ENTERTAINMENT INSTANT 'ALI'; ABC FLOATS LIKE A BUTTERFLY TO AIR 'KING OF THE WORLD'.Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer The young Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali, pasha of Egypt Muhammad Ali, 1769?–1849, pasha of Egypt after 1805. He was a common soldier who rose to leadership by his military skill and political acumen. occasionally threw such lightning-fast punches that the moves were barely visible in real time, only in slow-motion replays. That's the sort of speed John Sacret Young has been putting on the post- production of his ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. movie about the heavyweight champ, ``Muhammad Ali: King of the World.'' It airs tonight, less than 24 hours after Young declared it finished and delivered it to the network. Why the big rush? Until about two weeks ago, the ABC movie was coincidentally competing with a similar project, ``Ali: An American Hero American Hero may refer to:
So there's Young, the project's writer, director and executive producer, scrambling to get his two-hour movie in the can. He started filming just before Thanksgiving and wrapped Dec. 23. ``I was in the editing room Christmas Day,'' he said. ``(The following week) I fell asleep while we were looking at a cut, and they woke me to say, 'Guess what? The millennium is here.' I was not alone; there were a couple of editors and some assistants and some others who were hanging in for amazing hours. While other people were on the ski slopes, we were huddled around (editing) machines.'' Young, one of Hollywood's busiest TV writers and directors and known for creating the series ``China Beach,'' spent Thursday through Sunday bunkered in a Burbank sound studio dubbing some dialogue and putting on other audio finishing touches finishing touches finish npl the finishing touches → der letzte Schliff finishing touches npl → ultimi ritocchi mpl . ``We literally won't be able to deliver it to the network until midnight Sunday night Sunday Night, later named Michelob Presents Night Music, was an NBC late-night television show which aired for two seasons between 1988 and 1990 as a showcase for jazz and eclectic musical artists. , and that's the last possible time they have to format it and do whatever they do to get it on the air,'' he said late last week. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if a film has ever gone so fast.'' The film is based on ``King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero,'' the 1998 non-fiction best seller by New Yorker editor David Remnick. While the book looks at the young up-and-comer Cassius Clay Noun 1. Cassius Clay - United States prizefighter who won the world heavyweight championship three times (born in 1942) Ali, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Muhammad Ali in the detailed context of the earlier Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston fights, the TV movie focuses on Clay himself, with the other players secondary. Terrence Howard of ``The Best Man'' plays Clay, and Steve Harris of ``The Practice'' is Liston. Other figures portrayed in the movie include Malcolm X Malcolm X, 1925–65, militant black leader in the United States, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, b. Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb. He was introduced to the Black Muslims while serving a prison term and became a Muslim minister upon his release in 1952. (Gary Dourdan), trainer Angelo Dundee (John Ventimiglia) and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times writer Robert Lipsyte (Jason Winer). Pulitzer-winning author Remnick, speaking from his New York office, said he didn't plan to write a boxing book, despite his experience as a sportswriter sports·writ·er n. A person who writes about sports, especially for a newspaper or magazine. sports covering that beat for the Washington Post in the mid-'80s. ``I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. I didn't want to do a full-scale biography of Muhammad Ali,'' Remnick said. ``I wanted to tell a story that had conflict, race and a sense of time and American-ness all involved with it, and that's how Muhammad Ali came to the fore. ``This is about the making of a few things all in one person: the making of a heavyweight champion, obviously, but also the making of an American original character, which he created himself,'' Remnick said. ``In a way, he's always struck me as an American original, like Mark Twain or Walt Whitman or Babe Ruth or Lillian Gish. He's just one of those American originals who plucks things out of the air of the culture and creates an utterly new being that helps shape and create the world we live in.'' The book is brought to life with Remnick's vivid accounts of the landmark fights, as well as stories by Norman Mailer, Gay Talese, George Plimpton and the cigar-chomping sports columnists and pugilism pugilism (py  `jəlĭz'əm): see boxing. Pugilism Balboa, Rocky lower-class Philadelphia boxer wins golden opportunity to fight in prize bout. pundits of the day: Jimmy Cannon of the New York Post The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and the oldest to have been published continually as a daily.