ENTERTAINMENT
Leonard Nimoy is most famous for his recurring role as "Star Trek's"
Mr. Spock.
Nimoy decide to continue
playing Spock. Nimoy, with
stage and TV directing under
his belt, helmed his first
movie under tight a rein from
the studio.
Why turn to directing?
"I had done a lot of
theatrical directing," he says.
"I had been on soundstages
for almost 40 years in one
capacity or another, mostly
acting, but I had spent a lot
of time in editing rooms, on
various projects, watching a
film being put together piece
by piece by piece. I had taught
acting classes for five years.
So I really was in touch with
how to help an actor or an ac-
tress in a scene. I had done a
lot of my own camera work, so
I was very much in touch
with lenses and composition
and so forth. I was very well-
prepared."
When Star Trek III, in
which Nimoy was on screen-
only briefly, became a hit,
Nimoy was asked not only
direct but to develop the story
for the next Trek adventure.
His first decision dealt with
the film's tone.
"I wanted it to be a fun
adventure. I didn't want to be
hammering people over the
head with a problem. We had
done three pictures, Star Trek
with the 20th Century
humans as they solve a 23rd
Century problem. The movie
also continued a trend Nimoy
began in Star Trek III, giving
all the key members of the
Star Trek ensemble their
moments in the sun. The
result was another smash
success, a film that delighted
Star Trek's legion of fans as
well as the critics.
Nimoy again plays Spock,
but under the direction of
William Shatner, Star Trek's
Captain Kirk, in the recently-
released Star Trek V: The
Final Frontier. The movie is
doing well at the box office
although critics have treated
it less kindly than Nimoy's
efforts.
Several Paramount studio
executives, who hired Nimoy
to direct the Star Trek films,
moved to Disney's Ibuchstone
studio during the filming of
Star Trek IV They then hired
Nimoy to helm a Touchstone
film, Three Men and a Baby.
The film, a comedy starring
starring rIbd Danson, Tom
Selleck and Steve Guttenberg
as three bachelors thrust in-
to fatherhood, became
Nimoy's third straight
popular and critical success,
but his first outside of Star
Trek.
LOGICAL
DIRECTION
Leonard Nimoy has taken his
career boldly into the strange
new world of movie making.
MIKE ROSENBAUM
Special to The Jewish News
he lives of Leonard
Nimoy and his
alter-ego, the half-
Vulcan Mr. Spock
from "Star Trek,"
have travelled similar routes
lately.
During "Star Trek's" three
television seasons and into
the first Star Trek movie,
Spock was at home neither
among Vulcans nor humans.
He travelled with humans on
the Starship Enterprise, but
denied his human half, even-
tually trying, unsuccessfully,
to purge it during the 1979
film, Star Trek: The Motion
Picture.
Meanwhile, Nimoy, it seem-
ed, tried to limit the influence
of Spock, writing a book titl-
ed I Am Not Spock, in 1975,
during the time when "Star
Trek" was a hit on syndicated
television. Still, the pointed-
eared image stuck with him,
and he returned to play Spock
in Star Trek I.
Different players tell dif-
ferent stories about Spock's
"death" in the 1982 film, Star
Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn,
and his rebirth in Star Trek
III: The Search for Spock.
Nimoy denies he demanded
Spock's death. But his will-
ingness to continue to play
Spock was clearly instrumen-
tal in Spock's hinted resurrec-
tion at the end of Star Trek II.
Perhaps the chance to direct
Star Trek III also helped
Nimoy, right, meets with film critic Michael Medved at a movie
conference held at Hillsdale College.
/, II and III, all of which were
pretty intense. There was a
lot of dying. There was death
and resurrection. It was in-
tense stuff and I thought it
was really time to recapture
some of the fun that we had
making the series, which we
had very little of in the three
movies. And I also wanted
very much to do a film in
which there was no particular
nasty villain; circumstance —
lack of awareness, con-
sciousness, whatever, would
create the problem."
The film, Star Trek IV: The
Voyage Home, sends the
Enterprise crew back in time
in their captured Klingon
"Bird of Prey" airship, to
modern Earth, where they
have humorous encounters
Although the movie was a
remake of a French film and
Nimoy inherited a script, he
did major rewriting himself
before shooting, again putting
his stamp on the film. Per-
sonalizing a movie is impor-
tant to him. As a director, he
says he owes responsibility to
the studio first, because they
own the film, to the actors
and the writer, but also, "to
yourself to try to see if you
can do something personal.
So it is not simply a film that
anyone else could have done.
I'm trying to leave some kind
of personal touch on the film,
put in some kind of personal
message."
Nimoy's fourth film, The
Good Mother, broke his string
of financial successes. The
I GOING PLACES I
WEEK OF
JUNE 30-JULY 6
SPECIAL EVENTS
HENRY FORD
MUSEUM AND
GREENFIELD
VILLAGE
Dearborn, Pageant of
Power, Sunday and
Monday; A Family
Fourth, July 4;
admission, 271-1620.
COMEDY
COMEDY CASTLE
2593 Woodward, Berkley,
Tim Allen, today and
Saturday, admission,
542-9900.
MISS KITTY'S
COMEDY CLUB
Long Branch Restaurant,
595 N. Lapeer Rd.,
Oxford, Ralph Mulliger,
today and Saturday; Don
Reese, Thursday through
July 8, admission,
628-6500.
THEATER
SHAW FESTIVAL
Niagara-on-the-Lake,
Ontario, Man and
Superman, now through
Oct. 15; Berkeley Square,
now through Oct. 14;
and Once in a Lifetime,
now through July 23,
admission, (416)
468-2172.
HENRY FORD
MUSEUM THEATER
Henry Ford Museum and
Greenfield Village,
Dearborn, The Gazebo,
now through July 22,
admission, 271-1620.
MICHIGAN THEATER
603 E. Liberty, Ann
Arbor, Let's Get Lost,
through Sunday,
admission, 668-8480.
MUSIC
BIRMINGHAM
SUMMER CONCERT
SERIES
Shain Park, Maple near
Woodward, downtown
Birmingham, 70th
Division U.S. Army
Concert Band, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, free, 644-1807.
TROY HILTON INN
1455 Stephenson
Highway, Troy, "Jazz to
the Hilt" concert series,
Steps Ahead, 5 p.m.
Continued on Page 65
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
57