Inside Move: Fit to be tied

U specialty pic arms to link under single label

By CHARLES LYONS

In mid-December, shortly after Barry Diller became head of the film and TV assets of Vivendi Universal and USA Networks, Universal Studios prexy-chief operation officer Ron Meyer assured journalists it was too early to say how U's three specialty labels -- USA Films, StudioCanal and Universal Focus -- would fit together.

Now, a plan is emerging. The companies will be molded into one unit that will carry either an entirely new label, a USA Films banner, or a label with the word "Universal" in it.

Unit will operate fairly autonomously from the studio and become U's means of competing in the specialty arena against Miramax and others. One of the unit's mandates will be to bring new talent into the U fold.

The new banner will do both small, platform releases and wide releases.

It's unclear who from the three companies will stay and who will leave. USA Films chairman Scott Greenstein is believed to be a likely candidate to run the shingle.

USA Films began 2001 with four Oscars and a domestic gross of more than $120 million for the Stephen Soderbergh-helmed "Traffic." And year-end releases such as Robert Altman's "Gosford Park," Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding" and the Coen brothers' "The Man Who Wasn't There" have each been generating kudos buzz.

U Focus' David Lynch-helmed "Mulholland Drive" is considered a front-runner for a best picture Oscar nom.

As for the deal with directors that USA Films has been developing: Negotiations are ongoing for Soderbergh, Spike Jonze, David Fincher, Alexander Payne and other helmers to make pics under the new U specialty banner.