People talk 6/27

Kubrick family plans book on Napoleon

LOS ANGELES -- Details on late director Stanley Kubrick's unfulfilled plans to make a movie about Napoleon will be published in a book, his family said.

His wife, Christiane, and her brother, Jan Harlan -- the director's executive producer -- are assembling the book "Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon -- His Greatest Film Never Made," The Hollywood Reporter reported this week. "Napoleon interested Stanley very much because here was a man with a huge talent and tremendous charisma who in the end failed only because of his emotions and vanity," Harlan said.

Kubrick, who died at 70 in March 1999, was obsessed with the project for 30 years, collecting a library of about 18,000 books about the French leader and studying minute details of his life.

Kubrick's film would have chronicled Napoleon from birth to death, Harlan said, and the director assembled a script and thousands of location photographs in preparing for the film as a follow-up to his 1968 sci-fi epic "2001: A Space Odyssey." But the 1970 film "Waterloo," starring Rod Steiger as Napoleon, flopped at the box office and Kubrick got funding for his story.

Screenwriter agrees to pay disclosure fine

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Screenwriter and producer Steve Bing has agreed to pay $25,000 for failing to disclose a $500,000 late contribution during the March 2000 election. The Fair Political Practices Commission announced the settlement with Bing on Monday. The FPPC complained that Bing made the donation on Feb. 28, 2000, but failed to report it until mid-March.

State law requires that campaign contributions of $1,000 or more be reported within 24 hours if the donation is made within 16 days of the election.

Proposition 28, which was defeated, would have overturned the state's 50-cents-per-pack tax on tobacco products. That tax pays for childhood development and anti-tobacco programs.

Elvis time capsule makes for a tight fit

INDIANAPOLIS -- Like the white jumpsuits an overweight Elvis Presley wore in his later years, a time capsule commemorating the King's last performance was a little too tight. The container of fan letters and other memorabilia was to be sealed Tuesday in a marker on the former site of Market Square Arena downtown, where Elvis performed his final concert on June 26, 1977. He died less than two months later, on Aug. 16.

But the capsule was too wide to fit inside the marker. So it was sent to a welder for repairs in time for the memorial's dedication on Wednesday.

The time capsule will hold letters from Elvis fans, the original schedule from his 1977 tour and a cassette tape of the final concert.

-- From wire reports