Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

^efcont ■By SYD CASSYD 0ARY GRANT has obtained the services of Leslie Caron for a costarring role in a story being written by David Stone, who brilliantly penned the amusing “Charade” for Grant. The Universal-released film will be directed by David Miller . . . Romy Schneider, who has been sought after for several roles with a reported asking price of $150,000, has bowed out of the Mirisch Corp. production of Blake Edwards for United Artists release. Probability of Elke Sommer for the role is being considered. "A Shot in the Dark,” the vehicle in the works, has added George Sanders and Herbert Lom to the cast . . . Revue’s “Johnny North,” the first two-hour production slated for feature tiein, has added Angie Dickinson and John Cassavetes and will take four weeks to shoot. The script is by Gene Coon, with film to be shot in color. Ted Richmond’s “Lies of Silence” is being completed by Charles Kaufman for MGM release. Kaufman’s polishing job follows the original screenplay by Adrienne Spies . . . George Korgold will edit Dimitri Tiomkin’s score for Samuel Bronston’s “Fall of the Roman Empire” . . . Next Yugoslavia film by Irving Allen as producer, “Genghis Khan,” is being written by Barkley Mather. A director has not been named, although Buzz Kulik is being wooed by Allen . . . Liam O’Brien’s “The Masculine Principal” will be adapted to the screen by the writer when he finishes his HechtHill-Lancaster assignment . . . Harry Joe Brown checked into the Goldwyn lot, where he will start on a program of productions on independent release basis . . . Eleanor Perry has been signed by 20thFox to script the Julian Gloag novel, “Our Mother’s House.” 9 Arthur Lubin, comedy director, with a fine track record, which has been devoted to TV production for the past several years, returns to the feature fold with “Honeymoon in Capri,” which he will film in Italy next spring . . . Richard Bernstein with Lee Bleiberg, Sidney Justin and Samuel A. Longo tied together in Cinemart Pictures, Inc., have firmed a deal with Steve Broidy’s Allied Artists. First on a two picture schedule is “Nightmare House.” This brings in a joint production deal with Hourigan-Kessler & Associates, who are located at Producers Studio. A January starting date has been set. Following this, “Something for Nothing,” based on the novel by Vernon Dixon, gets under way. * Julius Epstein will write a J. Lee Thompson film, “Return From the Ashes,” for a Mirisch-United Artists release. The story is part of a new deal with the distribution for the producer-director . . . Robert Sherman has completed the screenplay of “The Tsar’s Bride,” for The Associates and Aldrich Co. The production deal on the film will be made by producer-director Bob Aldrich, now in London for meetings with the Rank Organization with late 1964 or early ’65 set for start. Aldrich wrote the story, which is described as “a tale of terror following the death of Boris Godunov in Russia in the 17 th Century” . . . Burt Kennedy has completed writing and will direct “The Rounders,” the Richard E. Lyons novel to be produced at MGM. The pair completed “Mail Order Bride” in the same manner . . . “Kilo County” has been sold to Sam Peckinpah at Columbia by Max Evans . . . “The Fate of Paul Perreau” by Randall Hood is up for sale for a feature following a similar sale of television rights to Alfred Hitchcock. Brian Kelly has been handed three stories to read by MGM for his one feature annually for the lot under his new contract . . . Executive producer Ken Lynn has announced the signing of Margia Dean to costar with Jock Mahoney in the Hemisphere Films Production, “Amok.” Eddie Romero will produce and direct the 20thFox worldwide release, with filming in the Philippines . . . Claire Bloom will star opposite Paul Newman in Martin Ritt’s “The Outrage” . . . Sponsored by Herbert Luft, secretary of the Hollywood Foreign Press Associations, who is production coordinator on the Leon Fromkess’ “The Naked Kiss,” Tel Aviv actress Sheila Mintz will be launched on her film career as a nurse . . . A rollicking comedy, “Strange Bedfellows,” at Universal will have Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida in the bed set up by writers Melvin Frank and Michael Pertwee, which will become a Panama-Frank production. Writer-director Richard Brooks, preparing his Keep Films Production “Lord Jim” in