A NEW DIRECTION Ever since Variety reported that Oscar-winning directors Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) and Sam Mendes (American Beauty), along with Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), David Fincher (Seven), and Alexander Payne (Election) are discussing forming a nonexclusive alliance with a studio that would grant them not only creative control but eventual ownership of the films they make, Hollywood has been abuzz with the possible ramifications. For the filmmakers, such a deal would have no downside: They could do as they pleased without the limitations usually imposed by studio financing. ''Fincher is the mastermind behind the whole thing,'' says one studio source. ''People follow him because they worship him, and he's worth worshiping.'' While we hear that DreamWorks has expressed interest in the deal, the front-runner appears to be the smaller USA Films, which released Traffic and Malkovich. (At press time, neither USA nor the directors were commenting.)
Despite USA's record with these directors, some question whether it has the money to back the filmmakers' projects -- and wonder about the business upside. By giving the directors rights to their titles, the studio would lose the films for its library, which is mined for profit long after a movie's release. But one executive thinks the pact would have little impact on the chosen studio or the filmmakers: ''These directors aren't going to make movies for [USA],'' he says, echoing a pessimism voiced by others. ''They'll be off doing big important movies for big companies.''
FURTHERMORE Speaking of Soderbergh, actor Brad Rowe, who will star as Julia Roberts' old flame in the director's new movie for Miramax, says the film's title was changed on the script's latest draft from How to Survive a Hotel Room Fire to The Art of Negotiating a Turn. A Miramax source says that while the title remains unchanged, other options are being discussed -- unrelated to Sept. 11.
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