Filmmaker plans to shoot 'Cigar Game' locally
Executive producer-writer William Evans hopes to raise enough money to begin filming "The Cigar Game" here in January.
He says he has raised $2.5 million but would like to have double that.
Evans is the godson of Paul Mazzei, formerly of Sharpsburg, who is in the witness protection program. Evans says he paid Mazzei $10,000 through an intermediary for his godfather's life rights.
Comparable in theme to "Eight Men Out," which was about the 1919 Black Sox baseball scandal, "The Cigar Game" concerns the fixing of nine Boston College basketball games during the 1978-79 season.
Among those involved in the fix were Mazzei and Henry Hill (the Ray Liotta character in "GoodFellas").
Evans describes his screenplay as “‘GoodFellas' Meets 'Get Shorty.'”
The scandal was a subplot of the recent "Harvard Man."
Evans hopes for financial backing from an established distributor.
Production would run 29 days, 26 of it here, with casino shots probably to be picked up in West Virginia.
Producer of "The Cigar Game" is to be Ted Kurdyla, who executive-produced "Tigerland," "Fallen" and the forthcoming "Phonebooth."
Evans says he's talking with name actors, hoping to interest them in directing.
NEGLECTED AND NOW GONE
One of the busiest English-speaking Italian character actors of the 1950s and '60s was Raf Vallone, whose many movies included "Two Women," "The Cardinal," "El Cid" and "The Godfather, Part III."
He died on Halloween in Tropea, Italy, at age 85 or 86, the sort of neglected celebrity whose name apparently failed to catch the eye of the wire services.
Vallone was a bull-like actor whose most representative performance may have been in the film of Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge," wherein his character's narrow-mindedness and explosiveness generated a catastrophe.
It's one of the best pictures unavailable on video or cable.
Vallone was also great as Melina Mercouri's cuckolded husband in the flamboyantly emotional "Phaedra."
A huge hit on the art-house circuit, playing for seven months at Squirrel Hill's Guild Theater (now Gullifty's restaurant), it contained two irreconcilable improbabilities — that Vallone's son could be Anthony Perkins, and that Mercouri would betray the rich, virile, amorous husband to take up with his seriously neurotic son.
DECEMBER BARGAIN OLDIES
The four local Showcase Cinemas will have bargain shows in December.
The monthly film classic at three of them will be "Desk Set," with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
Showcase East will run it at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Showcase North at 1 p.m. Wednesday and Showcase West at 1 p.m. Thursday. All will charge $1, which includes popcorn and soft drink.
The theaters' stepbrother, Northway Mall Cinemas 8 (build independently and later purchased by Showcase), will run three Christmas-themed movies in December.
"It's a Wonderful Life" will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, "White Christmas" at 7 p.m. Dec. 11 and "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" at 7 p.m. Dec. 18.
Although admission to the three Christmas movies is free, only the first 200 to pick up passes at the theater for each film will be admitted.
"PATHETIC'' IN NAME ONLY
John Yost and Erin Sapienza will be among the actors reading aloud LeeAnn Fulena's screenplay "Pathetic" at 7 p.m. today at Penn Theatre, 4809 Penn Ave., Bloomfield/Garfield. Admission is $2.
DOUBLE THE ''PINOCCHIO''
Roberto Benigni's new Italian version of "Pinocchio," directed by and starring Benigni of "Life Is Beautiful" fame, may achieve a first in the forthcoming Oscar derby.
There's nothing unusual about a foreign-language movie opening in the States with English subtitles. Less commonly now, they're dubbed, but normally just the ones that hope for a wide release in multiplexes.
Because of the G-rated commercial nature of "Pinocchio," it will be shown in the States in a dubbed version for wide release Dec. 25.
If the dubbed version is liked enough by members of the Motion Picture Academy, it would be eligible in such categories as best picture, director and cinematography.
The performers would be unlikely to be nominated, though, because all of the voices, including that of the English-speaking Benigni, will be dubbed by actors whose native language is English.
Someone at Miramax, the distributor, persuaded the distinctly accented Benigni to allow his own voice to be dubbed rather than try to blend in with such Americans as Cheech Marin and Queen Latifah.