London with a star-studded cast, set Ichizo Itami, handsome young Japanese leading man, for one of the most demanding roles in the film, a Joseph Conrad story of high adventure in the Far East. Starting in Hong Kong, filming moves to Cambodia in early January where shooting will take place for several months. Headed by stars Peter O’Toole, James Mason and Curt Jurgens, Columbia is scheduled to release . . . Walter Matthau has withdrawn from his starring role in the Mirisch Co. production of “A Shot in the Dark.” He had portrayed the role of Benjamin Beaurevers on Broadway in the Harry Kurnitz play and had received the Antoinette Perry Award. Both Mirisch Co. and Matthau expressed regrets that the change in the role forced Matthau to make this decision. He is presently in “Charade,” “Fail-Safe,” and “Ensign Pulver and the Captain.” Producer Joseph E. Levine, whose pictures have attracted so much attention, and who has just reached a “handshake” agreement with Paramount on a fifth film, Pearl Buck’s “Imperial Woman,” has taken an option on “Say It Isn’t So,” original comedy script by Joel Kane and Stanley Z. Cherry. It deals with the frustrations of a crew of an atomic submarine in the peacetime Navy and was formerly titled “Operation Hanky-Pank.” Other Paramount-Levine deals involve “The Carpetbaggers,” “Nevada Smith,” “Where Love Has Gone” and “Zulu” . . . Reggie Le Borg having completed the story on “Corrida,” the Spanish locale script he prepared with Pete Packer, is dickering with Spanish money for production in that country . . . Louis Pelletier has been signed by Walt Disney to write the screenplay for “The Woodcutter’s House,” based on the book by Robert Nathan. Winston Hibler will be the coproducer . . . Playwright Elick Moll has been assigned by screenwriter-producer-director Mel Shavelson to write “The Greatest Job in the World,” Melville Shavelson production for Paramount release in 1964 . . . Jerry Sohl has been assigned to write the Edgar Allan Poe screenplay, “City in the Sea,” for American International Pictures, scheduled for fall 1964 production by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. It will be the second Poe thriller for the year . . . Writer Paddy Chayefsky after finishing “The Americanization of Emily,” for Martin Ransohoff, at MGM, which has run into troubles with the censor because of half-nude scenes, will work on a new project for the same producer, title still to be announced . . . Neil Patterson has handed first draft of “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh” to Pandro S. Berman, with production set for 1964 . . . After completing his first movie role with A. C. Lyles, Rex Bell jr. son of Clara Bow and Rex Bell has been offered three new scripts by Lyle. nti Vincent Edwards, who has hit the jackpot of public opinion with his role in TV’s Ben Casey, has been signed by Mike Frankovich, Columbia vice-president and production head and William Dozier, Screen Gems senior vice-president, for starring roles in feature motion pictures, following his role in Carl Foreman’s “The Victors.” Additionally, his own company will develop series projects for television, which will not include Edwards’ service as an actor. Bill Hayes, business manager, and Abner Greshler, agent, repped the actor in negotiations . . . Actress Constance Towers, presently starring in Samuel Fuller’s “The Naked Kiss,” has formed Summit Productions, Inc., with her first production the biographical dramatization of the life of Carole Lombard at the time of her Mack Sennett days. The new producer is negotiating with a screenwriter and is planning 1964 production . . . Keenan Wynn returns to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Culver City for two roles in two pictures at the same time, “Honeymoon Hotel” and “Americanization of Emily,” both in production at the same time on the lot. Dimitri Tiomkin went to Madrid for conference with producer Samuel Bronston before going to London to begin conducting his own score for “Fall of the Roman Empire.” The composer-conductor will have an important announcement on new European project on his return . . . Producer Martin Manulis set Oscar-winner Henry Mancini to write a song and score his production of “The Out-of-Towners.” Mancini won his award for Best Song in the Manulis film, “Days of Wine and Roses,” and an Oscar prior to that for “Moon River.” 16 BOXOFFICE :: December 2. 1963