CONFESSIONS OF A FILM FOX

CONFESSIONS OF A FILM FOX

More news and spews from the Fox after a harrowing month sneaking around to catch the latest. Loads of film folks were on hand to tell what’s happening. Have you heard? . . . Curtis Mayfield filed a letter of complaint with the Motion Picture Academy stating his “Freddie’s Dead” song from Superfly was bounced from Oscar nomination because they didn’t want a black to win twice in a row. The MPA claims it wasn’t selected because the lyrics weren’t used with the music in the movie. Warner Bros. Pictures admitted to that error. Mayfield’s manager says “out of the 131 members of the music brand of the Academy only two are black, the average age is 50 and only four screened Superfly” The title song lost the nomination battle to “Silent Running” . . . Julie Christie and Warren Beatty are up for leading roles in Visconti’s Life of Zelda. The movie about F. Scott. Fitzgerald’s wife rolls if and when the director’s health improves . . . From the Lion’s Mouth: MGM’s super Slither, with Playgirl Connie Kreski’s flame, James Caan and Sally Kellerman has Donald Sutherland (alias Steelyard Blues ’ Veldini) crying down his legs. The obligatory chase scene involves — mobile homes. That’s right, a demoliton derby driver’s dream . . . Caan is now filming Cinderella Liberty. . . Westworld, a science fiction thriller, stars James Brolin, Richard Benjamin and Yul Brynner (who just completed The Serpent in France) . . . Sam Peckinpah’s latest goodie: he named two whores in his recent film Pauline and Judith after critics Kael and Christ. It’s a thoughtful tribute for their sweet word’s about Ali “bushy brows” McGraw in The Getaway. Which reminds me — two young Hollywood actors have cemented over McGraw’s footprints at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Quick draw . . . Kid Blue (formerly Dime Box, Texas) stars Dennis Hopper, Peter Boyle, Warren Oates and Ben Johnson. What a cast! . . . Banned til 1959,Lady Chatterly’s Lover, the D.H. Lawrence “masterpiece,” is prime timed for a movie with Sarah Miles starring, most likely. Will Ken Russell or Robert Bolt direct? Just asking . . . Will the National Lampoon’s Lemmings, the offBroadway hit, hit rhe screen? They’ve added three companies for tours and made an album of the rock musical comedy, so it seems the next step, eh? . . . The £J.Y. Erotic Film Festival winners were announced after a two-month delay: Deep Steep is Best Picture according to the audience, but It Happened In Hollywood is the jury’s choice . . . Now you can purchase Hanna-Barbera’s 2600 sound effects in all of 27 Ip’s. This thorough series includes all the noises from your favorite cartoons. Whatta pikinik basket, Booboo? ... In order to reach the women’s market in more ways than one', Metro has hired Bill Ballance of Feminine Forum (that outrageous female sex-fantasy radio show) as a creative consultant to the publicity and exploitation dept. . . . Ryan O’Neal’s attempt to persuade Orson Welles to star with him in a Peter Bogdanovich con-man movie didn’t quite work. However, Welles will write and direct a pic for Bogdanovich to produce . . . Kung-Fu, a specialized Karate the TV series revolves around, is the theme of lots of Chinese films slamming through Europe. One of the movies, Five Fingers of Death, has hit here too. By the way, the TV show is cancelled . . . Yoshio Ko, a Tokyo promoter has plans for a world touring show of Scotland’s Loch NessMonster. Ko is hunting for the legendary Nessie, the creature from the Lagoon, equipped with submarine, radar and tranquilizer gun (how about a Kung-Fu chop?) . . . Reader’s Digest, who’ve released the movie musical of Tom Sawyer, are now working on Dickens’ The Old Curiousity Shop. . . Jacqueline Bisset is seeing lots of Michael Sarrazin these days. You may have noticed a cameo-shot photo of them in Judge Roy Bean . . . Perry Mason is making a comeback this fall TV season, without Raymond Burr . . . Paul Anka announced a rather surprising story. His song “Jubilation” is for the soundtrack of The Gospel Singer — a movie based on the book. Strange, because Tony Joe White’s song “The Gospel Singer” from The Train I’m On LP was also inspired by the book which he thought would be a terrific movie. Somebody’s beat you to it again, Tony Joe. (He had brought up the idea of a film version of Deliverance to Jerry Wexler and .friend/Marcus Welby star James Brolin while it was already in production.) Better luck next novel . . . Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine are pitted against each other in Robert Aldridge’s upcoming The Emperor of the North Pole. And it’s not about Santa Claus. It’s a depression tale concerning a hobo (Marvin) and a freight train cop (Ernie) bloodily fighting it out for territory . . . Attention Star Trek fans: Filmation is producing Saturday morning cartoon versions of Star Trek, McHale’s Navy and My Favorite Martian for this fall . . Billy Dee Williams (Lady Sings the Blues)is scheduled for Motown’s The Nat King Cole Story next year . . . Twiggy is participating in the movie, Mary Rose . . . Liz Taylor’s Ash Wednesday is about body sculpture surgery! Henry Fonda and Helmut Berger (Ludwig) join her in Paramount’s feature . . . Shaft’s Gordon Parks is directing Super Cops a true tale about a vigilante police team nicknamed “Batman and Robin” . . . Another pig pic (yuk-yuk) The Laughing Policeman, stars Walter Matthau and Bruce Dem . .. George C. Scott and wife, young Trish Van Devere lead the cast in Day of the Dolphin. Mike Nichols directs . . . Hackman-UUmann’s Taylor’s Bride changed to Zande . . . Dustin Hoffman joins Steve McQueen in Papillon . . Timothy Leary was appropriately set for the lead in Hermann Hesse’s The Prairie Wolf, a German-American film venture. But he hasn’t been able to jail-break again. However, the show must go on ... ★

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