New Line Cinema and Jim Henson's Creature Shop, where those costumes for the socko hit movie "Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles" were made, have been hush-hush about who's actually inside those outfits. We've learned that they're all Hong Kong actors, except one: 18-year-old martial-arts master Ernie Reyes Jr. - late of ABC's "Sidekicks" series - inside Donatello (actor Corey Feldman provides the voice).
Son of Ernie Reyes Sr. - who's choreographed martial-arts sequences for numerous films - Ernie was just 6 when he first performed his martial-arts moves at Madison Square Garden in New York. He went on to display those skills in such movies as "The Last Dragon" (1985) and "Red Sonja" (1985) and on various TV shows.As for his stint as a turtle, his representative says, "He had a great time, even if it sometimes got to be 110 or 120 degrees inside that costume."
Meanwhile, Turtlemania has spread to the small screen.
"We've had literally dozens of requests," says New Line Cinema marketing president Sandra Ruch, for talk-show appearances by the turtles and their creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
"They're going to do as many as they can within reason," Ruch says, "but they're basically quiet and shy people who like to live quiet lives. This is all a little overwhelming."
Upcoming: Connie Chung has taped a piece with Eastman and Laird for May airing and Arsenio Hall is planning a "Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles" segment that will likely feature musical acts who contributed to the movie's sound track, along with some combination of the creators.
The hit movie is also boosting its syndicated cartoon counterpart, which was already in a hefty 129 markets nationwide. Group W Productions prez Derk Zimmerman says that many of those stations "have been improving the time period of the show to take advantage of the movie publicity."
Nationally, the syndicated kiddie program got its highest national overnight Nielsens ever last week: 5.0 with a 14 audience share, compared with a 4.3 rating two weeks earlier, according to Group W vice president Owen Simon. - STACY JENEL SMITH and PAT H. BROESKE
-Ballpark Frank:
HOLLYWOOD - "The Secret Life of Cyndy Garvey," last year's stinging tell-all tome from the ex-wife of former baseball hero Steve Garvey, is in development as an ABC-TV movie. That's the book, you'll recall, that shattered the first baseman's squeaky-clean image by describing him as a distant, emotionally abusive, philandering husband.
Garvey's current wife, Candace, says that she and Steve have been aware of a possible movie project since Cyndy "was in the middle of her book tour, something like that. It's such a joke. The book is so fictitious. ... I can't believe they'd set themselves up for a lawsuit like this."
But Steve, who previously called the book part of a methodical campaign by his ex-wife to soil his reputation, isn't sure what, if any, legal action he'll take.
"I have to think about it," says the one-time Dodger first baseman. " `In development' is pretty gray. When it gets darker gray, maybe I'll address it."
Bruce Sallan, who is producing "Secret Life" for the IndieProd Co., has "absolutely no comment to make on the project," according to his office. Cyndy Garvey did not return our calls. - STACY JENEL SMITH
-Cattle Calls:
HOLLYWOOD - Thanks to credits like "The Hunt for Red October" and "Beverly Hills Cop II," screenwriter Larry Ferguson is planning to saddle up and make his directorial debut - with a "true to the genre" Western, which he has scripted.
"Gunfighter's Moon" will be executive produced by John McTiernan (director of "Red October") for Pathe. No casting or start date yet for the story of the "world's fastest gun" who's summoned to rescue the 17-year-old daughter he didn't know he had.
"There'll be no attempts to contemporize the genre," stresses Ferguson, who says the film's title comes from an old legend that says "when the sun and the moon both ride the sky, widows will weep and men will die."
Ferguson's project is just one in a herd of Westerns headed for the pass, including "Young Guns II," just wrapped for summer release; "Back to the Future, Part III," from Universal, also due in summer; "White Fang," based on Jack London's novel about a man and his dog in the days of gold fever, to be distributed by Disney next year, and "Dances With Wolves," Orion's fall release.
Then there is 21st Century's "Bad Jim," with James Brolin, Richard Roundtree and John Clark Gable (son of Clark, in his first film), as three cowpokes who acquire a speedy thoroughbred once raised by Billy the Kid. Directed by Clyde Ware, it's reportedly headed straight for video on April 25.
