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Show Summit/ Wasatch See Page 2 — Associated Press May26, 1995 CD: “Rhythm of the Pride” from “The Lion King. The Fog Comes onLittle Cat Feet Mario Van Peebles, director of Panther,” wants to wake up young people who are enamored with panther-style militancy but who don’t havea clue as to what the radical 1960s groupswasall about. However, according to original Black Panthers, thefilm isn’t remotely anything like what they remember. “This film should have been a monumentto the contribution of the Black Panther Party to freedom andthe bloodsacrifice ofits members,” said Eldridge Cleaver, the group’s formerminister of information. “Instead, it was stillborn. I think the Black Panther Party was larger than life; | this version of the Black Panther Party was smaller thanlife.” — The American Booksellers Association has named its 1995 ABBY winners, books of kindnessthatretailers love to recommend. The adult winner is “Chicken Soup,” a collection of Mario Peebles inspirational stories by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen; the children’s winner, Marcus Pfister’s “The Rainbow Fish,” abouta fish that learns to share whatit most treasures. — Novelist Jay McInerney, father of twins, interviewed his onetime drinking buddy Bruce Willis, father of three, for Esquire. After the interview, McInerney said, “Having kids was the end of Bruce’s party-animal mode. And it’s bound to modify my behavior. It does give you moreofa reason to get up before noon.” — — Whenauthor John Grisham heard that Woedy Harrelson was gonnabe tappedforthe starringrolein thefilm ofhis first novel, “A Timeto Kill,” he said, Ack! and puta stopto it. The author was given unprecedented casting approvalfor thefilm. Director Joel Schumacherwasirked by Grisham’s veto — a powernotlikely to be given any other author any time soon. NoSinging in the Shower Janet Leigh, sliced in the showerin the movie “Psycho,” is out later this month with what’s reputedlythefirst inside book on the 1960 movie. In ‘Psycho: Behindthe Scenesofthe Classic Thrillwa eee er,” the actress — now 67 — says it took seven days to shoot the 45second showerscene. “I wore a 7 moleskin suit and it was very uncomfortable,” she notes. And, yes, the picturegotto her.‘I take baths, only baths,” Leigh says. Andif she’s where only a shower is available, “I make sure the § doors and windows are locked and I leave the bathroom door open and shower curtain open.” — Playwright Terrence MeNallyis in with the out crowd. His “Love! Valour! Compassion!” was named best Broadway play recently by the OuterCritics Circle, a group of theater writers who work for media outside New York. Janet Leigh The group picked Andrew Lloyd Webber's “Sunset Boulevard”’ as best musical. Nathan Lane took best actor in McNally’s play. Cherry Jones was namedbestactress in ‘The Heiress.” GlennClose, the silent-screen diva Norma Desmondin ‘Sunset Boulevard,” was best actress in a musical, while best actor in a musical went to Matthew Broderick as the ambitious dude in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” — Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winnerof 1991, was awarded oneofIndia's most prestigious awards — the $48,000 Jawaharlal Nehru Award — forherstruggle to bring democracy to Burma. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest in Rangoonforsix years. Sick to Death of Charges ‘The SupremeCourt, last month, turned down an appeal by Dr. Jack Kevorkian and let Michigan continueto outlaw assisted suicide, The court, without comment, rejected Kevorkian’s appealof a Michigan SupremeCourtruling that said thereis no constitutionallightto assisted suicide. Kevorkian soughtto block his prosececution in five deaths. He faces murder chargesin the deaths of two people and assisted-suicide charges in three other. However, Kevorkian just won't take no for an answer. A 78-yearold retired minister died May 8 with — guess who — athis side. The Reverand John E, Evans was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease. — Kurt Vonnegut says his career has been downhill all the way, writing “intuitively, reflexively, as if skiing down a steep mountain slope with no time to Dr, Jack Kevorkian think.” The 72-year-old authorof “Slaughter-house Five” kicked off the skis and took time to modestly reflect on his literary outputat a lecture in Rochester, N.Y. “And as I look back on the marks myskis haveleft on the slope," he said, “I see that what I wrote again and again arestories of ordinary people whotried to behave decently in an indecentsociety.” y Somegood news: the show wentonafter actor Jerry Grayson suffered a heart attack during a preview performance of a new Broadway production of “On the Waterfront.” —A “blistering, no-holds-barred, potentially explosive” Bob Dole bio (‘Senator for Sale” by Stanley Hilton) is promised for October by St. Martin's Press. But the senator's camp seems unperturbed. Said Dole’s spokesman; “Our assumptionis that this is recycled stuff, and the onlyinsight it will offer is how low some people will sink in order to make a profit in the political season.” It's a known depth! Reports peepee from Tribune and ne wire services, 5 3 Nee \ orgettable Power of a Good Book By John Horn AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES(AP) — Tom Clancy, John Grisham and Michael Crichton light up the best-seller charts. Dick King-Smith, Lynne Reid Banks and Frances Hodgson Burnett light up children’s