I was poking around in the library and decided to see if
there was any information on "Gettysburg" in any of the major
newspapers. My search turned up two mentions of the film, both
from June of this year; the first was in the New York Times, and
the second was in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The library
here only receives the former, so I checked to see what the NYT
could tell me:
New York Times, June 6, 1993: sec.3, pg.6, col.4
Coming Attraction: A 5 1/2-Hour Movie
Ted Turner's passion for the Civil War provided the
impetus for "Gettysburg," the most ambitious film project
yet by Turner Broadcasting.
The project was originally in development for ABC, but
when a previous historical epic, "Son of the Morning Star,"
which re-told the Battle of Little Big Horn, flopped in the
ratings, the network decided to pass on "Gettysburg."
Ted Turner snapped it up, and now says of the film, "I
really believe in my own heart that I'll never do something
I'm prouder of."
Certainly Turner Broadcasting has never done anything as
expensive. Mr. Turner said of the film, which used the real
Gettysburg battle site and a cast of thousands of Civil War
"recreators," including Mr. Turner himself, will cost about
$18 million by the time it's finished. That is about four
times the cost of the average made-for-television movie.
The first versioin of the film came in at 5 1/2 hours
long. Mr. Turner watched it in one sitting, and loved it.
Still, he agreed to allow a version to be edited down to 4
hours and 40 minutes. That still adds up to mini-series
length. But Mr. Turner says it's too good to open on TV,
so he's opting for a release in theaters--at the full
length.
"We are just going to let it ride like that," Mr. Tur-
ner says. "We'll have a 10-minute intermission."
The film amounts to a first salvo for Turner in the
movie business. Mr. Turner hopes to release "Gettysburg"
theatrically in October and is working with Miramax on a
marketing plan.
"We'll open it in 10 cities in just one theater, and see
how it goes," Mr. Turner said. "If it goes well, we'll ex-
pand it. It's just too big a subject and too wonderful a
film to show the first time on television and interrupt it
every 10 minutes by commercials for diapers."
I apologize for the length of this posting; however, I thought
people might be interested. Last I heard, it was "more than four hours"
long, so I wonder if he opted for the slightly shorter version. In a
related article, it is mentioned that "Ted Turner makes a cameo appear-
ance as a Confederate officer who unsheethes his sword and makes a
noble charge up a hill into the heart of Union cannon fire."
Should prove interesting!
Eric Johnson