Here's the rub: The subtitled Italian version, being Italy's official contender for best foreign-language film, is the one that will be competing with 40-some other movies for the five slots in that one category.
Oscar voters who hope to vote for foreign film may have to sit through both "Pinocchio" versions, which could be slightly different in length as well as in vocal performances.
A variation on this occurred when "Pelle the Conqueror" (1988) turned up at the academy in two slightly different forms — both in Swedish, though. Both were nominated.
As foreign film, it won for the 157-minute version that was shown in its country of origin, Sweden. Max von Sydow was nominated here for the 150-minute edition exported for U.S. showings.
NO ANACHRONISMS HERE
Whenever movies set in the past show titles on a theater marquee, I'm always squinting and craning to see which titles they picked and whether they fit. (An older title is fine, but one too new for the time period is a no-no.)
Invariably, the marquee title represents the period in some iconic way. In a 1945 sequence in "The Godfather," for example, Michael (Al Pacino) and Kay (Diane Keaton) are still courting when they emerge from "The Bells of St. Mary's" at Radio City Music Hall. A perfect choice in every respect.
Whatever its failings as a movie, "The Majestic" got right all of the 1951 films that played at the theater.
"Rebel Without a Cause" most often is selected to represent 1955. One of several movies it turned up in, if memory serves, was "Back to the Future."
But invariably, and oddly, theater marquees usually indicate a single feature, which was the exception rather than the norm for moviehouses back then.
That's why I got a kick out of "Far From Heaven," which is set implicitly in the fall of 1957, indicating two double features at the local moviehouse: "The Three Faces of Eve" (1957) with "Miracle in the Rain" (1956) and later "Hilda Crane" (1956) with "The Bold and the Brave" (1956).
SO WHO'S THE GOAT HEREâ¢
Edward Albee's Tony-winning "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" will fold on Broadway Dec. 15 despite doing even better business with current stars Sally Field and Bill Irwin than with original stars Mercedes Ruehl and Bill Pullman.
Field and Irwin were scheduled to leave the company Dec. 8 but agreed to extend for one week. The producers decided to close rather than try to persuade a star as big as Field to help keep the challenging dark comedy afloat.
RE-RAISING CAINE
Michael Caine is either remaking or being remade or both.
He appears in a forthcoming remake of "The Quiet American" that is only just being released after sitting on the shelf completed for more than a year.
He had a small role in a remake of one of his starring vehicles, "Get Carter."
"The Italian Job," which he did originally, is being remade for 2003 release, and a new "Alfie" could be finished within a year or two, both without him.
Most surprising, though, is that Caine is trying to raise the money to remake "Sleuth," one of his biggest hits. He and Laurence Olivier gave arguably their greatest film performances in the 1972 version; both were Oscar-nominated.
Now Caine wants to do the Olivier part, with Jude Law as the former Caine character.
I'd love to see it work, but it's almost always folly to re-do something already preserved with perfection.
IF AT FIRST YOU SUCCEED
Elton John had such success with his score for the Broadway version of Disney's "Aida," collecting a Tony Award and profiting from a big hit, that he's scoring another stage musical.
He'll compose the music for "Billy Elliot," the 2000 movie. Stephen Daldry, who directed the movie, will do the same for the musical. Screenwriter Lee Hall is expected to write the book and lyrics and Peter Darling to reprise his choreographing chores. There's even a chance Julie Walters will return as the dance teacher.
ALONG CAME A FLOP
Bob McCully of Point Breeze, commenting on a recent item about stars flopping when they played against type, cites the example of "Along Came Jones," a 1945 western comedy with Gary Cooper and Loretta Young.
"Instead of the strong and powerful western hero he usually played, Cooper portrayed a bungling cowboy who was a laughing stock. The movie was a financial disaster. The audience didn't want to see Cooper as anything but a hero."
Reply: The public seemed to love watching John Wayne send up his image as an ornery U.S. marshal in "True Grit" and "Rooster Cogburn," but they're exceptions. The public didn't buy Kirk Douglas as a live-action take-off on Wile E. Coyote in "The Villain."
And yet look at how Robert De Niro turned around his fading star stature with the comedies "Analyze This" and "Meet the Parents."
