'Wrong' Is Right for Her First Film Deal : Ellen DeGeneres signs with Disney for a comedy. She is the latest TV star to take the big-screen plunge.

By CLAUDIA ELLER

Jan. 7, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES MOVIE EDITOR

First Tim; then Ellen. At least that’s what the Walt Disney Co. is betting on by giving Ellen DeGeneres, star of its hit*

ABC comedy series “Ellen,” her first movie deal. She follows on the heels of the stellar movie debut of fellow TV star Tim Allen, whose “The Santa Clause” has been a huge Disney hit.

DeGeneres will star in the comedy “Mr. Wrong,” playing a woman who finally meets the man of her dreams--and he turns out to be a total nightmare. DeGeneres, who proudly boasts she’ll have “a couple of nude sex scenes” in the movie, will shoot during her TV show hiatus, which begins in mid-April.

The quick-witted, 36-year-old comedian from New Orleans was signed by Disney less than a year after her sitcom’s March, 1994, debut. The show is currently ranked No. 10 in the Nielsen ratings and DeGeneres received a best actress Golden Globe nomination two weeks ago.

Joe Roth, Disney motion pictures group chairman, beat out fierce competition from rival studios including Paramount and 20th Century Fox to nab DeGeneres’ debut movie. Production must begin no later than June 1 to accommodate her schedule and to have the movie ready for release late this year or next spring, Roth says. “Ellen” resumes filming in early August. Roth is expecting another draft of the script on Monday. It is being written by Chris Matheson, Kerry Ehrin and Chris Munson and is being produced by Marty Katz. A director and co-stars have yet to be set.

DeGeneres acknowledges that the schedule is tight--”And I’m writing a book, and the deadline is March 1!” she says moments after hanging up the phone with her publisher to tell him she was “panicked.”

Along with “Home Improvement’s” Allen, DeGeneres joins “In Living Color’s” Jim Carrey as recent actors making the leap from TV to film. Allen and Carrey became instant movie stars in 1994, Allen in “The Santa Clause,” which has grossed nearly $140 million, and Carrey in three hits, including the current No. 1 film, “Dumb and Dumber.”

Although sometimes even the most popular TV stars--such as Bill Cosby and Roseanne--can fail to make the leap successfully, Disney is confident that DeGeneres’ popularity and talent will easily translate to movie audiences.

“I saw her series and thought she was great and would be entertaining in any medium,” says Roth, “and I don’t distinguish between TV and film in terms of performers. They either make you laugh or they don’t.”

Conventional thinking is that audiences won’t pay to see some actors in a movie when they can see them for free on TV, and that the more closely a star is identified with a TV role, the harder the transition to the big screen.

“Normally, I completely agree,” Roth says, “but the trick is to get them in a part playing close to the persona of their TV character but not necessarily playing themselves.”

DeGeneres, known for her offbeat wit and self-effacing sense of humor, is confident. “People who like what I do and like my comedy will come see my film.” She says she’s looking forward to having “a lot more creative freedom” and input on her movie than she does on the series. Roth has invited her creative voice on “Mr. Wrong,” wanting her involved in the selection of a director and co-stars, she says.

This comes as a welcome relief for DeGeneres, who in the early days of “Ellen” had a falling out with Neal Marlens, the show’s co-creator and co-executive producer, over the show’s direction and tone. “He (Marlens) doesn’t like to collaborate and that’s an important part for me,” she says. Marlens and partner Carol Black relinquished the creative reigns and left the show before it premiered.

DeGeneres says the role she will play in “Mr. Wrong” will be similar “but not too close” to the character she portrays on her show, Ellen Morgan, a single woman who runs an L.A. bookstore and cafe called Buy the Book.

The character, DeGeneres says, “is pretty satisfied being who she is . . . she’s intelligent, she has a good job but she’s pressured by the people around her--her family and friends--who keep asking her why she’s not married and making her feel bad that she’s not.”

The movie opens with her character in a Mexican prison wearing a wedding gown. “The woman is in disarray and you know something terrible has happened,” DeGeneres says. “She meets this guy who seems to be incredible, just perfect, and slowly we see he’s insane--it’s hysterical. Pretty sick things happen.”

Which, the actress says, is what attracted her to the script.

“It was really important that my first film be right, not a silly comedy . . . and this is not a mainstream comedy,” she says. “I have a kind of twisted sense of humor. I like dark humor.

“I’ve been waiting a long time to do a film,” she adds, recalling how when she first moved to Los Angeles in 1985, “people told me I’d get a series and movie right away. But it didn’t happen right away.”

After an appearance on “The Tonight Show” in 1986, some HBO specials, two small series roles and finally her own TV show, DeGeneres says her mother told her she had read an ad in one of the Hollywood trade papers that a movie company was seeking “an Ellen DeGeneres type.” DeGeneres figured it was her turn.

So, apparently, did most of Hollywood.

Her agent, J.J. Harris of United Talent Agency, says that since her show’s debut, there’s been a “daunting awareness” of her client, culminating in September when she hosted the Emmys.

“Most of the studios called and said they’d like to have a meeting with Ellen and get her hiatus movie,” Harris says. Heading into the Christmas holiday, Harris says, there was “strong interest and offers.”

DeGeneres came close to committing to Paramount’s long-stalled movie “Runaway Bride.” And Fox offered her the female lead in the sequel to “My Cousin Vinny,” after the studio failed to reach a deal with the original star, Marisa Tomei.

“When I met Joe (Roth), I really connected with him. He didn’t seem to be b.s.ing me at all and genuinely sees something in me. He thinks my movie career will be bigger than my TV career. I’ve always thought so too.”

DeGeneres says she would hope to eventually “find a balance between the movie I would ultimately like to do and the movie that will sell a lot of tickets.”

Though she is sensitive about being compared to Tim Allen, she quips: “Obviously, a big goal of mine is to outdo ‘Santa Clause.’ ”

Movie Reviews On-Line: * For L.A. Times reviews on all the major movies still playing in Southern California, check the new TimesLink on-line service. Sign on and “jump” to keyword “movies.”

Details on Times electronic services, A5.