PRODUCTION TO START ON ‘WAR’

Producer-director Dan Curtis, who said at the end of the 18-hour television miniseries “Winds of War” that he would never make another miniseries, leaves for Europe this month to begin the sequel, “War and Remembrance.”

“The Winds of War,” based on the book by Herman Wouk, starred Robert Mitchum, Ali MacGraw and Jan-Michael Vincent in a story about the events leading to World War II and how it affected one family and their friends.

“I’m not going to do it,” Curtis said in February, 1983, as ABC’s “The Winds of War” ran up ratings that made the miniseries second only to “Roots.”

But Curtis changed his mind, deciding that “the story had to be told.” He described “War and Remembrance,” which tells of the Holocaust, as a mission.

John Gielgud replaces John Houseman in the sequel, but David Dukes and Ralph Bellamy will reprise their original roles. Robert Morley and Hardy Kruger have also been cast. New actors will take over the roles played by Mitchum, Vincent and MacGraw.