ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Monday, March 24, 1986
Page 5
New role and release interest
Howard
By Seth Flicker
W ith movies such as Night Shift,
Splash, and Cocoon, Ron
Howard has surely moved to the front
of his class of young directors. His
movies have not only been financial
blockbusters but critically acclaimed
as well. His films reach out to the
young and old brimming with
creativity and imagination.
Howard is from a show business
family. His parents, Rance and Jean
are both actors and his brother, Clint
was the star of the Gentle Ben series.
Being brought up in such a family one
might think that Howard was
propelled into the business.
"I guess I do probably feel that,"
said Howard. "I never felt like I had
to do it. It wasn't like I was jilted into
doing it. It just so happened that I
took to it and really liked it. I can't
really say that at three I was deciding
whether this is what I wanted to do
with my life but later on I was con-
sistently asked, 'Do you want to keep
on doing this? You don't have to do
this anymore.' It worked out well for
me but yes, I was propelled into it and
I'm very careful not to put my kids in
that situation because the circum-
stances are completely different for
them than they were for me."
Howard did his first movie, Fron-
tier Woman, when he was 18 months
old. From then on he has worked non-
stop. He did movies such as The
Music Man, Village of the Giants, and
American Graffitti, but Howard is
best known for playing Opie on The
Andy Griffith Show and Richie on
Happy Days.
"I think people are always going to
remember me as Opie or having been
Opie, but I don't think that anyone
remembers me only as Opie,
anymore. I think that that is the vic-
tory."
Gung Ho is Howard's newest
release. It deals with an auto com-
pany in Pennsylvania which has been
shut down. The company decides that
in order to keep the company as well
as the town alive they have to plead
with a Japanese Auto firm for help.
When the Japanes firm accepts it
turns out to be more of a battle than a
liason. Michael Keaton and Gedde
Watanabe (Sixteen Candles) play the
middlemen who have to make these
two seemingly opposite cultures meet
half way.
"What attracted me was that it was
very different form anything that I
had ever done," commented Howard.
"Yet I thought it had a chance to be
real funny. It was a movie that was
about something and it was timely but
the bottom line was that I thought that
I could have some fun with it and not
have it be just a piece of fluff. In a lot
of ways that is what I thought Splash
was and I just thought that this had
sort of an edge. I thought that it was
different and a departure for me but I
also thaough that it could deliver on
an entertainment level."
"After I had done Splash and
Cocoon, which were very hard to do,
one of the things I told Michael
(Keaton) was that I just went
through a couple (of movies) that
...weren't fun everyday and if you do
this movie we will have some laughs.
I'd really like to have some fun, and
we did," added Howard.
This is not the first movie that
Howard and Keaton have worked
together on. Keaton was also the star
of Night Shift.
"It was really great getting back
together with Michael and it was the
kind of movie I was looking to
do...Michael is very funny and, I have
a hunch, has always been very funny.
Michael has really learned how to act,
how to build a character and to
discipline," added Howard.
While Gung Ho was a clear out;
comedy it also had some powerful
racist overtones. The Japanese
regard the Americans as "lazy and
irresponsible" while the Americans
view the Japanese as "hard-working
and impersonal." There is obviously
some risk that people might take
these anti-Japanese and anti-
American comments a little bit too
seriously.
"I think that the studio is a little bit
more concerned about that risk than I
ever was. They're not now because
they have seen the movie with
audiences and they have done the
question and answer things afterwar-
ds, and (saw) that very rarely does
that bother anyone to the point of
distraction. Everybody is aware that;
the movie points out a couple of
things. Hopefully there is some
balance in that. I probably felt a little
bit more comfortable pointing up
weaknessess on the American side
than I did on the Japanese side
becuase somehow I felt that I had the
right. It's a comedy where you are
going to make fun of people and point
up weaknessess and we try to be
balanced about that."
So far, all of Howard's movies have
N
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'
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Director Ron Howard on the set of his new film 'Gung Ho.' Daily reporter Seth Flicker-interviewed Howard in
L.A. for this article.
been block-busters which is very
unusual for such a young director.
"I think that it is a real precarious
thing making movies then showing
them and then having people decide
whether they like them or not. I don't
think that my luck is going to run out. I.
plan to do this for another 50 years. In
audience screenings, people have
really liked Gung Ho but you still
don't know whether they will show up.
The thing that you can do as a film-
maker is get the movie to a spot where
that if people do show up, a really
strong majority likes that movie. I
think that if you have done that then
you've really-done your job."
"There is something that feels right
when I'm directing a movie. I feel
comfortable with the job. It's hard
but I like it. It was a big deal for me to
become a director so I want to ride
that."
BUSINESS
Entrepreneur invests in student ideas
By EUGENE PAK
Neil Roseman, an LSA freshman, is
getting a head start on a business
career by investing in students'
money-making ideas.
Last term Roseman founded En-
treprenuerial Investors, a student-run
business which operates out of his
dorm room, to help students develop a
variety of products.
"EVERYBODY has ideas to make
money," Roseman said. "Everybody
thinks they can make this little gadget
or that little bumper sticker to make
money, and we help them to do it."
Roseman dug into his personal
savings to start the venture. Although
he has invested significant amounts of
time and money, Roseman isn't in the
business solely for profits. "I'm happy
to be doing this. It's a challenge to
me," he said. "If I pull it off, or just
break even, that's fine with me."
Working with a staff of 30 students
and professionals, Roseman is
currently focusing most of his efforts
on his own pet project - a 1986-87
Women of Michigan calendar.
Roseman and other investors, mainly
students, have put $8,000 in the calen-
dar.
ALTHOUGH Roseman got the idea
from a similar University of Southern
California calendar that grossed
$800,000 dollars last year, the En-
trepreneurial Investors staff has set
more modest goals. According to
John Ivanko, an LSA sophomore and
marketing and sales director of En-
trepreneurial Investors, "We don't
expect a use profit, but our future is
open."
Roseman hired 10 University
students, a photographer, a hair-
stylist, a cosmetologist, and two
fashion coordinators to choose the
calendar's models. Roseman said he
wants to produce a calendar that
represents both the beauty and per-
sonality of University women.
Although Roseman and his staff will
soon make the final selection of
women to appear on the calendar,
Roseman still has to iron out a myriad
of legal technicalities. He has hired
an attorney to help him finalize
trademark, advertising, and invest-
ment contract agreements before the
calendar can be distributed both
locally and nationally.
NOT ALL OF Roseman's ideas,
however, have progressed as far as
the calendar. After just one trial, he
scrapped a breakfast in bed program
which would have served students in
West Quad's Wenley House.
"It was not worth the time I put into
mdit. There was not enough profit
time and money needed to invest in
the project, and whether the project
could earn enough to justify its
production and marketing costs.
Roseman admits that because he
has devoted so much time to the
calendar, he hasn't had enough time
to spend on other projects yet.
"As far as putting peoples' ideas in-
to motion, we haven't done much of
that yet," Roseman said. "I can't
handle any more right now as it is."
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