THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120019
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long : 193 lines
IT MAY BE only Nov. 12, but Santa Claus has come to town.
Within one week, two high-profile movies about old St. Nick are being unveiled. It may seem early, but the competing studios - eager to deck the vaults with boughs of greenbacks - contend each will be such a hit, they'll be playing right through Dec. 25. More level heads might reason only one team of reindeer can fly.
The two films seem evenly matched.
In one corner is the mighty Disney studio, already out of the gate with ``The Santa Clause,'' with Tim Allen, star of the top-rated TV show in America, ``Home Improvement.'' He plays an uptight businessman who has to take over when Santa falls off his roof on Christmas Eve. Allen pilots a high-tech sleigh led by a reindeer with an attitude. The movie is very '90s and somewhat irreverent.
In the other corner is venerable 20th Century-Fox with its remake of ``Miracle on 34th Street,'' starring Sir
Richard Attenborough. Due Friday, it is written and produced by John Hughes. The Christmas season is especially lucky for him. His ``Home Alone,'' set in and released during the holiday period, is the most successful comedy in history.
All this comes after a summer overrun with family movies, many of which flopped - including household names like ``Black Beauty'' and ``Lassie.'' Folks who said they wanted more films for children didn't put up at the box office.
Will that change with the Santa Wars of 1994? Both entries may be dressed in red, but they want to avoid that in the ledger books.
``I LOVE COMEDIES IN WHICH A GUY is put in circumstances out of control,'' Tim Allen said, explaining why ``The Santa Clause'' was the right movie to prove he is ``screen ready.'' He gave up his tool belt to sweat it out in a red, fat suit. Temperatures reached 100 degrees under the lights.
``I like movie hours. You get breaks. With TV, you never get a break; it's continuous work.''
Allen, 41, says he and his wife read the original script for ``The Santa Clause'' in 1991. He liked it, she loved it. Jeffrey Katzenberg, then head of Disney movie production, vowed he would buy the script, but only if Allen promised to do it.
``I decided that if I had time to do a movie, I'd do this movie,'' Allen said, ``but I didn't say when. That was the rub.'' When Katzenberg called back, Allen was burnt out from three years of ``Home Improvement.'' Nonetheless, he agreed to do the film during the show's hiatus.
Originally set for a low budget at Hollywood Pictures, the adult wing of the Disney empire, that changed after the big boys saw the early footage. They added a few million bucks for special effects and announced it would be released under the more prestigious aegis of Walt Disney Pictures.
``The original script was darker,'' Allen said. ``Santa fell off the roof and broke his neck. The character I play is a workaholic who is not in touch with his young son. He's a real sour type who is transformed when he becomes Santa.
``Now, he isn't as sour, even from the first. We still have the angle, though, that the father and son become closer because Dad serves time as Santa.''
James Bond-like gadgetry was added as well as a souped-up sleigh. Santa now has emergency radio contact with the North Pole, a flame-proof suit and red satin pajamas and a crimson robe for lounging around the North Pole.
``I wish we had more time at the North Pole in the movie,'' Allen said. ``I'd like for the film to have explained more about what goes on there.''
The elves, led by brassy David Krumholtz (``Life With Mikey''), are played by 250 children between the ages of 2 and 13. ``Tim was making his first movie and under real pressure,'' Krumholtz said. ``Here he is playing the most popular guy in the world and having to do it with a tape up the middle of his back.''
He was referring to a special cooling system for Allen's ``instant fat'' suit. The plot calls for Allen to put on weight and grow a beard when the Santa clause goes into effect; that is, whoever dons the suit after Santa is indisposed must take over the duties - and look the part.
Allen is having a big year. His book of witty philosophy, ``Don't Stand too Close to a Naked Man,'' is a best-seller and, he said, hasn't gotten him into too much trouble. It's about men and women, ``natural enemies'' who ``can co-exist if only women understand men a little better. Women are like the Red Baron in World War I. He didn't necessarily want to kill the enemy, just shoot him down.''
Disney produces his TV show and published his book. Now, it has released his first movie. ``I'm right up there with Mickey,'' Allen quipped.
Before sitting down with him, Allen's publicist asks that there be no personal questions. His past has been well-documented - he served two years in jail, busted selling cocaine to an undercover agent - and feels he's talked enough about it. The years in prison. How the experience encouraged him to try stand-up. How his college sweetheart, Lara, stood by him. She is now his wife and business manager; they have a 3-year-old daughter, Kady.
But Allen will talk, if pressed, about how ``Home Improvement'' has withstood everything the networks can throw at it, including ``Seinfeld'' and ``Frasier.''
``Our show wins the People's Choice Awards, but the others win the Emmy awards.'' Allen is miffed that some critics dismiss ``Home Improvement'' ``because it is too popular'' while ``Frasier'' and ``Seinfeld'' get raves.
