HOLLYWOOD TRIES TO BE ALL IT CAN BE HELPING THE MILITARY STRATEGISTS THINK OUTSIDE READY-AIM-FIRE BOX.

Byline: Fred Shuster Staff Writer

Hollywood and the military have always enjoyed a close relationship. In the weeks since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, things have gotten even cozier.

Military advisers have long played a role as consultants in the making of feature films, while filmmakers have made action flicks reflecting military glories. During World War II, directors such as Frank Capra and John Ford shot documentaries on the conflict, and celluloid morale-boosters would be shown in theaters from coast to coast.

But as Aaron Sorkin, creator of TV hit ``The West Wing,'' put it, ``Everything changed on Sept. 11'' and Hollywood became ``instantly irrelevant.''

It wasn't long, though, before the U.S. Army came calling. Since the attacks, there have been two five-hour meetings between intelligence experts and some of Hollywood's creative minds. The intent was to brainstorm about future terrorist threats - attempts to ``think out of the box.''

Details of the meetings are few because the participants asked to remain anonymous. Apparently the concept was born out of a desire to tap into Hollywood's feverish imagination in the wake of one of the most fiendish and deadly plots imaginable. As one director speculated, some ``very insane scenarios'' were probably tossed around in those meetings.

The engine for the initial meetings was the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, a 2-year-old brain trust for the U.S. Army that creates virtual-reality training tools for the military with input from the Hollywood community. Richard Lindheim, ICT executive director, said his institute was asked by military intelligence officials to ``bring a group of entertainment people together (to) hear their ideas because we know they're going to think a bit differently (and) maybe they have some ideas we haven't thought of.''

Looking for loopholes

While no ones knows what value these meeting may yield, it's not so farfetched for established groups to go to unusual sources for intelligence. Groups are usually trying to defend a system, while those trying to penetrate it are looking for the cracks and loopholes. Law enforcement and private agencies, for instance, have for years been hiring burglars and hackers to test security and computer networks.

An ITC spokesman says reports about the meetings have been ``60 percent wrong'' but confirmed that more are expected to take place.

``The fact these people volunteered to have these meetings and think about these issues is for the good, and they should be congratulated,'' Lindheim said. ``They want to remain anonymous, and that's their privilege,'' he said. ``The reward will be maybe we can save some lives; maybe we can provide some information.''

Filmmakers say the exchange of ideas could be useful, and view it as part of a grander war effort, much like the united front Hollywood portrayed during World War II.

``Well, why not?'' said director Kevin Sullivan (`` How Stella Got Her Groove Back''). ``That's think-tank stuff; that's brain food. We can serve our country in that way; I'd be willing to do that.'' Sullivan was talking at a forum titled ``Post Terror America: Hollywood Reacts'' at Occidental College earlier this week.

Sullivan says, though, ``If the White House came to me and said, 'You need to make a movie about some happy soldiers,' I'd tell them to go fish ... Our job isn't to be a propaganda machine for the United States military. I would never agree to be that.''

But the White House has already come calling. Emissaries from the Bush administration held a closed-door meeting with about 40 studio chiefs and network heads Oct. 17 in an initial step toward the formation of a nonpartisan arts and entertainment task force. The idea would be to marshal resources, one participant suggested, but not to create propaganda films.

Possibilities discussed included documentaries on the anthrax threat, how to address terrorism scenarios in TV shows and fostering better understanding of the United States' role overseas.

``There's a lot of talent in the arts community that can be put to great use in these trying times,'' said Craig Haffner, a producer who helped organize the meeting.

Since Sept. 11, it has been speculated that Hollywood would soon start churning out a spate of patriotic-themed films featuring the U.S. military in action. But feature films take years to produce. Right now, it's still more about what's not being produced.

Producer Dan Paulson, who made the terrorist flick ``Passenger 57,'' canceled a project about Osama bin Laden. Paulson was about to shop it around when the Sept. 11 attacks took place. ``There will be a time when we're poised and ready again for the Osama project, but not now,'' Paulson said.

The more immediate impact would more likely be seen on television or the Internet. The Walt Disney Co., for instance, has plans to produce or promote a multifaceted project celebrating the 200th anniversary of the United States Military Academy at West Point. The deal, valued at more than $25 million, includes a prime-time two-hour special to air in June on ABC, tentatively titled ``Young America Celebrates West Point,'' as well as programming on the History Channel, A&E, ABC Radio and ESPN.

