Canadian Film Weekly (May 8, 1970)

May 8, 1970 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY olooking aad Mame, the screen version of the smash-hit Broadway musical, will be produced by Ernest H. Martin, is has been announced jointly by John Calley, executive vice-president in charge of production at Wamer Bros., and Martin Baum, president of ABC Pictures Corp., the motion picture producing subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Co. This will be the first film for Martin, who, with Cy Feuer, has produced many of Broadway’s most successful musicals, including Where’s Charley?, Guys and Dolls, The Boy Friend, Silk Stockings and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The film deal calls for Warner Bros. to produce and distribute, with ABC putting up half the negative cost. The $3,000,000 acquisition price was shared by the two companies. Mame is expected to go before the cameras in early September. Cast and other credits have not yet been announced. * * * Roger Vadim will direct and Gene Roddenberry produce Pretty Maids All in a Row for MGM this summer. A look at American manners and morals, it will be Vadim’s first film made in the U.S. The screenplay, written by Roddenberry and William Hanley, is based on the novel of the same name by Francis Pollini. %* K Barbara Bel Geddes has been signed by producer Abby Mann for a major role in the currently filming contemporary drama What Are We Going To Do Without Skipper? which Barry Shear is directing for National General Productions. * ae * Nigel Davenport has been signed for the leading role in MGM’s No Blade of Grass, now being filmed in London. The film, set in the near future, tells of a British family’s struggle for survival in a world brought to the brink of catastrophe by environmental pollution. No Blade of Grass is being produced and directed by Cornel Wilde. * bo ok Molly Picon has been signed for the major role of Yente, the matchmaker, in Norman Jewison’s film production of Fiddler On The Roof, it was announced by producer-director Jewison. Miss Picon is the second leading member of the cast to be selected. Previously announced was_ the Israeli actor, Topal, who will star as Tevye. The film version of the international musical hit is a MirishCartier production to be released by United Artists. * * Ellen Burstyn has been signed to star opposite Donald Sutherland in MGM’s Alex in Wonderland. It will be directed by Paul Mazursky from a screenplay he co-authored with Tucker, the same team that won an Oscar nomination for their screenplay Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Filming is scheduled to begin this month. * ok * Bud Cort has been signed to star in the title role in MGM’s Brewster McCloud’s Flying Machine, which begins principal photography later this month in Houston under director Robert Altman. Cort, who recently completed his first starring role in MGM’s The Traveling Executioner, also appears in the soon-to-be-released The Strawberry Statement and was seen as the young medical corpsman in Altman’s boxoffice success, M*A*S*H. *k * * Peter Fonda will act and direct, and his Pando Company will produce The Hired Hand as an independent production for Universal release. An original Western drama by Alan Sharp, it will be filmed in New Mexico starting May 26. Ontario censors drop axe on Coming Apart The Ontario Censor Board has refused to pass the film Coming Apart. Starring Rip Torn as a psychiatrist who keeps a film diary of his sexual encounters with women, Coming Apart has not been shown publicly in Canada. Before it was submitted for censorship earlier this year Film Canada, the Canadian distributor, invited an audience of 500 psychiatrists, psychologists, media people and film-makers to view the film and meet the director and stars in Toronto at the St. Lawrence Centre Town Hall. Hollis Alpert in Saturday Review recognized the problems the film would have during the present period of sexploitation films. He said, “It is rather a shame that Coming Apart will attract attention because of its erotic content, when actually it represents something new and relatively significant in film-making”. if Page 5 No shortage of product at American International Countering the voices of gloom which forecast the demise of the film industry, American International Pictures executives Samuel Z. Arkoff, Chairman of the Board and James H. Nicholson, President, announced the company’s most ambitious release schedule for 197071, at a press conference at their L.A. headquarters recently, a total of 32 pictures to hit the market between May of this year and the end of April 1971. Fulfillment of the entire project is supported by the fact that 27 of the films have already been completed and 5 are currently shooting or in pre-producion stages. The flow of product will offer an average of 3 titles a month to industry’s exhibitors. The company, which recently announced an accelerated spurt of production activity for the 6-month period ending in September is committed to maintain the brisk production pace for the balance of the year and will also have product from the 43 pictures recently acquired for release from Commonwealth-United to supplement its catalog. “We are aware of the current dilemmas of the industry’s major producers,” the pair said. “Their re-appraisals of budgets, star categories and story properties are understandable but many have gone into a temporary hiatus. It will result in another draught of available product for the exhibitor, just as it has done in earlier crises. And, as before, by offering a constant ‘rhythm of releases, AIP exchanges will help fill the gaps.” Theatre For Sale Niagara-on-the-Lake Brock Theatre property offers an outstanding investment as it is equi-distant between St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, Ont. It is the only theatre outside of these two cities, and can serve the towns of Virgil, Queenston, St. David’s and the surrounding heavily-populated area. The presence in the town of the Shaw Festival and Canadian Mime Theatre attracts visitors from all over the U.S. and Canada during the summer. The building was_ originally built as a vaudeville house, so retains its stage and loft for presenting plays. Seating capacity is 405, and it is presently used as a completely-equipped movie theatre. Full basement could be converted to rehearsal rooms, prop storage and commercial social centres. Priced at $45,000 this is an outstanding value. For further information, phone Helen Massiah at 1-416-467-7805 or Reg W. Hopkins, Ltd., Realtor, at 1-416-684-6328, or write to the above at 85 Russell Ave., St. Catharines. The pair also note the new industry thinking towards curtailing investment in showcased _ blockbusters in putting the money into more lower-budgeted films. “We have always questioned the wisdom of those ‘go-for-broke’ projects and are gratified to see the industry return to the policies we have followed ever since our company’s formation. Quality product has never been measured in dollar cost. If that extra money is spent in providing more films of varied appeal, so much the better.” Diversity is the key-note of the new AIP program, Nicholson and Arkoff state. “We have chosen stories covering a much wider spectrum of audience taste this period and the variety of subjects — gained from Commonwealth United product will make the choices for the exhibitor that much easier.” $1-million mark near for Airport in Canada Universal’s Airport is closing in on the $1,000,000 mark in Canada ($948,596), establishing boxoffice and near boxoffice records in its 10 situations to date. After six weeks at the Odeon Carlton in Toronto, the film has rolled to $233,631, while in Montreal, at the Atwater, the 35-day figure has reached $117,450. After six weeks at the Odeon in London, it has amassed $89,151, an all-time theatre record, previously held by “Thunderball.” In Calgary, at the Grand, the film has grossed an outstanding $81,048 in 36 days, while at the Rialto, in Edmonton, it has registered $71,075 in 37 days. In six weeks in Hamilton’s Capitol Theatre, it has scored $80,599; $61,694 in six weeks in Ottawa’s Somerset; an outstanding $96,415 in 36 days in Vancouver’s Odeon; $54,159 in the same number of days in Victoria’s Odeon; and $63,374 in 36 days at the Garrick in Winnipeg. Film Canada increases its 35mm library Film Canada in Toronto recently announced the distribution rights to a number of Canadian and foreign films: The Night of the Nun (Czech), Quebec My Love (Canada), Iconostase (Bulgaria), Legend of the Witches (Britain), Two Or Three Thingy I Know About Her (France), The Last Act of Martin Weston (Canada/Czech), Fifties Trip—Sixties Trip (Canada), Coming Apart (U.S.A.), Rebellion (Japan), Calcutta (France).