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 ::. ; y .: & ' ' : 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." PURIM Monday, March 24 7:30 P.M. 1429 HILL ST. 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