Creative people in Hollywood are still examining what part they should play in the new crisis.

``I think that in some way when you look at something that is scary or chaotic or difficult to see, there is a role, finally, whether at the moment or as the time unfolds afterward, to attempt to translate that in some way,'' said director-producer Ed Zwick, whose films include ``The Siege,'' which dealt with a terrorist attack on New York.

But others predict it could be many years before Hollywood deals with recent events in any kind of meaningful way.

``There is such a gigantic sadness connected to what happened on Sept. 11 that movies about it would be difficult for a filmmaker to stomach now,'' said Rod Lurie, director of ``The Last Castle.'' ``I think it will take a while and a lot of distance. It may take a decade.''

< More than flag-waving

Some have wondered if the days of big-budget body-count films are numbered. Studio production executive Sean Daniel believes the strength of Hollywood is that ``we know how to put imagery and music and words together in a way that reveals America, and it reveals larger values, not simply flag-waving.''

Author and film-TV producer Stephen J. Cannell says, ``I certainly applaud patriotism, and we were long overdue for a good shot of that. How that finds its way into the entertainment business is anybody's guess. But we're seeing a change in values.''

Oscar-winning director-producer Sydney Pollack (``Out of Africa'') says he hopes any films dealing with current events that are made will be created for purer motives than ``a sense of obligation.''

National tragedies, Pollack explained, have ``taken a long time to filter into the unconscious of - let's not even say artists - let's just say people who were in charge of popular culture. It took 30 years after World War I before we got a serious movie about World War I.''

And, he cautions, ``It would be a terrible mistake to do this sort of ... rip it off the front page of the paper and let's quick get into production with a movie about terrorism in order to show how patriotic we are. (That) would just be a terrible mistake.''

ICT helps military take trial run at war strategy

In military terms, the Institute for Creative Technologies is SBU - ``sensitive but unclassified.''

The institute, operated since 1999 by the University of Southern California, is the result of a five-year, $45 million contract with the U.S. Army. It's mission: to develop virtual reality training programs, which include computer graphics research and artificial intelligence.

Richard Lindheim, the ICT's executive director, stresses there's nothing secretive about the organization, which is located on several sleek, wood-paneled floors of a Marina del Rey office building.

``I have no security clearance,'' said Lindheim, a former executive at Universal, Paramount and NBC. ``Nobody here has security clearance. The movie people who volunteered (to brainstorm with Army intelligence officials) did so in the spirit of trying to help.''

During a recent visit to the ICT, staffers sat at computer screens in an open-plan main room, working on projects that can resemble computer games.

One completed project, demonstrated on a 180-degree curved screen, simulates a street scene in a country much like Bosnia where a U.S. soldier is surrounded by a hostile crowd and must make quick decisions about how to deal with the situation and, at the same time, divide his troops, which are needed elsewhere.

``This is very different from the military's traditional training methods, which often focus on battlefield scenarios,'' Lindheim said. ``These are inexpensive methods to teach crisis management and on-the-spot decision-making.''

Hollywood professionals, including screenwriters, directors, art and graphics designers, help develop projects in which the goal is to make those using the tools ``emotionally involved in virtual situations,'' Lindheim said, adding there were no plans to create terrorism-specific scenarios.

``This place was set up to be a collaboration with the entertainment industry,'' Lindheim said. ``That's the reason it's located in L.A., to work with entertainment people and get their input. Our basic function is to develop training tools so soldiers and military leaders can make better decisions. The idea is to put them in a situation under pressure and let them make decisions.

``After all, in the virtual world, the worst consequence is you press the reset button and start all over again. Nobody gets hurt.''

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) THE WAR ROOM

Hollywood re-ups in new combat on terrorism

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

(2) Computer imaging and a vivid imagination can help the military devise ways of handling situations strategists might not have thought up on their own.

(3 -- 4) Films about the Sept. 11 attacks and the military response may be made later, says producer-director Ed Zwick, inset photo, but not now. Terrorist, chaotic images, like this of Bruce Willis in Zwick's film ``The Seige,'' may be too much to take now.

(5) ``The West Wing'' creator Aaron Sorkin, left, says Hollywood became ``instantly irrelevant'' on Sept. 11, but production executive Sean Daniel, right, believes Hollywood can buoy patriotism in a nonschmaltzy way.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

(6) SULLIVAN

(7) LINDHEIM

Box: ICT helps military take trial run at war strategy (see text)