Curriculum Vitae for TV? A Movie Credit Can’t Hurt

What do directors Barry Sonnenfeld (“Men in Black”), Zalman King (“9 1/2 Weeks”) and Wes Craven (“Scream”) and producer Mark Johnson (“Rain Man”), have in common? If you answered “They’re producing new prime-time TV series” (or “They have happy accountants”), go to the head of the class.

The major networks remain starry-eyed when it comes to bringing people with feature-film credentials to television, and each year more filmmakers seem eager to make the jump, further blurring the lines between the two media.

In addition to Sonnenfeld’s push with his two ABC series, Johnson is producing CBS’ “L.A. Doctors,” a drama starring Ken Olin, and King--known principally as a master of erotica with films like “Wild Orchid” and the NC-17-rated “Delta of Venus”--moves from the sheets to the waves with NBC’s “Wind on Water,” whose cast includes Bo Derek.

Two other series spurring buzz among TV critics, the WB’s “Felicity” and ABC’s “Sports Night,” come from Imagine Entertainment, whose principals are Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, the team behind “Apollo 13.” Moreover, feature writers are steering both of those shows: J.J. Abrams (“Forever Young”) and Aaron Sorkin (“A Few Good Men,” “The American President”), respectively.

Looking beyond series premiering this fall, director Martin Scorsese agreed in the last few months to develop an ABC series, and CBS forged similar ties with Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, the producing tandem whose credits include “Alive” and “Arachnophobia.”

“The artistic separation between film and television no longer exists,” said Johnson, the producer of “A Little Princess” as well as numerous Barry Levinson films, who has joined with screenwriter John Lee Hancock (“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”) on “L.A. Doctors.” Johnson added that, in his view, TV’s best comedy series are “a hell of a lot more impressive and a lot funnier than film comedy.”

This movement of filmmakers into television has continued even though such pedigreed talent has enjoyed no greater (and perhaps even less) success generating hit shows in the past than those principally dedicated to television.

Imagine, for example, struck out last season with “Hiller and Diller” despite a plum slot after “Home Improvement,” while “Independence Day” duo Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich didn’t achieve any ratings pyrotechnics with Fox’s “The Visitor.” Other also-rans featured such names as “GoodFellas” writer Nicholas Pileggi (on CBS’ “Michael Hayes”), director Robert Altman (ABC’s “Gun”) and “Armageddon” producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who helped turn “Dangerous Minds” into an ABC series.

Then there’s “Hollyweird,” whose producers include Craven. The prototype has already been scrapped and the show is still being recast, leaving some doubt as to whether the series will ever air, much less meet an announced November premiere date.

Even Marshall and Kennedy’s frequent collaborator, Steven Spielberg, has produced such high-profile flops as “seaQuest DSV” and “Amazing Stories.” (Of course, he is also involved with a resounding smash, NBC’s “ER,” as is novelist and screenwriter Michael Crichton.)

The fact that feature-film folk still command special attention when they decide to work in television irks some TV producers, who say sought-after directors like Sonnenfeld often become the TV equivalent of absentee landlords.

“Mostly [the networks] do it for the announcement,” said one television producer, suggesting that linking new programs to major filmmakers provides “some flash for the advertisers and network affiliates. [The creators] do the pilot and move on.”

Still, the film writers, directors and producers associated with new series insist they are committed to television, if occasionally astounded by the frenetic pace and limitations like an eight-day shooting schedule on one-hour dramas.

“I really like having a longer relationship with something that I write,” noted “Sports Night’s” Sorkin, who spends 18 months or more working on a screenplay, becomes enamored with that universe and then has little to show for it other than the poster hanging on his wall.

On the flip side, he said with a laugh, because of the discipline to turn out a script every week, “I just live in a constant state of fear.” Johnson agreed, calling the challenge of turning out episodes week after week “intimidating.”

Abrams, who began his feature career at 23 by selling the script for “Regarding Henry,” hadn’t intended to create a TV show when he and partner Matt Reeves came up with the idea for “Felicity,” about a young girl who impulsively departs from her carefully planned future and enrolls in a New York college. For them, turning the premise into a series grew out of a love for the characters.

“We kind of realized that any story line that validated this as a film felt phony,” Abrams said. “We started thinking if this was a TV show, it would allow us to tell this story over a long period of time . . . and deal with the minutia of the situation.”

In order to focus on the series, Abrams has delayed a feature he wrote and plans to direct. Still, he doesn’t feel he is forgoing opportunities, saying he can devote time to other projects during the production hiatus. (David E. Kelley has proved that point, managing to write and produce features while overseeing two series, “The Practice” and “Ally McBeal.”)

Given the positive reaction to “Felicity,” Abrams added that he’d be hard-pressed to step away from the show because it’s “rare to find something you can be proud of. It feels like for the first time I am professionally doing something that is exhilarating.”

Strictly on a commercial level, the millions of dollars “ER” and “Seinfeld” reap for their producers from syndication have demonstrated that television can be even more lucrative than features for a hit show’s creators.

“There’s no doubt the agents were happy when I said I was going to do television,” Sorkin said. “There is money to be made there.”

To King, whose fascination with surfing and extreme sports (a central part of the Hawaii-set “Wind on Water”) grew out of directing the surfing film “In God’s Hands,” TV offers several advantages, among them reaching a larger audience. A popular television show, in fact, can be seen by more people in a week than most movies in their entire theatrical runs.

“I’ve really wanted to broaden out and do a mainstream show,” he said. “It’s fun to be a filmmaker that can work every single day and not be in development. . . . There’s a [sense of] satisfaction in having a lot of people watch your work.”

Sorkin, meanwhile, is simply enjoying the creative process. Although he understands that network executives may blanch to hear him say so, the writer also conceded that delivering big ratings is not his top priority.

“I’m not going to mind so much if it’s a really good show and it doesn’t attract the 20 million people that [they] want,” he said. “I would mind if it’s not a really good show. That would be heartbreaking.”

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(F1) When Less Is More: “Fantasy Island,” top, is a Barry Sonnenfeld project starring Malcolm McDowell, right. Zalman King’s “Wind on Water,” center, is tamer than his films. Mark Johnson is producing “L.A. Doctors,” with Matt Craven, left, Ken Olin and Rick Roberts.