(The Robe cost only $2 million); United Artists has acquired rights to the Broadway superhit Man of La Mancha, for $2¥% million. . . . Mary Ellen Bute, who produced/directed the film version of Finnegans Wake, will have a go at Thornton Wild- er’s The Skin of Our Teeth. .. . Rafael Sabatini’s Scaramouche, long a best-seller and twice a film, may be a Broadway musical next season. . . . Up from the Under- ground: No less than Universal- International has formed a sub-— sidiary to distribute offbeat flicks; first is Conrad Rooks’ saga of drug withdrawal, Chappaqua, starring Ravi Shankar, The Fugs, Allen Ginsberg and author William Bur- roughs. . . . In the script-writing stage: film version of Gene Fow- ler’s The Great Mouthpiece, about William Fallon; same of Robert Gover’s One Hundred Dollar Mis-
understanding, which Jack Gelber is turning into a musical. Paramount dropped it, so Uni- veral will make The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, a spy-spoof starring Roz Russell. @
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