come back to haunt them." Eisner, who said he considers himself Simpson's mentor, added approvingly, "I love that Don takes credit for everything because it just shows what a great appetite he has." One agent who has worked with the producers noted: "This is a town of instant stardom. Simpson and Bruckheimer have made one successful movie which has sold $217 million worth of tickets worldwide) and one unsuccessful movie of Hearts," which has sold a disappointing $9.1 million in tickets). Isn't that a little too early to judge them?" Simpson was sitting in his Paramount course, but many of the nouveaux arrivistes were former agents who decided they could make richer deals for themselves as producers. Just what producers did became unclear, as their credits proliferated: There were executive producers, associate producers, co -producers and presentation producers.

One thing producers didn't do was to try to direct movies the Directors Guild put a quick stop to that when it was attempted on films such as "Mahogany." So how can Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer call themselves film makers? "We put together all the elements," said the soft-spoken Bruckheimer, who usually only speaks when Simpson has paused to catch his breath. "We decide what aesthetic is right for a picture. Since the total number of movies Don and I have worked on (individually) is enormous, we have a good idea of how people operate, from the cinema -tographer to the prop man. "I've worked with other directors and seen how they operate, and in my mind, we operate totally differently," Bruckheimer added. "We are as much a part of the process as the director.

We don't just step back and let the director come in and say, 'I want to hire so and A lot of producers say, 'Fine, go ahead and do We'll say no." Being a producer means more than just saying no. Simpson and Bruckheimer faced several crises daily during the making of "Beverly Hills Cop." One recent afternoon, they were choosing an album cover for the sound-track while selecting four TV commercials for the movie. There was another problem, the kind of ego hassle that occurs only in Hollywood. office with the white linen couches and the Andy Warhol colored posters of Mao Tse-tung. A framed display of business cards charts his six-year rise to power at Paramount from an executive's assistant to the presidency of the studio's movie-making arm.

A custom-made "Beverly Hills Cop" jacket dangles on the back of his chair, above the chrome barbells he occasionally brandishes at a recalcitrant visitor. The subject was film making and the role of the producer. "I don't know and I don't care what people think, because the truth is Jerry and I are on the set of every movie we make every day," Simpson said. "Our participation is in every aspect of the movie-making process." Simpson took a deep breath to calm himself, and then smiled. "Ask us why we are not of the old school, and not of the new school, but of our own school, the school of film making, not producing." He rattled off the phrases as if they were bursts from a verbal Gatling gun.

"We're not producers, we're film That may come as news to the Directors Guild of America, which was founded on the notion that directors are the guiding force in movie making. Bolstered by the auteur theory from France that put directors one step away from God on the film set, the concept flourished in Hollywood throughout the 1970s as superstar directors like George Lucas, Francis Coppola and Steven Spielberg established their cinematic hegemony. Directorial dominance was aided by a vacuum in the ranks of powerhouse producers in the last 20 years or so. Ray Stark, Richard Zanuck and David Brown, and Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff continued to put their personal imprint on their movies, of PAGE 22SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1984 CALENDAR LOS ANGELES TIMES.