(FORTUNE Magazine) – David Zucker has won acclaim as director of Airplane!, Ruthless People, and Naked Gun. Now he can add For Goodness Sake, a video about how to be Mr. Nice Guy. The 24-minute film, made by Los Angeles-based Mentor Media, features Jason Alexander, of Seinfeld fame, and O.J. Simpson, and is part of a trend in which training videos are going Hollywood. The move is one of necessity. Says Ann Boland, general manager of the British company Video Arts: ''The average training film is so boring. We decided to go the fun route.'' One of the company's recent releases is Meetings, Bloody Meetings, featuring John Cleese, the absurdist comedian of Monty Python fame, who is a co-founder of the firm. Change Lab International of Greenwich, Connecticut, which produces the popular Power of Change series about upping an organization's competitiveness, makes abundant use of Hollywood talent such as Jonathan Elias, sound editor for In the Line of Fire.

Of course, quality productions require big bucks. Says Kris Winter, president of Mentor Media: ''There used to be a rule of training video production that you didn't spend more than $30,000, didn't charge more than $300, and broke even by selling 300 copies.'' Now, videos with pricetags pushing $1,000 sell up to 10,000 copies. And production costs often approach $500,000. Not Jurassic Park-size numbers. Still, before long some producer might say, ''Sharon Stone on total quality. Sounds like a winner, babe. My people will talk to your people and . . .''

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: FORTUNE TABLE/SOURCE: VIDEOLEARNING RESOURCE GROUP CAPTION: HOT-SELLING VIDEOS