CASPER THE GHOST TO RETURN TO BIG SCREEN; UNIVERSAL, HARVEY TO SCARE UP SEQUEL.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

Harvey Entertainment, Universal Studios and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment announced Monday that they have agreed to make a ``Casper'' sequel for release in the summer of 1999.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but the pact contains two unusual clauses - Universal obtains Harvey's merchandising rights to the yet-to-be-titled ``Casper'' project, while the rights to the Harvey character library, including Richie Rich, Baby Huey, Hot Stuff and Wendy the Good Little Witch, will revert entirely to Harvey.

Universal and Harvey originally formed a partnership in 1990 to exploit the rights to the library of comic book characters. But Gregory M. Yulish, chief financial officer of Harvey, predicted Monday that the new deal will mean Harvey will create more projects than it has during its partnership with Universal.

``We want to control our own destiny,'' Yulish said. ``We're very focused on exploiting our properties. At Universal, we're just a minnow in the ocean.''

For its part, Universal's primary interest always has been in Casper rather than the other characters. Harvey's first film project was ``Richie Rich,'' starring Macaulay Culkin and released in 1994 through Warner Bros.

The original ``Casper,'' starring Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman, was released in June 1995 and was a surprise hit, grossing $307 million worldwide. Universal and Harvey also partnered last year to produce a Casper animated series, which airs on the Fox Network, and both companies said they plan to work together on developing the Casper franchise.

Casper is by far the most successful Harvey character. Licensed Casper merchandise has generated more than $300 million in retail sales during the past two years, according to Yulish, and Harvey will release a direct-to-video ``Casper, A Spirited Beginning'' in stores this fall with Fox and Saban Entertainment.

The deal also provides for Spielberg to repeat his duties as an executive producer on the movie sequel, a Universal spokeswoman said.

Harvey predicted Monday that it will return to profitability in the second quarter as a result of the agreement and predicted profitable operations in the third and fourth quarters as a result of the direct-to-video feature.

The announcements pulled Harvey stock up $1.125 to $10.625, a gain of 11.8 percent, on volume of 77,500 shares, or more than five times its average volume during the past 30 days.

Harvey, which went public in 1993, lost $183,000, or 5 cents a share, on revenues of $4.2 million in the first quarter. It has Richie Rich and Baby Huey cartoons in syndication and is planning a direct-to-video Richie Rich with Warner and Saban.

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Photo: No caption (Casper the Friendly Ghost)