UA Says Go on 3 New Films; 26 More Are in Development

Three movies have been approved for production and another 26 are in development for the new United Artists Corp., it was announced at a Thursday press conference in the company’s Beverly Hills headquarters.

UA’s new executive team, headed by Chairman Lee Rich and Chief Executive Officer Anthony Thomopoulos, listed a mixed bag of tentative projects to be directed by such people as Costa-Gavras, Walter Hill, Herbert Ross, Bertrand Tavernier and Philip Kaufman.

“Baby Boom,” starring Diane Keaton will go into production in late October with Charles Shyer (“Irreconcilable Differences”) directing, for a fall ’87 release. “Real Men,” with Jim Belushi in what was described merely as “an absurdist comedy,” also begins shooting in October, with a target release date of next summer.

The third “go” project, also scheduled for summer ’87 release, is the previously announced James Bond movie, “The Living Daylights.” It will be the first Bond movie with Timothy Dalton playing the British secret agent.

Saying that UA wants to make “high-concept films that are fiscally responsible,” the company executives read through a sparsely detailed list of projects that in some cases provided no more than the names of the stars, producers or directors.

Among the stars having scripts developed for them are Molly Ringwald, David Bowie and Mick Jagger (together, in a rock movie), Kathleen Turner, Jane and Peter Fonda, Anthony Michael Hall and Howie Mandel.

The UA execs would not discuss budgets or go into detail about the company’s internal financing. They said they would try to make as many films as they responsibly can.

“We’ve got a lot of money,” said Rich. “We don’t have any debts.”