News & Notes

Crash Course
For his new film The Hard Way, Michael J. Fox has traded his time-traveling DeLorean for a high-flying NYPD squad car. In the action-comedy, due out in December, Fox plays an actor who gets more than he bargained for when he researares an upcoming role as a movie cop by hitting the beat with a hardened homicide detective (James Woods). In this raucous chase scene, shot recently along Manhattan's waterfront, Fox's stunt double executed a perfect crash landing.

Plugs of Thunder
Days of Thunder may not break box-office records, but it has definitely set a new mark for the most product and company plugs in a single movie. In all, nearly 70 products or corporate names are noticeable, including Winston, Exxon, Chevrolet, Pepsi-Cola, Diet Pepsi, Mello Yello, Coke, Gatorade, STP, Citgo, Prestone, Quaker State, Purolator, Super-flo, Havoline, Budweiser, Busch, Coors, Miller, Champion, AC, Goodyear, Ace Hardware, True Value Hardware, Heinz, Tide, Ford, GMC, Ponniac, Ryder, U-Haul, ESPN, Skoal, Hardee's, Hilton, Levi's, and Lee. Taking the checkered flag for most strategic product placement, however, is Sweet 'n Low. During a lovemaking pit stop, Cruise trails two pink packets of the sugar substitute along Nicole Kidman's bare thigh.

False Start
Ever since Sony hired Batman producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters to run Columbia Pictures, industry observers have been anxious to see what films the pricey duo would come up with. It looks as if they will have to keep waiting. Production was recently suspended on Radio Flyers, which was scheduled to be one of the first Guber-Peters projects to make it into theaters. According to insiders who viewed footage from the first few weeks of shooting, Columbia decided there were serious problems with the drama about two young brothers. David Mickey Evans, who wrote the script, has been removed as director and production is expected to resume as soon as a replacement is named.

Bar Star
What actor appears in three of 1990's bigggst movies — The Hunt for Red October, Days of Thunder, and Die Hard 2? Here's a hint: He once had a starring role as the chief minority counsel during the televised Watergate hearings. Fred Dalton Thompson is his name, and the tall Tennessee laayer has brought a look of rugged authority to his most recent parts as an admiral in Hunt, a NASCAR official in Days, and the control tower chief at Dulles airport in Die Hard 2. Thompson made his debut in 1985, when he played himself opposite Sissy Spacek in Marie, a movie about government corruption in Tennessee. But with a flourishing law practice in both Nashville and Washington, D.C., Thompson is still saving his best performances for juries.

Cat Toons
When the Broadway musical Cats makes its upcoming leap from stage to movies, don't expect to see any long-limbed dancers slinking around in fur suits. Cartoon kitties are in store as Steven Spielberg and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber join forces to produce an animated film of the Tony-winning play.