HELENA — Hollywood film producer Peter Rosten scored a smash hit with a school filmmaking program that he started after retiring to southwest Montana’s Bitterroot Valley in 2002.

Now Rosten anticipates a new role as a state legislator — he is a candidate in the November election — followed by a remake of Media Arts in the Public Schools. The project that has turned teenagers into paid film producers will be sidelined during Rosten’s campaign and what he hopes will be his place in the Montana Legislature when it convenes this winter. Rosten says that in late 2009, he will relaunch his media instruction as an institute with a building in the Bitterroot town of Hamilton, tuition, scholarships and programs for adults as well as kids.

“The micro is to serve Ravalli County,” said Rosten, whose 30 years as a Hollywood producer included the 1989 movie “True Believer” with James Woods and Robert Downey Jr., and the 1983-87 TV series “Scarecrow and Mrs. King.” “The macro is to train people so that we can attract film production back to the state. It’s a hugely lucrative business, but if we don’t have the work force, it’s not going to come.” Montana was a hot location for filming in the 1990s, with Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It” among the productions.

The Rosten program began at Corvallis High School in 2004 after he approached school administrators with the idea and said it would cost taxpayers nothing. Last year, Media Arts in the Public Schools, or MAPS, expanded to nearby Darby High School.

Students learn how to direct and film movies, public service announcements and music videos. Paying clients have included Hamilton’s Marcus Daly Hospital, the Ravalli County DUI Task Force and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. The association paid well into in five figures to have students produce television spots for broadcast in 38 states.

Through affiliation with the Montana Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs, the program also functions after school or on weekends at some locations outside the Bitterroot Valley.

Rosten protege Luke McLean now operates Hamilton-based Circumference Productions, which specializes in video editing and is venturing into graphic design. McLean has done work for the Stock Farm Club, a Bitterroot Valley golf, equestrian and residential enclave established in part by investment tycoon and part-time Montanan Charles Schwab.

“I was influenced by Peter’s teachings,” McLean said. “Not only was he giving tips about how to make movies, but he was giving us good insight from his experience in the world of business.” Grants, donations and fees have covered expenses of MAPS. Last year, earnings by some of the students topped $600. The program has drawn praises from Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Linda McCulloch, the state school superintendent.

Rosten, who fell in love with the Bitterroot Valley during a vacation and bought a Darby house in 1992, said establishing MAPS was a way to make a community contribution, but “it was also a gift to me.” “I was too young to retire and I thought, ‘What do I know best?”‘ He has found interest in filmmaking among kids who lack the school affiliation to participate in MAPS, and among older people, one of them a dentist who gave up skiing and wanted a new pursuit. Rosten said those were considerations as he envisioned the new, stand-alone film institute.

“A 50-year-old guy might have an 18-year-old teaching him,” said Rosten, who’s pushing 60. “That’s for them to work out.” He wants to open the school in the fall of 2009.

If he is a legislator, his two-year term will be ongoing but the biennial lawmaking session that takes place in Helena and lasts about 3½ months will be behind him. Rosten figures he’d be able to give proper attention to both his legislative responsibilities and the film school.

He is a Democrat with no challenger in the June primary election as he seeks to represent House District 87. On the Republican side, incumbent Ron Stoker and challenger Julian Milton Jr. are vying to be their party’s candidate when voters go to the polls in November.

Sprawl is among the issues that concern Rosten, who lives in one of Montana’s rapidly growing areas. This month he sponsored a screening of the Jeff Gersh film “Subdivide and Conquer — A Modern Western,” at the Pharoahplex in Hamilton.

On the Net: Media Arts in the Public Schools: www.mediarts.org