From: reiher@ficus.cs.ucla.edu (Peter Reiher)
Subject: Orion's unreleased films (was: Robocop 3 ?)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 04:35:50 GMT

In article <5541@balrog.ctron.com> nyberg@willow.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Jason William Nyberg) writes:
>reiher@ficus.cs.ucla.edu (Peter Reiher) writes:
>-.  Orion has around 11 completed films that they
>-will not be able to release until their bankruptcy is settled.  "Robocop
>-3" is one of them, the "Car 54 Where are You" film is another.  I can
>-get you a complete list of the titles, if you care. 
>
>I care!! I care!!
>
>If you could, could you post the list?

I was off by one.  There are ten films unreleased.  Here they are,
straight out of the annual report.

"Married To It", D: Arthur Hill, with Beau Bridges, Stockard Channing,
Robert Sean Leonard, Mary Stuart Masterson, Cybill Shepherd, and Ron Silver.

"Love Field", D: Jonathan Kaplan, with Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Haysbert,
and Brian Kerwin.  (JFK assassination related, though not as strongly
so as "JFK" or "Ruby" - it might actually benefit from not being released
too close to "JFK".)

"The Dark Half", D: George Romero, with Timothy Hutton, Amy Madigan, and
Michael Rooker.  (This is a Stephen King adaptation.)

"Clifford", D: Paul Flaherty, with Martin Short, Charles Grodin, Mary
Steenburgen, and Dabney Coleman.  (Short plays a young boy in this one.)

"Robocop 3", D: Fred Dekker, with Robert Burke, Nancy Allen, and Bruce Locke.

"China Moon", D: John Bailey, with Ed Harris and Madeleine Stowe.  (Kevin
Costner is one of the producers.)

"Blue Sky", D: Tony Richardson, with Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee Jones, and
Powers Boothe.

"The Favor", D: Donald Petrie, with Elizabeth McGovern, Harley Jane Kozak,
Bill Pullman, and Ken Wahl.

"Car 54", D: Bill Fishman, with David Johansen (graduating from cab driver
to police car driver) and John McGinley.

"There Goes My Baby", D: Floyd Mutrux, with Dermot Mulroney, Kelli Williams,
Jill Schoelen, Kristin Minter, and Rick Schroder.

On the whole, a respectable lineup, but one lacking in obvious, solid
hits.  There are some moderately big name directors, some moderately
big name stars, and some moderately strong hooks (a sequel to a fairly
successful second film, a film version of a reasonably well remembered
TV series, a Stephen King film from one of the biggest horror directors).
It's always hard to tell, but I'd guess the most promising ones are
"Love Field", "The Dark Half", and "Blue Sky", based mostly on cast and
directors.

For a while, Orion was also holding on to two other films, but they were
released.  They were "Shadows and Fog" (Orion's last Woody Allen film) and
"Article 99".  My speculation is that they were regarded as the two films
of the slate most likely to generate reasonable revenues without major ad
campaigns.  Both bombed.  That's not all that promising a sign for the
remaining films, but perhaps they simply need bigger openings than Orion
could afford at the time.

The plan is that the reorganized Orion will release these films, presumably
early next year.  It's possible they will choose to release them through
another studio, or even sell them to another studio.  I believe they tried 
to sell some or all of them before, and found no takers at prices they 
considered reasonable.  (Which may be another bad sign for their quality.)
They also still have a 750 film library, including most of Woody Allen's 
films from the 70's and 80's, "Dances With Wolves", "Platoon", and "Silence 
of the Lambs".  Orion is permitted, under the plan, to produce other films 
or to buy completed films for release, but it is under severe constraints 
on how it can finance new films of either sort.	

--
		Peter Reiher
		reiher@wells.cs.ucla.edu

Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies