Britney Banks on the Pop Connection

Hey, does the name Britney Spears ring a bell? As the producer of “Crossroads,” the pop starlet’s debut film that’s due in theaters Friday, Ann Carli knew that you’d have to be locked in a Guantanamo Bay prison camp to avoid seeing Spears’ sultry smile and gyrating hips.

Britney is everywhere: on magazine covers from Cosmo to Rolling Stone; “Oprah,” “Rosie,” “Saturday Night Live” and “The Tonight Show.” Her Pepsi commercials were all over the Super Bowl. And Britney is flavor of the month on MTV, with wall-to-wall play of her “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” video and promotions for her film (which is being released by MTV Films), including a week of appearances on “TRL.”

But knowing Spears’ face is one thing; wanting to see her movie is another. So when teen star Mandy Moore’s movie “A Walk to Remember” opened last month, Carli hung out at the Beverly Center, asking girls going into the film whether they wanted to see Britney’s movie too.

“I was so relieved to hear most of them wanted to go,” says Carli, who was a record company artist development exec before switching over to making films. “You can interpret tracking information in a million different ways. I just wanted to ground myself in reality.” When “A Walk to Remember” did an impressive $13.6 million in its opening weekend, Carli was even more optimistic, since trailers for Spears’ film were playing before nearly every print of the film.

“Crossroads” is more than just an attempt to establish Spears as a movie star. It’s also a fascinating example of how closely intertwined the worlds of film and the record industry have become, in large part due to the influence of MTV, which has helped transform pop music into a visual medium. Not a penny of Spears’ $12-million film came from a movie studio. It’s entirely bankrolled by a new wing of the Zomba Group, whose Jive Records label is home to Spears, the Backstreet Boys and R. Kelly. Zomba was so eager to team up with MTV Films and its video channel’s promotional machine that Zomba also put up half of the film’s marketing budget.

I’ll let the critics review the movie, but it’s a respectable acting debut for Spears, certainly better than those kitschy Pepsi ads. And its story line--three teen girls rediscovering their friendship on a cross-country road trip--should appeal to the younger end of her teen audience. The film looks like a shrewd investment, both for Zomba, who believes that a thriving film career will prolong Spears’ life as a pop artist and for Spears, who would like to eventually be viewed as more than just a teen pop tart.

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How times have changed. A decade ago, the gods of rock--Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder--were openly disdainful of movies, seeing them as uncool and artistically bankrupt. But attitudes have undergone a startling transformation. Pop music is dominated by a new generation of teen and hip-hop performers with a far more visual--and entrepreneurial--approach toward entertainment. They don’t share their rock elders’ fear that success equals selling out. Cobain wouldn’t have dreamed of doing a Pepsi commercial; Britney took the $8 million and ran with it. A host of hip-hop stars, including Sean “Puffy” Combs, Master P, Dr. Dre and Jay-Z, run their own record labels and, not coincidentally, have been pursuing second careers in acting and filmmaking.

Movies are a natural fit for hip-hop performers, whose images have largely been shaped by the characters they play in their videos--and in real life. After the success of “Exit Wounds,” DMX signed a lucrative three-picture deal at Warner Bros., even though he was in jail just days before the film’s press junket. For his young fans, his brushes with the law give him far more street-cred as an action hero than a graybeard like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Hip-hop stars also have more time to pursue films. Rock bands tour incessantly: Linkin Park spent 325 days on tour last year. But few hip-hop artists tour extensively, leaving plenty of time for moonlighting in films.

Films also have played a bigger role in shaping their artistic identities. Rap music is full of references to movies, especially gangster films. “The hip-hop generation grew up on movies,” says manager Benny Medina, who represents Jennifer Lopez and has worked in the past with Will Smith and Combs. “Film is a natural reference point, both in their lyrics and in their video images. When you’re out on a hip-hop tour, you can’t get on the bus and not find [videos] of ‘Scarface,’ ‘Heat’ and ‘The King of New York.’”

