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Show Moab is bidding for six western movies scheduled for filming during the early spring and late fall period. Invitations to film the pictures pic-tures in Moab were extended last week during a personal tour of Hollywood studios by Moab Chamber Movie Committee Com-mittee members, Manly Lincoln Lin-coln and George White. Mr. Lincoln said they returned re-turned from their fourth such tour of Hollywood feeling the trip this spring was the most fruitful yet. They luckily found most of the executive producers and key personnel in Hollywood, and made 25 contacts with studios and independent in-dependent companies. Potential of Six There are six good filming possibilities particularly adaptable ad-aptable to the Moab scenery, ( the movie promotors reported, report-ed, most assigned to studios familiar with the local area. Considered for early spring is a Bonanza Studios television televis-ion production, spearheaded by executive producer David Doroto, and executive producer produc-er for the Bonanza productions produc-tions James Lane. The two executives indicated that they would make on-the-spot inspection in-spection of filming areas in Moab sometime in the middle part of March. "Barquero" is again being considered as a Moab filming project. It is a United Artists Art-ists Aubrey Schenck production. produc-tion. Hopes were high for obtaining ob-taining a filming commitment for this feature last year, but the picture was temporarily shelved for lack of a sponsor. It has now been assigned to Schenck, with Hal Klein associate as-sociate producer, and the two plan to tour Moab locations loca-tions sometime afler March 15 when Klein returns from a South American filming jaunt. Three Westerns The CBS Studio Center, for merly RKO, has three westerns west-erns scheduled for late summer sum-mer and fall filming. The Moabites interviewed Gilbert Kurland, who was called out of retirement to become CBS president. The result was encouraging. en-couraging. Kurland was producer pro-ducer of Battle at Apache Pass in Moab in 1950 and knows the area well. He admitted ad-mitted he didn't know any location better equipped with the versatile scenery needed for the filming episode. Twentieth Century Fox executives ex-ecutives are enthused over a planned western, "The Sundance Sun-dance Kid," based on a book by the same name. The movie mo-vie is a travel sequence ranging rang-ing from Oklahoma to Texas, and the versatile Moab' scenery scen-ery could be the answer to a one-stop location during the filming. It is scheduled for summer, or later, filming; Doc Murman, vice president of the Studio indicated he would survey the location sites about June. Warner Brothers Warner Brothers Studios has a trio of westerns planned plan-ned for late summer or fall shooting. The Moab representatives represen-tatives contacted location director, di-rector, Dutch Horlon and Mervin LeRoy, executive producer, pro-ducer, both of whom felt Moab had good scenery potential po-tential for the films. Plan ning is being completed for "Cowboy and Indians," with Cary Grant a tentative starring star-ring possibility; also "Frontiersman," "Fron-tiersman," and "Good Guys and Bad Guys." A studio new to the Moab area was interested in surveying sur-veying the community as site for the filming of a western. A. C. Lyles Productions, are completing advance planning for "Fort Siege" and hope-. hope-. fully executives will arrive sometime this year to Iook the area over. Good Demand Mr. Lincoln said there appears ap-pears to be a growing demand de-mand in Hollywood for full-length full-length features, both to satisfy sat-isfy the growing theater audiences au-diences sparked by a better quality picture production in the past few years; also there is urgent need for new full-length full-length productions to replace the often shown "oldies" on television. He stated there was little doubt Moab is still running competition with foreign countries coun-tries for the Hollywood mo-t'on mo-t'on picture business, where the film activities are subsidized subsi-dized by governments com peting for the lucrative industry. indus-try. He said it was pleasant to find Moab has earned an excellent ex-cellent reputation in Hollywood Holly-wood from past film hosting activities. Among suggestions offered was a Chamber of Commerce brochure listing Moab's services, equipment, livestock potential, etc., to be placed in the hands of film companies, It was also suggested sug-gested new points of interest in the Moab area be advertised adver-tised in the Hollywood Reporter, Repor-ter, and that an advertisement advertise-ment be entered in the annual an-nual anniversary edition of the publication promoting the area. A Housing Problem Housing will always be a problem that must be ironed out by motion picture companies com-panies prior to settling on Moab as a location area. However, it will seldom he more critical than during the past summer when the city hosted two film companies at one time for Paramount Productions, Pro-ductions, apparently in a satisfactory manner, according accord-ing to the enthusiasm shown toward the Moab area. The movie committeemen brought back one bit of discouraging dis-couraging news. It may be that the planned Moab premier pre-mier of "Blue" will have to be transferred to Salt Lake City due to the large number of prominent people to be involved, and the small theater thea-ter space available here. The motion picture industry indus-try promotors brought back greetings from such Hollywood Holly-wood friends as Pat Casey, associate producer of Blue; and from Henry Fonda, who they met on "The Boston Strangler" set. Mr. Fonda has worked in Moab, and he indicated it was one of his favorite off-studio locations. He particularly enjoys the fishing. Production Manager Eric Stacey, who was in Moab with the Cheyenne Autumn cast sent a friendly greeting to all Moabites, and Roily Harper amiable proprietor of the Harper Motion Picture Catering Service extended his greetings and still maintained maintain-ed he has future plans for Moab where he is a property investor. |