People

By Guy D. Garcia

Even the tourists in Hollywood have a script idea they would like someone to consider. Soviet Poet Turned Filmmaker Yevgeni Yevtushenko, 51, is no exception. He once wanted to make a movie of Cyrano de Bergerac in the U.S.S.R., but authorities turned down the plan. Now he is in California trying to sell Hollywood capitalists on his latest project: a movie about the last years of D'Artagnan and the aging three musketeers. The creator of the 1984 Soviet film Kindergarten describes his new script as a "sparkling tragedy" about the "relationship of heroic people with the Establishment. I think the majority of humanity are unrealized musketeers." He talked to Jack Nicholson about playing D'Artagnan, but is prepared to take the job himself if necessary. Says Yevtushenko with a hint of sparkle: "It's absolutely my part, but it is difficult to direct a film and have a main role."