-A RTS The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 7, 2000 --19A *Meet Jim Gianopulos, Hollywood powerbroker and Fox exec. The Los Angeles Times HOLLYWOOD Jim Gianopulos is a virtual unknown in Hollywood. And yet he just became one of the most powerful executives in the movie business. With his recent appointment to become one of two chairmen of 20th Century Fox's Filmed Entertainment group along with colleague Tom Rothman, Gianopulos joins an elite cadre of studio bosses empowered to decide which movies get made and wren, with what tal- ent and at what cost. Pretty heady stuff for someone who has never put together a single movie or overseen its development and production. "At 6 in the morning Fm up asking myself, 'Is this really happening?"' says Gianopulos, 48, a humble though highly driven executive. Up until three weeks ago, he had been in charge of Fox's international the- atrical business -- selling movies and videos outside the United States for the last six years. Before that, he headed the studio's worldwide pay-TV operations. His ascension to the top movie job - despite his lack of direct movie-production experience _ underscores the growing significance of the overseas market to Hol- lywood studios, especially when their owner is as glob- ally minded as Fox's media-giant parent News Corp., run by Rupert Murdoch. Gianopulos has spent most of his 20-year career working on the international side of the business for *companies that also included Paramount Pictures, RCA/Columbia Pictures and Carolco Pictures. As president of 20th Century Fox International, he, helped rebuild the studio's moribund global division into a distribution powerhouse that for the last three years has generated annual foreign box-office revenue ;n excess of S1 billion. Bill Mechanic, who preceded Gianopulos and Roth- man and was recently fired over strained relations with Murdoch, came from a similar discipline, having worked for years as head of Disney's international busi- ness. Mechanic had worked closely with Gianopulos in resuscitating Fox's once-demoralized, under-performing international movie division, which in the early 1990s suffered from a lack of product and financial support from the then-financially ailing News Corp. Unlike Rothman, who's well-known from his many years as a senior-level creative executive at Fox and other studios, Gianopulos is a stranger to many in Hol- lywood and unfamiliar with its politics and inner work- ings. But then, the very instant he as promoted, Gianopulos received as many congratulatory calls as Rothman from industry power brokers who had never before dialed his number. When asked whether he is daunted by the inevitable pressures of the new job (Mechanic was ousted after some big films lost money), Gianopulos says: "My experience is that everyonefinds it daunting because it's the least precise, most subjective aspect of the business. You can do calculations, read P&Ls (profit and loss statements), but ultimately it's about believing in the talent of a filmmaker, translating and executing the vision with that filmmaker and bearing the risk of that execution." As head of international, Gianopulos forged close relationships with such notable directors as Jim Cameron, Bobby and Peter Farrelly and Baz Luhrmann, but admittedly was just an "observer" of the filmmak- ing process rather than a participant. But Fox, like other studios today, recognizes the importance of international business to its overall rev- enue stream and thus would always consult Gian'opulos about a project's potential earning power overseas when deciding whether to green-light a particular movie. 'In today's environment you can't ignore what at times is two-thirds of the business on big films," Gianopulos says. In many cases, the films in which Gianopulos over- saw the international marketing and distribution at Fox more than doubled their U.S. grosses, including such costly domestic flops as 'The Beach," ''Fight Club" and "Speed 2." Even more modestly budgeted hits such as 'The Full Monty" and ''William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet" did substantially more business over- seas. Hanging on Gianopulos' office wall is.a framed poster in Greek of ''Titanic" signed by director Cameron: ''Jim G, you rule the world! Jim C." The Fox/Paramount co-production was the highest grossing film of all time, with a worldwide take of $I.& billion, of which S 1.23 billion was made overseas. "Titanic" producer Jon Landau credits Gianopulos with "being able to get a much higher percentage of gross from international than any of the other studios." He also credits Gianopulos with being the impetus behind the plan to hold the world!premiere of 'Titanic" at the Tokyo Film Festival, which was a controversial move at the time but helped create a huge frenzy prior to the film's U.S. debut. "He really understands the marketing and public demand of a movie and will take each movie and ana- lyze it beyond what it did domestically," Landau says. Luhrmann, who directed the hip, modern-day version of the classic romance "Romeo & Juliet" and Fox's upcoming holiday release "Moulin Rouge," concurs that Gianopulos' unwavering support of his offbeat movies and "groundbreaking visions about the growth of the international market" have been of great value to him as a filmmaker. So, what's the secret to all this success? ''There's no real secret," Gianopulos says. "It starts with the reality that there's a very big world out there _ huge audience potential that can be tapped," referring to an overseas market of more than 5 billion people com- pared with about 300 million in the United States. "You have all the benefit of the insight, strategy and quality of advertising materials that were done domesti- cally and then the opportunity to see what went right and what went wrong and translate that internationally," Gianopulos says. Considered smart, methodical, energetic and some- one who always aspires for perfection, Gianopulos qan be a tough, demanding boss who at the same time' is known to be very loyal to his troops and devoted to his work. Apparently, he cap also have quite a temper. "I'm not incapable of it," admits Gianopulos, wJio prefers to think;"of himself in a slightly different light. "There's a character to being Greek which includes being passionate and excitable. You can argue passion- ately, but it's never, ever personal, and when it's over, it's over," Gianopulos said. