Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 21, 1970)

‘Page 4 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY production news ARRIE SNODGRESS has been signed to star opposite Richard Benjamin in Diary of a Mad Housewife, to be produced and directed by Frank Perry under his Frank Perry Films banner for Universal release. Negotiations have been con cluded between Columbia Pictures and Sidney Poitier for him to star in Kane, an original screenplay which Poitier’s company, E & R Production Corp., will film in March. James Goldstone will direct the film, his second theatrical effort. He made his directorial debut last year with Winning. Joel Glickman will serve as producer on the project with Ernest Kinoy writing the screenplay which tells the contemporary story of a black man who returns to his small home town in the South to be with his family during a troubled period. * * *% Brenda Vaccaro, currently appearing in the Dustin HoffmanJon Voight starrer, Midnight Cowboy, has been signed by producer Stan Margulies to co-star with Elliott Gould in the David L. Wolper production for Universal, I Love My Wife. The satirical comedy dealing with contemporary young marrieds is set to go before the cameras Jan. 28, with Mel Stuart directing from an original screen play by Robert Kaufman. * * * Frank Lewin has been signed to compose the music for The Angel Levine, starring Zero Mostel and Harry Belafonte. The picture, directed by Academy Award-winner Jan Kadar, is now editing and will be released by United Artists. The Angel Levine cast also presents Ida Kaminska (star of Kadar’s Oscar-winning The Shop on Main Street), Milo O’Shea, Gloria Foster, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. The picture is based on a short story by PulitzerPrize-winner Bernard Malamud and was adapted for the screen by William Gunn and Ronald Ribman. %* * * Kate Reid has been signed by producer-director Robert Wise to co-star in The Andromeda Strain, which he will put before the cameras at Universal late next month. She will report to the studio after she finishes her current assignment in The Side Glances of a Pigeon Kicker. Miss Reid joins James Olson as the only starring cast member set thus far for Wise’s film version of the best-selling Michael Crichton novel. * * * Alastair Reid, one of Britain’s leading young directors, has been signed to direct National General Productions’ upcoming dramatic feature, The Pied Piper. The assignment of the 28-year-old Reid to direct his first American film will provide an outsider’s view of the current trend towards violence in America. Reid most recently directed the independently-produced Baby Love in England. The Pied Piper is scheduled to begin filming early in February in Holly wood and various southwestern locations. George Peppard has been set for the starring role in Universal’s new western drama, Hark, his sixth motion picture for the studio, which goes before the cameras early in March with Robert Arthur producing. Hark, based upon an _ original screenplay by William Roberts, is set in the California gold country during the 1800's. * * * Peppard, who recently returned from four months of filming in Spain, last starred for Universal in House of Cards with Inger Stevens. Prior to that, he starred with Mary Tyler Moore in What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?, with Dean Martin and Jean Simmons in Rough Night in Jericho, with Raymond Burr in P.J. and with Rock Hudson in -Fobruk. Arthur’s most recent Universal production was the Shirley MacLaine starrer, Sweet Charity, and, before that, he produced the action-adventure film, Hellfighters, starring John Wayne and Katharine Ross. Producer M. J. Frankovich has announced an all-star cast for his first 1970 production, ‘Doctors’ Wives,” set to go before the cameras at the Columbia Pictures studio in mid-February. Academy Award-winner Dan Taradash wrote the screenplay for Doctors’ Wives, based on the bestselling novel by Frank G. Slaughter. Gorge Schaefer has been signed to handle the all-star cast. Frankovich announced that Rich ard Crenna and Gene Hackman, Four films in production both starring in the FrankovichSturges production of Marooned, will star in the film along with Dyan Cannon, recently honored by the New York Film Critics for her role in Frankovich’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Also starring in Doctors’ Wives will be Janice Rule, Rachel Roberts, Diana Sands, Cara Williams, Ralph Bellamy and John Colicos. of Eo * Cynthia Myers, former Playboy Magazine “Playmate,” has been set by producer-director Russ Meyer for a co-starring role in 20th-Century-Fox’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, currently filming in Hollywood. Miss Myers, making her motion picture debut in the role-ef a hard rock nightclub singer, was featured in the recent national Playboy calendar. 3% * * Where’s Papa?, starring George Segal and based on the forthcoming novel by Robert Klane, will be produced in New York City for United Artists release. The picture will be directed by Carl Reiner as a Jerry Tokofsky-Marvin Worth production. It will be filmed from a screenplay by Klane. * * Bo Sid and Marty Krofft Productions, Inc., Universal Studios and the Kellogg Co. of Battle Creek, Michigan, will join hands to produce a motion picture involving 87 costumed puppet-like characters. The full-length film will be available for summer, 1970, theatrical release. The motion picture, a Sid and as MGM launches ‘70 slate Implementing the plans set by James T. Aubrey, Jr.. MGM’s president and chief executive officer, four feature films will go before the cameras during the next three months, it was announced by Herbert F. Solow, vice-president in charge of production. In revealing the list of newlyscheduled productions, Solow stated, “this will be the start of a carefully planned period of increasing activity at MGM.” Shooting will begin shortly on The Ballad of Dingus Magee, a western satire starring Frank Sinatra and based on the novel by David Markson. Burt Kennedy will direct from his own screenplay. Scheduled for a late winter start is The Travelling Executioner, starring Stacy Keach who won critical acclaim on Broadway in Indians and will shortly be seen in End of the Road. Screenplay for the action drama about an itinerant executioner who travels the southern prison circuit. Sweet William, a contemporary drama set in a coed ivy league prep school, is from a screenplay by Gwen Davis based on her novel. Miss Davis’ The Pretenders is a current best seller. The fourth film scheduled, tentatively titled Corky, is a story of a self-centered young man caught in a descending spiral of degradation. “We anticipate that six or more additional pictures will start before the end of the summer. This approach to production is indicative of the aim of management to go forward with a strong program of theatrical features,” Solow stated. ae January 21, 1970: .. 4h Marty Krofft production, is called Pufnstuf, based on the television series. takes time out to discuss a scene in The Actor-director Ratch Wallace Match with Ed McNamara. The short film, based on a story by Stephen Leacock, is being made in Toronto. The Match’ hopes to strike it rich The Match, a film based on Stephen Leacock’s short story Borrowing a Match, is currently in production in the Toronto area, coinciding with observances of the centenary of the humorist-historian’s birth. The film is the first venture into directing by Canadian actor Ratch Wallace, who also wrote the script. © Wallace was the star of David Secter’s film The Offering, and has since played featured roles in both Paul Almond’s films — Isabel, and the soon-to-be released Act of the Heart. The cast is headed by Ed McNamara, Robert Goodier, Kyle Edwards, Eric Clavering, Michael Conway and Murray Westgate. The film is being produced by Team Productions, Ltd., a division of Cornucopia Films. The director of photography is Richard Stringer. Derek Harris-Lowe is the producer. Digby Peers is associate producer. Distribution will ~be handled through Paul Almond. The film is 35 mm _ widescreen, in colour. FOR SALE Projection equipment: Two Century heads, two Northern Elec| tric sound heads, two Nogul arc lamps, two take up magazines, two 35 mm. projector stands, two utility rectifliers, one pair hand rewinders, one complete Northern Electric sound system, film | cabinet with 12 sections, rewind table, electric rewinder, one pair | Cinemascope_ lens, one pair Stanard lens, and theatre seats. SAVOY THEATRE Glace Bay, N.S. 849-6659