On this day in movie history - Rollerball (1975 movie & book):

Rollerball

directed by Norman Jewison,

written by William Harrison,

based on the short story Roller Ball Murder by William Harrison,

was released in the United States on June 25, 1975.

Music by André Previn.

Adagio in G minor by Tomaso Albinoni.

Cast:

James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn, Pamela Hensley, Barbara Trentham, John Normington, Shane Rimmer, Burt Kwouk, Nancy Bleier, Richard LeParmentier, Robert Ito, Ralph Richardson.

Recommended reading:

Roller Ball Murder and Other Stories

by William Harrison.

ISBN-10: 0860078655

ISBN-13: 978-0860078654

Published 1975.

Anthology of short stories.

Contents:

Preface; The Warrior (1971); The Hermit (1968); Down the Blue Hole (1973); Eating It (1970); The Pinball Machines (1968); Roller Ball Murder (1973); The Blurb King (1971); A Cook’s Tale (1966); The Arsons of Desire (1972); The Good Ship Erasmus (1971); Under the House (1972); Nirvana, Götterdämmerung, and the Shot Put (1972); Weatherman: A Theological Narrative (1973).

Description:

Rollerball Murder – the deadly game of the twenty-first century. At a signal forty players run, skate and bike for their lives around a high banked, hardwood track, dodging the careening 25-pound oval balls which scatter and maim and over 300 miles an hour.

No rules, no rest periods, no substitutes. It’s play up or die. Just two hours of brute speed and crowd-pleasing carnage viewed simultaneously the world over on multivision …

Rollerball Murder is one of thirteen tightly written, provocative and, ultimately, unforgettable stories of the past, present and the horrifying future.

On this day in movie history – Brubaker (1980 movie & books):

Brubaker

directed by Stuart Rosenberg,

written by W. D. Richter,

story by W. D. Richter and Arthur Ross,

released in the United States on June 20, 1980.

Based on the book Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal by Tom Murton and Joe Hyams.

Music by Lalo Schifrin.

Cast: Robert Redford, Yaphet Kotto, Jane Alexander, Murray Hamilton, David Keith, Morgan Freeman, Matt Clark, Tim McIntire, Richard Ward, Jon Van Ness, M. Emmet Walsh, Albert Salmi, Linda Haynes, Everett McGill, Val Avery, Ron Frazier, David Harris, Joe Spinell, James Keane, Konrad Sheehan, Roy Poole, Nathan George, Don Blakely, Lee Richardson, John McMartin, Alex Brown, John Chappell, Brent Jennings, Harry Groener, William Newman, Noble Willingham, Wilford Brimley, Jane Cecil, Ebbe Roe Smith, Young Hwa Han, Vic Polizos, Jack O’Leary, James Dukas, J.C. Quinn, Jerry Mayer, Ivy Featherstone, Kent Broadhurst, Hazen Gifford, Elane Rower Richardson, John R. Glover, Bill McNulty, Linda Milligan, Rob Garrison, James E. Fraunfelter Jr., Ritch Brinkley, David E. Williams, E.J. Pearcy, J.K. Mahle, Vivian P. Bass, Greg Martin, Philip Bartlett, Richard L. Denny, Michael Holiday, Nick Baldasare, Gary Jones, Monty Jordan, Rob Liotti, Hank Salas, Dennis Thompson.

Recommended reading:

Accomplices to the Crime:

The Arkansas Prison Scandal

By Tom Murton and Joe Hyams.

ASIN: B001IHUCFW

Publishd by Grove Press.

Published 1969.

Brubaker

By William Harrison.

Novelization based on the movie.

Published by New English Library.

Published 1980.

ISBN-10: 0450049841

ISBN-13: 9780450049842

Description:

The new warden poses as a prisoner to discover what conditions are really like at Wakefield prison, and then battles the town, the state, and even the prisoners to implement reforms.

Born on this day – William Harrison:

William Harrison

Writer

October 29, 1933 – October 22, 2013

Credits:

In a Wild Sanctuary (1975); Rollerball (1975); Savannah Blue (1981); Burton and Speke (1982); Three Hunters (1989); The Blood Latitudes (2000); Black August (2012); Roller Ball Murder (1975); The Buddha in Malibu (1998); Texas Heat (2005); The Mutations of Rollerball (2010); Best SF: 1974 (aka The Year's Best Science Fiction 8) (1975); Roller Ball Murder [short story] (1973).

Movies and television:

A Shining Season (1979); Fighting Mad (1976); Mountains of the Moon (1990); Return to the Arena: The Making of 'Rollerball' (2000); Rollerball (1975 / 2002); The Blue and the Gray (1982); Welcome to Paradox (1998).

Recommended reading:

Roller Ball Murder and Other Stories

by William Harrison.

ISBN-10: 0860078655

ISBN-13: 978-0860078654

Published 1975.

Anthology of short stories.

Contents:

Preface; The Warrior (1971); The Hermit (1968); Down the Blue Hole (1973); Eating It (1970); The Pinball Machines (1968); Roller Ball Murder (1973); The Blurb King (1971); A Cook’s Tale (1966); The Arsons of Desire (1972); The Good Ship Erasmus (1971); Under the House (1972); Nirvana, Götterdämmerung, and the Shot Put (1972); Weatherman: A Theological Narrative (1973).

Description:

Rollerball Murder – the deadly game of the twenty-first century. At a signal forty players run, skate and bike for their lives around a high banked, hardwood track, dodging the careening 25-pound oval balls which scatter and maim and over 300 miles an hour.

No rules, no rest periods, no substitutes. It’s play up or die. Just two hours of brute speed and crowd-pleasing carnage viewed simultaneously the world over on multivision …

Rollerball Murder is one of thirteen tightly written, provocative and, ultimately, unforgettable stories of the past, present and the horrifying future.