Boxoffice-August.06.1979

1
BOXOFFICE/AUGUST
6, 1 979
Hollywood report ^.j
film projects
THE GONG SHOW MOVIE, starring
and directed by Chuck Barns, is tentatively
scheduled to begin production Sept. 4 at
Universal Studios.
Written by Barns and Bob Downey, "The
Gong Show Movie" will be produced by Budd
Granoff.
Warner Bros. GOING IN STYLE has
resumed production at the Astoria Studios in
Queens. NY., following a hiatus taken to
allow Art Carney to recover from a minor eye
injury.
Jack Lemmon will star in the film version of
TRIBUTE, his highly successful stage play, to
which movie rights have been acquired by Joel
B. Michaels and Garth H. Drabinsky. Robby
Benson will play Lemmon s son in the film.
The $6.5 million feature will begin location
shooting in New York in February 1980.
George Hamilton will produce and star in
ZORRO, THE GAY BLADE for Melvin
Simon Productions, a $5 million feature on
which shooting is planned to begin early next
year in Guadalajara. Mexico. Don Moriarity
and Greg Alt wrote the screenplay.
Gene Wilder will write, direct and star in
one of four segments of SUNDAY LOVERS,
being developed by producer Leo L. Fuchs as
a French Italian production. The film will deal
with four cultures, involving a man in Paris.
London. Rome and the United States being
liberated from his wife or girlfriend and free to
do whatever he wishes Also signed are direc
tors Edouard Molmaro of France and Dino
Risi of Italy.
Melvin Simon Productions will begin
shooting Aug. 6 in Chicago on MY
BODYGUARD. Tony Bill will direct the
story about two young teen-agers. The script is
by Alan Ormsby. Don Devlin is producing the
S3 million feature.
Dino De Laurentiis' production of FLASH
GORDON will begin photography in London
Aug. 6. Sam Jones is starnng in the title role
and Mike Hodges is directing. Dayle Haddon.
a former model, has been cast in the top
female role.
American International will begin shooting
Sept.
17 on UNDERGROUND ACES, deal
ing with the antics of garage attendants at a
posh Los Angeles hotel. Bob Butler will direct
for Jay Weston Productions.
WIG-W AM ON 42ND ST. will be produc
ed by Frank Capra Jr.. Shooting on the period
comedy is budgeted at S5 million and is planned
to begin this fall. Charles T. Daniels and
Robert W. Kenneally are the producers.
Daniels wrote the original screenplay about
sophisticated Indians who meet Dutch explorers
in the 1600s and try to block the settlers
from New York.
Armer Productions will begin shooting July
30 in Toronto on QUICK-QUACK for producer
Gil OBrian Jim Tartan is directing and
Ben Frank is starring.
THE FIENDISH PLOT OF FU MAN
CHU has been set to roll for Orion Pictures
and Zev Braun Productions on Sept. 24 in
Paris. Peter Sellers will star in the screenplay
he wrote with Jim Molony and Rudy Dochter
man. Piers Haggard. British award winning
TV director, will direct. Zev Braun and Leland
Noland will produce and locations throughout
Europe are to be utilized. A summer 1980
release is planned.
Burt Reynolds and David (iershenson will
produce THE EXECUTIONER lor 20th
Century Fox. marking the first producing
chore for Reynolds in which he will not star or
direct. The film will be based on a series of 36
books by Don Pendleton The storyline
centers on superhero Mack Bolan, a former U.
S. Army sergeant who declares war on
organized crime and uses every modern
military weapon imaginable in his crusade
against the forces of evil.
Richard Burton and Talum O'Neal will costar
in CIRCLE OF TWO, a love story about
a 1 6 year-old girl and a 60- year-old world
renowned painter. The picture will be directed
by Jules Dassin for the Film Consortium of
Canada in association with Jerome Simon and
Milton Zysman Productions. Tomas Hedley.
former associate editor of Esquire magazine,
wrote the screenplay. Filming will begin late
in August in Toronto. New York and the
Caribbean.
