Will Capra be the angel that saves the studio's life?

• Position: Screen Gems Studios head Frank Capra Jr.

Frank Capra Jr. will tell you it really is a wonderful life. The head of Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington had seven of his eight sound stages booked in February. Universal was shooting a $50 million thriller, Virus, starring Donald Sutherland, Jamie Lee Curtis "and a lot of effects." The Day of the Jackal with Bruce Willis and Richard Gere had wrapped. Two CBS movies were slated for March, and Sony's I Know What You Did Last Summer will finish in May.

Not bad for a studio that was DOA until EUE/Screen Gems stepped in last summer. The New York-based company paid bankrupt Carolco Studios $3.4 million for the 32-acre studio, which Carolco had itself bought from a bankrupt Dino De Laurentiis in 1989.

Screen Gems promptly installed Capra, son of legendary director Frank Capra, as president. "It's been fun," he says, and a return to headier days. His wife, Deborah, is from Wilmington. They met while he was producing the 1984 movie Firestarter for De Laurentiis.

Capra wants to transform the production studio into a real one. That means persuading the New York suits to add an office building. He's improving equipment (one reason Virus came is to build a 60-foot spy-satellite prop) and post-production and wants a commissary. He's started an intern program with UNC Wilmington and is working on one with the N.C. School of the Arts.

It was Firestarter, starring Drew Barrymore, that kindled Capra's interest in Wilmington. "There were no...