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Gianopulos says he derived his work ethic and drive from his late father, a first- generation Greek who came to America in the early 1950s and started a marine and industrial equipment manufacturing business . It's little wonder that Gianopulos, who spoke Greek as a child and grew up in a multicultural environment, eventually found himself working in international busi- ness. After graduating from tNew York's Fordham Law School in the mid-1970s and briefly practicing law, he landed his first entertainment industry job as director of business affairs for the American Society of Comm- posers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP), negotiating music rights deals for songwriters. Just as the video business started to take off in the early '80s and the issue of how to'compensate tmisic rights became a big concern in Hollywood, Gianopulos was hired away from ASCAP by RCA/Columbia Pic- tures International Video. He was recruited by Para- mount just as pay TV exploded internationally. "I was always in these media businesses as they launched," says Gianopulos; who in 1992 was hired by Fox to run international TV and worldwide pay TV and was involved in the early distribution platforms Mur- doch was launching. Gianopulos says he's worked an entire career for the opportunity to head a movie studio. "I've been rehearsing for it for 20 years." *Folk singer Elliott spotlighted in new documentary film The Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES - Legendary folk singer and storyteller extraordinaire Ramblin' Jack Elliott is never at a loss for words. In fact, in the award-winning documentary "The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack," Elliott's longtime friend Kris Kristofferson jokes that the folkie got his nickname not because of his nomadic wanderings, but from his ram- bling conversations. * But he has been at a loss when it. comes to talking with his daughter, filmmaker Aiyana Elliott, who directed, produced and co-wrote the documen- tary. During the three years she spent making the film, she tried repeatedly to get Elliott to open up and talk about their relationship. He never would. After completing the film, Aiyana, who was born in 1969, came to the con- clusion that their relationship would never change. Elliott would never talk about the fact that he was a less than fantastic father, that he was barely around while she was growing up. And she still didn't know him even as an adult. "I felt I would have to accept our relationship as it is," she says, during a recent joint interview with her father in Los Angeles. "Making the movie was very diffi- cult. But then since completing the film, though, I think we have had good talks. I think we had a big break- through about six days ago." Elliott, who at 69 resembles Gene Kelly in his later years, perks up when Aiyana mentions the breakthrough. "Where was that?" he asks her. "Was I there?" Trying to find out about the break- through takes a while as Elliott lives up to his ramblin' reputation. Question: So how did the break- through happen? "I don't know," says Aiyana, look- ing over at her father, who is sitting next to her in a conference room at the office of the film's publicists. "Maybe because my other dad was there.Maybe that helped." "He's always very helpful," adds Elliott. "I call him my brother-in-law for lack of a better term." "He's Jerry Kaye," explains Aiyana. "In the movie, we call him a friend, he was a friend of Jack's, but he's more than that. "Jerry, he was the real hero of this story," says Aiyana. "The fact that Jerry provided some great stability enabled me to appreciate my dad for what he had to offer," Question: Well, what happened six days ago'? "We were in New York for the pre- miere," says Aiyana. "Jerry was there." "That was a big thing," pipes in Elliott. "I was thrilled with that." Question: So what happened at the premiere'? "We were in New York and Jerry was there and we were sitting around and my dad just started telling me he appre- ciated what I was doing'" says Aiyana, beaming ever so slightly as she glances over at her dad. "He thought we had gotten to know each other better making the movie and he had gotten to respect me and what we had done." "I don't know why, but I get really sad when I think of a time when he might not be around," she says. "I think part of it is because my dad is some- body who has lived life to the fullest and really enjoys life and because there is nobody around to tell the stories he's telling. There is no one like him." Staring at the window, Elliott inter- rupts his daughter: "I am going to have to write some songs," he proclaims. "The time has come to try to write some songs. I don't know what it is about me, lazy I guess. I don't have a typewriter." i -.- Courtesy of The Los Angeles Times Alyana Elliott poses with her father, folk singer Ranblin' Jack Elliott. Kick~it kickboxing Voted by Shape Magazine as one of the Top 10 Workouts! Fall 2000 Sept. 11-Dec.14 Monday 4:30pm Also: BodyBlast! 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