Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 6, 1970)

Page 2 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Looking cad Stanley Kubrick will write, produce and direct A Clockwork Orange for Warner Bros. Based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange is a black comedy treatment of teenage violence in a futuristic welfare society. Kubrick is currently completing the screenplay for the film, which will commence filming in London late this summer. Goldie Hawn Cactus Flower, has been signed to play the female lead in There’s a Girl in My Soup, film version of the international comedy hit which will be produced by John and Roy Boulting, with the latter directing. The Frankovich production for Columbia Pictures release is scheduled to start in England this spring. In the film, Miss Hawn will play Soviet writer praises Columbia’s ‘Marooned’ Marooned, the Columbia film starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus and Gene Hackman, has won Kremlin praise for its depiction of U.S.-Soviet space cooperation. Top political commentator, Yuri Zhukov, said the film’s depiction of Russian cosmonauts helping in the rescue of U.S. Astronauts made him feel “warmer in my soul.” Writing in Sovietsky Ekran (Soviet Screen), Zhukov commended the film and said _ the serious subject “is extraordinarily rare, if not unique, for Hollywood.” He especially praised Peck for his role as U.S. Space Mission Controller faced with the dilemma of three astronauts stranded in orbit. Marooned will have its Canadian Premiere at the Odeon Fairlawn in Toronto on Wed. Feb. 11. Vol. 35, No. 4 Feb. 4, 1970 Editor: ED HOCURA CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ont. Second class privileges applied for Published by Motion Picture Institute of Canada, 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ontario Canada ¢ Phone 924-1757 Price $7.50 per year LL LL, TT ET TT the role of a kooky young thing who moves in on a sophisticated gourmet columnist and disrupts his life. Cass Elliot, former member of the Mamas and Papas recording group, has been signed by executive producers Sid and Marty Krofft to make her motion picture debut as an amiable, gossipy witch in Universal’s Pufnstuf, also starring Jack Wild and Billie Hayes. Composer Charles Fox and lyricist Norman Gimbel are currently writing a special song for Cass to introduce in the film. John Vernon has been signed by producer Robert Arthur to star with George Peppard in Universal’s Hark, which is scheduled to begin principal photography under Andrew V. McLaglen’s direction in early March. The noted Canadian actor, who last year completed stellar assignments in Justine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz, will portray an Irish confederate of a notorious train robber in the western drama based on William Roberts’ original screenplay. CINEMATION What's it to you? Your projectionist freed safely : for other duties. Your total presentation programmed in advance. Your audience enjoys a better overall performance. You get a more economical, efficient theatre operation. How's that for starters? RANK AUTOMATION EQUIPMENT has proved a profitmaker in hundreds of theatres since 1954. Installing RANK could prove profitable for you. Get the details from: Canada’s Theatre Supply House February 6, 1970 Famous Players to award $10,000 to student films Famous Players Canadian Corp., celebrating its 50th anniversary in 1970, has approved an annual grant of $10,000 for six awards to the university and high school students producing the year’s best 16 mm. and 8 mm. films in English and French. According to George P. Destounis, president and managing director, the country’s largest theatre circuit will award the top university film-makers first and second prizes worth $2,500 and $1,750 for both English and French, productions in 16 mm., while first prize of $750 will be provided at high-school level for English and French students using either 16 or 8 mm. Detailed plans for the annual Famous Players Student Film Awards will be announced shortly, Destounis said: It will be organized on a regional basis with the four top films from each province, representing the two official lan guages, being eligible for final adjudication in Toronto and Montreal. First awards would be made before the end of 1970 and pro General Sound AND THEATRE EQUIPMENT LIMITED Branches across Canada visions would be made to show the winning 16 mm. versions in as many Famous Players theatres as possible from coast to coast. “Now that roots have been planted for a national feature industry through the Canadian Film Development Corp.,” Destounis said, “we at Famous feel that by providing creative incentive at scholastic levels we will be contributing to the growth of this feature industry. Also, in practical terms, it could amount to an investment in our own future since, in time, some of the prize-winners might produce features we could show commercially in our theatres.” Our Business (Continued from Page 1) knowledge and understanding about the importance of such an industry for the economy of our country, otherwise it would be more tolerant and anxious to help promote it. Nobody knows what a “B” movie is today. Until Flick is released and accepted or rejected by the public, the Toronto Star has absolutely no right to classify it in any manner. After all, it is the public which decides what it wants to see and ultimately what is made. To call Explosion a “B” movie is a great distortion of the facts because the film has already played in a number of situations and has not only done better than average business, but is well accepted by audiences. This film is expected to gross $200,000 in film rentals in Canada, and no distributor will admit that he dare hope for 10% of that amount for a “B” film. The public has spoken and by oral and written comment, and even more importantly, by paying money, has adjudged Explosion as a better than average piece of film entertainment. Unfortunately, the fact is that many of our citizens consider any home-grown creation or local talent to have little merit. Only when such creation or talent is recognized outside of our country do our own people take proper cognizance of it. There is a tendency, particularly in Toronto, to denigrate anything of Canadian origin simply because it is that. We have no desire to become embroiled in a controversy with the Toronto Star or any other newspaper. We only ask them to observe the tenets by which they claim to live — fairness and honesty in reporting the facts. | |