MIDDLE AGE CRAZY, starring Bruce
Dern and Ann Margret, began principal
photography July 16 in Houston, where it will
shoot for three weeks and then move to Dallas
for two days and Toronto for five weeks. John
Trent is directing for executive producers Sid
and Marty Kroffl.
MGM's FAME, the story of eight
youths
trying to make it professionally in music,
dance and drama, began shooting July 9 on
New York locations. Alan Parker is directing
and Alan Marshall and David De Silva are
producing. Playing the eight key roles are
Irene Cara. Lee Curreri. Laura Dean. Antonia
Franceschi. Paul McCrane. Barry Miller.
Gene Ray and Maureen Teefy.
ROUGH MIX will be produced by Martin
Ransohoff and Charlton Heston will play a
rancher whose brother, a music promoter, is
murdered. Richard Lang will direct from
Henry Rosenbaum's screenplay, based on his
own original story. Filming on the Columbia
Pictures release is expected to begin in the fall.
Writer producer Andrew J. Fenady an
nounced that the title of his sequel to "The
Man With Bogart's Face" will be SAM
MARLOWE. The title is derived from the
character of the present Fenady film which
deals with a Raymond Chandler-Dashiell
Hammelt private eye who resembles Humphrey
Bogart.
The Dimension Pictures release
SCREAMS OF A WINTER NIGHT will
open simultaneously in 80 theatres in the
Charlotte. N.C.. area and 50 theatres in Minneapolis
and St. Paul on Aug. 10. The film will
have more than 500 prints playing in August.
LASER LADY, a science fiction comedy
set in the 21st century, will be produced by Si
Litvinoff and Harry N. Blum, aiming at a
Christmas 1 980 release.
SEARCH FOR THE LOCH NESS
MONSTER will be made by Stephen W.
Sharmat's International Creative Finance
Group and producer Peter Simons. Richard
Chapman and Derek Tennant have written
the screenplay, based on Dennis Meredith's
book "Search at Loch Ness." Principal
photography is scheduled to begin early next
year in Tasmania. Australia, and second unit
shooting is planned at Loch Ness. Scotland
Kent Osborne's Starla Productions and Jeb
Productions began filming July 23 on THE
REBEL on locations at Hanford. Calif.
Osborne will direct from his own screenplay:
King Johnson is the producer.
casting
Deborah Wakeham has been cast in MID-
DLE AGE CRAZY, which began shooting in
Houston July 16.
Gary Mule Deer has been cast in SKATE
TOWN U.S.A., Rastai production for Colum
bia Pictures which began shooting July 10.
Charles Hallahan will play Art Carney's
nephew in Warner Bros.' GOING IN
STYLE, shooting in New York.
Peter Mamakos will portray a proprietor of
the Hollywood Wax Museum in SAM
MARLOWE, the Andrew J. Fenady produc
lion for Melvin Simon Productions.
Wilfrid Hyde White has a role in IN GOD
WE TRUST (OR GIVE ME THAT PRIME
TIME RELIGION) for Universal.
Charles Smith has signed to star with Clous
Leachman and Harvey Konnan in Walt
Disney Productions' HERBIE GOES
BANANAS, the further adventures of Herbie
the Volkswagen, to be produced by Ron
Miller and directed by Vince McEveety.
Robert Stack, Jimmie Walker and Lloyd
Bridges have signed key roles in Paramount's
AIRPLANE!, shooting at Culver City
Studios.
Albert Salmi, Murray Hamilton and Linda
Haynes have joined the cast of BRU BAKER,
20th Century-Fox feature now shooting on
location in Columbus, Ohio. Stuart Rosenberg
is directing.
