Kirshner's new pic group, Tomorrow
NEW YORK - Having had a hand in -the creation of two hit groups for TV (The Monkees and the Archies). Don Kirshner is attempting to turn the same trick in feature films.
As previously announced and officially revealed last week, Kirshner and film producer Harry Saltzman will co-produce a musical film called “Tomorrow,” hopefully the first of a series featuring a group of the same name.
Their music will be offered on Kirshner’s Calendar label through RCA Records. (The film itself will be released through United Artists.) Disk efforts by the group are expected to precede release of the film by about three to six months.
The new group, discovered after a six-month, worldwide talent hunt, consists of four highly attractive youngsters. They are: Olivia Newton-John, 20, a singer from Australia: Karl Chambers, a 22 year-old rhythm’n blues drummer from Philadelphia: Vic Cooper, 25 a pianist and organist from England, and Ben Thomas 24, a singer and guitarist from Georgia.
The motion picture will be written and directed by Ernest Pintoff whose credits include “The Violinist” (writer-director), “The Old Man And The Flower” (writer-director) “Harvey Middleman, Fireman (writer-director), and “The Critic” (director). The muiti-talented Pintoff also composed the scores for many of his films.
Fresh Concept
Saltzman, one of the most successful film makers of cinema history due to the popularity of his James Bond thrillers and many other of his films, predicted the pictures will offer a new musical sound and a “fresh, original concept in movie making.” He pointed out that the films will be aimed primarily at the 14-30 year-old age group, a group known to be the largest segment of the world-wide movie-going public.
Saltzman also produced the widely popular Michael Caine-Harry Palmer spy films and such artistic box office successes as “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning”, “Look Back In Anger, and The Entertainer”. He is currently completing “The Battle of Britain and, with Albert R. Broccoli, is filming the new James Bond picture. “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”.
Kirshner, who made musical history with “The Monkees”, is known in the music and record industry as “The Man With The Golden Ear”. While still in his twenties he built a music publishing company and record producing organization that were so effective that they were sold to Columbia Pictures-Screen Gems in a multi-million dollar deal. Kirshner was then made President of Columbia Pictures-Screen Gems TV. Record and Music Division Under his direction, the music division soon became the leading publisher in BMI.
He is credited with publishing music from such pictures as “Lawrence of Arabia”. “Casino Royale” including the song “Look of Love” “To Sir With Love and “Born Free£. The last earned two Academy Awards for best song and score.
United Artists has made arrangements with the Licensing Corporation of America to manufacture and market all products using the names and likenesses of the property. LCA is noted for their success as agents for “James Bond”, “Batman” and the current film. “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”
“Tomorrow” will be filmed at the Pinewood Studios in London and will be released by United Artists an entertainment service of Transamerica Corp. late this year.
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