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Shirley MacLaine Company Will
Film Amelia Earhart's Story
Shirley MacLaine will star later this \ear
in a major film based on the adventurous
life of Amelia Earhart. The film, "Amelia,"'
will be produced by Shirley's own company,
MacLaine Productions, and the script is
being prepared by Pete Hamill, prize-winning
New York Post columnist who wrote
the widely acclaimed novel "The Gift" and
screenplays for "Doc" (United Artists) and
Paramount Pictures has
other films . . .
set for production "Framed," an original
screenplay by Mort Briskin, and signed him
to produce the filin. Phil Karlson will direct
and Joe Don Baker will play the starring
role. Briskin, Karlson and Joe Don Baker
make up the trio responsible for the highly
successful production of "Walking Tall."
"Framed" will be filmed entirely in Nashville,
Tenn.
Universal's 'Rooster Cogburn'
Continuing Wayne's Oscar Role
Hal \\'alli^. committed this year to four
priKluctions lor Universal, announced thai
John Wayne will star in "Rooster Cogburn,"
continuing the role of the grizzled gunfighter
with the eyepatch which won him
an Oscar in 1970 for "True Grit." Also
on Wallis's slate are "To Die in California,"
"The Raid on Villa Joyosa" and "Panic"
Walter Shenson, who produced the
. . .
Beatle.s' films, has moved on to the MGM
lot to prepare his first U.S. movie, "We
Try Harder," for MGM. Shenson's most
recent production, "Digby, the Biggest Dog
in the World," will be released in the U.S.
this summer by Cinerama Releasing Corp.
... An original script by Robert Blees,
"Scoring," will be produced by Arthur
Productions, with the writer acting as producer
and Arthur Marks, General Film
Corp. president, as executive producer.
in a joint venture with the USSR, was announced
by author-producer Aramais
Hovsepian, following his return from the
USSR. "Your House and Mine" will be
made at the Kino Studio.s, Erevan, Armenia,
By SYD CASSYD
the L .S. P.iul Kohner is the producer's
agent, with Paul Ross handling public relations.
Steve McQueen, Paul Newman
Teaming in
'Towering Inferno'
Hollywood's two lop male superstars will
be teamed for the first time with the signing
of Steve McQueen and Paul Newman
to head the cast of Irwin Allen's multimillion-dollar
production of "The Towering
Inferno" for 20th-Fox and Warner Bros.
Newman will portray the architect of the
tallest building in the world and McQueen
will be seen as the fire chief who leads
the battle against an awesome holocaust
when the towering structure catches fire.
According to producer Allen, the picture
will be made in the same manner as "The
Poseidon .Adventure" with John Guillermin
signed as director and Allen personally directing
the action sequences. This production
marks the first time that two major
studios have formed a joint venture to produce
a motion picture. Stirling Silliphant
adapted the screenplay for the screen from
two similar novels, Richard Martin Stern's
"The Tower" and "Glass Inferno'" by Frank
Robinson and Tom Scortia. Production will
begin at 20th-Fox in early May.
Frank Perry Seeking Eight
Major Actors for Same Film
Frank Perry is in town seeking actors
of major stature for the eight strong central
roles called for in "Rancho Deluxe," which
he will direct as a Frank Perry-Elliott
Kastner co-production for United Artists.
Perry hopes to have the film before the
cameras before May 1 . . . Deborah Raffin
has signed for the much discussed role of
"January," nymphet daughter of a Hollywood
film executive in Paramount's Howard
W. Goch production Jacqueline Susann's
"Once Is Not Enough." She joins a multi-
Dallas Forty," Paramount's expose of pro
football, will have Oscar winners Jerem\
Earner as its writer and Hal Ashby as director
. . . Frank Pierson will write the
screenplay for Columbia's "Caves of Steel.'
a science fiction picture based on a novel
by award-winning author Isaac Asimov.
The film will be producer Gerald Ayres'
next Acrobat production to go before the
cameras. His most recent film for Columbia
was "The Last Detail."
Weaving 'At Long Last Love'
Around 23 Cole Porter Tunes
Twentieth Centur>-Fox has entered into
an agreement with Peter Bogdanovich to
film "At Long Last Love," which will contain
23 Cole Porter tunes of the 1920s
and 1930s. These are to be integrated into
the comedy-romance script by Bogdanovich
and will be filmed on several Hollywood
studio back lots. Jere Henshaw, 20th-
Fox vice-president in charge of worldwide
production, said that production is to begin
in June for a possible December release.
Arthur Butler will supervise the musical
scoring and Frank Marshall is to be the
associate producer . . . Executive producer
Ron Miller has named Jerome Courtland
producer and John Hough director of Walt
Disney Productions" "Escape to Witch
Mountain."' The story of two young orphans
with supernatural powers, the Technicolor
thriller rolls in April near Monterey, Calif.
. . . "Shampoo," which went before the
cameras this week with Warren Beatty.
Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn starring.
is being produced by Beatty for Columbia
Pictures. Hal .Ashby directs from an original
comedy screenplay by Robert Towns and
'California Split' Character
Role Assigned Bert Remsen
Bert Remsen. an actor and casting director
for Spelling-Goldberg Productions,
has one of the character roles in Robert
Altman's "California Split." starring George
Segal and Elliott Gould . Clift.
a discovery in Houston, Tex., will make
her cinema debut in World Wide Pictures'
"Hiding Place" as Corrie ten Boom, whose
book, about her experiences as the organ-
star cast headed by Kirk Douglas, Alexis
USSR-U.S. Co-Production Pact
Smith, Melinda Mercouri, David Janssen izer-leader of a Dutch underground operation
a.ssisting Jews to escape invading
Involves Two Motion Pictures and George Hamilton . . . Mexican actor
\ major co-produclion agreement, m- Pedro Armendariz jr. will play the Chicano Nazis, became a best seller . . . Producer
volving two pictures to be made in English policeman buddy of George Kennedy in Lester Welch is conducting a nationwide
Universal's and the Filmakers Group's search for an unknown to play the title
"Earthquake," contemporary drama about role in his "The Mario Lanza Story," to
a massive tremor that destroys much of Los be filmed this fall . . . Hope Lange was
Angeles. Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner. signed by co-producers Dino de Laurentiis
Lome Greene and a large name-cast of and Michael Winner to star opposite Charles
for distribution in the Soviet block, possibly performers already are signed for the film. Bronson in "Death Wish," which Winner is
English to the rest of
directing for Paramount release. Ms. Lange.
manager and sound technician will be sent
in the picture, which is being filmed on
over from the U.S. "Family Revenge," the Oscar nominees Alan and .Marilyn Bergman
have been pacted to write a song for
star Roberta Flack has been
location in Hawaii, Arizona and New York
second picture in the agreement, will be
filmed in Hollywood in the summer of the film "99-3/4% Dead,"' a 20th-Fox Picture
starring Richard Harris . . . Jordan title role of famed blues singer Bessie Sitiith
signed by producer Porter Bibb to play the
1975, produced by international filmmaker
Eugene Franks. Written by Hovsepian, the Cronenwelh has been a.ssigned as cinematographer
for Universal's "The Front Page," based on Chris Albertson's book of the
in Portable Productions feature. "Bessie."
story involves a blood feud carried on
through three generations in Armenia and being directed by Billy Wilder . . . "North simic title.
in Russian, and in
the world by the Hov.sepian group. The
a two-time Emmy-winner and Oscar nominee,
plays the pivotal role of Bronson's wife
Alan, Marilyn Herman Writing
Song for '99-3/4% Dead'
director, two stars, the editor, production
10
BOXOFFICE :: March 25, 1974