Red Deer Advocate from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada • 17

PH RED DEER ADVOCATE, Tuesday, March 29, 1988 5B Screenwriters are low on the totem pole By INA WARREN The Canadian Press For many scriptwriters, no matter what their status, humiliation seems part of the job. Recalling his screenwriting experience on Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train, detective writer Raymond Chandler put it this way: "I have no assurance that anything much more is happening to me than that my brain is being picked. and that someone else, or a couple of someone elses, are at work behind 1 the scenes, casting the stuff into a screenplay form the way he (Hitchcock) wants it." Chandler's intuition proved right. His script was rewritten and he had to settle for a shared credit on the 1950 classic by Warner Brothers. No recent episode has more dramatically illustrated the screenwriter's vulnerability than Bethune: The Making of A Hero.

The embattled $16-million co-production between Canada and China stars Donald Sutherland as the surgeon who became a hero of the Chinese Revolution. In this case, 71-year-old screenwriter Ted Allan engaged in a bitter public struggle to preserve his personal vision of Norman Bethune, his friend and comrade during the Spanish Civil War. But his conception did not meld with Sutherland's the actor's own obsession with the role goes back 20 years and the two clashed bitterly during the China shoot last summer. A "script doctor" (Don Miller) approved by Allan was called in a fairly customary procedure in such an impasse. But his remedy didn't go down with Sutherland, who went off with director Phillip Borsos to rewrite the script.

Un Zoo la all right for PARIS (CP) Un Zoo la nuit (Night Zoo), a gritty Quebec-made thriller that swept Canada's Genie awards, has been reclassified as suitable for viewers aged 13 years and up, says producer Roger Frappier. The decision by France's film censor board delighted Frappier because it means that more adolescents can see the movie. It also improves the film's earning power. The board originally ruled only those 18 years of age or older could see the picture because it might "encourage aggression and dangerous behavior among youth." But the board later changed its mind. The film, directed by JeanClaude Lauzon, depicts a sordid criminal world on both sides of the law.

The movie, now scheduled for MR. NUDE RED DEER CONTEST PROFESSIONAL 1988 7 SHOWS NIGHTLY! STARTING AT 7 P.M.! MARCH 31, APRIL 7 FINALS APRIL 14 Advance Tickets $2.00 "Enter to win a WATERBED or GIFT CERTIFICATE Come early to get the best seats and enjoy our LADIES' SPECIAL BUFFET with over 35 hot cold items for only $4.99 Branley's For more information contact Dawn 342-4012 when the script is discussed in rehearsals and on the set." Allan's involvement with the Bethune script dates back to 1941, when he sold it to 20th Century-Fox. Decades later, he resold it to Filmline, Bethune's Montreal-based producer. In his contract with Filmline, it was stipulated that no other writer could be hired to rewrite the script, nor could a line be changed, without Allan's consent. "One of the reasons I went with Filmline," Allan said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, "is because I didn't want to get into a situation where the writer is the low man on the totem pole and the script is given to 600 other writers.

It's awful." Hunter, who now wishes he never became involved with Bethune, has contractually agreed to waive a screen credit because "I know Ted worked on this for many years." Both Allan and Hunter have been in the situation where they've had scripts trampled on by other writers, but they've also been the well-paid rewrite men called in to redo someone else's work. The screenwriter, says Hunter, is "the easiest person to pick on, and he's also the easiest scapegoat if anything goes wrong." The main problem is that on most movies, the writer's contribution usually isn't seriously considered from the beginning by the producer. Says Hunter: "Why can't a director and actor say up front when they've read it (the script): 'I have a problem with this and I won't come to work until it's "But they tend not to. They sign their contracts and pretend everything's all right. At that point, what can the producer do? He sells the writer down the river." To protect their original material, screenwriters are increasingly taking it upon themselves to produce or direct their own films.

But Rintels, a 25-year Hollywood veteran who usually produces his scripts his TV specials have included Fear on Trial and Washington Behind Closed Doors doesn't believe that should have to be the solution. "Good writers are not always good directors or producers. Sometimes I think I've been too rigid as a director. "But in my next life," he jokes, "I want to come back as a cinematographer. Everyone knows they don't know how to do that, and they leave those people alone.

