By FRANK SWERTLOW

Staff Reporter

Something strange is happening in Hollywood.

For years, the directors of TV commercials yearned to make their mark on a big-screen canvas, but now superstar movie directors like John Woo, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are turning the tables. They’re jumping to make 30-second commercials.

“We are still in the movie-making business,” said Peter Segal, director of “Tommy Boy.” “But when you are developing a script for a feature, it could take a year or more. What I am looking to do with a commercial is to stay limber, keep in shape and not pine away for the cameras to roll.”

To “keep in shape,” Segal who is developing “The Jetsons,” “Fantastic Four” and “Johnny Quest” has turned to a division of A Band Apart Commercials that represents feature-film directors who want to direct commercials. The division, called A Band Apart.35mm, opened last month and is run by Michael Bodnarchek, a veteran commercial director, and Lawrence Bender, a theatrical film producer.

One of their partners is Tarantino, director of “Pulp Fiction” and “Jackie Brown.” Bender produced those Tarantino films for A Band Apart’s theatrical film division.

In their traditional role, commercial production companies get work by taking sample reels of their directors to advertising agencies. But big-name directors don’t audition this way. Ad shops call them.

Film directors who turn to the small screen earn between $10,000 and $30,000 a day. Shooting schedules are usually no longer than a few days. The rates vary with the box-office success of a director and how hot ad agencies think a moviemaker is at the moment.

Big-screen directors click with ad agencies because they are considered on the cutting edge, especially in a media environment driven by powerful visual images.

“Film directors are people with a strong point of view,” Bender said. “They have a vision whether it is for a theatrical release or for a commercial.”

Segal said he liked the idea of working with A Band Apart because of Tarantino.

“I identify with him,” Segal said. “He cuts his own path. He once said he didn’t go to film school, he went to films. I started the same way. I thought it would be fun working at the same company.”

Tarantino is expected to direct at least one commercial this year, Bodnarchek said, and he appeared as an actor in two Japanese commercials last year.

Bodnarchek’s stable of theatrical directors also includes Kevin Reynolds, who directed “Waterworld” and “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves;” George Tillman Jr., who directed “Soul Food;” and Robert Rodriguez, who directed “Desperado” and “El Mariachi.”

Woo, whose hard-hitting visuals most recently showed up in “Face/Off,” just finished a commercial for Nike that will be aired globally for the World Cup. The spot took two months to shoot and cost more than $1.5 million.

A Band Apart.35mm is one of several Los Angeles-based companies that use theatrical directors for commercials. Beverly Hills-based Villains represents directors Joel and Ethan Coen, who wrote and directed “Fargo,” along with Abel Ferrara and the Pate brothers, Josh and Jonas.

“This trend started about three years ago,” said John Marshall, president of Villains. “It was a way for feature directors to fill time in between projects and make some money.”

More than anything else, Segal and others say that the challenge of telling a story in 30 seconds is what drives them. “I don’t want to do a dull sales spot,” said Segal, who is waiting for his first commercial gig. “I want to be creative.”

A Band Apart is actually a patchwork quilt of separate companies, formed by Bender and Bodnarchek in 1995. There is A Band Apart Films, A Band Apart Commercials, A Band Apart Music Videos, and A Band Apart/Maverick Records. The name, A Band Apart, comes from a 1964 French film, “Bande a Part,” a thriller about a group of aimless young people.

Officials at the privately held company declined to reveal any financial details, except that they project 1998 revenues of $30 million for the commercial division.

Tina Hall, a copywriter who worked on a Nike commercial with actor-director Steve Buscemi, said the use of superstar directors will affect the quality of 30-second commercials. “A director like a John Woo raises the bar across the board,” she said.

But not everybody may be waiting for Hollywood’s big guns to direct commercials. Many agencies, Bodnarchek said, don’t want to gamble on a big name. They prefer to play it safe with directors they have used in the past and who know the system.

“Many agencies don’t want to take any risks,” Bodnarchek said. “They come in and they say, ‘This is the way a commercial should be and the product needs to look like this.’ They won’t change.”