Scott's World -- UPI Arts & Entertainment

HOLLYWOOD, May 2 (UPI) -- A basic Hollywood tenet has it that major stars fuel Tinseltown's blockbuster box office hits.

It is a simple formula: Julia Roberts plus Tom Cruise equals big box office bucks.

Even if they co-starred in a middling film from a mediocre screenplay with a journeyman director, the chemistry between two popular favorites would ignite worldwide mania.

Both Roberts and Cruise are exceedingly valuable screen commodities, of which they and their agents are very well aware.

Ergo: Roberts and Cruise are exceedingly powerful individuals; more valuable than a sack of gold nuggets.

So?

Both Roberts and Cruise and every other major movie star in this country belong to the Screen Actors Guild, which gives that august body enormous power too.

Together America's current sweetheart and the country's most popular leading man would cost a producer or studio about $50 million for their services in a single movie.

So?

The SAG is going to enforce its Rule One, in which actors working abroad will be paid SAG wages, which will give many a foreign country (try Canada) a toxic case of the jitters.

The issue has created a spirited gathering of the labor unions in Hollywood to join together in a time of crisis to put the brakes on flagrant runaway production wherein movies are made in Europe, Asia and any other continents that come to mind.

Because of its enormous clout, SAG perhaps wields the most effective cudgel.

Internecine political bickering within the guild has been put aside to present an impressive front of solidarity in SAG leadership and its 98,000 members.

Add the support of teamsters, writers, directors and other movie unions, and foreign runaway production faces a formidable array of angry filmmaking components.

Joining the unions in this confederation is the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a powerful ally.

At a recent meeting of representatives of these groups it was announced: "There was agreement that the complex nature of the problem merits the creation of an ongoing forum for us to examine how to cooperatively address this issue in a real and substantive way."

It brings to mind the young United States of America's post-colonial credo illustrated by an early flag containing the image of a rattlesnake above the legend "Don't Tread On Me."

The point is to save Hollywood as the world's movie capital.

Due to the advantageous monetary rate of exchange between the United States and foreign countries, filmmakers have found it cheaper to make movies, TV shows and commercials abroad.

Canada is the favored alternative. It's close, English-speaking and politically friendly.

More important, the American dollar is worth $1.56 across the border.

That means for a $1 million bucks American producers can get $1.56 million Canadian bucks, plus tax breaks and other incentives.

Inasmuch as Hollywood is a bottom-line town in a bottom-line economy, it is evident to all that a filmmaker can get almost twice the bang for his buck across the border than he can in Southern California.

Estimates are that 1,200 to 1,500 SAG members regularly work abroad and that 60 features and 160 TV projects released last year were shot at foreign locations without SAG contracts.

An AMPTP spokesman said enforcement of Rule One would boost a Canadian film budget for actors by 20 percent.

But it's not just Canadian movie and TV industries that profit by runaway production. The whole Canadian economy is boosted by film and TV companies spending mucho dinero in the land of the maple leaf.

If a studio, say Warner Bros., can make a picture in Toronto or Vancouver for $5 million as opposed to $10 million in Hollywood, which way would you guess it will go?

The combined unions in Hollywood will not drop their minimum pay scales to match Canadian (or Australian or English) pay scales.

Many foreign countries have developed sufficient numbers of film crew laborers and artistic talents to meet most production needs.

But can filmmakers afford to pay Julia and Tom $50 million when they work abroad, a total that explodes their savings on other labor?

SAG president Melissa Gilbert said this week: "While travel is a part of doing business in a global economy, SAG members rightly expect all the protections of our union contracts to follow us when we work out of the country.

"There's no traveling without a SAG contract anywhere in the world."

This ukase includes all performers from superstars to bit players.

SAG member Kevin Spacey added a warning: "We expect the studios to honor this or they simply won't be able to hire us."

It's just a beginning, but it may be a harbinger of renewed production in Hollywood for the embattled movie capital.