Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

'ityMycviwd IR^efront By SYD CASSYD AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL has allocated its highest budget of $4,500,000 for the spectacle. “Genghis Khan,” to be filmed on location in 70mm and Technirama in Italy and Spain. The film will be set as a Christmas 1964 roadshow. Jacques Tourneur will direct, according to James Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff, company toppers . . . Robert L. Lippert will coproduce with Hemisphere Films, a Philippine localed story, “Berserk,” for a 20th-Fox release. Jock Mahoney will be starred . . . Also in the direction of the Far East, Bryan Foy leaves to seek out locales for “Those Golden Years,” with Manila as one of the prime spots . . . Philippine stars Pancho Magalona and Paraluman will be in “Amok” ... A Show Magazine story, published recently, has hit the big time, with the purchase of the Graham Greene short, “May We Borrow Your Husband,” by Liam O’Brien. He has formed a production company under his own name to start, when he is finished scripting “Tell It on the Drums,” for Hecht-Hill -Lancaster . . . “Every Girl Should Have One,” adapted by Berne Giler from an original, will be in production as the first effoi’t of a new company formed by the writer, with director Gordon Douglas, who is on the Sinatra “Robin and the 7 Hoods.” * George Pal, who has been known for his special effects’ sleight-of-hand tricks for his long film history, acquired the property, “The Disappearance,” almost ten years ago. The Philip Wylie story has now been assigned to writer David Hannon for screenplay preparation. The story in the Pal genre concerns the disappearance of women from the lives of men and men from the lives of women. Following this maneuver by Pal, he goes into his usual science-fiction with “Project 13,” both taking place at MGM . . . Wray Davis, who produced “A Yank in Vietnam” for Allied Artists release, has returned to Manila, P.I. to prepare his second film in the series. The story is still untitled, and he is conferring with Filipino stars Enrique Magalona and Mario Barri . . . Cosnat Film Production of California, formed by a merger of Jerry Blaine, New York ex-bandleader, and Maurice Duke Productions will produce “The Day It Was Night,” a sciencefiction story by Bemie Gould, to be filmed in Germany as a coproduction deal with Sam Wayneberg of Berlin. Aben Kandel has provided the company with two additional scripts, a biopic of “Russ Columbo,” and “Banquet for a Failure.” W Max Youngstein will produce “Rabbit Run,” with the screenplay completed by Jack Smight and James Lee. The novel was written by John Updike . . . Irving Gillman, who operated a booking and buying service in Salt Lake City, has just released information on his new project, “The Gallant One.” Though this was produced elsewhere, Gillman, brother of Sid Gillman, famous football mentor and manager of the San Diego Chargers, has entered the production ranks with several scripts under consideration . . . Irving Ler ner, producer-director of more than 30 years experience, since his documentary days, on the U.S. Department of Agriculture films, “Plow That Broke the Plains,” and others, has signed to do a group of films at night, in Los Angeles, with first script, in the series by Larry Cohen and Steve Carabatsos. Paramount Theatres, local ABC-TV, will telecast the series. The title is “Night People” . . . “Weekend of Fear,” a suspense-chase feature by director-producer Joe Danford, who has been in short subjects, has been started in La Crescenta, and will move to the Los Angeles metropolitan area. New names Micki Malone, Kenneth Washman, Ruth Trent, Jill Banner, Terry Donalle and Kurt Donsbach will appear in the film . . . Michael Abbott Productions, Ltd., has been set for production in all fields of talent, including features following Abbott’s stint as producer for Talent Associates, Ltd.Paramount Ltd., and assistant to David Susskind. Audrey Hepburn finished her star role in Warner’s expensive epic, “My Fair Lady,” and will wait in New York for her husband, Mel Ferrer, to finish his role at the same studio in “Sex and the Single Girl,” before the family takes off for Switzerland. No production plans in the future have been announced for either of them . . . Kim Novak has been signed for the feminine starring role opposite Dean Martin and Peter Sellers in Billy Wilder’s new