Hollywood
The long-delayed Janis Joplin bio-film is finally on the way to the screen, producer David Permut reports.
Permut bought the rights to the late singer`s ”Buried Alive” biography 11 years ago and has been developing it since. At one time, Warner Bros. was to have made the story of the rock star who died of a heroin overdose in 1970 at the age of 27. Later, England`s Lew Grade was to have made it; at one time it was planned as an NBC television movie. Meanwhile, there was ”The Pearl” (Janis` nickname) that became ”The Rose” and starred Bette Midler.
”Buried Alive,” says Permut, whose new ”Dragnet” and ”Blind Date”
went from concept to screen in less than two years, will be the ”story of a girl who was never accepted.
”It will not be a big-canvas movie; it will not be unlike `The Buddy Holly Story.` ”
Permut, with partner Mark Travis, hopes to have the picture before the cameras by the end of the year. Still undecided is whether to go with an unknown actress or an established star. They do not plan to use Janis` voice. ”It is just too tough to dub,” Permut says. ”We`ll use somebody else`s voice to recapture Janis` style.”
— Plans are in the works for Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks to reteam in
”Dragnet II.”
— Sylvester Stallone`s oft-delayed ”Rambo III” is gearing up for production again, in late August in Israel.
Israel and Morocco were announced early this year as location sites for the picture when it was expected to shoot in April. Later, Mideastern film sites were scrapped in favor of Guaymas, Mexico. Then Stallone reportedly decided that he would feel more secure in the deserts of Arizona and Nevada. Now the production has come full circle, back to Israel.
There has been plenty of time to scout locations around the world, as the project has gone through rewrite after rewrite.
Because of the success of ”Platoon” in February, Stallone was restructuring his ”Rambo” screenplay to make the character less cartoonish. Reportedly he still is fine-tuning the story.
The essential plot, however, is much the same: Rambo comes out of retirement to save his old commander, Richard Crenna, from a foreign force in a foreign land.
Also, according to one ”Rambo” source, ”It`s still obviously going to be set in a country such as Afghanistan. That`s one of the reasons they`re going to shoot in Israel. They need some 3,000 extras who can pass for people from the Middle East.”
— Norman Jewison will make not only the romantic murder mystery ”The January Man” as part of his new deal with MGM but also ”The Peace.”
Jewison has had ”The Peace,” an anti-gun story, in development at Columbia for several years.
He reports that Frank Military has completed the screenplay and that director Phillip Borsos will bring it before the cameras next spring.
At the moment, Borsos is completing ”Bethune,” which has been shooting in China with Donald Sutherland.
One project Jewison has not yet offered to Metro is ”Dance Me Outside,” a Larry McMurtry comedy about two young men who leave an Indian reservation. Jewison had tried to get this film into motion at Columbia, too, but he and McMurtry have decided a rewrite is in order before it is pitched to MGM.
— ”Straight to Hell” star Sy Richardson reports that plans are in the works for a sequel to the new offbeat Island feature that costars Grace Jones and Elvis Costello.
”Back to Hell” is the tentative title of the follow-up, which, Richardson says, ”we`re talking about shooting in Spain and North Africa.”
”Straight to Hell” is his fourth film for director Alex Cox. The others include ”Repo Man” and the film ”Walker,” for which shooting was completed in Nicaragua two months ago. ”Walker” stars Marlee Matlin and Ed Harris.
— DEG`s ”Collision Course” has turned out to be a collision course of directors, reports Al Waxman, who costars in the feature with Pat Morita and Jay Leno.
Waxman, who plays the head of the precinct in ”Cagney & Lacey,”
outlines the ”Collision” course:
”The first director left before the picture started. I was hired by the second director, but the day I arrived to start shooting, the second director was leaving.”
The final director to take the ”Collision” helm was Lewis Teague, best known for directing ”Jewel of the Nile.”
