The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 345

CALENDAR FROM LOCATION I Ji; i.X James BroKn and ifarpot bidder as the haunted Ltitees in "Amityville Horror." A house in Toms River, N.J., stands in for the real thing in Long Island. 'AMITYVILLE HORROR' IN SOME NEW JERSEY HAUNTS liked to say, "What can I tell you? I leave it to the reader to believe or not to believe." And his book, like magic, distracts from the realistic aspects of life in the Amityville house, focusing on the supernatural just what the film-makers were trying to avoid. "We want to reach a broader audience than those who read the book," Saland said, "and options have been made which will, hopefully, make a more credible story." Personal relationships were being examined more closely in the screenplay marital conditions, financial pressures and levitations, in the book, were omitted. "We're operating in the realm of the possible," Geisinger said. "These events may be true or imagined.

But this world is a strange place, with lots of strange events, and we hope people will at least feel this." This is the producers' first feature and they said it was with special scrutiny that they examined AIP's offer (they said the company simply moved faster than the majors) before being convinced that the company was intent on changing its B-pic-ture image. Director Stuart Rosenberg was convinced, too. He needed a success to bridge the gap between "Voyage of the Damned," "The Drowning Pool," "WUSA" -and "Cool Hand Luke." AIP was trying. Oscar-winning Fred Koenekamp was directing the camera; Oscar-nominee Lalo Schifrin (with Rosenberg on "Voyage" and "Cool Hand was in Los Angeles working on a score; special effects were assigned to the L.A.-based Bill Cruse Co. Back at the Peterson place, the night after Halloween, there were torrents of rain and bolts of lightning inventions of Hollywoodas Brolin and Kidder, working as though their own reputations hung in the balance, fled the house of make-believe horrors.

Townspeople behind police barricades were mesmerized by what seemed to them real. And AIP executives, in town for a glimpse, were crossing their fingers, not because they were superstitious but because they hoped the impressive effect would translate to the screen. Such believers (the "devil" was said to live in the local swamps) were among those who filed through a local bookstore to meet Anson, the man who spread the Lutzes' tale, and to get his autograph on a few of the 4 million paperbacks sold to date. (Hardbacks have sold 430,000.) Anson, white-haired and creaky at 56, is a former newspaperman who has scripted TV movies and who credited himself with 500 "documentaries" in 16 years. Actually, these were promotional featurettes behind the scenes of film-making-made in partnership with the two producers of this film, Ronald Saland and Elliot Geisinger.

Another partner, Marcel Brockman Encyclopedia of brought this project to Anson's attention. Brockman's editor at Prentice-Hall, a Long Island publisher, was familiar with the Lutz case and put Anson in touch with the family, which claimed their only interest in a book was to clear the record. Anson said he agreed to talk at length with George Lutz (they recorded 35 tapes) only after he corroborated the tale with a family priest (played in the film by Rod Steiger), to whom he gained access through his old friend, the Rev. John Nicola, technical adviser of "The Exorcist." Anson, a Russian Orthodox, finds his credibility in the church. Anson's agreement with the Lutzes, now secluded in San Diego, called for an equal share in the book's profits.

And he said he made donations to the priest, now transferred to Nebraska. But he said the family was not familiar with ancillary rights and had, therefore, no formal financial participation in the film. Anson, of course, received payment for film rights and for a first-draft screenplay, now credited to Canadian writer Sandor Stern. He'll also get a percentage from any film profits. The author, who has earned nearly $1 million from this project, compared to a potential $750,000 for the Lutzes, said the family received a consultation fee for the film and "if I do well, the Lutzes will do well." Anson maintained that the family really believed what they reported to him.

But he BY CLARKE TAYLOR "Ronnie DeFeo just wanted to kill his family instead he created an industry? Ronald Saland, co-producer, "The Amityville Horror" TOMS RIVER, N.J.-When 23-year-old Ronnie DeFeo murdered his parents, brothers and sisters on a November night four years ago, he couldn't have foreseen the events his act would set into motion: That George and Kathleen Lutz would flee the "haunted" house in Amityville, Long Island, that they occupied soon after the six DeFeos were carried out. That the account of their supernatural stay there would result in Jay Anson's "The Amityville Horror," the longest-running bestseller since "The Exorcist." That a $7 mil lion film version of that book would pro- vide a vehicle that might assure the careers of the principal film-makers involved, as well as a desired change of image for American International Pictures. The Amityville "horror" stretched far beyond DeFeo's grotesque imagination, all the way to Toms River, where the film company just wrapped up shooting, prior to a move to Los Angeles for house-haunting special effects. Toms River (pop. 65,000) consists of a long stretch of franchise operations along the Jersey shore, interrupted by some semblance of community a town hall, library, hospital, town tavern all shot for the film and all united briefly in the excitement of the arrival of James Brolin, Margot Kidder (townspeople all knew she was really Lois Lane) and a cast and crew of 100.

The Holiday Inn, especially on Wednesday disco nights, was jumping. Amityville (pop. 12,000) was passed over because residents, headed by the current residents of the DeFeoLutz house, were reluctant to encourage added publicity-arid because the house wasn't right for the part anyway. Aside from the fact that the layout wasn't ideal for a shoot, one crew member observed, "If anything should go wrong in that house!" So, just in case The old Peterson place in Toms River was leased for $12,000 and a boathouse, similar to the Lutzes', was constructed for $31,000. Anson said the Dutch colonial was nearly identical to the Amityville house.

Tom O'Neill, chief of the local volunteer fire department, was assigned to act as liaison becauseas he said, he knows "everybody" in Toms River. He said $200,000 was pumped into the off-season economy, including location fees averaging $600 and donations made to the fire department (it provided rain), police department (it tried to provide security), hospital and library funds. Page 1 stories in the Ocean County Times-Observer reported that a local baker made $150 (he also donated a cake for Kidder's birthday) and a florist $250, for props used in a wedding scene. Page 1 also reported that 38 extras were chosen from the 2,000 who turned up for an open audition. But 200 fans on location complained that movie crews and police "taunted" them.

And O'Neill said that, while no promises had been made, "the company could have done more to mix with the locals." The local B'nai B'rith was turned down on an offer to dine the two stars after a tour of Toms River. Brolin received offers ranging from boats to Appaloosa horses to hot cocoa on the set. "One woman invited me to dinner with her husband and children, but added, 'Unless you'd rather they not be There were no superstitions of close encounters with a facsimile of the well-known house. "Nah," O'Neill said, "you know, we have the Jersey devil down here." 7 T3 PI.