Industry insiders see a direct link between Columbia’s rage and its panic that the $70 million-plus film could bomb-especially going head to head with the omnivorous “Jurassic Park,” which grossed $100 million in a record nine days. “The movie isn’t panning out and they’re blowing their cool big time,” says Wells. But the tempest may also be about him: he’s written articles critical of Columbia for several publications, has others in the works and is believed by Columbia executives to be the pseudonymous author of a Spy magazine column that, among other things, claimed chairman Mark Canton “dozed off” at a screening of one of his own movies. While tout Hollywood stays tuned, no one has suggested how Columbia’s wrath is going to rescue its “Action Hero.”