[3] Since 1976, it has been owned by Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and is one of the 10 and Red Smith of the Herald Tribune, among others. It isn't so much a what-happened-when biography as much as an attempt to answer several whys, concerning Clay's effectiveness in the ring, his self-promoted rise to celebrity status, the early days of his affiliation with the Nation of Islam Nation of Islam: see Black Muslims. Nation of Islam or Black Muslims African American religious movement that mingles elements of Islam and black nationalism. It was founded in 1931 by Wallace D. , especially the way his persona defied the easy classifications of the humble ``Yassuh''-ing of Patterson or the brutish brut·ish adj. 1. Of or characteristic of a brute. 2. Crude in feeling or manner. 3. Sensual; carnal. 4. , dark beast stereotype painted on Liston. ``I, of course, went into the book thinking I knew all there was to know about Cassius Clay . . . and guess what? There was so much more to know and so much more in his book,'' Young said. The book goes into his conversion to Islam and his name change as well as Ali's Vietnam draft evasion that, for a time, cost him the heavyweight title. But the ABC movie concludes with the 1964 Miami fight in which 22-year-old Clay beat Liston for his first championship belt. Young said he has written additional scenes that may be used in a sequel if tonight's ratings are favorable. Young said he and Howard talked a lot about how the actor should play Clay, the brash young man who, after his first bout at age 12 in a Louisville gym, proclaimed that he soon would be ``the greatest of all time.'' ``It's not about mimicry mimicry, in biology, the advantageous resemblance of one species to another, often unrelated, species or to a feature of its own environment. (When the latter results from pigmentation it is classed as protective coloration. , it's not about impersonation Impersonation Patroclus wore the armor of Achilles against the Trojans to encourage the disheartened Greeks. [Gk. Lit.: Iliad] Prisoner of Zenda, The ,'' Young said of Howard's performance. ``He has to try to capture Cassius Clay's spirit, his energy, his athleticism, his outrageousness. But that isn't to say he should be mimicking him. That would be a mistake.'' In his own research, Young turned to many of the surviving sportswriters and found them still excited to talk about the era nearly 40 years later. Dundee came to the set the day they filmed the Liston-Clay fight, and Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, the boxer's corner man, served as a consultant and plays a cameo as the boxing commissioner at the notorious weigh-in for that match. Ali, now severely weakened by Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease or Parkinsonism, degenerative brain disorder first described by the English surgeon James Parkinson in 1817. When there is no known cause, the disease usually appears after age 40 and is referred to as Parkinson's disease. , gave interviews to Remnick and praised the finished book. But Young said the champ has not officially sanctioned his movie, in large part because Ali sold his life-story rights to Sony for a feature that may star Will Smith. ``In a way I think that's good, because I'm always leary of having to be the 'official document,' '' Young said. ``There is a certain leeway you need. If (a subject) likes everything you do (about him), it may mean that you're not being hard-hitting enough or investigative enough, or getting under the fingernails. ``You try to be loyal and faithful to history, and at the same time this is a dramatization dram·a·ti·za·tion n. 1. The act or art of dramatizing: the dramatization of a novel. 2. A work adapted for dramatic presentation: ,'' he added. ``In the case of this guy, writing it was almost turning sideways and letting people talk. ``It wasn't like, 'Let me manipulate this scene.' These characters are so alive and so jumping that it's almost like reporting, trying to take it down accurately.'' THE FACTS --The show: ``Muhammad Ali: King of the World.'' --What: John Sacret Young's TV movie based on David Remnick's book about the boxer's early career. --The stars: Terrence Howard, Steve Harris, Gary Dourdan, John Ventimiglia, Chi McBride, Jason Winer. --Where: ABC. --When: 9 tonight. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1) ``Muhammad Ali: King of the World,'' starring Terrence Howard and airing tonight on ABC, focuses on the boxer's early career. (2) Terrence Howard as Ali (no cutline) (3) 'I wanted to tell a story that had conflict, race and a sense of time and American-ness all involved with it, and that's how Muhammad Ali came to the fore.' - David Remnick Author of the book on which the ABC movie is based Box: THE FACTS {see text) |
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