Guber And Peters

Ending weeks of speculation, Sony's Columbia Pictures Entertainment has selected former Paramount Pictures Co-President Sidney M. Ganis as an executive vice president, industry sources said. Although Ganis declined to comment about any new position, sources said his responsibilities will include forging the company's public image and helping to plan such special projects as the proposed Sonyland theme park. He will report directly to Columbia Co-Chairmen Peter Guber and Jon Peters.

In an unusually rich compensation package, Sony Corp. has promised five prospective managers of soon-to-be-acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment a lump-sum payment of $50 million and a percentage of studio profits, in addition to their multimillion-dollar salaries and a promised stake in the company's future appreciation.

After more than a week of filing bitter accusations against each other in court, Warner Bros. and Sony Corp. reached a tentative settlement Tuesday that would release producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters from their Warner contract--leaving them free to manage Columbia Pictures Entertainment for its new parent company, Sony.

In a legal move that casts new doubt over Sony Corp.'s staffing plans for Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros. on Thursday filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Japanese electronics giant from hiring producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters. If a Los Angeles Superior Court judge grants the motion at a hearing set for Nov. 2, Sony could be forced to look elsewhere for top talent to run Columbia, which the Japanese firm is now buying through a $3.

After two months of haggling with Warner Bros. over their exclusive production contract with that studio, producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters are finally free to take over Sony's newly purchased Columbia Pictures. And they're hitting the ground running. Already they've talked about the corporate jets they will order. Plans are in the works to build a gym and day-care center and to spruce up the executive offices at Columbia Pictures' new home at the former MGM lot in Culver City.

Jon Peters, the mercurial movie producer hired as co-chairman of Columbia Pictures Entertainment two years ago in one of the richest and messiest deals in Hollywood history, relinquished his post Wednesday to establish an independent production company. Peters is expected to develop film, television and music projects under an exclusive deal with Columbia's parent company, Sony Corp.

When Sony bought Columbia Pictures, the shock wave rolled across America--the Japanese had finally made the move into Hollywood. And the bitter legal fight with Warner for producers Guber and Peters sent aftershocks through the film industry for months. A look behind the scenes of this epic deal provides insight into how Sony will do business in Hollywood and what's in store for the '90s.

"Hit and Run" is such a page-turner that it seems petty to quibble about the subtitle co-authors Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters chose for it: "How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood." It's not that the book doesn't deliver what the subtitle promises; it does, with the satisfying jolt of a front-end collision. It's that the story the authors tell in their efficient, journalistic prose is larger than Guber and Peters.

Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. announced Wednesday that veteran Hollywood executive Frank Price has been appointed chairman of its Columbia Pictures subsidiary. Price, who held the same post from 1978 to 1983, will replace Dawn Steel, who stepped down in January. As part of a restructuring of the studio, which was bought by Sony Corp. in November, Price will be in charge of the development, production and marketing of all Columbia films.