Remake of classic

Press, 23 November 1987, Page 11

Remake of classic

Don Johnson and Cybill Shepherd take leading roles in Network Two’s new two-part mini-series, "The Long Hot Summer," which begins tonight at 8. It is a love story set in Frenchman’s Bend — a steamy backwater town deep in the American South ruled by one powerful man. Driven by a timeless obsession for love and land, it is a town about to explode. Will Varner (Jason Robards) is the wealthy plantation owner who runs Frenchman’s Bend

and dominates his family as he dominates the town. From his wilful daughter he demands an heir. From his spoiled son he demands strength. From his mistress he demands loyalty. Varner is a man accustomed to getting what he wants. Then a stranger comes to the town, Ben Quick ■(played by Johnson), a cunning and ambitious man with a dark reputation. His arrival has a strong impact on the Varner clan and so

impresses the old man he makes him a partner, hoping to marry the stranger off to his daughter Noel (Judith Ivey). Quick has set in motion a sequence of events which he cannot control when his past returns to haunt him. "The Long Hot Sumnjer,” based on the novel by the American author William Faulkner, is a remake of the 1958 classic movie, which starred Paul Newman and Lee Remick.