Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 2, 1990 TAG: 9003014360
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAT H. BROESKE LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The question hovers in the air like nuclear fallout, as Paramount Pictures readies to launch its $35 million-plus screen adaptation of Tom Clancy's best-selling novel, "The Hunt for Red October."
Starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin, and directed by action master John McTiernan ("Die Hard"), the film surfaces today at 1,225 theaters across the country, including Roanoke's Tanglewood Mall theaters.
Originally due in the fall, the movie had its release date pushed forward to take advantage of what has been a sleepy new film year. As Barry London, president of Paramount's motion picture group notes, the studio has had notable successes during this time of year - including last year's release of "Pet Sematary" and "Major League," which accounted for combined ticket sales of more than $108 million.
"To our way of thinking, the time was right," explains London.
This, after a marketing assault that kicked off last fall with teaser trailers attached to the saturation release of the Eddie Murphy-Paramount comedy, "Harlem Nights." Then came a recent barrage of TV and magazine ads, heralding suspense and thrills, "from the director of `Die Hard.' "
Earlier this week, the hype for "Red October" coincidentally made its way into the headlines when the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia reported that a real-life mutiny took place on a Soviet anti-sub destroyer off Sweden in 1975, inspiring Clancy's best-seller.
(Paramount publicists worked the phones to make sure reporters were aware of the breaking news story, and TV newscasts used convenient clips from the movie to illustrate their coverage.)
Paramount's marketing campaign plays down the film's politics, which predate glasnost and perestroika - with a story line about a renegade Soviet captain who mysteriously and ominously heads his nuclear submarine toward America. When the entire Soviet naval fleet sets out in pursuit of the Red October sub, the wary United States becomes even warier.
The Us vs. Them scenario worked terrifically in 1984, when "The Hunt for Red October" was published. But what about in this, the era of Mikhail Gorbachev and the lifted Iron Curtain?
What's a major motion picture with a Cold War theme to do?
For starters, says producer Mace Neufeld, "We've given our movie historical perspective." Thus, a message at the beginning of the movie squarely sets the story in pre-glasnost 1984.
The filmmakers also are touting certain elements in the script as metaphors for the very changes that have occurred in recent months.
With a nod to the film's Soviet submarine skipper, Ramius (Connery), and CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Baldwin), who believes that Ramius is coming to the United States as a peace-minded defector rather than as an attacker, Neufeld adds: "The movie plays right into glasnost."
Co-screenwriter Larry Ferguson echoes that sentiment - and likens the character of Ramius to Gorbachev: "The movie is what's going on right now."
No one cited such metaphors five years ago, when "Red October" shot to the top of the best seller lists - for nearly 100 weeks, with sales of more than 5 million copies - making a literary star of first-time novelist Clancy. Among the book's readers was President Reagan, who pronounced it "the perfect yarn."
A Hollywood movie seemed inevitable.
Actually, Neufeld ("No Way Out") optioned the book in 1983 when it was still in galleys.
So what took it so long?
"Simple," says Neufeld, "Executives who are in a position to say yes (to a movie project) don't really have time to read novels."
As such, novels are typically synopsized for quick and easy reading for prospective Hollywood projects. But in the case of "Red October," recalls Neufeld, the synopsis didn't do justice to the book's intricacies. "I knew I had to get someone to actually read the book."
That someone finally turned out to be then-Paramount chief Ned Tanen - who put the script into development after Neufeld assured him that he had already been promised military assistance.
Then came the challenge of the screenplay, for which Ferguson and Donald Stewart share credit.
Throughout the writing, the filmmakers kept in close phone contact with Clancy.
"There are some things in the book that I wish had made it into the movie," the author said. "But once I learned that each page of the screenplay comprised about one minute of screen time, I knew that my [manuscript] would have to be trimmed - and trimmed - to get it down to about two-hours' worth.
"Once I soaked my first handkerchief, I got over it - and realized `Red October' had become their baby."
by CNB