CARRY ON, GUV’NORS : Working Title Has Lots of Comedy Titles Working

When it comes to movies, one of the toughest exports is comedy. As a rule, humor doesn’t transcend cultures well. But the London-based Working Title Films is determined to change that.

Riding high on the box-office windfall of their romantic comedy “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and what seems to be a growing American appetite for British movies, company co-chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are banking on five more comedies. The secret, they say, lies in films that either have American stars with a British sensibility, or English actors with a Hollywood twist--while avoiding political and racial controversies, and emphasizing romance.

Consider these:

* An untitled European romantic spoof, with a screenplay spun by the mastermind of the “Naked Gun” movies, Pat Proft, who satirizes Merchant Ivory films. Production begins in August.

* “Paris Match,” a $30-million romantic comedy, directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring Kevin Kline and Meg Ryan, that starts shooting in September.

* “Mr. Bean,” featuring a wacky British character played by Rowan Atkinson, the bumbling clergyman in “Four Weddings.” The $10-million project is set for a Christmas ’95 release.

* “Loch Ness,” a family adventure about the Scottish myth, scheduled for next year.

* “Moonlight and Valentino,” written by Neil Simon’s daughter Ellen, also for next year.

“I think these pictures will work because they’ll strike a chord, not because we’re in some sort of British fad phase right now,” says Michael Kuhn, president of Polygram Filmed Entertainment, the parent of Working Title. “There’s been a saturation or overexposure of American comedy here with it on every TV channel you turn to. People are just looking for something fresh and different.”

And at least one American, Russell Schwartz, is going to make the best of it. His marketing campaign for the Merchant Ivory spoof: “I’ll put that film in every theater that every Merchant Ivory film has ever been in.” And where producer Merchant famously heralds the premieres of each of his movies with a feast, “we’ll have a food fight!”*