And John Kostmayer is scripting "Silverado II" for director Lawrence Kasdan and Columbia. - PAT H. BROESKE
-Start the Presses!:
HOLLYWOOD - The presses were rolling again at the defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner in recent days, but it was just background for director Bobby Roth, who is shooting a bloody and climactic sequence for "Rainbow Drive," an action-suspense yarn for ITC-Showtime. The film - inspired by the drug murders that involved the late porn star John Holmes - wraps this weekend, as star Peter Weller, playing a stubborn detective, tracks down the chief villains to the bowels of the venerable newspaper building.
The climactic sequence, Roth says, began dramatically on the rooftop, ending with "a pretty exciting death scene in which one of the main characters is thrown into the (rolling) presses."
The movie, based on a novel by Roderick Thorpe, was originally to conclude in a subway, with the Herald-Examiner used for squad-room scenes. But Roth says "the scope of the presses was so impressive" that the script was rewritten to accommodate them. A newspaper publisher now figures heavily in the plot.
The second floor Herald-Examiner editorial rooms remain a bit eery, says producer John Veitch.
"It looks like everyone left all of a sudden, as if all activity suddenly halted, with letters, books and what-have-you still scattered around." - STACY JENEL SMITH
-Starr-Crossed:
HOLLYWOOD - The long-shelved "Brenda Starr," based on the plucky reporter-comic book character, briefly came off the shelf April 7 - for a "world premiere" showing in Jacksonville, Fla.
The screening marked the Florida Film Festival's salute to film maker Robert Ellis Miller ("The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," "Reuben, Reuben"), who requested that "Brenda Starr" be screened.
"I wanted to finally get her out of jail," Miller said. "It's always misunderstood when a picture doesn't come out. `Brenda' deserves her day."
Starring Brooke Shields as Starr and a pre-James Bond Timothy Dalton as her mysterious rescuer, Basil St. John, the $16 million "Brenda Starr" was filmed in late 1986, with an early 1988 release planned. Then it got ensnared in legal entanglements involving video rights. Things were further complicated when New World, which had distribution rights, was sold and phased out its domestic division.
Now, reports Miller, the British consortium that financed the film is acquiring it from New World "and there are currently negotiations for a major release - at last."
We also checked on "The Punisher" - with Dolph Lundgren as Marvel comics' lean, mean vigilante - once set for release early last year, then shelved with the sale of New World.
New World has since distributed it internationally throughout most of Europe and the Far East. It opens next month in Australia - and is currently being shopped to domestic distributors. - PAT H. BROESKE
-Quibbles & Bits:
- "The Killer Tomatoes Strike Back" - third in the series - rolls late this month. This time out, look for the vicious veggies to assist Prof. Gangreen (John Astin) as he attempts to take over the airwaves.
- Cuddly Comrade: Now in toy stores - wearing a little Soviet sailor suit - is a red teddy bear, licensed by Paramount Pictures, called "The Hunt for Red Octo-bear."
-Cinefile:
HOLLYWOOD - Can a comic from Brooklyn find happiness in the Old West? Eddie Murphy has told Paramount that he wants his next picture to be a Western. Development is underway at Murphy's production company.
William Petersen will play a lieutenant colonel who trains fighter pilots in Stonebridge Entertainment and Columbia's "Second to None" (aka "Fly By" and "Thai Pirates"). Tim McCanlies' script sends these top guns in Harrier Jump Jets after pirates who prey on boat people in the South China Seas. Rod Daniel will direct for producers Michael Douglas and Rick Biever this summer in a still undetermined location.
Vincent D'Onofrio, Jenifer Jason Leigh and Peter Berg are set for "Crooked Hearts," a family drama A&M Films is producing for MGM-UA. Writer-director Michael Bortman, who adapted Robert Boswell's novel, and producers Dale Pollock, Rick Stevenson and Gil Friesen roll cameras in Vancouver in June.
Rick Moranis and Sara Jessica Parker join Steve Martin and Victoria Tennant in "L.A. Story," a Melnick-IndieProd romantic comedy for Carolco. Mick Jackson directs from Martin's own script. Filming begins locally this month. Tri- Star distributes.