Barry Morrow

"We did it! We got one!" Kim was sitting at the edge of a small dinner party in La Verne, peering at the floor and twirling a string when at approximately 8:30 Wednesday night, Dustin Hoffman was named best actor for 1988 at the Academy Awards. The party was the final destination of a long trip, figuratively begun in 1984 when writer Barry Morrow met Kim, an autistic savant with extraordinary mental gifts, and decided to write the story that would become "Rain Man."

"We did it! We got one!" Kim was sitting at the edge of a small dinner party in La Verne, peering at the floor and twirling a string when at approximately 8:30 Wednesday night, Dustin Hoffman was named best actor for 1988 at the Academy Awards. The party was the final destination of a long trip, figuratively begun in 1984 when writer Barry Morrow met Kim, an autistic savant with extraordinary mental gifts, and decided to write the story that would become "Rain Man."

The TV cameraman rushed to the bottom of the entrance ramp at the Ontario airport to shoot the line of passengers filing out of the Delta flight from Salt Lake City; they all glanced around in the sharp camera beam to try to spot the celebrity in their midst--then moved on as if to say, "There are so many these days, you can't keep up." Two men split from the crowd to greet their waiting hosts.

The TV cameraman rushed to the bottom of the entrance ramp at the Ontario airport to shoot the line of passengers filing out of the Delta flight from Salt Lake City; they all glanced around in the sharp camera beam to try to spot the celebrity in their midst--then moved on as if to say, "There are so many these days, you can't keep up." Two men split from the crowd to greet their waiting hosts.

"Rain Man" has won screenwriter Barry Morrow an Oscar, and now the film may also earn him a belated college degree. Some 20 years ago, Morrow left St. Olaf College in Minnesota one credit short of graduation. He attended St. Olaf in the late 1960s, transferred to the University of Hawaii for his junior year, then returned to St. Olaf, but some credits were not transferred. Now, St.

Artistic storms continue to clutter UA's "Rainman" horizon (we recently reported Dustin Hoffman's unhappiness with the script): Director Martin Brest and producer Roger Birnbaum are declining comment--but Hoffman attorney Bert Fields confirmed rumors that Brest has left the project (which co-stars Tom Cruise). Sources close to Brest told us that he felt it impossible to control the material and the direction of the picture. At press time, the producers were seeking a replacement.

Steven Spielberg called for a "return to the word" at the Oscars last year--but this? In the case of "Rainman" (a one-time Spielberg project), the Dustin Hoffman-Tom Cruise starrer at United Artists to film in April with Sydney Pollock directing, Outtakes estimates it's about $10,000 per page. Writer Barry Morrow's original script was so admired, it attracted the likes of Hoffman and director Marty Brest.

PICTURE "Rain Man" DIRECTOR Barry Levinson "Rain Man" ACTRESS Jodie Foster "The Accused" ACTOR Dustin Hoffman "Rain Man" SUPPORTING ACTRESS Geena Davis "The Accidental Tourist" SUPPORTING ACTOR Kevin Kline "A Fish Called Wanda" SCREENPLAY Original Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow, "Rain Man" SCREENPLAY Adaptation Christopher Hampton "Dangerous Liaisons" ART DIRECTION Stuart Craig (art), Gerard James (set), "Dangerous Liaisons" CINEMATOGRAPHY Peter Biziou "Mississippi Burning" FILM EDITING Arthur

Lotsa publicity blurbing about the Dustin Hoffman-Tom Cruise starrer "Rainman," from United Artists, via Guber-Peters, tentatively to begin shooting Aug. 17 (or, as a contingency plan, six to eight weeks after a resolution to the possible Directors Guild strike). But we've picked up additional tidbits. Like unhappiness from Hoffman, who's supposedly wanted a new writer and a new direction for the plot, particularly as it involves his and Cruise's characters.

As if to emphasize that there is no paradise on Earth, "Race the Sun" takes the shtick about a dedicated teacher who meets surly but soon-to-be-inspired students, flies it to Hawaii and shows how cultural diversity and fresh plot lines are both endangered species in this country. The basic losers-win-at-sports movie has, over the past few years, appeared under such titles as "Cool Runnings," "The Big Green," "Little Giants," "Heavyweights" and "The Sandlot."

The rank stench of that ludicrous French farce of the '50s, Auteurism , once again befouls the air of Hollywood. Despite the fact various directors and actors admired Barry Morrow's original "Rainman" script (Outtakes, by Leonard Klady, Jan. 31), they still felt compelled, with clumsy, meddling mitts, to manhandle it. Few bad scripts need five different rewrites with five different writers, let alone a good one. When will these frustrated creators realize that they are not "shapers" of material, merely "interpreters."

Last year's crop of popular, made-for-adult comedies dominated the Writers Guild of America's nominations for 1988's best original screenplay. But the guild's other nominee list--for screenplay adaptations--honored some films further outside the mainstream. The original screenplay list included the writers of "Big," "Bull Durham," "A Fish Called Wanda" and "Working Girl." The lone dramatic screenplay nominated was for "Rain Man."