Volleyball, Anyone? : ‘Side Out’ Tries to Spike Notion That Beach Movies Can’t Score

Zuma Beach. Center court. Championship point. Actor Peter Horton, the Bjorn Borg look-alike on TV’s “thirtysomething,” tosses the neon-yellow volleyball high into the air for a jump serve. Horton and brat-packer C. Thomas Howell are drenched in sweat and sand, facing Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos, the nation’s top-rated two-man beach volleyball team.

The crowd of 700 extras on hand for the climactic scene in the film “Side Out” have been instructed by director Peter Israelson to burst into applause after Horton’s serve.

Horton slaps the ball. It sails out of bounds. He kicks the sand, cursing the miss-hit. “Try again,” Israelson shouts patiently from the sideline. The extras, many of them Southern California natives, are growing restless in the hot sun.

Horton serves wide again, only this time the ball slices through the air and conks an unsuspecting cameraman on the forehead. Without prompting, the extras leap to their feet as one and erupt in raucous cheers for the best crowd shot of the day.

Just when Hollywood thought it was safe to stay off the beach, Tri-Star Pictures is planning to test the waters this winter with a new youth-oriented beach movie and hoping to capitalize on the barnstorming popularity of professional beach volleyball at the same time. In doing so, the studio is going against current Hollywood wisdom, which says to avoid movies with too much sand, sun and surf.

Paramount tried to stake a claim in the sand in 1987 with “Back to the Beach.” Despite the sentimental publicity for the return of bouncy beachniks Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello and a wave of generally favorable reviews, the nostalgic film beached itself like a sick whale at the box office.

“There are two bad connotations attached to a studio beach movie,” said Tom Adams, media research analyst for Paul Kagan Associates. “One is that it’s dated--you think of Frankie and Annette. Two, if it’s not dated, you think of it as exploitative, like ‘Hardbodies’ and ‘Hollywood Hot Tubs.’ Neither one of those are anything that a studio really wants to associate with.”

Early in production, executive producer Jay Weston changed the film’s working title from “The Perfect Set,” which he feared might be mistaken as a sexual reference, to “Side Out,” a volleyball term and the brand name of a line of beach volleyball clothing.

“Studios usually steer away from the beach,” Tri-Star president Jeff Sagansky said. “Since ‘Side Out’ takes place on the beach, there’s a certain skepticism surrounding the film already. Bathing suits are all part of the beach setting, so I don’t think we need to play that up.”

Staying true to Sagansky’s words, “Side Out’s” producers avoided the temptation to cast bronzed, green-eyed beauty Kathy Ireland, Sports Illustrated’s 1989 swimsuit-issue cover girl, as the lead in favor of a more experienced actress. Ireland was given a supporting role in the film, one that has her in a business suit instead of a bikini.

“At first, I had colleagues look at me and say, ‘You’re doing what ? A beach movie?’ ” said Christopher Lee, vice president of production for Tri-Star. “Our commission was not to remake ‘Beach Blanket Bingo.’ We felt we could take a ‘Rocky’ story and make it work on the beach. Beach volleyball is a fresh arena.”

“This movie has been made before against different backdrops--boxing, karate, baseball,” said Howell, 22, who scored big two years ago with the comedy “Soul Man” and has shot five films so far this year. “Sure, it’s a formula, but ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a formula.”

Although Horton, 35, had been unwittingly preparing for his role by playing volleyball on Santa Monica beaches for the last 10 years, he went through six weeks of rigorous training with the novice Howell and actor Chris Rydell, who plays Howell’s best friend in the film. Although Horton does all his own playing in the volleyball sequences, Howell is occasionally subbed by the trio’s instructor, Jon Stevenson--a current tour player and former champion.

In the early 1970s, beach volleyball was primarily a laid-back, Southern California tradition for beach bums. The highest stake was generally a case of beer, and the prize was often consumed before the winner had been determined.

Today, the aggressive Assn. of Professional Volleyball organizes a seven-month, 25-event tour that includes such inland stops as Dallas, Milwaukee and Cleveland, and draws as many as 50,000 spectators. Tournament purses run as high as $150,000 and the events are televised nationally over cable stations. The pro volleyball association is currently negotiating for a network TV contract, and in 1992 two-man beach volleyball will debut as a demonstration sport in the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

“The movie is coming at just the right time,” said Stoklos, 28, who earned $135,000 on the tour last year and stands to add an estimated $250,000 in endorsements. “The momentum of the sport is growing day by day.”

Stoklos and his partner Smith--the tour’s No. 1 seeded team--play the Horton-Howell team’s chief rival in the film. They are two of more than a dozen tour regulars who were cast in key roles for “Side Out.” Among the others are Olympic champions Karch Kiraly and Steve Timmons.

“There are volleyball courts everywhere,” Stoklos said. “There’s a big fad across the nation to set up sand volleyball courts outside of bars, which you don’t see in California because the land is too expensive.”

“It’s a new sport for a country that thrives on newness,” said first-time film director Israelson, who has directed music videos for Whitney Houston, Kenny Loggins and Neil Diamond. He cited a study by the National Sporting Goods Assn. reporting that volleyball was the No. 2 sport in the United States for men and women 16 through 32, second only to basketball.

“Most people across the country don’t have beaches to play on, which gives beach volleyball an aura, a glamour,” Israelson said. “And you have these athletes, these young beach gladiators, whose charisma personifies the essence of the game and propels it forward. Where would tennis be today without Borg, Connors or McEnroe? Beach volleyball is like tennis was 15 years ago. It’s exploding.”

The burgeoning seaside sport has already collided with the fashion industry, which painted the beach this summer in broad strokes of neon-electric, Day-Glo colors with more than a dozen lines of beach volleyball clothing. Even larger corporations such as Reebok and L.A. Gear are beginning to sponsor players. At times, the film’s set in Malibu looked more like a garment district than a volleyball tournament, with advertisements plastered everywhere.

“One of the saving graces of the film was product placement,” Tri-Star’s Lee said of the low-cost $6-million production. “I can’t tell you how many companies wanted to get involved. But we didn’t compromise the integrity of the film, because this is what it really looks like.”

A conflict arose when Jose Cuervo’s red-and-yellow, 10,000-seat volleyball stadium with electronic scoreboards was chosen over Miller Lite’s arena for the film’s pre-eminent volleyball tournament. Miller Lite sponsored 20 events and pumped $2 million into the sport last season, while Jose Cuervo sponsors only three tournaments annually for a total of $300,000 in prize money.

Producers say Jose Cuervo’s circus-style grandstand was chosen for artistic reasons, because it is more elaborate and colorful than Miller Lite’s stadium.

“What you have here is a very hot product (beach volleyball), and everybody is going for a piece of the pie,” players’ association spokeswoman Norma Kobrin said.

Now, the only question in the minds of the advertisers and film makers is: Do people want to watch a movie about beach volleyball?

Tri-Star’s Sagansky remains confident: “Even though it’s takes place on a sunny beach, the story is what shines brightest. I hope to release it on the coldest week of the winter, when the California beach life is an escape.”

“In some ways, volleyball is not a factor at all, really,” media analyst Adams said. “Let’s face it, if there’s some substance to the film, then the beach is a great milieu, because there’s lots of bikinis and sunshine. And playing in the dead of winter in upstate Minnesota, that just might create some interest.”