Ricky Rincon, 1 3, has won the role of cabin
boy, beating out 300 competitors, for Univer
sal's THE ISLAND, Zanuck/Brown feature
being directed by Michael Ritchie.
acquisitions
Lonmar Films has acquired film rights to
GOD PROTECT ME FROM MY
FRIENDS, to be based on the novel "Bandit,"
by Gavin Maxwell. Terence F. Deane will pro
.
duce the screenplay by Philip Hersch dealing assignments
with a Sicilian peasant who becomes a Robin^"~""
Hood-type character. Filming is tentatively
planned for next spring.
Producers Mark David Bisgeier and Marion
M. Hunt have acquired Kurt Vonnegul Jr.'s
tragicomedy. MOTHER NIGHT, and plan to
begin production in spring 1980.
Producer Marty Fink has acquired film and
TV rights to SOLITAIRE, Aime Liu's book
about a young woman's struggle with anorexia
nervosa, a symptom in which a person con
tinually loses weight. Fink. Dunn &
Associates plan to begin production early next
year.
distribution
Avco Embassy: CITY ON FIRE, Sandy
Howard production, starring Henry Fonda.
Ava Gardner. Barry Newman. Susan Clark.
Shelley Winters. Leslie Nielson and James
Franciscus in a story of devastation faced in a
large city with an oil refinery catches fire and
threatens the entire city.
Analysis Film Releasing: THE DIVINE
(J)
Potts Platters
R.R. #2
Urbana,
61801
Illinois
Ph. (217)469-7578
-y"
NYMPH, starring Terence Stamp, Marcello
Mastroianni and Laura Antonelli in a story
about a bizarre menage a trots. Guiseppe
Patroni Griffi directed. An American
premiere is planned for fall in New York City.
Crown International: SATAN'S SLAVE, a
diabolical tale of the damned and demented,
starring Michael Gough. Martin Potter, Candace
Gendenning and Barbara Kellerman.
The picture is slated for national release in
August.
Lone Star Pictures Internationl:
TEENAGE TEASE, starring Peter Brown
and Jo Ann Harris and written, produced and
directed by Richard Erdman.
Miracle Films: United Kingdom distribution
rights to THE TOOLBOX MURDERS,
a Cal Am production starring Cameron Mitchell
and directed by Dennis Donnelly.
Dimension Pictures: NICK CARTER IN
PRAGUE, Czech film starring Josef 1 (.-prima
and Olga Schoberovo. Release is scheduled for
October.
Lone Star Pictures: THE CONFES-
SIONAL, horror film produced and directed
by Peter Walker, British filmmaker who also
has "The Comeback," starring singer Jack
Jones. The picture is in Lone Star hands for
distribution in October.
Crown International:
SATAN'S SLAVE,
set for release in August. Michael Gough stars
in the horror story directed by Norman J.
Warren and produced by Les Young and
Richard Crafter.
Arista Films: Worldwide sales on DEVIL'S
THREE, a martial arts feature shot in Hong
Kong, Singapore and The Philippines, starring
Marie Lee, Johnny Wilson and Dick Adair.
Stanley Myers will write the original score
for A NIGHTINGALE SANG IN
BERKELEY SQUARE, which deals with a
1975 bank robbery in London. Starring are
Richard Jordan. David Niven. Oliver Tobias.
Richard Johnson. Elke Sommer and Gloria
Grahame.
Barbara Remsen and Associates has been
signed to cast Avco Embassy's A SAVING
GRACE, a romantic comedy to be shot in
Toronto beginning Oct. 15; George Gloomfield
is directing.
Bran Ferran will design special effects
lighting equipment for Warner Bros.'
ALTERED STATES, working with associate
producer Stuart Baird in the complicated com
puterized mattes planned for the picture.
Chuck Caspar has been named director of
special effects for the picture and Larry
Fuentes will be his assistant.
Burt Bacharach will compose the score for I
LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU NOT, produced
by Gianini Bozzacchi and starring Jacqueline
Bisset. Maximilian Schell and Terence Stamp.
LIKE QUALITY
AND
LOW MAINTENANCE
The Potts 5 disk platter has 158
ball bearings and 5 roller bearings.
The 3 disk has 79 ball and 3 roller
bearings.
QUALITY