Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004060484
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chris Gladden
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sneak previews of "Crazy People" will be at 7:15 p.m. at the Terrace Theatre and at 8:30 p.m. at the Grandin. Tickets are $5.50 at both locations. The Grandin has been selling tickets in advance and 300 were gone by mid-week,but theater manager Julie Hunsaker says some will be held back for the walk-up crowd.
"Crazy People," of course, is the Paramount picture that was filmed at Chatham Hall near Danville and in Roanoke last summer and left hundreds if not thousands of star-struck Virginians in its wake. It stars Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah and it opens nationally for an extended run Wednesday. The sneak previews are also national events. Roanoke didn't get a premiere nor did it get the party Hunsaker had hoped for.
Hunsaker, the City of Roanoke and the Crestar Bank where much of the movie was filmed had hoped to throw a celebration tonight - a day ahead of the sneak preview - and donate the proceeds to Total Action Against Poverty. But Paramount told Hunsaker they don't do charity events. Studios are also notoriously cautious about letting movies on the screen before the offical dates scheduled for them.
But Hunsaker still feels lucky to have booked the movie because a scene was shot at her theater and because studios such as Paramount generally release pictures to the big theater chains with the most bidding power. The Terrace, which is also showing the movie, is owned by Cineplex-Odeon, a huge chain.
Hunsaker started working on bringing the movie to the Grandin before the production crew 4 1 CLIPS Clips even left town.
"I've learned to be persistent. I became known as a big pest," she says. "I got people out of swimming pools all over L.A. We got the film through a long series of long distance calls, letters and many, many fax machines."
Ironically, she encountered most of her problems in Paramount's East Coast offices.
"I ran up against endless batteries of secretaries," she says.
However, on the West Coast, she was fortunate enough to have Tom Barad in her corner. Barad is the producer of the movie and something of a success story.
He was the literary agent of Mitch Markowitz, the movie's writer, associate producer and director before he was replaced by Tony Bill.
Barad has since been named Paramount's senior vice president in charge of production, an impressive position with one of the industry's most successful studios. Hunsaker had worked in various capacities on the movie and she had become acquainted with Barad.
"When he moved into the job, it didn't hurt a bit," she says.
Hunsaker has the movie scheduled for two months and maybe more.
With close to 1,000 extras from the region in the movie, it ought to keep both the Grandin and the Terrace busy for a long time.
by CNB