The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 135

JiM IMoVL said Luis Reyes, unit publicist for the King Kong sequel. "There's still magic to the movies here. Neighbors are recruited as extras there's no Extras Guild. Everybody knows everybody." Actors dressed as surly hillbillies sip cappuccino with studio executives in the commissary. Local residents, who work as extras for minimum wage and the chance to be immortalized on celluloid, are also on the set As in any extended family, DEG and this coastal city of 56,000 have had their share of squabbles.

Studio officials were furious last April when the Wilmington Morning Star revealed that "King Kong Lives," to be released around Christmas, would feature a baby Kong. Meanwhile, some residents and businesses complain that location shooting and there is a lot of it TOM MINEHART Associated Press Writer WILMINGTON, N.C Workers carrying artificial boulders 5 feet tall scurry past the disembodied head of King Kong, while dust blows through Chinatown. Tanks fire and soldiers charge as a director yells, "Roll 'em!" It could almost be the 1930s and '40s when such legendary studios as MGM and Warner Bros, bustled with the business of making movies. Instead, it's the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group shooting a day's work at its Wilmington studio. DEG runs some executive operations in Los Angeles.

Since filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis moved his operations here two years ago, the company has produced such major movies as "King Kong Lives," "Year of the Dragon" and "Marie." "It's more like MGM was like when it started a big family," ties up traffic and blocks access by shoppers. However, says Lee Hauser, president of the Greater Wilmington Merchants Association, the studio has gone out of its way to cooperate with merchants worried that shooting might keep shoppers away. On the whole, say city and studio officials, the relationship has been mutually beneficial. "We're just thrilled about the studio," said Lt Dennis Cyphers, president of the Wilmington Jay-cees and a Wilmington police officer who has had small roles in two films. "It's an excellent opportunity for this area to grow.

The studio furnishes a lot of jobs in the area These people spend a lot of money and it gets turned over five to seven times in the community. "A lot of people said the movie studio was going to bring in what they thought was riffraff, that we'd be just like Los Angeles or other places. I can honestly say I haven't seen that happen." The Wilmington Chamber of Commerce estimates that the filmmakers have spent $120 million in the area since "Firestarter" was shot at nearby Orton Plantation in late 1983. The money goes not only for wages and salaries but also for lumber, costume material, vehicles, shipbuilding, rented houses and even the massive net used to carry King Kong's 3.5-ton mate. The 32.4-acre studio has six stages; the largest is 100 feet by 200 feet and 46 feet high.

One large building is filled with costumes, including several dozen rubber suits from "Dune," which De Laurentiis produced in Mexico. The studio has a permanent staff of about 30. However, with four movies being shot in Wilmington this summer, It employed about 800 people 85 percent of them local. "We're training film technicians, actors, dressers, propsmen, electricians, carpenters, grips, cameramen," said studio President Martha Schumacher. Some local employees started out as drivers or assistants and have worked their way up to prop manager or wardrobe manager.

Much of Wilmington's attractiveness to DEG lies in its non-union work force and the flexibility that allows. North Carolina is the nation's second least unionized state and is one of several states, including New York and Florida, that's been attracting moviemakers away from Hollywood. "In Hollywood, union rules say you can't move a prop unless you call a prop person," said Reyes. "You have to stop production." Dean Metcalf, a Wilmington security guard, said he doesn't mind getting only the minimum $3.35 per hour to work for DEG's King Kong production as an extra. "We're supposed to be the bad guys," said Metcalf, dressed as an Army soldier for an assault on the huge ape at the Wilmington airport.

