After a Year of Rejection, 'Lolita' Is to Open in U.S.

Hollywood -- "Lolita" is finally reaching the big screen. After more than a year of controversy, in which every major studio rejected the director Adrian Lyne's adaptation of the Vladimir Nabokov novel, the new film version will be released in the United States by Samuel Goldwyn Co. The movie's release will take place almost simultaneously with its television premiere on Showtime on Aug. 2. "I am thrilled that 'Lolita' will now be available to a broad audience in the United States," said Lyne, the director of "Fatal Attraction" and "Indecent Proposal," who had charged Hollywood with moral cowardice in refusing to release the film about an older man's obsession with a 12-year-old girl. "Lolita," adapted by Stephen Schiff, stars Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged college professor who falls in love with a young girl, Lolita, played by Dominique Swain. Also in the cast are Melanie Griffith as Lolita's mother and Humbert's landlady, and Frank Langella, as Clare Quilty, who also pursues the young Lolita. Distribution executives at several studios have said that the relatively high cost of the drama, about $58 million, coupled with its lack of star power and potentially offensive sex-with-a-child subject matter, made the 2-hour, 17-minute movie very risky. Jeff Lipsky, Goldwyn's marketing and distribution chief, said the film's official release would be in New York and Los Angeles on Sept. 25, and then in about two dozen large cities over the next few weeks. But the film will also have an earlier one-week run in Los Angeles, starting on July 22, to enable it to qualify for possible Academy Awards. The film, made by Pathe, the French production company, has already opened in Europe to mixed reviews and a modest box office. Under the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a film in theatrical release cannot qualify for Oscars if it has already been shown on television. In 1994, the film "The Last Seduction" was blocked from any Oscar nominations because it was theatrically released three months after it was shown on Home Box Office. The Goldwyn tactic is meant to circumvent the rule. Goldwyn, whose company has released such movies as "The Madness of King George" and "Big Night," said that the marketing and distribution of "Lolita" would be coordinated with Showtime, one of the rare times that a movie company and a cable network join forces. By all accounts, the companies will share the costs of promotion and advertising, which might run as high as $15 million. "It's an adventure for all of us," observed Goldwyn, who said he doubted that the film's release would be picketed or stir much controversy. "I can't believe there's that much controversy," he said. "It's a good picture, but who knows what'll happen. I've made some pictures where I wish I had been picketed."