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Suite<br />
HOLLYWOOD<br />
UPDATES<br />
Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox<br />
announced plans to distribute a special edition<br />
of the original "Star Wars" motion picture<br />
for worldwide theatrical release in 1 997,<br />
20 years after the film's first release in 1977.<br />
The special edition will feature previously<br />
unreleased footage, new digital special effects,<br />
and a digitally remastered soundtrack.<br />
New breakthroughs in computer graphics developed<br />
by Industrial Light & Magic will be<br />
used to add new creatures, vehicles and androids<br />
into the film. The technology will also<br />
allow George Lucas to complete the scene in<br />
which Han Solo confronts Jabba the Hutt,<br />
which was never shown in the original release.<br />
Lucas is also anxious to have audiences<br />
experience the film with the THX Sound System,<br />
whose introduction came after the premiere<br />
of the film.<br />
|oe Roth, chairman of the Walt Disney<br />
Motion Picture Croup, has optioned the remake<br />
rights from RKO Pictures chairman Ted<br />
Hartley for the 1949 classic monster movie<br />
"Mighty )oe Young." Holly Coldberg Sloan<br />
("Made in America," "Angels in the Outfield")<br />
will script the King Kong-esque story, this<br />
version telling the tale of a woman lured from<br />
her home in Africa to perform with her sizable<br />
simian in Las Vegas. The original was directed<br />
by Ernest B. Schoedsack, starred Terry Moore,<br />
Ben lohnson and Robert Armstrong, and featured<br />
Oscar-winning special effects by Willis<br />
O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen. Special effects<br />
creator Rick Baker ("An American Werewolf<br />
in London") is in talks to design the ape— his<br />
experience on "Corillas in the Mist" makes<br />
him an ideal candidate for this monkey business.<br />
"The Pocahontas Summer Spectacular at<br />
The El Capitan Theatre" is well on its way to<br />
breaking the sales record set by last year's<br />
"Lion King Spectacular at the El Capitan Theatre,"<br />
which sold a total of 30,200 tickets.<br />
Moviegoers snapped up 16,549 advance<br />
"Pocahontas" tickets on the first day the<br />
[)hone lines opened. The combination screening/live<br />
stage show opens June 16 in Hollywood<br />
and runs through August 20. Tickets can<br />
be purchased by calling 1-800-95 POCAH<br />
(1-800-957-6224).<br />
Director John Singleton and producer Edward<br />
R. Pressman will bring the black lomic<br />
Ixjok superhero, Luke Cage, to the silver<br />
screen. Joe Doughrity will script the project<br />
about a prisoner who is endowed with superhuman<br />
powers after submitting to imperiling<br />
experiments in exchange for his freedom. The<br />
character was created by Stan Lee of "Spider-<br />
Man" fame.<br />
I<br />
ilmmaker Martin Scorsese ("Casino") ,m)(\<br />
"Forrest Gump" cD-produt er Steve Tisch arc<br />
the newest members of New York University's<br />
Tisch School of the Arts Dean's C'ouncil. They<br />
join actors Alec Baldwin, Bill ( osby and Sidney<br />
Poitier in advising Mary Schmidt Campbell,<br />
dean of the film, television and drama<br />
school. The Council meets periodically<br />
throughout the year to promote better communication<br />
between the school and the academic,<br />
business, philanthropic and public<br />
communities. Tisch school alumni include<br />
Spike Lee, Billy Crystal and Oliver Stone.<br />
Savoy Pictures has signed filmmakers Steve<br />
James and Peter Gilbert, the duo behind the<br />
acclaimed documentary "Hoop Dreams," for<br />
a two-picture deal. The first project will be a<br />
film version of "Foul! The Connie Hawkins<br />
Story," a novel by David Wolf about the life<br />
of the NBA star. The second film will be an<br />
adaptation of W. Colin McKay's play, "Nagasaki<br />
Dust," set just before the attack on Pearl<br />
Harbor, about a Japanese-American who is set<br />
to be tried as a traitor, and the American sent<br />
to represent him.<br />
"The Industry News and Marketplace," a<br />
live, half-hour, nightly television news program<br />
devoted exclusively to the entertainment<br />
industry, premiered April 24 in Southern<br />
California markets. The show features two<br />
distinct segments. The first half, "The Industry<br />
News," is devoted to hard entertainment industry<br />
news. The second segment, "The Industry<br />
Marketplace," gives viewers a first look<br />
at electronic press kits, sales reels, promotional<br />
and industrial videos and clips of films<br />
seeking distribution. The program airs weeknights<br />
at 1 1 p.m. on KDOC-TV.<br />
BITS AND PIECES: Rick Berman will produce<br />
and co-write the next "Star Trek" movie<br />
for Paramount. This film will feature the cast<br />
of TV's "Star Trek: The Next Generation."<br />
Berman produced and co-wrote "Star Trek<br />
Generations," which has earned over $75<br />
million to date. ..Filmmaker Norman Jewison<br />
("Moonstruck," "Only You") has signed a<br />
three-picture deal with New Regency Productions.<br />
This move comes after his deal with<br />
Warner Bros, expired in December. ..New<br />
Line Cinema's bid of $1 million against $1 .5<br />
million won the studio Billy Ray's "Legalese,"<br />
a courtroom satire examining the current controversy<br />
of the media's influence on courtroom<br />
proceedings, and the court's<br />
manipulation of the media. Warner Bros, and<br />
Stiefel-Phillips Entertainment bought the<br />
screen rights to "Nathan!" for $250,000<br />
against $525,000. The novel, by John<br />
Gilstrap, is about a 1 2-year-old murderer on<br />
the run. .. Director Miios Forman ("Amadeus,"<br />
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") is in<br />
talks to helm Columbia's "Larry Flynt," a<br />
biographical film about the publisher of Hustler<br />
magazine who was shot and paralyzed<br />
during an assassination attempt. Bill Murray<br />
has been discussed for the lead role. ..Universal<br />
paid $500,000 against $750,000 for Joseph<br />
Brutsman and Tony Peck's spec sc ri[)t<br />
"Paul Bunyan: The True Story of a KtO-Foot-<br />
Tall Lumberjack and His 9,0()()-Pound Blue<br />
Ox Babe," in which a scientist linds ihc lolklore<br />
hero and his bovine Iriend picscMAcd<br />
under ice at the North Pole.<br />
CORRECTION: In the April issue of<br />
Bo\onK[, Christie Inc. should hnve heen<br />
credited with supplying platters and consoles<br />
to SoCal Cinemas anil Sony Theatres. Additionally,<br />
AB International supplied SoCal's<br />
amplifiers.— Ed.<br />
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