"But everybody thinks he's a writer and everybody has an opinion on how to make the script better." Attention Blues Just released Sonny Rhodes The Texas Twisters JUST BLUES appearing at the PARK HOTEL Monday thru Saturday (March 28-April 2) Sonny Rhodes and the Texas Twisters are Oakland-based musicians. Rhodes, born in Texas deeply influenced by such greats as -Bone Walker and Junior Parker, whom he saw perform in Texas. In the mid 1960's he moved to California and thus began a notable blues career which included some superb sin gles recorded for Galaxy Records in the late 60's. He has since recorded three albums and has appeared on many others while also making four European tours. A guitaristsinger, he is one of the most important blues musicians to have emerged out of the Bay Area blues scene.

the Park Hotel Downtown Red Deer DONALD SUTHERLAND wants script rewritten In January, with production at a standstill and Sutherland off making another movie, screenwriter John Hunter (The Grey Fox) reluctantly entered the fray and agreed to an extensive rewrite of Allan's script. The Bethune affair raises the issue of just who exercises creative control in such a situation: the producer, the star, the director or the writer? The desire for greater creative control was a reason why the Writer's Guild of America went on strike in February. "I don't think anybody feels that we should have the unfettered right to tell everybody that they should shoot every word as it is," says Hollywood screenwriter David Rintels, a former guild president who prefers the terms "creative rights and responsibility" to "control." "We have a right to be part of the process. We want to be there nuit deemed teenagers release in six Paris cinemas April 13, last week won all 13 Genie award categories in which it was nominated, including best picture. LOOK WHAT'S "NEW" AT THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS BINGO HALL Home of the B-6 Red Deer Bingo N-33 A Association 1 G-59 14 Bingos Weekly Every Afternoon Evening Afternoon: Doors Open at 12:00 noon, Evening: Doors Open at 5:00 p.m., Pre-Call at 1:00 p.m.

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Red Deer 347-5292 NOMINATED FOR 9 ACADEMY AWARDS Starring Nominees Academy INCLUDING BEST Award Jack Best Nicholson Actor "MESMERIZING. PICTURE Best Actress CINEMA'S MOST Meryl Streep SENSUOUS "NICHOLSON AND STREEP Every Bertolucci Creates Images Other ARE SO INCREDIBLE, college in People Just Dream About; He May Be THEY MAKE 'IRONWEED' the country' The Last Emperor of the Cinema. A CE FILM" David Ansen, NEWSWEEK Joel Siegel. ABC TV. New York wants NICHOLSON STREEP NO OR PASSES COUPONS THE ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL ACCEPTED THIS FOR IRONWEED ROBERT DOWNEY, JR.

PERFORMANCE I LAST Besed Upon WILLIAM KENNEDY'S Polter Prive wining novel A HECTOR BABENCO Film EMPEROR Mature One Nightly Show BE GOOD A True Story. Mature at 8 p.m. Mature Shows 7 9 p.m. One Show Nightly at Only Not Suitable for Pre-teens 8 p.m. Only Movie cancelled in South Africa JOHANNESBURG (Reut- lease Cry Freedom in South er) Richard Attenbor- Africa because of the threat ough's controversial film of legal action against the about black-consciousness film's distributors.

leader Steve Biko won't in South Africa, a local The Sunday 'Times said the shown real reason is to save the newspaper reported Sunday. costs of a South African The Johannesburg Sunday launch for the film, which it Times said the British direc- described as an "internator has cancelled plans to re- tional flop." GOD'S FORCE presents ARMY OF THE LORD Contemporary Christian Music Concert 1 Night Only Thursday, March 31st, 8:00 p.m. the Arts Centre RED DEER COLLEGE Main Auditorium Tickets available from Red Deer College Box Office $6.00 5214-47 Ave. PARK PLAZA 347-6440 FAMOUS WEE TIME 1 COME. $4.00 Mon.

thru Thurs.) PRICE WHOSE PLAYERS Hold everything! The Cadets are dropping in on Miami Beach for an all new adventure. POLICE Parental Guidance ACADEMY 5 Shows ASSIGNMENT MIAMI BEACH 7 9 p.m. PG Warner Bree AB WARNER MEANT Reserved BROS "The biggest military "Times! ROBIN WILL I AM 2 11 TOUCHSTONE RES Moves to comedy since Wednesday Schickle Coarse Language Warning Mature Shows VIETNA 7:15 9:30 p.m. The movie that's Tom Selleck even funnier the Steve Guttenburg second time around. Ted Danson Three Men Guidance Parental anda Shows 3 Baby 9:00 7:00 p.m.

Alan Some Aldas material suitable Mature children for not life 1988 Academy Award Nominee, Animated Short Subject Shows plus George and Rosemary 9:10 7:10 p.m. An ASTRAL FILA45 orce du national Canada du Keleave Violent Someone poisoned Dexter Cornell, He's got to find out who. Scenes He's He's got got to to find find out out now: why. Not Suitable In 24 hours, he'll be for Dead On Arrival. Pre-teens DO.A Shows Mature TOUCHSTONE I 7:10 PICTURES ACTORS NC 9:10 p.m.

5 VISTA 1958 METRO COLONY'S MAYER INC 9:30 p.m. An LAST MASQUERADE 7:30 Shows Restricted NIGHT Adult A CLASSIC The POX the and Hound General Shows 7:20 9:20 p.m. 61981 The Walt Disney Company STARTS WEDNESDAY In This If You've Seen One You Haven't Seen Them All. BEETLEJUICE The Name In Laughter From The Hereafter.