ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160011
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Tune In tomorrow
SOURCE: NANCY REICHARDT
Tom Selleck, who is familiar to soap viewers for his former role of Jed Andrews on ``The Young and the Restless,'' gets back into western gear in the new TNT original ``Last Stand at Saber River,'' a film adapted from a novel by best-selling author Elmore Leonard. The film, which premieres on Sunday and has encore presentations during the month, is the Civil War era story of a Confederate soldier's return to his Arizona homestead and the battle he must wage to reclaim his land.
``Elmore Leonard writes great characters and some great dialogue, but the most interesting thing in the book was this inner dialogue my character, Cable, had with himself,'' says Selleck. ``The trick was somehow capturing that on-screen and I was so taken by what Ronald Cohen, our screenwriter did. He captured the spirit of the book.''
Selleck's love for westerns was among many reasons he was drawn to the project.
``I love doing westerns,'' Selleck admits. ``One of the things that you can do as an actor is try some things that you never really had a chance to do and be people you never got to be,'' he adds. ``And westerns more than anything else I think, are closer to my heart than anything else.''
For the project, Selleck served as both star and executive producer.
``When you're doing a movie, particularly some of the movies for cable, that means you're going to have to start making what I call not just compromises but good creative compromises,'' says Selleck. ``On those movies I like the idea of being a producer formally because it lets you become part of the process. I was with this project when (co-executive producer) Michael Brandman brought it to me as a book. And basically I knew Turner wanted to do a movie with me. That's kind of what I brought to the party.
``When we're going to do a movie like this and put our hearts and souls in it, I wanted to be part of that. Not just the acting process but the rest of the creative process. That's why Michael Brandman's contribution is so significant.''
And Selleck also has praise for his co-stars, Keith and David Carradine, Suzy Amis, and David Dukes.
``They all extended themselves and did us a favor because they wanted to be in a western and they thought that this was a particularly good one,'' says the actor. ``And we needed that kind of spirit to get them on board. Everybody in the movie worked for the love of it. It's an excellent cast quite honestly.''
Short take
We told you a couple weeks ago that Fiona Hutchison would return to ``Guiding Light'' for four episodes as Jenna Bradshaw. The actress has signed a long-term contract with the show, which means viewers can no doubt look forward to a Jenna/Reva/Buzz triangle (Kim Zimmer plays Reva and Justin Deas plays Buzz), which could make for some explosive scenes between the two ladies as they spar over Buzz.
Meanwhile, Michael Dietz, who plays Alan-Michael Spaulding, will soon be leaving the show, and the role will not be recast.
Randolph Mantooth, who plays Alex Masters on ``The City,'' was scheduled to guest on ``One Life to Live'' on Jan. 15. Llanview police commissioner Bo Buchanan (Robert S. Woods) enlists the help of gumshoe Masters to help him track down Antonio Vega (Kamar de los Reyes), who is wanted for murdering Carlo Hesser (Thom Christopher). Is it possible that Mantooth will cross over to ``One Life to Live'' after ``The City'' goes off the air? It has happened before.
Send your questions about soap operas to Nancy M. Reichardt, ``Tune in Tomorrow,'' in care of this newspaper. Questions cannot be answered personally, but those of general interest will be answered in future columns.
- United Feature Syndicate
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Selleckby CNB