Hold On To Your Hats As Three Classic "Westerns"

"HATARI!," "PAINT YOUR WAGON" and "THE SHOOTIST"

-- Gallop onto DVD this July --

HOLLYWOOD, May 3, 2001 -- Paramount Home Entertainment delivers three western classics to DVD for the first time on July 24. In HATARI!, the Duke, John Wayne and Red Buttons are joined by an outstanding ensemble western cast transposed to Africa. PAINT YOUR WAGON follows the adventures of Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood during the turbulent gold rush era. THE SHOOTIST stars John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lauren Bacall and a young Ron Howard and takes place during the final days of a legendary gunfighter. Order cut-off is June 12.

Filmed in Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania), HATARI! (1962) is an adventure-comedy starring John Wayne as Sean Mercer, a trapper who catches wild animals and sells them to zoos. With a crew of trappers that includes Hardy Kruger, Gerard Blain, Michele Girardon and Valentin de Vargas, Mercer and his team trek through Africa searching for zebras and giraffes. Just when they think their luck has run out, Anna Maria "Dallas" D'Allesandro (Elsa Martinelli) shows up and asks to tag along. Convinced that her Swiss zoo will buy the majority of the animals they catch, Mercer slowly succumbs to the charms of the pretty photographer.

A classic musical comedy set during the California Gold Rush, PAINT YOUR WAGON (1969) stars Clint Eastwood as Pardner and Lee Marvin as Ben Rumson. Forming a partnership, the two share everything - including a wife, Elizabeth (Jean Seberg), who they bought together at an auction. In this humorous tale of the old west, Pardner and Ben cause havoc by hijacking a stage, kidnapping prostitutes and turning their mining camp into a boomtown. With Eastwood crooning the lyrics to "They Call the Wind Maria" and "Wand'rin Star," PAINT YOUR WAGON combines risqué comedy with plenty of singing, drinking and gambling to paint a humorous picture of the old west.

In his final film, THE SHOOTIST (1976), John Wayne stars as John Bernard Books, the last of the legendary gunfighters, who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease. Returning to Carson City, Nevada to seek medical attention from his old friend Dr. Hostetler (Jimmy Stewart), Books resolves to find a quiet place to die. Renting a room in a boarding house run by the widow Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall) and her son Gillom (Ron Howard), Books intends to die in peace. But when word gets out that the infamous Books has come to town and is dying, several of his old enemies resurface, hoping to settle their old scores. Featuring John Carradine as the undertaker waiting for Books to pass on, Harry Morgan as the town sheriff and Hugh O'Brian as a local gambler, THE SHOOTIST follows the story of an aging gunman and the concurrent decline of the Old West.

The DVDs of HATARI!, PAINT YOUR WAGON and THE SHOOTIST are presented in widescreen format enhanced for 16:9 televisions and all include their original theatrical trailers. THE SHOOTIST also includes cast and crew interviews with screen writer Miles Swarthout, producer Bill Self and actor Hugh O'Brian. HATARI! is presented in Dolby Digital restored English Mono and French Mono; PAINT YOUR WAGON is presented in Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Surround and French Mono and THE SHOOTIST is presented in Dolby Digital English and French Mono. All three DVDs are closed-captioned and subtitled in English for the deaf and hard of hearing and are encoded with the Macrovision™ AntiCopy process.

The DVDs of HATARI!, PAINT YOUR WAGON and THE SHOOTIST are priced at $29.99 (S.R.P.) in the U.S. and C$39.99 (S.R.P.) in Canada. HATARI! is NR (Not Rated) in the U.S. by the Motion Picture Association of America and G in Canada and has a running time of approximately 157 minutes. PAINT YOUR WAGON is rated PG-13 in the U.S. for thematic material and 14A in Canada and has a running time of approximately 164 minutes. THE SHOOTIST is rated PG. in the U.S. and 14A in Canada and has a running time of approximately 98 minutes.

Visit www.paramount.com/homevideo to learn more about Paramount Home Entertainment's new releases, as well as other classic Hollywood films, television programs, animated titles and family and special interest programming. Paramount Home Entertainment is part of the operations of Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.