•

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

p. New Film on Early Christians Is Underway

By HERBERT LUFT

•

(Copyright 1979, JTA, Inc.)

HOLLYWOOD
.
Michael
D.
Eisner,
I president of Paramount Pic-
tures, announces the prod-
, uction of "The Story of Peter
and Paul," an epic motion
picture spanning the first
/11 four decades of Chris-
- tianity, will be produced
0 , and directed by the Italian
►
movie maker, Franco Zef-
firelli. His earlier, "Jesus of
areth," was not to our
g in spite of the film's
tic and aesthetic val-
•
u , as it repeated the myth
that not the Romans but the
Israelites were responsible
for the Crucifixion.
• Climaxing with the
• holocaust of Masada in
which the last Hebrew sur-
ly vivors of the destruction of
-.Jerusalem, almost 1,000
men, women and children,
took their lives at the moun-
tain rock rather than live in
- bondage under the Romans,
the forthcoming biblical
f ilm will focus on the two
1 , men responsible for the
spre_ad of Christianity
throughout the known
world just after the time of
.. Jesus — Peter, the fisher-
man from Galilee who
would become the first
I Pope, and Paul of Tarsus
who turned from persecutor
of the new sect to become its
most fervent defender.
Paramount announced
that the third major char-
acterization in Zeffirelli's
1. film will be that of Nero,
Emperor of Rome, who is
being portrayed as an:inse-
cure dreamer who invented
desperate methods to re-_
t main in power. The fire that
destroyed most of Rome was
the result of one of his polit-
ical maneuvers. He impli-
cated the Christians, and
labeled - a Jewish sect'to
► avoid his own downfall. The
subsequent persecution was
not unlike the one faced by
the Jews throughout the
Middle Ages when they
were accused of poisoning
the water and conjuring up
evil spirits.

•

"The Story of Peter and
Paul" covers the period

• Museum Display
Poster Printed
■

NEW YORK — "When
- the month of Adar arrives,
joy increases," is the theme
of an original poster com-
si ned by the Yeshiva
e
frsity
Museum, to
rate the museum's
major new exhibition,
►
-• "Purim: The Face and the
Mask." The show opens Feb.
13 and runs through June.
Purim this year is celeb-
o. rated on March 13.
The poster is a hand-
pulled silk screen in wine-
red and gold on cream paper
PI' issued in a limited edition of
500. It was created by artist
Tsirl Waletzky, and uses as
• its motifs the symbols of
Purim and the month of
Adar.
The poster, which mea-
• sures 16x20, is available
from the Yeshiva Univer-
sity Museum, 2520 Amster-
dam Avenue, New York
10033. There is a charge.

oi

from the first Pentecost
in Jerusalem in which a
multitude declared
themselves for the new
faith, a faith 'actually
based on the sayings of
our prophets that the
Messiah will come to save
the Israelites. It was 800
years earlier that Isaiah
first spoke of the deli-
verer of the Jewish
people.

This column hopes that
Zeffirelli will depict the
heritage and plight of the
Israelites with more com-
passion and a better under-
standing of the roots of
Christianity-than he did in
his "Jesus of Nazareth,"
produced by Sir Lew Grade
and shown on American
network television.

SYDNEY LUMET, the
director of "The Wiz," has
started a new motion pic-
ture, "Just Tell Me What
You Want," a modern-day
human interest romance
written by lady-author Jay
Presson Allen and starring
Ali McGraw and Alan King,
with the latter taking his
bow before the cameras in a
leading, non-comedy role.
JAMES GOLDSTONE
is guiding Irwin Allen's
latest disaster epic (follow-
ing "Beyond the Poseidon
Adventure"). Entitled "The
Day the World Ended," the

picture stars Paul Newman
and kicks off on location in
Hawaii in mid-February for
Warner Brothers Studios.
GEORGE S. KAUF-
MAN and Moss Hart's com-
edy of pre-World War II
fame, most recently revived
at the Long Beach Center
theatre, has been updated
by producer Stan Musgrove
and writer Herbert Baker
under the title of "Southern
Comfort." Richard Pryor
emerges in the Monty Wool-
ley role as talk-show host
under Arthur Hiller's direc-
tion.

Friday, February 9, 1919 31

Summer Bible Seminars in U.S.

NEW YORK — Three
week-long summer semi-

nars on three different as-
pects of biblical and tal-
mudic thought will be of-
Student Exchange fered July 9-13 by the
NEW YORK — A group
American Jewish Commit-
of 27 high school students tee's Academy for Jewish
from communities throtigh-'- Studies Without Walls on
out the U.S. have left for a three college campuses.
six-week educational and
A seminar on talmudic
cultural exchange program
in Israel: The program is thought will be held at
sponsored by the World Northwestern University,
Zionist Organization and is Evanston, Ill,; one on the
popularly known as prophet Jeremiah will be
held at Emory University,
Mishlachat-in-Reverse. The
American students will tour Atlanta, Ga.; and one on the
the country, live with host Book of Psalms at Brandeis
Israeli families and address University, Waltham,
high school classes.
Mass.

"AVALANCHE EX-_
PRESS," a contemporary
suspense spy drama from
the novel by Colin Forbes
and a screenplay by Ab-
raham Polonsky, which
went before the cameras in
Munich almost a year ago
with locations throughout
Germany and Italy, has
been edited by the produc-
tion company of Lorimar at
the Burbank Studios, with
Polonsky supervising the
final stages of cutting and
- dubbing after director Mark
Robson's fatal heart attack
in Rome and his subsequent
death in London a few days
later. Robson had guided 32
films; his last one before
"Avalanche Express," the
spectacular disaster pic-
ture, "Earthquake," had
grossed in excess of $73 mil-
lion, when Jerry Gershwin,
Lorimar's vice president in
charge of production, called
"him out of his semi-
retirement.

In."Avalanche Express,"
the late Robert Shaw por-
trayed a Russian secret
service official; Lee Marvin
essayed the part of an
American military agent.
Joe Namath, the recently
retired pro football quarter-
back, made his feature film
debut as a U.S. officer.
"Avalanche Express,"
budgeted at $12 million,
and completed with consid-
erable delays after Robson's
untimely passing, now is
ready for release, commit-
ted in the U.S. and Canada
to Twentieth Century-Fox.

PAUL N. LAZARUS
III's
production of
"Hanover Street" about ro-
mance in the midst of the
Nazi blitz of London, star-
ring Christopher Plummer,
Leslie-Anne Down and
Harrison Ford, has been
completed in England
under Peter Hyams' direc-
tion. Release by Columbia is
set for May.

SYDNEY POLLACK is
directing a social
comment-satire about an
ex-rodeo rider who becomes
the TV image for a break-
fast cereal, currently on lo-
cations in rural California,
in New Mexico and in the
gambling casinos of Las
Vegas. "The Electric
Horseman" stars Robert
Redford with Jane Fonda as
a TV news reporter.

MORT CRIM TALKS WITH:

"Detroit s New mericans"

Who are they? The Arabs. The
Latinos. The Yugoslays. The
Koreans. And others.
Where do they live and work? How
can we help them adjust? How long
will it take them to realize their
great American dream?
What do they bring to Detroit? And
what brought them to Detroit —
possibly the most ethnically

diverse city in the world?
Mort Crim looks into these
questions in an informative News 4
special report, "Detroit's New
,Americans", starting Monday,
February 5th,-and continuing
throughout this month.'
Don't miss Mort Crim with:
"Detroit's New Americans", on
News 4 Detroit.

WDIV
DETROIT

