Wednesday, August 29, 2012

"The Most Challenging Concept You Will Ever See from Challenge Pictures Corp."

In the September 5, 1977 issue of Boxoffice, producer Robert Levine of Challenge Pictures Corporation laid out his revolutionary new distribution concept to exhibitors in a 4-page booklet you can find HERE. Included in this proposal are descriptions of the first two projects his company was promoting at the time, both of them adaptations of popular novels: CORPSE is based on John R. Feegel's Autopsy (Avon, 1975), which was awarded the Edgar® Award by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) for Best Paperback Original in 1976, while THE REBELLION OF YALE MARRATT is from the bestseller by Robert Rimmer, author of The Harrad Experiment. Neither film was produced.

CORPSE

Dr. Jerry Leatherman was a burned-out case. He was tired of being Tampa General’s most celebrated “body butcher,” sick of his status as a nationally known pathologist, and ready to pickle his razor-sharp brain in 90 proof alcohol.

But there was just one more case to handle.

And suddenly Leatherman is plunged into a maze of murder, suicide, high-level fraud, kinky sex, and the kind of merciless soul-searching he thought he no longer believed in.

A dead tycoon, all the evidence pointing to suicide – A developing legal battle over millions – A too-curious rookie cop silenced by a strange “heart attack” – An achingly suspenseful, illegal, midnight autopsy, and another, riddle-solving autopsy the next day – A search through the shadow-world of strip joints, massage parlors, pimps, and dice-rolling hustlers for the most bizarre killer in movie history – the growing, sickening suspicion that the prime suspect is the woman Leatherman is falling in love with, the tycoon’s widow – And the final, face-to-face confrontation with the one person Jerry Leatherman has avoided for a long, long time – Himself!

Did Leatherman hate his work – really – or did he love it too much?

You’ll discover the gut-wrenching answer in – CORPSE.

Robert Levine will produce CORPSE. Discussions have been held with Ben Gazzara, who has expressed interest in the leading role. Only the highest caliber actors will be cast. CORPSE will be directed by Richard Wilson, producer-director of INVITATION TO A GUNFIGHTER starring Yul Brynner; Director of AL CAPONE with Rod Steiger; Producer-Director of THREE IN THE ATTIC (AIP).


THE REBELLION OF YALE MARRATT

From
Robert Rimmer’s novel – 3,000,000 copies sold

Author of “The
Harrad Experiment” –
$9,000,000 box-office gross

The many faces of love are explored in this explosive story. Can two women married to the same husband share his love and live in harmony? Can one man, married to two beautiful wives, shed the stallion instinct and let love flow freely? Can father and son rivalry, or a mother’s infidelity, destroy it forever?

Intertwined is a fascinating story of a young man’s financial wizardry – of doubling and redoubling each stake he gambles in the cut-throat business world till he’s richer than his rich father. It is the story of the no-holds-barred conflict with that father who turns the town against him, using his bigamous household as the lever to strip him of economic power, just as he incited an unruly mob to strip his son’s wives naked in the shopping mall.

But the young lovers fight back – all of it is THE REBELLION OF YALE MARRATT.

(Boxoffice, September 5, 1977, p. 13-16)

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Book Ad of the Week: THE HORSE GODDESS (1982)


October 3, 1982

The Horse Goddess
by Morgan Llywelyn
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982

The major motion picture was never produced.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Book Ad of the Week: THE INTRUDER (1996)


June 2, 1996

The Intruder
by Peter Blauner
Simon & Schuster, 1996

The major motion picture from Mandalay Entertainment was never made.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Book Ad of the Week: HIJACKED (1970)


September 21, 1970

Hijacked
by David Harper
Dodd, Mead & Co., 1970

This became SKYJACKED (1972), directed by John Guillermin and starring Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux, James Brolin, Jeanne Crain, Walter Pidgeon, Susan Dey, Leslie Uggams, Mariette Hartley, Rosey Grier and Claude Akins.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Paperback Procession: The 'Soul Cinema' Edition, Part 1

This post is dedicated to all the Brothers and Sisters
who had enough of the Man.

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
by Melvin Van Peebles
Lancer, 1971
Screenplay w/ making-of, b&w photos


The Making of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
by Melvin Van Peebles
Lancer, 1972
Same as above but with different cover and title


Shelia
by Gunard Solberg
Avon, 1970
Blurb: “Soon to be a major motion picture”
Film released in 1971 as HONKY


Shaft
by Ernest Tidyman
Bantam, 1971
Movie tie-in with 2 different covers


Shaft's Big Score
by Ernest Tidyman
Bantam, 1972
Novelization


Slaughter
by Henry Clement
Curtis, 1972
Novelization


Slaughter's Big Rip-Off
by Abel Kane
Curtis, 1973
Novelization


Trouble Man
by John D.F. Black
Dell, 1972
Novelization


The Spook Who Sat By the Door
by Sam Greenlee
Bantam, 1973
Movie tie-in


Cleopatra Jones
by Ron Goulart
Warner Paperback Library, 1973
Novelization


Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold
by Ron Goulart
Warner Paperback Library, 1975
Novelization


Super Fly
by Philip Fenty
[actually Leonore Fleischer]
Ballantine, 1972
Novelization with b&w photos


Coffy
by Paul Fairman
Lancer, 1973
Novelization


The Book of Numbers
by Robert Deane Pharr
Avon, 1973
Movie tie-in


That Man Bolt!
by Peter Crowcroft
Pocket, 1974
Novelization


Together Brothers
by Jim Robinson
Award, 1974
Novelization


Black Starlet
by Bobbye B. Vance
Holloway House, 1975
Novelization with b&w photos
and 2 different covers


The Black Gestapo
by Joseph Nazel
Holloway House, 1975
Novelization with b&w photos


Mandingo
by Kyle Onstott
Fawcett Crest, ca. 1975
Movie tie-in


Drum
by Kyle Onstott
Fawcett Crest, 1976
Movie tie-in


Greased Lightning
by Kenneth Vose and Lawrence DuKore
Warner, 1977
Novelization


Foxtrap
by Joe Nazel
Holloway House, 1986
Novelization with b&w photos

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Book Ad of the Week: TO DIE IN CALIFORNIA (1974)


May 28, 1974

To Die in California
by Newton Thornburg
Little Brown & Co., 1973

The film adaptation was never made.