Lots of Lights, Camera, Action in O.C. in 1990

Orange County continued to play a role in movie and television production, with the county and various cities issuing more than 100 shooting permits. The 1990 total for unincorporated areas of the county alone ran well ahead of 1989, according to Lolly Powell, the county’s film liaison.

Productions using the county as a scenic backdrop ran the gamut from big budget to B movies, commercials to student films. “Defending Your Life,” a Warner Bros. comedy directed by and starring Albert Brooks, co-starring Meryl Streep, was shot in Irvine, Anaheim and Fountain Valley and is expected to be released in 1991.

Other location shoots:

* Santa Ana. Several episodes of ABC’s “Gabriel’s Fire,” starring James Earl Jones, were shot at the old courthouse, and scenes from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s current “Kindergarten Cop” were shot at MainPlace mall.

* Laguna Beach. The NBC miniseries “Jackie Collins’ Lucky.”

* Fullerton. “9 1/2 Ninjas” and “Auntie Lee’s Meat Pies,” starring Pat Morita.

* Newport Beach. An episode of PBS’s “Reading Rainbow,” with LeVar Burton as host.

One film with a specific Orange County setting was “Never Forget,” a made-for-television movie based on the efforts of a Huntington Beach businessman to prove that the Holocaust took place. “Never Forget” was shot on location for Turner Network Television. Starring Leonard Nimoy as Mel Mermelstein, and produced by Nimoy and Robert Radnitz, it is scheduled to air on the cable channel in April.

Some productions had Orange County ties, although they were shot elsewhere.

“Love You to Death,” a television miniseries based on the David Brown murder case in Anaheim Hills, starring Sheryl Lee, who played Laura Palmer in “Twin Peaks,” was shot around L.A. County and is scheduled to air on NBC in February.

Tustin-based Trinity Broadcasting Network financed a $6-million, inspirational feature film, “China Cry,” financed by viewers of the 24-hour-a-day, 200-station Christian programming service. By year’s end, “China Cry”--featuring an all-Asian cast--had recorded grosses of nearly $3 million.

On the retail side of the movie business, Newport Beach-based Edwards Theatres, one of Southern California’s largest chains, has increased its matinee screenings and has 137 new theaters in various stages of construction in California. The chain, which operates 114 screens in Orange County alone, picked up nine screens in Santa Ana and Westminster from United Artists in 1990 and is planning to build more here in 1991, as part of the chain’s $45-million expansion program.