Boxoffice-May.21.1979

yX ^J^^oiiuwood IKeport
^
1
Aiircira Productions and Scotti Brother
Micrliiinnicnt will make the life story ot
"^V the late Emmctt Kelly, entitled Clown.
/^ Shooting is scheduled to begin in 1980 with
Tony Scotti producing.
^^^^
FILM PROJECTS
Mad has been added to Warner Bros.'
production schedule. Picture will be based
on the zany treatment of today's lifestyle
as depicted in Mad magazine. Rudy DeLuca
has been signed to write the script. Fred
Weintraub will produce with Daniel Grodnick
and Robert Sharp set as executive producers.
Altered States began location filming
May 15 in Creel, in the State of Chiquaqua,
Mexico. The company traveled to New
York on May 25 for five days of location
filming at the Payne Whitney Clinc, Columbia
University and the Bronx Zoo. Ken
Russell is directing.
Clash of the Titans began production
May 14 with Desmond Davis directing. Cast
includes Laurence Olivier. Burgess Meredith,
Maggie Smith and Ursula Andress.
Picture will be filmed in Dynarama, special
effects process developed by co-producer
Ray Harryhausen, and will take almost two
years to complete.
North Dallas Forty, a Frank Yablans
Production for Paramount, has completed
ten weeks of location shooting in Los Angeles.
Ted Kotcheff directed the contemporary
comedy-drama. Nick Nolte stars.
Tuesday Weld and Martin Mull will star
in The Serial for Paramount. Based on Cyra
McFadden's best-selling, satirical novel of
life in trendy Marin County. Calif., the film
comedy will begin shooting May 29 on locations
in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Sidney Beckerman is producing. Bill Persky
is directing from a screenplay by Rich Eustis.
Principal photography on the new Jerry
Lewis film, Hardly Working, has been completed.
Joseph Ford Proctor is producer.
United Artists' Raging Bull has begun
production in Los Angeles as a Chartoff-
Winkler production. Robert DeNiro stars
as Jake La Motta, former middleweight boxing
champ. Martin Scorsese is directing
from a script by Paul Schrader and Mardik
Martin.
Producer Earl Owensby has set a six-week
shooting schedule on A Day of Judgement,
set to begin principal photography at EO
Studios in North Carolina. C.D.H. Reynolds
will direct from the original screenplay by
Tom Mclntyre.
Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde is planned for
production by Larry Buchanan Productions,
with a female playing both roles in the Robert
Louis Stevenson classic. Buchanan is
producing and directing from a screenplay
he wrote with Lynn Shubert.
Universal will begin production July 5
on Where the Buffalo Roam, fictional version
of events from the life of "Gonzo Jolminalist"
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Bill Murray
and Peter Boyle will star.
Sudden Turns will be produced by Frank
Marshall and Neil Canton for United Ail
ists. with Blythe Danner signed to star. Robert
Markowitz will direct the script by W.D.
Richter.
Marble Arch Productions will make The
Lone Ranger, with Walter Coblenz developing
and producing the project. Martin Starger
will be executive producer of the feature.
Sir Lew Grade and Jack Wrathcr will
finance.
ITC Entertainment plans to begin shooting
later this year on Green Ice. Picture will
be based on Gerald A. Browne's novel about
emerald smuggling in Colombia. Jack Weiner
will produce.
The Silence of the North, starring Ellen
Biustyn, will be the first feature film to be
made by Universal Productions Canada Inc.
Allan King will direct.
Production is set to begin in the fall on
Worldbeater. Bernard Schwartz and screenwriter
Thomas Rickman will produce for
Orion Pictures. Rickman wlil direct from
his own screenplay, a comedy based on the
rise, fall and rise again of an American sliper
salesman.
One Way Productions plans to begin
shooting May 28 on Korean locations on
Oh, Inchon! Picture is an $18 million project
based on the Douglas MacArthur landing
at Inchon during the Korean War.
FEATURE
CASTING
Sylvia Kristel has been signed to star with
Don Adams in the Jennings Lang Production,
The Return of Maxwell Smart. The
Dutch-bom actress will play Agent 34. Vittorio
Grassman will play a dual role in the
film, as Maxwell Smart's two biggest KAOS
adversaries.
Leonard Harris will portray the mayor
of New York City in MGM's Captain Avenger.
Nomi Mitty, Jordan Cael and Woodrow
Parfrey will be members of a traveling carnival
family in UA's Carny.
Ann-Margret will end her half-year sabbatical
a month early to star opposite Bruce
Dern in Middle Age Crazy. She will play
Dern's wife in the comic drama about the
apprehensions and crises faced by an American
couple when the husband turns 40.
Judi Bowker has won the starring role
of Andromeda in MGM's Clash of the Titans.
Desmond Davis will direct.
Harry Caesar has been signed for a major
role in A Small Circle of Friends. Picture
is currently before the cameras in Boston.
Sal Viscuso, who plays Father Tim in
TV's "Soap," has signed for a role in 20th-
Fox's Fatso. Anne Bancroft is directing.
John Glover and Inga Swenson have
joined the cast of Wind River. Richard Lang
is directing. Charlton Heston stars.
TECHNICAL
ASSIGNMENTS
Carl Foreman has signed a long-term contract
with Warner Bros, under which he will
develop up to four pictures in five years.
Under a non-exclusive clause in the deal,
Foreman will be able to complete projects
he now has under way with Universal.
Warner Bros, has signed Jay Weston Productions
to a non-exclusive deal to develop
two pictures. Tales of the City, about a
country girl's bizarre encounters in San
Francisco, and WASPS, the story of women
flyers who ferried combat planes to Europe
during World War II.
Academy Award-winner John G. Avildsen
has been signed to direct Fu Manchu.
The adventure comedy stars Peter Sellers
in both the title role and that of Inspector
Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard, Fu Manchu's
longtime nemesis.
ACQUISITIONS
Marty Fink. Spencer Young and Norman
Rudman: Rock Justice, fantasy with rock
music written by Jefferson Starship's Marty
Balin and Bob Heyman, acquired for feature
filmzation. An October start date is
planned.
Hollywood & Vine Productions: Film
rights acquired to the Joe Pursch Story.
Story deals with the Navy captain and doctor
who operate the Navy's Alchohislm Program
at Long Beach Naval Hospital. This
is the center where Betty Ford, Billy Carter
and Herman Talmadge were treated for alcholism.
James Komack: Rights acquired to Solomon's
Ark. The contemporary comedy will
be Lomack's first project under his threepicture
deal with Warner Bros.
DISTRIBUTION
Picturemedia Ltd.: Worldwide distribution
set for Moongas! Production will begin
in July.
Tenaha Timpson Releasing: Worldwide
distribution rights to Superwoman. Deseree
Costeau stars in the comedy-spoof directed
by Joe Sherman.
Pacific International: Distribution rights
obtained to Elvis the Movie, the King Lives
On. A summer release is scheduled.
Viacom: Worldwide syndication rights for
Lyman Dayton's The Rivals.
New Line Cinema: U.S. and English
Canadian distribution rights for The Last
Romantic Lover. U.S. premiere is scheduled
for late summer in New York.
BOXOFTICE :: May 28, 1979
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