Independent Producer Poised for Material Gain

By DARRELL SATZMAN

Staff Reporter

If it’s do or die time for producer Jorge Saralegui, you wouldn’t know it from his body language. His legs are draped over the arm of a green leather chair in his modest office on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank hardly the look of someone about to find out whether the $200 million in other people’s movie money will pay off.

With “Queen of the Damned,” the Anne Rice vampire story starring the late Aaliyah having debuted last Friday and two other major releases coming out in March, Saralegui and his young production company, Material, will be laying on the line the better part of two years of work over the next three weeks.

In addition to the $30 million “Queen,” Material is producing the upcoming “Time Machine,” which was directed by Simon Wells (author H.G. Wells great-great-grandson) and the Robert DeNiro/Eddie Murphy buddy flick “Showtime.” Each of those films cost between $80 million and $90 million to make.

Depending on their box office take and the first two weeks almost always tell the tale Saralegui could become either one of the hottest properties in Hollywood or just another independent producer scrambling for his next studio deal.

As it stands, Saralegui is in the first year of his second two-year deal with Warner Bros. at a time when studios have been aggressively cutting such exclusive relationships with independent producers to save money.

“The reason, I think, that I’m in this position is because I deliver value,” Saralegui said. “You go over (schedule) one day and it’s $200,000. People know I’m going to watch out for their $30 million or $90 million.”

Trifecta

It’s unusual for a producer to have three films come out in a single year let alone three consecutive weeks and while it could portend a major splash for Saralegui it also puts him in the unenviable position of having his films compete with one another.

“I don’t know of another case where that’s happened. If a producer had their choice I’m sure it would be a different release pattern,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. “Obviously, Warner Bros. thinks these movies are different enough that they won’t take away from one another.”

Warner Bros. is the domestic distributor for “Queen” and “Showtime,” while DreamWorks SKG provided the bulk of financing for “Time Machine” and will distribute that film domestically.

That Saralegui, 48, finds himself in this position is really the stuff of Hollywood. Although he had published two horror novels, the Cuban born and Bronxville, N.Y. bred Saralegui was 33 and careerless when he arrived in Los Angeles to try his hand as a script reader in 1987.

It took him a year to find his first freelance job. A year later he landed a full-time position as a studio reader, first for Universal Pictures and then for 20th Century Fox.

Saralegui’s writing background and his willingness to voice strong opinions not the sort of mealy-mouthed reviews typical of script readers helped get him noticed at Fox. In 1991 he was promoted to a junior executive position. “At that point I’m really a loser by definition because I’m 38 and I’m at the bottom,” Saralegui said. “I was at least 10 years older than anybody else in that position. But what I did have going for me was perspective, because I was older.”

Recognizing a hit

His break at Fox came when he persuaded President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin to take a gamble on a script that eventually became “Speed,” the Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves thriller that grossed $121 million in domestic box office and spawned a sequel.

“‘Die Hard’ on a bus sounds like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit and that’s the response I got from a lot of executives at Fox,” Saralegui said. “It was a really hard sell.”

Next up, Saralegui helped push through “Independence Day,” which grossed more than $300 million domestically and ranks as one of the top 10 films of all time in that category.

At that point, Saralegui, by now an executive vice president at Fox, decided to form his own production company.

“There were a lot of studios interested. He’s been the little engine that could,” said Kevin McCormick, executive vice president of motion picture production for Warner Bros., who also worked with Saralegui at Fox. “He’s not the noisiest guy in the room, but he’s delivered results.”

Saralegui’s first production credit, 2000’s “Red Planet,” was a commercial and critical disappointment, taking in just $17.5 million in domestic box office.

But behind his self-deprecating sense of humor, Saralegui exudes a confidence and, as one might expect, he believes there is room for all of his current projects to succeed.

“I think my background has given me the sense that I can take a hit and that allows me to take chances,” said Saralegui. “I never made more than $15,000 in a year until I was 36. I had no expectation that I would be here today, so I’m ready for whatever comes.”