Ice Cube is already a movie kingpin, having helped create the enormously successful series of “Friday” films. Method Man and Redman just starred in the comedy “How High.” LL Cool J has been impressive in a number of supporting roles--he has a sizable part in “Rollerball.” Jay-Z makes his acting debut with Beanie Sigel in “State Property,” a gangster film opening here March 1.

Eminem will star in “8 Mile,” a drama directed by Curtis Hanson that is slated for release this summer. After having a small part in “The Fast and the Furious,” Ja Rule is doing an action picture with Steven Seagal and has said his next album will be his last; he wants to concentrate on acting full time. Everyone has been wooing Alicia Keys, who’s been linked to several film projects, including a “Star Is Born” remake with Smith.

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But making the transition from music to movies is easier said than done. It was easy for Sinatra and Elvis, Streisand and Cher, even for Markie Mark, the teen idol who matured into Mark Wahlberg. It has been much harder for Madonna, Mick Jagger and Mariah Carey, the latter of whom had a titanic bomb with “Glitter” last fall. Ditto for ‘N Sync heartthrobs Lance Bass and Joey Fatone, whose recent film “On the Line” failed miserably.

Why do some performers make a seamless transition and others embarrass themselves? Interscope Records chief Jimmy Iovine, a producer of “8 Mile,” thinks it’s all about talent. “It’s simple--some pop stars can act and some can’t,” he says. But he adds: “I think you see hip-hop artists making movies because their sensibility is visual. They don’t listen to music, they watch it.”

Most pop stars who’ve failed in film have either brought too much baggage with them or made music films with barely-a-step-away-from-reality characters. “There are exceptions like ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ [with Diana Ross playing jazz and blues legend Billie Holiday], but it’s always a mistake for someone like Mariah to play music people,” says Rod Stewart manager Arnold Stiefel, who was a producer of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” “The concept doesn’t work. It either ends up being too close to reality or the story is too thin because it’s just an excuse to let the performer play someone like themselves.”

Not all musicians have the work ethic needed to be a success in films. “Whether you come from hip-hop or pop or rock, it’s all about drive, discipline and focus,” says Medina. “That’s what separates someone like Ice Cube from a dozen other talented artists. Will Smith was already becoming the character he played in ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ before he even got the part. The ones that make it have a healthy obsession with challenging themselves.”

Having spent 11 years at Zomba Music, where she helped sign Smith’s rap group, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Carli was a perfect point person for Spears’ transition to film. After leaving Zomba, Carli ran Smith’s production company, served as executive producer of the hit “Men in Black” soundtrack and co-produced “Brother,” Takeshi Kitano’s critically lauded 2001 gangster movie.

For Carli, it was important to surround Spears with women who’d done female-oriented projects in the past. Screenwriter Shonda Rhimes wrote “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,” an Emmy-winning TV movie with Halle Berry. Director Tamra Davis has made more than 100 music videos, an Indigo Girls concert film and “Guncrazy,” starring Drew Barrymore.

Years ago, Carli tried to persuade Zomba chief Clive Calder to make a movie with Smith. He’d passed. But when she proposed a Spears film, he agreed to finance the entire project. While there’s no soundtrack for the movie, Spears’ new CD has three songs from the film, including her “Not a Girl” hit. The CD also has a three-minute clip of behind-the-scenes footage from the film. “This wasn’t about helping boost Britney’s album sales, though obviously it may help,” says Carli. “Clive has always been grateful for the role Britney has played in the growth of his company, and he believed in giving her an opportunity to start a career in another medium.”

Does Britney have what it takes to make it in movies? Carli is optimistic. “I think a lot of artists look at the success of someone like Will Smith and think it’s easy, but it’s not,” she says. “It takes work and talent, but it also takes something more undefinable. I’d call it the common touch, the thing that allows audiences to relate to an artist, to make an emotional connection with them. Will and Ice Cube and Mark Wahlberg all have it. And I think Britney’s got it too.”

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“The Big Picture” runs every Tuesday in Daily Calendar. If you have questions, ideas or criticism, e-mail them to patrick.goldstein@latimes. com.