Big names of movies turning to TV

Press, 11 February 1983, Page 13

Big names of movies turning to TV

The appearance of Robert Mitchum and Ali MacGraw in A.B.C.'s “The Winds of War,” a new mini-series which has' just started screening in America, signals a growing trend: movie stars are coming to television. Until recently, stars who were considered bankable for theatrical films avoided TV movies so that their bankability would not be endangered. That has changed, writes Bob Thomas of Associated Press from Hollywood. “There is a lack of activity in theatrical films," says Steve Mills, head of C.B.S.'s Movies for Television. “Stars don’t like to sit around and let the years creep up on them. Also, the level of material in television has risen. Stars can find firstrate scripts in television.” They can also find a broad audience for pet projects that could not be made as movies for theatres. Jane Fonda will appear on C.B.S. in “The Dollmaker,” a saga of an Appalachian family that moves to Detroit in 1944.

couldn't get it made as a theatrical motion picture,” says Bill Finnegan, who is producing “The Dollmaker.” "On the other hand, if I took the script to the networks without Jane Fonda, it would be handed back to me. Her name makes it happen.” Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward will make “The Scandal” for A.B.C. Newman has not appeared in dramatic TV since his beginnings in live drama of the 19505. He and Woodward realise that “The Scandal,” which concerns the life of Walter Lippmann, could not find a home at a movie studio. Gregory Peck made his TV drama debut as Abe Lincoln in “The Blue and the Gray” last year and will be seen this month on C.B.S.’s “The Scarlet and the Black.” “I can't very well appear in ‘Porky’s,’ and there’s nothing for me in ‘E.T.’ It seemed a natural transition for me to become partly a television actor and partly a motion picture actor,” he said. “If better parts are in television, why should I sit and wait for movies to come along — or worse, take a

movie that turns out badly?" Other longtime stars, faced with a film industry ever conscious of the youth market, have moved into television. Besides “The Winds of War,” Robert Mitchum appeared in a C.B.S. drama, “One Shoe Makes it Murder.” George C. Syott and Ali MacGraw will make “China Rose” in Hong Kong for C.B.S. The same network has other projects in the works, including Peter O'Toole in “Svengali,” Candice Bergen, Dyan Cannon and Malcolm McDowell in “Arthur the King,” Maximilian 'Schell, Michael York and Jane Seymour in “The Phantom of the Opera,” and George Segal in “Trackdown.”

Also planned are: AnnMargret in “Who Will Love My Children?” for A.8.C., and Barbara Stanwyck in “The Thorn Birds,” also for A.B.C. Kirk Douglas recently appeared in “Remembrance of Love” on N.B.C. “There’s not much difference in salaries for theatrical features and television nowadays,” says C.B.S.'s Mills. "Faye Dunaway could

get a million dollars for the Eva Peron movie, which was four hours. Salaries of a halfmillion or $750,000 are not uncommon for top names.” But he says movie superstars are not first choice for TV movies: “When we get a good script, we first shop it among the stars like Suzanne Pleshette and Tom Sellick, people who have made their names in television and can guarantee a certain audience.” Producer Finnegan agrees: “Unless you can produce a Robert Redford or a Jane Fonda, the networks are more interested in series “The Winds of War” has got off to a big start in the ratings. An estimated 85 million viewers watched at least some of the first episode of the seven-part epic last week. A.B.C. said it was the largest audience for the opening of a mini-series, although there were fewer homes with television sets in 1977, when “Roots,” television’s No. 1 mini-series, was broadcast.