comedy, “The Dazzling Hour,” which is being prepared for the screen by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond. Las Vegas and Hollywood are scenes for the filming, to begin in February, under the Mirisch banner, for United Artists release . . . James Darren has been signed by Universal Studio to a non-exclusive seven-year pact, Universal to Start Three For a Total of 11 in '63 With Alfred Hitchcock’s “Mamie” current before the cameras at Universal and three other features due to start before the end of December, the company will have the largest number of pictures shooting simultaneously since the fall of 1960. The new pictures will give Universal a total of 11 features put into production during 1963, in addition to Ross Hunter’s “The Chalk Garden” and the Galatea-Lyre-Brazzi-Hayutin production, both filmed in Europe. The Martin Melcher production, “Send Me No Flowers,” starring Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall, will begin shooting December 16; the Ross Hunter production of “The Richest Girl in Town,” starring Sandra Dee, Robert Goulet, Andy Williams and Maurice Chevalier, will start December 19 and “Kitten With a Whip” to star Ann-Margret and John Forsythe, will go before the cameras December 27. which calls for the actor to star in a minimum of one feature annually, through 1970. His first film under the new contract is “The Lively Set,” a romantic comedy with William Alland producing. The star also has a one-picture-a-year contract with Columbia which runs through 1966; he has already starred in eight films for the Gower Street lot . . . Jack Warner has rewritten Diane McBain’s exclusive contract giving her a five-year non-exclusive pact calling for a minimum of seven pictures during the contract term. She has completed three years of her former deal . . . The same studio in Burbank grabbed comedian Stubby Kaye for a part in “Sex and the Single Girl.” Hi Carroll Baker after her nude stint in the Joseph E. Levine, “The Carpetbaggers,” moves to “Mr. Moses,” with Robert Mitchum, for United Artists release, of the Frank Ross produced film . . . Clint Walker has been signed by Universal to a nonexclusive two-film deal with his first job in the Rock Hudson-Doris Day-Tony Randall “Send Me No Flowers” . . . The 200th motion picture role for Lee Patrick was just announced by producer Robert Cohn, when he signed her for a part in “The NEW Interns.” Starting with the first sound motion picture made by Pathe at the old RKO-Pathe lot, Miss Patrick began here 35 years ago . . . Nancy Kovack, released from Columbia’s exclusive, has signed for an outside commitment for Screen Gems, Columbia’s TV subsidiary . . . Shelley Berman will star with TerryThomas in a London production “The Yankee Grenadier,” under aegis of Anglo-Amalgamated Films of London. The comedy about an American, who joins the British grenadiers, was written by Hilton McCauley. f Henry Weinstein will do an Albert Hayes written film “Joy in the Morning,” for MGM . . . “Cross Tide,” a story about life in cosmopolitan Hamburg, Germany, has been purchased by Allan Buckhantz with screenplay written by Edward J. Latso . . . Walter Bien, SIB producer, has purchased a Robert Kirsch book, “The Inferno” . . . “Bitter Water,” the Doubleday novel by Thomas Thompson, has been assigned by producer-director Roger Kay’s Saggittarius Productions, Inc. to Robert Hardy Andrews for Screen adaptation . . . “The Hiroshima Pilot,” to be published by Putnam in February, was written by William Bradford Huie. MGM Studio is discussing purchase for a film . . . Lee Zimmer has signed a contract with Ivan Tors to narrate the ten-minute promotion film, “Friend of the Rhino,” a documentary prepared by Tors while he was directing his production of MGM’s “Rhino,” in South Africa. j®£i Dore Schary, in New York, has optioned “Secret Ceremony,” a prize-winning Marco Denevia literary-contest effort. The writer is from below the equator: Argentine based . . . Romy Schneider, who bowed out of the Mirisch film, and was replaced by Elke Sommer, is now set for Hans Habe’s novel, “The Countess.” The story moves from Austria, through Europe to Russia, and back to Germany, under the directorial reins of Luchino Visconti, with Arthur Cohn producing . . . “East Side, West Side,” the David Susskind effort, with George C. Scott, has added Linden Chiles to a part as a young liberal congressman. 16 BOXOFFICE :: December 16, 1963