The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 193

DECEMBER 7. 1997 THE SUNDAY RECORD YT-9 screen Legal wrangles could delay 'Amistad' Writer's suit adds to off-screen drama the yM 5 scheduled to open Wednesday in New York and Friday nationwide arrives on schedule, or at all. Spielberg is scheduled to appear in court Monday to answer Chase-Riboud's $10 million copyright infringement suit. It's possible though not likely that a judgment against Spielberg could delay the release of the film indefinitely. Which is exactly what co-producer Debbie Allen is dreading.

T'all can argue about ownership as long as all go see the says Allen, also an actress who originally brought the "Amistad" project to Spielberg. "This is bigger than any of us." The recent legal brouhaha is not the only turbulence "Amistad" has been through. From the start, the film's production has been a saga of high ideals and bottom-line ByJIMBECKERMAN Staff Writer Coming soon to a courtroom near you: "Amistad." That's "Amistad" as in the Spanish slave ship Amistad scene of an 1839 mutiny led by a kidnapped African, Joseph Cinque, whose case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. That's also "Amistad" as in the epic film by Steven Spielberg, starring Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, and Nigel Hawthorne.

The film has led to a second "Amistad" uprising: a legal battle between Spielberg's company, DreamWorks SKG, and novelist Barbara Chase-Roboud, who claims that certain details in the screenplay are lifted, not from history, but from her 1989 "Amistad" novel "Echo of Lions." This real-life courtroom drama could affect whether the movie realities. It's the story of a superstar director whose passion for right is exceeded only by his concern for red ink. It's the story of writers, all jealously possessive of a historical fluke that few would have heard of if Spielberg hadn't become obsessed with it, "He's amazing, he's so gifted," says Djimon Hounsou, who plays Cinque (pronounced sin-kay) in the film. "I'm just touched by the magnitude of all this." Indeed, there is a bit of the holy crusade about "Amistad," Spielberg's first attempt to deal with black themes since his much-criticized "The Color Purple" in 1985. "Amistad" is more in the spirit of Spielberg's acclaimed Holocaust drama "Schindler's List" and not only because of Spielberg's knack of finding heroes in unlikely places.

"I hope we all learn something from this film," Hounsou says. Cinque's story, complete with happy ending, is certainly unique in the annals of slavery. He won a victory in the 1841 U.S. Supreme Court defended by the cranky ex-president John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins) and was freed to return to Africa. Once again, Spielberg has an epic canvas, and once again he's filled it in style: swelling music by John Williams, a painterly color scheme that suggests Goya, Express Yourself All Ages Painting and Drawing Classes with Internationally Exhibited Artist Small Groups Individualized Instruction Call for our free brochure! The Fine Ait Studio 40 Bergen Street, Englewood mni-niimii.

uii.ii .1.1 iijiii iiniMiiiiyj ju vVV fctm Xr "1 Director Steven Spielberg, above, instructing Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman. The actors reportedly took a one-fifth pay cut from their usual going rate. Co-producer Debbie Allen, right, says "Amistad" "belongs to the world, to the universe, to the ancestors." Stop you're making Allen's head spin. "This belongs to the world, to the universe, to the ancestors," she says of "Amistad." Over the years, Cinque has been an underground favorite with revolutionaries, scholars, and even composers (the opera "Amistad" by Anthony Davis had its premiere at the Lyric Opera of Chicago last month). But until 1978, co-producer Allen, who brought the "Amistad" project to Spielberg, was just another person who had never heard of Cinque.

A trip to her alma mater, Howard University, opened her eyes. She saw students reading an essay book titled "Amistad "I didn't know what that meant, she recalls. That was the start of her 19-year journey to bring "Amistad" to the screen. After nearly two decades of knocking on doors, she finally got a chance to pitch her project to Spielberg. Spielberg agreed to direct the film through his new company, DreamWorks SKG, but only under certain conditions.

For one, he convinced major stars like McConaughey, Freeman, and Hopkins to take a pay cut about one-fifth their going rate. He also told the production All Levels 568-3434 A Nights? Lobster. Buffet or Regulorlyl7(i25 AllYou CaivEat Buffet present this coupon to Taj Card required. IUOn mciuoea. mjv not uwa tfcoftoik beverigei fndeyonly (slot viM 121W end 1191.

Though Spielberg, in the interests of economy, decided to forgo his sweeping crane shots and other trademark "epic" effects in favor of simple pan and tilt photography, he didn't skimp where it counted: drama. Drama like the courtroom scene in which a chained Cinque utters his first English words: "Give us free!" The time came to do it, and I heard him say and nobody moved, nobody said a word," recalls Hounsou, originally from Benin, West Africa. "At that moment I felt that maybe people were disappointed in me. And then I started looking up at people and some of them were crying. And after a while, he Spielberg walked up to me and said, That's the km nmvH Sia hi MririNMy Utmvmii UtwHIroin 7nights wairfare from $1099 HOO'CLUB MED Special DHWRSDM' Prime Rib Regularly $12 95 prtLase cf one Sultan's Feast Oiiuier Euffet! masterly photographic effects by cameraman Janusz Kaminski, a moving nine-minute summation speech by Hopkins, a touching cameo by retired U.S.

Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Black-mun, and a theme that's more than a little reminiscent of "E.T." like that lovable alien, Cinque just wants to go home. Strong stuff which is pre- -cisely why more than one person is claiming a piece of it This is a very powerful story, and people felt very emotional about it, they felt they owned the story," says Laurie MacDonald, one of the film's executive producers. The current lawsuit is not the first legal wrangle over writing credits for this film. It turns out that credited screenwriter David Franzoni had previously gone to war against fellow screenwriter Steve Zaillian who wrote large parts of the "Amistad" script.

Franzoni successfully appealed to the Writer's Guild to have Zaillian's name removed from the credits. Many are now claiming that Zaillian deserves credit for what was good in the "Amistad" script or, alternately, blame for what may be plagiarized. mm Oiittlloni: 1 28 lo Mil 30. Mopli Avi lo liahl 400 I Aimorv. Oi I 287 la oil 3S la li mm MIH.

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"He said, 'How's it I said, think it's going And he said What's the and I said, 'We don't know, but it's somewhere between $54 to $56 "He said, "Walter, I want you to hear me very clearly. Call production back and tell them that if this budget is not in the mid- to high-30s by the time I get back, I am pulling the plug on this The film finally came in at $39 million. 61 Club Mx) SW, Inc I r- rtan wpwn tworxuptncv fcMrtiriNp trt tnmtm Buccaneer's Creek, Martinique, Call your travel agent or wwi am mm am. noutnvwe. wnuny ma ui not Coupon tkd through 2WI9t, Mood through ifilif.filviiiil.Tj.lf.OK.iM.i Bmetta City The Areas Largest Showroom Dlntt4 Curios DMng Bar Stools 2-S 1717cm.

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