A SCREEN GEMS PRODUCTION MOVIE

A SCREEN GEMS PRODUCTION MOVIE

Working from a glossy magazine cover he found in a studio research library he tracked down the quintessential setting for film producer Dino De Laurentiis for the movie Firestarter based on Stephen King’s 1980 novel. Two dozen years ago while scouting for a remotely private secluded waterfront antebellum mansion to use as a film location Capra was lured to the North Carolina coast. “So I’ve been in the film business for a long time now ” he says. Starting over at the bottom rung as a production assistant Capra became a second assistant director and worked his way up the ladder becoming an associate producer then producer. “I didn’t really want to do that because I would be away from the family for two years so when I went back to Los Angeles I started thinking I’d better find a business in entertainment ” Capra says. Once out of the service married with a little boy Capra realized that the jobs open to geophysicists would take him far from home on exploratory expeditions to Venezuela and Saudi Arabia looking for oil. “I did films for the Army for several years ” Capra says. Eventually he was writing and producing documentaries for Hughes until he joined the Army and served in the Signal Corps. I said ‘I’d love to work for you there ’” Capra says. “They were doing not only geophysics but also doing military stuff ” he says. Rolling back his life’s tape he recaps his early career years which began after graduation from college when Capra took a short-term job with Hughes Tool Company the parent company of Howard Hughes’ Aircraft. “I started out in geophysics I was interested in science ” Capra says. Smith Goes to Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life never intended to have a film career yet through a few ironic plot twists and flashbacks his lifetime achievements have cemented North Carolina’s star on the Walk of Fame east of Tinseltown.

The president of EUE Screen Gems and the son and namesake of the Oscar-winning director of Lost Horizon You Can’t Take It With You Mr. as the leading man a role for which he was typecast by the hands of fate. Wilmington’s love affair with moving pictures stars Frank Capra Jr.

A screen gems production