"It's a lot of fun. If it were for the money, I wouldn't be out here." However, the job can be dangerous. Metcalf said one stunt man broke a leg when he slipped in a hole during a scene from "Kong Kong Lives." DEG films have also featured the city of Wilmington itself. In "Maximum Overdrive," a Spacek roam among the mansions and cypress trees for the filming of "Crimes of the Heart." Downtown Wilmington has substituted for Times Square and downtown Boston; the Cotton Exchange mall has starred in several bar scenes; the Airlie Gardens have been featured as King Kong's boyhood home in Borneo; and the campus of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington has provided shots of a research studio and a high-school gym. "Within an hour of here, we can find almost any look we except mountains and the mountains are only about two and a half hours away," said Jayme Bed-narczyk, the studio's assistant manager.

"You can find any type of architecture farm looks, small town looks, big city, suburbia anything except igloo and adobe." DEG owner of the studio, is going public. It bought Embassy Pictures last year, giving the company a distribution arm in addition to the studio. The studio also provides facilities for other producers. Tri-Star is partly shooting a new Richard Gere movie, tentatively titled "New Orleans" or "No Mercy," on a DEG set made to resemble Algiers, La. The 13 movies produced at the studio so far also include "Cat's Eye," "Silver Bullet," "Raw Deal," "Red Dragon" and "Blue Velvet." DEG plans to release 12 movies this year, 12 to 16 in 1987 and 14 to 18 each following year, according to a preliminary prospectus on the stock offering.

So Wilmington's influence on American moviemaking is likely to grow. Cyphers said Wilmington may even get used to the living with filmmakers from California, England and Italy and bumping into such celebrities as Arnold Schwarzenegger. "It used to be when they started filming, the streets would be packed with people watching," he said. "Now it seems like, 'Yeah, they're filming a movie The newness is wearing off." ENGINE EXCHANGE JULY special QUALITY $HVKtVMUI UNC1 1967 1 .244 TRACTOR McHenry Tractor Co. Ill Vijr)'t3l 1402 DkVvnen Id.

604 5TH AVE. SO. 242-4308 JW5I in i i BILLY FORKUM Mttfc Ten-imwm With Thtk AuUxrothft Nntb-For Ow 31 flirt. Sm Cil Hm Today. IK DAVIS BU1CK 1250 Gallatin Del.

at Uon 865-0600 FRAI movie about a convoy of trucks and other inanimate objects running amok, a car plunges off the Northeast Cape Fear Bridge. The bridge has a similar scene in "Trick or Treat," a heavy-metal horror movie. "Maximum Overdrive" technicians built a truck stop on U.S. 74 outside the city that was so realistic that people stopped at it and complained when it was blown up. And 30 miles to the south, Jessica Lange, Diane Keaton and Sissy 1 Wouldn't it hfl nreat tn NO OTHER BED CAN DO PRICES TWIN 39" 80 FULL 54" QUEEN 60" 80" Would you like to decrease your dependence on MORE FOR YOUR BACK BACK CONDITIONS HIATAL HERNIA CIRCULATORY PROBLEMS BREATHING PROBLEMS NERVOUS TENSION COMFORT FROM: 475' 550' I CALL NOWI H615I47-403() glasses or contact lenses? imnrme umir ukinn uithmit nlcee in vision technology since contact lenses.

medication or expensive myopia surgery? You may very well be able to with a new high tech biofeedback program at Dr. Michael Poller's Vision Enhancement a unique new training program that helps you to control your focusing muscles naturally, so you can improve your distance and near vision. Call today to learn about this unique new program, offered for the first time In Nashville, the result of ten years of research and systems development by Dr. Joseph Trachtman, nationally-known pioneer in biofeedback vision training. CfiAFTMATtC I Color TV or Mtcfwv 0vm purchtes(tat Smdssao.

CRAFTMATtC i to it A mm purcnase nwnagt CRAFTMATC Improve your eyes naturally with biofeedback vision training the most remarkable innovation I HOURS: muniVii tM- i i SATURDAY M. 1WJ. Call Dr. Michael Politzer VISION ENHANCEMENT CENTER UON'S HEAD VILLAGE 72 WHITE BRIDGE ROW NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 37209 356-4840 MON M. P.M.

VTT ftr ifiTrnTi.Tr i u..