MOVIES - Feb. 6, 1990

Stark to Make Nabisco Story: Backed by Columbia Pictures, producer Ray Stark (“Steel Magnolias”) has landed film rights to the nonfiction best seller, “Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco,” written by Wall Street Journal reporters Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, who covered the breaking story of the 1988 $25-billion leveraged buy-out of the company. A spokesman for Stark’s production company would not disclose how much was paid for rights to the book, and said until a writer and director are attached, no decision will be made on whether the adaptation will be fictionalized in whole or in part. He said shooting may begin in the fall.