Article

By David Germain

LOS ANGELES -- Even if he made movies under an alias, Breck Eisner would have a tough time concealing his Hollywood lineage.

Trim his hair and beard and slap him in a business suit, and Eisner could walk the halls of the Walt Disney Co. as a dead-on younger likeness of his dad, Michael Eisner, the departing boss.

But after eight years directing commercials and TV shows, Eisner is making his big-screen debut with Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey.

"Nobody's going to give me a movie because of my name. I know that. I wouldn't want it, and I'm not stupid enough to believe it," Eisner, 34, says. "Who would give me a $100 million to make a movie because of my name?"

His heritage might have been an obstacle, Eisner says.

"I had an agent that worked with a producer, and what I got back was the producer said, 'I don't want to work with Michael Eisner's son because I don't want to have to fire Michael Eisner's son.' And it was a joke, but I understood what he meant," Eisner says.

Eisner grew up in a Hollywood household but recounts a childhood like many others, saying his strongest memories include summer camp and soccer.

There were perks to visiting his father at work.

"I remember meeting Robin Williams as Mork from Ork on the set and doing the handshake like this, 'Nanu, nanu,' " Eisner says. "So I feel lucky that I got to grow up around that world, but it was not that exotic or exciting a thing."

Sahara is being released by Paramount, where Michael Eisner was once president. It was chance that Breck Eisner's first movie landed there. The only place in town he avoided was his father's current place of business.

"I wasn't going to do a movie for Disney until I established myself," says Eisner, knowing he would face taunts of nepotism. "They already say it now. Can you imagine how much they would say if I did a movie at Disney?"