Canadian Film Weekly (Mar 13, 1970)

MARCH 13, 1970 Fox to start four features in April Four major feature films from 20th Century-Fox will go into production during the month of April. The quartet of films, all of contemporary design, includes the adaptation by Jules Feiffer of his play, Little Murders, which Jack Brodsky and Elliott Gould will produce. The latter, who will make his debut as a film producer, also will star in the film, and was the star of the original Broadway production. He is currently seen in 20th’s smash comedy, M*A*S*H, and recently completed 20th’s Move. Set to direct Little Murders, a black comedy, is actor Alan Arkin who also directed the successful off-Broadway revival last season. The film is scheduled to begin production April 13 and will be shot entirely in New York. The first of the new attractions to roll will be Billy Jack, the story of an Indian war veteran who returns to Arizona to protect the rights of his young people in an all-white school. Producer Tom Laughlin and director T. C. Frank will launch the project April 1. Vanishing Point, a chase story set against a three-state desert background, is slated to start filming April 6, with Norman Spencer producing and Richard Sarafian directing. The fourth production will be Making It, the adventures of a hip high school boy in a “now” story with broad sexual overtones. Albert Ruddy will produce commencing April 13. No director has been signed as yet. Famous Players in ‘69 $5,856,230 net profit For the year ending Jan. 3, 1970, the unaudited results of operations of Famous Players Canadian Corp. Ltd. show a net profit of $5,856,230, including profits from the sale of fixed assets and investments of $1,183,227, or 82 cents a share, compared with $4,585,190, or 66 cents a share, in the previous year. This statement, which is. still subject to audit, shows that theatre admissions excluding amusement taxes, CATV revenue, confection and equipment sales and other income amounted to $55,353,150, compared with $47,867,257 the year before. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni have been set to star in The Priest’s Wife, a_ satirical comedy to be filmed in Italy in the spring. In the widescreen-color film, Miss Loren portrays a singer with a pop group in Italy, who falls in love with a priest, played by Mastroianni. *k Bo Diana Muldaur has been signed by producer Robert Arthur to star with George Peppard and John Vernon in Universal’s western drama, Hark. The New York stage actress, who recently had stellar assignments opposite Charlton Heston in Number One and in The Lawyer, will portray a woman held for ransom in a San Francisco gold smuggling plot. Andrew V. McLaglen will direct from Dick Nelson’s screenplay. * oo Ba Death in Venice, a drama based on the renowned novella _ by Thomas Mann, will begin filming early in April on location in Venice. Visconti’s first film since The Damned, his current boxoffice triumph, will star Dirk Bo garde in the central role of a German nobleman who develops’ a strange admiration for a youth he meets in Venice. Bogarde also Humanitarian Award for Earl Mountbatten Earl Mountbatten of Burma has been selected by the Variety Clubs International to receive its Humanitarian Award for 1969 for his distinguished services on behalf of sick and deprived children of many countries throughout the world. He is to be given the award, an inscribed gold heart, at a banquet in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is to climax the annual convention of Variety International on May 3-9. The convention is being attended by 1000 delegates Variety Clubs in Britain, America, representing Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Israel and the Channel Islands. cloaking alee} starred under Visconti’s direction in The Damned. Visconti is currently on a casting tour that is taking him to Budapest, Warsaw and Stockholm in search of a newcomer to play the role of the boy. oo * Bradford Dillman _ has _ been signed to co-star in Kane, the Columbia Pictures presentation starring Sidney Poitier and co-starring Will Geer and Beverly Todd which goes before the cameras March 16 on location in a northern California town. Dillman will portray the district attorney of a contemporary southern county who becomes involved with Poitier and the black community in Kane, which Poitier’s E&R Production Corp. will film. Co * sk Burn! has been set as the title of the new Marlon Brando picture previously called Queimada. The film, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo in Cartagena, Colombia, deals with a slave revolt on a Caribbean island, masterminded by an Enlish freebooter. Burn! was produced by Alberto Grimaldi in color for release by United Artists. Brando plays the Englishman, and a Colombian, Evaristo Marques, makes his film debut as the slave leader of the revolt. Lord Mountabatten has been an active gold card life member of Variety for 18 years, attending many of its functions and events and helping its efforts on behalf of children in Britain and abroad. Page 5 Irving Fogel was recently appointed sales manager of Columbia Pictures of Canada. Fogel will report to Harvey Harnick, general manager of Columbia Pictures of Canada. Fogel who had been branch manager in Montreal since June, 1967, joined Columbia in March, 1954 as a sales trainee in Winnipeg. He later became salesman and then branch manager in Winnipeg in July, 1962. Heavy losses in 69 Fox remains optimistic Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. has announced that operations in the fourth quarter of 1969 resulted in a net loss of $3,271,000 or $.38 per share on the average number of shares outstanding as compared to net earnings of $1,956,000 or $.28 per share on the average number of shares outstanding for the fourth quarter of 1968. Losses for the year 1969 amounted to $25,249,000 equal to $3.07 per share on an average of 8,216,271 shares outstanding during the year as compared to net earnings of $13,752,000 in 1968 equal to $1.95 per share based on an average of 7,063,880 shares outstanding during that year. The 1969 loss was after extraordinary gains (all of which occurred during the first nine months of 1969), of $11,555,000 equal to $1.41 per share. Darryl F. Zanuck, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, and Richard D. Zanuck, president, in announcing the results stated “We face the future with great optimism. Twentieth Century-Fox, which achieved 16 Academy Award nominations this year, more than any other company in the industry, has currently in release the greatest number of backto-back hits in its history, which should enhance the company’s performance in 1970”. aii Spa