``It's as if we're this monster-big show and the others are little critical gems,'' he said.
As for his new career, he likes the challenge of doing movies, but doesn't want more attention.
``I miss live audiences,'' Allen said. ``The only audience you have in a movie is the crew. They laughed when Santa (me) did the monkey dance. But will audiences laugh? Who knows? I'd like to play scenes in front of an audience before sending them out.''
JOHN HUGHES HAS CLOUT. With ``Home Alone'' remaining the highest-grossing comedy in history - and the fourth-biggest moneymaker ever - 20th Century-Fox didn't flinch when he proposed remaking ``Miracle on 34th Street.''
``I like the idea of Christmas movies - a picture for a certain period of time,'' he said. ``This has not been a great year for traditions and institutions in which you can put your faith. A movie like this is needed.''
Still, purists remember the 1947 original. Edmund Gwenn won a supporting actor Oscar for playing Kriss Kringle. Marureen O'Hara is the Macy's employee who hired him, and who tells her young daughter not to fantasize. John Payne is her suitor, a man who believes in Santa and encourages Susan, played by Natalie Wood, to do the same. Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott and Mara Wilson (``Mrs. Doubtfire'') star in the new movie.
Hughes is put on the defensive when he's constantly asked why he would remake the film.
``This is a reinterpretation, not a continuation of the original film,'' he said. ``I wouldn't remake `It's a Wonderful Life.' That's everybody's idea of the greatest Christmas movie. But I feel `Miracle on 34th Street' was not a great movie. It had good acting and a good story, but it's somehow incomplete.''
He added that he still hasn't seen the original film all the way through. ``It's the story that's great, not the way it was told. It was a small-budget film in 1947, released in the spring - not at Christmas time. I asked Maureen O'Hara to be in our version as a guest artist, a new role to be written for her. She declined, saying that making the original film was not the best of experiences.''
One scene from the first film, when the post office delivers thousands of letters to Kriss Kringle and the judge subsequently dismisses the case, has been cut. Instead, Hughes wrote in a scene in which the judge observes the ``In God We Trust'' slogan on a dollar bill and subsequently rules that Santa is real.
``I always thought the postal service scene was a little weak as a legal argument,'' Hughes said. ``After all, any postal clerk could have delivered the mail. It didn't mean that the U.S. Postal Service recognized him.
``I studied for weeks to come up with something else. I thought about, what is it that people most respect? I came up with the dollar bill, and the fact that `In God We Trust' is inscribed on it.''
Across the room, potential trouble had broken out. Mara Wilson, the 7-year-old second-grader, had been asked if she believes in Santa Claus. ``No,'' she replied, ``because I'm Jewish. The little girl I play didn't believe in Santa at first.'' Mara is not impressed with stardom. She still gets 75 cents a week allowance, and she saves it, stashing it in her wallet.
``Mara is like an old soul,'' said Perkins. ``She'd correct our lines and remind us of where our marks were.'' Perkins played Wilma in ``The Flintstones'' - proof, she said, ``that you can sell anything if you market it right.'' She had no trepidations about ``Miracle.'' ``I thought the original film could be improved upon. There was room to grow.''
Hughes is famous for being a hands-on producer, but director Les Mayfield (``Encino Man'') said he was left alone. ``John wrote the script and John knows that I understood his script. He didn't even come to New York City when I was shooting there.''
He pointed out that the plot has been streamlined to suggest the 1990s. Santa talks to one tyke in sign language and some of the toys are high-tech.
``The greatest risk of being dated was in the love story,'' Mayfield said. ``Here, we have a man and woman who are in love, and haven't slept together. You have a woman who allows her little daughter to go over and visit a man's apartment, a man she hasn't known that long.
``Dylan McDermott had the greatest challenge, I think, in making this man real. He's the perfect actor to make you feel comfortable and make women feel, yes, such a man as this is still out there in the real world.''
Attenborough, an Oscar winner for directing ``Gandhi,'' was the only possible choice to play Kriss Kringle, Hughes said. ``He brings such compassion and understanding to the role that you have to believe him - and in him.''
Hughes doesn't think any miracle is going to be necessary for his movie to make a hefty profit.
``It's not that I've run out of ideas,'' he said. ``I actually felt that this movie should be remade. Different casts do Shakespeare plays every year. Why not films?'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by WALT DISNEY PICTURES
In Disney's ``The Santa Clause,'' Tim allen plays an uptight
businessman who has to take over when Santa falls off his roof on
Chrsitmas Eve.
Color photo by 20th CENTURY FOX
Sir richard Attenborough is Santa in the remake of ``Miracle on 34th
Street.''
Photo by DISNEY
Tim Allen is persuaded by son Eric Lloyd to don a Santa suit in the
new Walt Disney flick ``The Santa Clause.''
by CNB