Craig Clyde's "The Legend of Wolf Mountain," a new family film scheduled for a national release in October, will have its world premiere Friday at the SCERA Show-house in Orem.
"The Legend of Wolf Mountain," based on American Indian folklore, is Clyde's followup to his successful straight-to-video family film "Little Heroes.""Wolf Mountain" is the story of three youngsters who live near a national park and are misunderstood by their smothering parents. They find themselves in jeopardy when they encounter a pair of escaped convicts and are helped by an unlikely savior, a wolf that becomes a warrior.
The environmentally correct fantasy-adventure is scheduled for a two-week run at the SCERA. It was shot on location in Utah and features many local actors, as well as Hollywood stars Mickey Rooney and Bo Hopkins.
Clyde, a former local radio and television personality, wrote and directed "The Legend of Wolf Mountain."
- THE OLYMPUS STARSHIPS Theaters in the Olympus Cove shopping mall will begin devoting one of its two screens to "art" films beginning Friday.
Intended to complement rather than compete with Salt Lake's downtown art house, the Tower Theater (on 900 South near 900 East), the Olympus Starships' foray into foreign and independent cinema is being programmed by Greg Tanner, who also runs the Tower.
"Raise the Red Lantern," the highly praised Chinese film that was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year, will kick off the series. Tanner did booming business with "Lantern" at the Tower.
Next week, a first-run Australian film, "Father," starring Max von Sydow, will play on the Olympus Starships art house side.
- THE FASHION PLACE MALL Theaters are no more, as of Friday. The four-plex inside the Fashion Place Mall, which was part of the United Artists chain, has closed.
There had been speculation for some time that the aging auditoriums might be on the verge of shutting down as the first-run theater had been steadily losing business to multiplex theaters that have risen up in recent years in Sandy, Cottonwood and Sugarhouse, areas that surround and compete with Fashion Place.