imaginations — and that’s why Hollywood is banking on a surprising new group ofnovelists this summer. Amid the season's lucrative cavalcade of bloody action films, inevitable sequels and calculated kiddie fare, no less than five acclaimed children’s books are coming to the- “T think it's a good sign kid's movies are based on previously written material because it shows you can do serious moviesfor families — notjustformula movies you make to make money.” Director Carlo Carlei, who has spent 12 years bringing “Fluke”to the screen, aters as live-action family movies. Thefirst such release, ‘The Little Princess,” was set to appear on May 19. It is adapted from Burnett's story about an assured young girl whose world collapses at boarding school. The last summertitle is “The Baby-Sitter’s Club” (Aug. 18), based on the books by Ann Martin concerning seven girls’ adventures. In between, three other films plucked from bookstore shelves will debut: “Fluke” from the novel by James Herbert about an science project in comparison. accident victim who returnsto his family as a dog;“The Indian in the Cupboard,” adapted from Banks’tale of a three-inch-tall toy Indian who comestolife; and “Babe,” based on King-Smith’s “Babe: The GallantPig,” an accountof an orphan swine who thinks he’s a sheepdog. “T think it’s a good sign kid’s movies are based on previously written material because it shows you can do serious movies for families — not just formula movies you make to make money,” says director Carlo Carlei, who has spent 12 years bringing “Fluke” to the screen. “Do you want to just make a movie to squeeze the audience's pockets? Or do you want to communicate some values?” Carlei asks, Unlike the often morally empty, entertainment-at-all-costs works of Clancy, Grisham,Crichton and their pop fiction peers, pular children’s books tend to be guided 4 a strong moral compass. Scrutiny by parents, educators and critics usua lly sinks those inferior children’s books — outside of harmless gimmicks such as “Where's Wal- do?" “Phe that have nothing worthwhile to say Little Princess," for example, is an screen, and another five monthsfilming it “Even though it looks simple, it's incredibly complicated,” he says of a movie where more than three-quarters of the dialogue is spoken by pigs, ducks, dogs and sheep. To give the barnyard residents voices, Noonan used high-tech computer effects and a stable of mechanical animals, Some 50 different real pigs were needed to play Babe, because thelittle pigs would staylittle for only a few weeks. For “The Indian in the Cupboard,” ParamountPicturesis spending millions on spe. cial effects sophisticated “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” will look like a high-school 4 allegorical yarn set in (he early 1900s India and London about faith, compassion and forgiveness. Producer Mark Johnson, who hasreadthe bookto his 8-year-old daughter, says the book communicatesall of those val u ithout being heavy-handedordull. “Oneof the reasons thatI liked it so much is that it's a real tale — it takes youto a different world and a different time,” says Johnson. “And it’s about the relationship between a father and his daughter. This is something as a parent I wanted to make.” Adds Carlei about “Fluke”: “It was a mor. al story that was very entertaining and moving. I liked the metaphorical aspect of how a mangets in touch with the meaningoflife.” Children canbe truly discriminating readers — orlisteners. If a story and its characters don't undividedly hold their attention, it's on to another book, a pile of toys, a spontaneous nap. That premium on plot makes food chil@ren’s books a natural for the moves. “Very often, when people are writing a children's story, they try to instill it with something thatis clear,” says Chris Noonan, the director of “Babe.” “This book had a whimsicalclarity to it,”’ Noonansaid Like adult science-fiction, children's literature frequently unfolds in an unreal world where anything — from talking pigs to incarnate toy figurines —is possible, But what is easy to write (and imagine) can be laborious to produce on film, Noonan spent six years figui out how to make “Babe” translate page to Someofthe best children's books aredisturbing and sad — Beth dies in “Little Wos does the spider in “Charlotte's ollywoodloves happyendings, however, which leads to some unavoidablecollisions between faithfulness and box-office calculations. Johnson reluctantly decided to keep the father alive in “The Little Princess’ although he perishes in the book knowhow| could kill him off,” he didn't con- tritely. And like ‘A Little Princess,” the ac- tion in “The Indian in the Cupboard” has been relocated from Britain to the United States. Yet no matter howtrue a filmmaker remains to the source book, children — especially those with vivid imaginations — are bound to experience a film differently than they envisioned the original story, Lynn Reid Banks says this was amongher fears in watching her “Indian in the Cupboard” go to Hollywood. A memorable story, she says, “Is part of the trappings of your brain — you have the movie in your mind, And then yougo to the movie and say, ‘What's this?’ and you're shattered, “(The movie) might just wipe out that delicate thing children have created themselves, and I wouldn't want that to happen,” she says. “Just from a sales standpoint, we have nothing to go with but the movie itself,” Johnson says. maleeh , ; And, perhaps, the gnforgettable power o! a good book ” ” |
