No Yellow Brick Road Will Lead to Hollywood

Everyone knows that enough practice gets a performer to Carnegie Hall--but there is no such easy and direct route to Hollywood, a top Disney film executive said last night.

"In the film business, there is no road map," Marty Katz told an audience of 85 at Quincy House. "There's no magic to it," he said.

Katz, executive vice president of motion picture and television production at Disney, Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures, said he is ultimately responsible for "schedules, budgets, quality and timeliness" of all films and television projects Disney produces.

Katz could offer no sure-fire formula for Hollywood success to aspiring screenwriters, producers and directors in the audience, but he did cite "taste, business acumen, a sense of fairness and awareness of social responsibility" as prerequisites.

Screenwriters travel an easier path to success than producers or directors because screenwriting talent accompanied by persistence does not go unrewarded in Hollywood, Katz said. "There are no great scripts sitting around Hollywood [that are not eventually purchased]," he said.

But directors face a more vicious circle, Katz said. "To direct successfully, you have to have directed successfully," he said.

Becoming a producer is "the most difficult" of the three, Katz said. "I couldn't tell you how to become a producer," said Katz, who has produced both ABC television movies and Disney films.

Katz, who was one of the executives behind such recent Touchstone box office hits as "Three Men and a Baby" and "Cocktail," admitted that some of his company's movies are not of high caliber. "I'm appalled that I was involved with ['Cocktail']" he said.

But Disney's clout often assures that such movies are financially successful anyway, Katz said. "We can sell virtually anything," he said.