Studio Move Fuels Turner’s Ambitions : Entertainment: Two respected companies and an independent vision may let the mogul make his mark in Hollywood.

In typical Ted Turner fashion, at the crucial moment he was missing.

While Turner Broadcasting System executives were busy writing a press release Tuesday announcing that the cable entrepreneur’s board had finally approved the purchases of Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema, Turner was already winging his way to his 120,000-acre Montana ranch in his private jet, thereby delaying the announcement for several hours.

Turner’s colleagues by now are used to him vanishing--like the time in Cannes, France, when he was supposed to be at a news conference but instead borrowed a car and went cruising around the surrounding hillsides--only to suddenly appear at the appointed hour.

While such quirky behavior would not be tolerated in most businesses, Turner’s frequent absenteeism is overshadowed by his larger vision: that now is the time for exploiting the growing global demand for entertainment, just as the 1980s were the time for unparalleled cable TV growth. His $650-million purchases of Castle Rock and New Line make Turner a front-line player in Hollywood, and also position him to become one of the world’s leading entertainment providers.

As Turner unwinds at his Montana ranch this week with his guest-cum-new business partner, Castle Rock Chief Executive Alan Horn, Hollywood studio executives are busy sizing up their new colleague.

What they will find is a fiercely independent operator who is not afraid to take chances, or of challenging the existing power structure.

Indeed, Turner has never been impressed by Hollywood etiquette. In one of his first meetings with Barry Diller, an overheated Turner jumped up and down on Diller’s living room coffee table, forever annoying the two-time studio chief and now TV home shopping king.

In movies, Turner’s taste runs to quixotic themes.

In an early foray into filmmaking, the cable magnate helped back a 1987 feature titled “Amazing Grace and Chuck,” which starred Gregory Peck as the President of the United States, who wanted to consult with a precocious 12-year-old boy before meeting with the Soviets to discuss nuclear disarmament. The New York Times called the film “silly and far-fetched.”

More recently, Turner filmed a cameo role for the upcoming TNT production “Gettysburg,” which will also be shown theatrically this fall.

What Turner gets in his latest deal is control and ownership of two of the most respected Hollywood independents. Although the deals came about independently, Turner sees Castle Rock and New Line together forming a new studio powerhouse that might challenge the majors.

Castle Rock is known for turning out critical and popular favorites such as “In the Line of Fire” and “A Few Good Men.” New York-based New Line, a publicly traded company with about 200 employees, is one of the only consistently successful production and distribution companies in the film industry. Its hits include the Ninja Turtle films.

Hollywood is littered with ambitious and successful businessmen who have lost fortunes trying to take on the major studios. But Turner’s game plan is based on the premise that there will be an expanding global market for entertainment well through the next century.

“Turner wants to bring entertainment services to blossoming markets,” said Mary L. Kukowski, an analyst with First Boston Corp. in New York. “But he cannot do that with pre-1950s movies. This is about freshening up his library to take it to the world.”

A well-stocked film and TV library is the key to Turner’s operations and will play a more crucial role in expansion plans, analysts said, especially on the global level, where competition is intensifying from regional and satellite broadcasters.

For example, Turner used his 1986 purchase of the MGM/UA film library as the programming backbone to launch TNT, now widely regarded as the most successful launch of a new cable TV network in history. Then last year he used his purchase of animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions to start the Cartoon Network, a 24-hour cartoon channel.

Still, Wall Street reacted to the news Wednesday by pounding Turner B shares down $1.125 to $23. New Line shares rose 75 cents to $19.625. Castle Rock is privately owned.

Analysts had different explanations for the drop in Turner’s stock price. Some said the higher than anticipated value of the complicated deal--at least $150 million more than what some analysts had been estimating--caused arbiters to bid down the price of the stock.

But First Boston’s Kukowski said investors may be prematurely underestimating the value of the deal.

She points out, for example, that Turner will eventually be able to use New Line to distribute in home many of the titles MGM currently still holds the rights to, which could generate tens of millions in profits.

But Turner’s purchase of Castle Rock and New Line goes beyond simple strategic business reasons. Owning a movie studio, in fact, has been one of Turner’s great ambitions ever since he established his communications empire in the early 1980s.

“He’s always wanted to own a movie studio or TV network,” says one industry executive who knows him well.

“One of Ted’s great disappointments was having to give up control of MGM/UA and being left with only the library.”