Film Clips

By next week, the tour will have a display of the DeLorean car that Michael J. Fox rides into the past in "Back to the Future," Universal's current hit. But Armstrong says he would have been willing to put the display up to promote it no matter whose film it was.

"We're trying to make the public aware that there are always new things going on," he says.

In fact, the tour has MGM/UA to thank for the inspiration for it's latest attraction, a special-effects show spun from the scenes in last Christmas's "2010: The Year We Make Contact."

Following a call from MGM boss Sidney Sheinberg to MGM/UA boss Frank Rothman, MGM provided the rights, the models and the drawings that allowed MCA's tour people to duplicate a "2010" set. The set (the same one was duplicated twice) cost MCA Recreation $1.5 million to build, but the rights and resources were free.

"MGM was extremely cooperative," Armstrong says. "No money changed hands."

MGM/UA has little to gain fomr the "2010" exhibit, other than good will, perhaps a few cassette sales and a little promotional fuel should it decide to launch a second sequel to Stanley Kubrick's "2001" ("2020?").

Armstrong says he'll allow other studios to put up displays promoting films yet to come. He'll even put their trailers in rotation in the tour's Showcase Theater, which is currently recycling promos for five Universal features.

When you consider the tour's numbers - more than 3 million visitors a year, 1.4 million of them from out of state - why haven't the other studios already put up their displays?

Because they didn't know they could.

"I think it's terrific that they're willing to do that," says David Weitzner, head of marketing for 20th Century Fox. "I just assume that it (the Universal tour) was hands off.

"If they had asked me, I would have said, 'Yes,'" says Joe Hyam, the Warner Bros. executive in charge of the marketing of Clint Eastwood's movies. "They have enormous crowds, good crowds."

Armstrong, who transferred from Universal's film marketing department two years ago to MCA Recreation, says the competition in the theme park industry is prompting a lot of creative marketing. One of his long - range goals is to have a theater on the tour, where unreleased films - Universal's, and anyone else's - may be shown. He sees it as a bonus for tour guests and an opportunity for studios to conduct audience research.

"There are times," he says, "when your competition is not your competition."

No Kidding.

MEANWHILE: The "2010 attraction on the Universal Studios Tour will initiate its first volunteer astronauts this weekend. For both the participants and the audience watching, it's a vast improvement over the tacky Buck Rogers set it replaces.

The idea is the same, a demonstration of back production showing how film makers sandwich images together to create the illusion of being in space. But where the Buck Roger exhibit relied on some guy rocking a plastic spaceship with two volunteers aboard, "2010" uses laser disc computer technology.

The eight minute show designed by MCA Recreation's Peter Alexander, re-creates a scene in the movie where two astronauts - an American and a Russian - race against time to re-enter a space craft before a nearby planet explodes.

Two volunteers (between the heights of 5 feet, 6 inches and 6 feet, weights of 100 and 200 pounds and ages 12 to 65) climb into body harnesses and spacesuits, then are connected to computer operated wires 7 feet off the ground. Following directions fed through speakers inside their helmets, the recruits act out the scene while being carried from the spaceship and put through a series of precision movements in front of a huge blue screen.

Their performance is followed by a TV camera and relayed to large audience monitors while the computer simultaneously feeds a gem-like celestial background. The illusion is brief but nearly identical to the one that appeared in "2010".

As many as 240 volunteers will take the "2010" ride each day and will receive T-shirts ("I was a space walker at Universal Studios") attesting to it.

"BACK" ON TOP: "Back to the Future" rode a crest of rave reviews to a strong $11.3 million opening weekend, assuring Steven Spielberg another starting spot on Hollywood's summer all-star team.

Spielberg abandoned the director's chair this season to get his Amblin' Entertainment house in order, and his hired hands - director Richard Donner ("The Goonies") and Robert Zemeckis ("Back to the Future") - delivered.