Orion Says It Will Release 12 Films in ’92 : Movies: Company tries to dispel reports of cash-flow problems. Announcement is met with some skepticism in the industry.

In an attempt to preserve its image in Hollywood as a major distributor of movies, financially troubled Orion Pictures Corp. says it will release 12 movies during 1992.

William Bernstein, Orion president and chief executive officer, attributed the current drought in its release schedule to disruptions caused by moving its New York-based operations to Los Angeles, rather than to the company’s widely reported cash-flow problems.

The company’s only new film in theaters since August has been “Little Man Tate,” directed by and starring Jodie Foster. Orion has no other films scheduled for release until February, when it plans to premiere Woody Allen’s “Shadows and Fog,” with a cast that includes Allen, Kathy Bates, Madonna and Foster, and “Article 99,” with Ray Liotta and Kiefer Sutherland.

Among the other 1992 films: the long-delayed release of “Love Field,” with Michelle Pfeiffer, in March; “Married to It,” with Stockard Channing and Beau Bridges, in April, and the action feature “Robocop 3” in summer.

A source close to Orion said one reason for announcing the release schedule was to counter published reports that the company’s movies were in a “deep freeze” because of the perilous financial situation.

But Orion’s plans were greeted in some circles with skepticism the company would have the resources to carry them out. Its future is clouded by an unresolved restructuring of its bond and debt obligations.

The skepticism was not relieved any by reports Thursday that the film company reported a net loss of $48 million for the second quarter of fiscal 1992. Orion attributed $14 million of the loss to writedowns--tax writeoffs--on unreleased or still-in-production movies, which it did not name, and another $14 million for moving costs.

One entertainment industry analyst, Jeffrey Logsdon of Seidler Amdec Securities, said the release schedule “just plays out the hand they’ve already paid for.”

“They’re obviously hopeful that there’s an awful lot of profit” in the 12 films, Logsdon said. “But these films were not the ones the company chose to release this year with their limited funding. So one has to ask (of the films to come) whether or not we’ve already seen the best.”

The source familiar with Orion said that the company is forecasting that its cash flow will be sufficient through the end of its fiscal year in February, 1993, to release and distribute the 12 films.

But, the source said, there is no provision for any future film production. The investment banking company Allen & Co. Inc. is expected to deliver a report to Orion’s lenders this month, assessing the company’s bankability.

One casualty from the lack of production funds has been Orion’s in-house auteur, Allen, who took his currently filming project to TriStar Pictures.

Orion, which generated strong U.S. grosses from its “Dances With Wolves” and “Silence of the Lambs,” began 1991 with a debt of $690 million. The source said the company expects to have income of $500 million for the current fiscal year, which ends in February.

Between now and year’s end, the source said, Orion expects to complete the final phases of its restructuring, which could reduce its debt to $230 million. About $175 million in production-type loans have been repaid as of Friday, and another $285 million owed to bondholders may be reduced by a deal to convert the bonds into Orion common stock that would be equal to about a 70% stake in the company.