MOVIES - April 21, 1994

Gilligan Heads for Big Screen: We’ve already seen “The Beverly Hillbillies” on film, and “The Flintstones” comes to the big screen Memorial Day Weekend. Now get ready for “Gilligan’s Island,” the movie. Turner Pictures announced Wednesday that it will produce the film with Brillstein/Grey Entertainment, with Sherwood Schwartz, the 1960s TV show’s original creator, writer and producer, serving as co-producer and co-writer. Production is set to begin next year with “major star castaways.” The original TV series--featuring Gilligan, the Skipper and the rest of the gang--ran from 1964-67 on CBS.

THE ARTS

Staying Happy: Grammy-winning musician Bobby McFerrin has been named “creative chair” of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for the next two seasons, with a mandate to develop and conduct educational concerts for the Minnesota ensemble. McFerrin, whose 1988 a cappella song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” sold more than 10 million copies, will focus on in-school appearances, music demonstrations and special concerts to expand young people’s interest in different types of music, including classical. “My creative focus has always been about getting people excited about music,” said McFerrin, who has been a guest conductor with more than 40 orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “I want to get people to let their hair down about classical music and involve them directly in what’s happening on stage.”

* Disney’s Broadway Record: The critics certainly aren’t raving, but that hasn’t kept the public away from Disney’s Broadway version of “Beauty and the Beast.” The musical, which opened Monday at the Palace Theatre, on Tuesday broke the all-time Broadway box-office record for one-day sales, ringing up a total of $603,494 to surpass the previous record of $548,460 set by “The Who’s Tommy” last June.

* Celebrating African Arts: The fourth biennial National Black Arts Festival this year will collaborate with the 1996 Olympic Games’ Cultural Olympiad to produce a “Celebrate Africa!” festival in Atlanta. The festival, which runs from July 29-Aug. 7, will feature more than 100 African performers, including the a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo and pop singer Youssou N’Dour, plus an African Village and Marketplace offering demonstrations from artisans and craftspersons from throughout Africa. “Celebrate Africa!” is produced by Stephanie Hughley, a former general manager for the New York Shakespeare Festival and the founding artistic director of the National Black Arts Festival. It is intended to prepare for the Olympics by “bringing the world to (Atlanta’s) doorstep and allowing us to gain a better understanding of the many cultures that make up the Olympic family.”

TELEVISION

Snyder Staying Put: Despite being named by David Letterman as a personal favorite to take over the 12:35 a.m. slot behind his own hit CBS series, Tom Snyder says he wants to continue as a talk-show host on the CNBC cable channel. Asked during a CNBC telecast Tuesday about rumors that he’d been talking with CBS, Snyder said, “There have been no conversations with anyone at the CBS television network. I’m a happily employed member of the CNBC ‘Talk All-Star’ team, and I hope that relationship continues for a long, long time.”

POP/ROCK

Nirvana Sales Still Growing: Nirvana sales continue to climb in the wake of lead singer Kurt Cobain’s suicide. The group’s 1993 “In Utero” album--which sold more than 1.5 million copies in the United States last year but had been dropping down the charts before Cobain’s death was discovered April 8--sold an estimated 69,000 copies last week. That’s up from 18,000 two weeks ago, enough to pull it to No. 11 on the Billboard chart. But sales were modest for “Live Through This,” the new album by Hole, the band fronted by Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love. It sold 19,000 copies in its first week in the stores, landing at No. 55 on the chart. Love, meanwhile, said she will give the shotgun Cobain used to kill himself to the advocacy group Mothers Against Violence in America, which will melt it down along with other weapons owned by the late singer. Said Love, “I don’t, obviously, want to keep them and hopefully by turning over these things I can make a difference and I can make some sense out of something so bereft of sense at all.”

QUICK TAKES

Former KNBC Channel 4 political reporter Linda Douglass has a new role at CBS News. The network announced Tuesday that Douglass will be assigned full time to politics and legislation, while continuing to report on health-care reform. . . . Four Los Angeles Kings hockey players--Kelly Hrudey, Dave Taylor, Mike Donnelly and John Druce--will be on the set of ABC’s “General Hospital” today to film guest spots for the May 10 episode. . . . “Sesame Street’s” Big Bird gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the PBS program.