COMPANY TOWN : Casey Silver Is on Deck : Low-Profile Executive May Be Next to Step Up to MCA’s Plate

Casey Silver, president of Universal Pictures, is a self-described “failed screenwriter,” more comfortable with words than numbers. And for all his love of movie-making, he has a well-documented ambivalence about power breakfasts, private screenings and the fast-track life.

Yet, with the departure of longtime motion picture chairman Tom Pollock to a corporate position in June, this low-profile 40-year-old has the inside track for the top job. Already he is calling the shots.

Promoted from production chief and given “green-light power” in the summer of 1994, Silver was instrumental in the development and positioning of this summer’s slate. Moving “Apollo 13” up from November and pushing back the hard-to-sell pig fable “Babe” to permit for an aggressive screening campaign, he helped land the studio in the top spot for the first time in a decade.

The victory, repeated in September, was particularly gratifying given the turmoil that preceded it. MCA executives were at odds with owner Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which sold out to Seagram Inc. last spring. Talks aimed at luring then-CAA chief Michael Ovitz to Universal went up in flames. And confronted with the most expensive picture in movie history, studio higher-ups engaged in “Waterworld” spin control.

“I couldn’t affect the [former MCA president Sidney] Sheinberg-Matsushita rift or the Ovitz negotiations, so the challenge was keeping my eye on the ball,” Silver says.

The timing of this summer’s success story couldn’t have been better for Silver, who, with Pollock, had presided over a lackluster stretch. Finishing fifth in 1992, third in 1993 and fourth last year, the studio had a noticeable lack of breakout hits. Though 1993’s “Jurassic Park” is the highest-grossing movie on record, in 1994 several high-profile films such as “Junior” and “The Shadow” failed to ignite. The studio has two of the five $100-million grossers this year, but until this summer’s “Casper,” none of the 1995 offerings broke the $30-million mark.

Silver made a key decision a year ago when he brought in TriStar’s Buffy Shutt and Kathy Jones to create an independent marketing operation. Now that he’s holding the reins, insiders observe, he’s finally in a position to define himself.

Pollock, an admittedly hands-on boss who micro-managed the motion picture operation, doesn’t minimize the change. “I will no longer be casting a large shadow,” he says.

Fearful of sounding “self-aggrandizing,” Silver declines to disclose his agenda. While Amblin Entertainment (“Casper”) and Imagine Entertainment (“Apollo 13”) remain crucial to the bottom line, colleagues predict greater emphasis on internal development--as well as delegation of responsibility to executives such as production chief Hal Lieberman and the cultivation of a talent-friendly environment.

“If you ask Casey what movies he’s proudest of, I suspect he’d say ‘In the Name of the Father’ and ‘Scent of a Woman’--story-oriented projects with strong filmmakers and good scripts,” says Pollock, now an MCA vice chairman.

Filmmaking has been a longtime focus of Silver’s--his major at Massachusett’s progressive Hampshire College and the reason he and his wife headed out to Los Angeles in the late 1970s. Turning out scripts that were never produced, he paid the bills through low-level (“Nothing was too ignominious for me to take on”) production work.

“I would have sold my soul for a job when I first got here, but now I thank God I suffered,” Silver says. “I’ll never forget the pain--how hard it is to write scripts and how well-intentioned executives don’t understand the process.”

Silver’s big break came when director Adrian Lyne (“Indecent Proposal”) hired him as an assistant on “Foxes”--an assignment requiring him to waft smoke near the camera to refract the light. The aspiring filmmaker got a bird’s-eye view of movie-making. And he followed Lyne to “Flashdance,” where he met producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer (“Top Gun”), who later made him their director of development.

Silver became a vice president of production at TriStar before moving on to Universal in 1988. Though script reading is integral to his weekends and attending previews of Universal movies an ongoing fact of life, Silver tries to distance himself from the grind and the glitz. Business breakfasts and dinners are kept to a minimum to make time for three children--ages 9, 5 and 1--and Tia Brelis, his filmmaker wife (“Trading Mom”).

Still, schmoozing and ego stroking come with the turf, Silver admits. “Universal would like a higher profile,” he says. “So when I have to go to events, I do so--without attitude.”

Director Penelope Spheeris (“Little Rascals”) finds the approach refreshing. “I can communicate with Casey,” she says. “Unlike a lot of executives, he wasn’t raised in L.A. or went to Beverly Hills High--and has a real grasp of the ‘street.’ I also found him a little hipper--ready to take risks.”

The $180-million “Waterworld” was one of the biggest. With $200 million in worldwide grosses, Pollock says, the movie would have made money at its original $100-million budget--and he insists that Universal will break even if the film hits the $250-million mark.

“I won’t be disingenuous and say that the movie didn’t get away from us a bit,” Silver says. “But it sold a lot of tickets. This movie was no ‘Ishtar,’ ‘Howard the Duck,’ or ‘Heaven’s Gate.’ . . . It just cost too much to make.”

Whether Silver will continue to take chances in the context of MCA’s corporate culture remains to be seen.

“Casey is low-profile in the mold of other production executives today--bland in comparison with the Harry Cohns, Jack Warners and Irving Thalbergs of the past,” says a studio insider. “But then, today’s product is more uniform as well. The question is whether he can be himself in a deliberate, austere environment built on numbers crunching.”

Bruckheimer cautions against underestimating the man. “Casey may not like the game but he can be political. You don’t survive if you can’t.”

Those skills may be tested. As a former president of Creative Artists Agency, MCA President Ron Meyer has unbeatable ties to talent (longtime client Sylvester Stallone just signed a $60-million, three-picture deal with Universal) and is expected to be active on the filmmaking front. Seagram Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman, a movie buff who co-produced films such as “The Border,” will be keeping a close eye on things as well.

“Ron has given the motion picture division autonomy,” Silver says. “Though he’s a valuable resource, he has the whole meatball to run.”

Meyer concurs: “Edgar and I are not running the motion picture division. In the studio, all roads lead to Casey. He’s smart, has great talent relationships and people trust him. And he now has an opportunity to put his imprint on everything that comes out.”