DJ News

December 6, 2003
Johnson waxes eloquent

nydailynews.com
Powerful in Viet drama
The original TNT film "Word of Honor" focuses on topics related to the Vietnam War, but its issues and themes resonate today.
Airing tonight at 8, "Word of Honor" is a challenging, multilayered drama featuring an outstanding performance by Don Johnson.
The former "Miami Vice" star plays a Vietnam veteran who, along with the remaining members of his platoon, has carried a secret for 30 years.
It's a courtroom drama, but one with this added element of a mystery.
The film is also timely because it raises questions about war, such as some of those being asked now about U.S. involvement in Iraq.
Based on a Nelson DeMille novel of the same title, the film manages to illuminate the moral conflicts men can face in combat - as well as the price of exorcising those demons.
Former Army Lt. Benjamin Tyson (Johnson), now a successful executive with a wife, Marcy (Sharon Lawrence), and son David (James Kirk), is suddenly called to account. A dying member of his old platoon, Dr. Steven Brandt (John Heard), who has a vendetta against him, has spit out a story to the newspapers about a hospital massacre similar to My Lai.
Tyson, with his men, took an oath never to talk about it. Now he's being investigated by an Army major (Jeanne Tripplehorn), who is trying to find out what happened and possibly establish grounds for a military tribunal.
Meanwhile, his wife, now a high school principal, has become a target of the local newspaper, which has splashed pictures from her promiscuous years over the front page.
Tyson is aware of her past, but having her indiscretions in print can't help his case.
Yet he soldiers on, at one point secretly rendezvousing with his former platoon members, who are anxious to solidify their position.
Tyson, still steadfast and loyal, keeps silent, almost destroying his marriage and making it difficult for his attorney (Arliss Howard) to defend him.
His inner strength and resolve lead to Johnson's finest acting moment in the film, when he addresses the military tribunal. It's a speech that digs deep into the heart of war and its consequences.
The cast of "Word of Honor" is excellent, especially Heard as the accuser. This is one film worthy of viewers' time.

_________

Dec. 5, 2003
Johnson shines in TNT movie about Vietnam and values
By MIKE McDANIEL

I've never seen Don Johnson act as well as he does in Word of Honor, an unexpectedly moving film bowing at 7 p.m. Dec. 6 on TNT.
Don Johnson is former Army Lt. Ben Tyson in Word of Honor (7 p.m. Dec. 6, TNT). I've never seen Don Johnson act as well as he does in Word of Honor, an unexpectedly moving film bowing at 7 tonight on TNT.
The movie is about a successful business and family man forced to confront his Vietnam War past. Did he and his men participate in a My Lai-type massacre? Was there a cover-up?
You may think you've seen this film before, but there's a twist to this one, and it's in the movie's title. The man in charge of the unit, who stands trial when an investigation uncovers inconsistencies in the testimony of members of his platoon, must forgo his promise never to say anything about the incident to be exonerated.
It's a pledge he's honored for 30 years. He's never spoken of what happened, not even to his wife.
What will he do?
What would you do?
Johnson stars as former Army Lt. Ben Tyson, who's lived with the pain of that ugly day. When a dying member of the platoon (John Heard), seeking to relieve his conscience, comes forward with his gruesome Vietnam story, it is Tyson's worst nightmare -- and now he has a business, a wife (Sharon Lawrence) and a son (James Kirk) to answer to. JAG officer Karen Harper (Jeanne Tripplehorn) appears to be sympathetic to Tyson, but is she? What really happened in that Vietnam village three decades ago?
The movie, expertly directed by Robert Markowitz (The Tuskegee Airmen, The Pilot's Wife), is based on a 1987 novel by Nelson DeMille (The General's Daughter). It has been updated to the present day, allowing references to the war in Iraq and the buzzsaw that is the media. It also flashes back to Vietnam as the story plays out in various forms. (Johnson's son Jesse plays the young Lt. Tyson.)
The script "seemed to speak a lot about what's going on in our times and about values on almost every level -- values regarding war, the media and our word," Johnson said in an interview.
"This character was like a throwback to Henry Fonda or Jimmy Stewart or Fredric March, where a man's word was his bond. I identify with this character because ... if I tell someone I'm going to do something, then I follow through with it, barring impossibilities."
That's a theme that, in these capable hands, is powerful enough to carry the movie. But to set the movie in the present day suggests comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq.
"What we found to be uncomfortably ironic is the no-exit strategy in Vietnam, which is similar to (what we have) in Iraq today," Johnson said. "It's a very uncomfortable feeling. Rather than make a statement one way or the other, which I'm not comfortable with as an artist or a filmmaker, I prefer to take the position of getting people to think. If our film can do that, we've done our job. What's going on here? Why are we doing this? And at what cost?"
The movie also allows Johnson to get a few anti-media licks in. In the film, his character is victimized -- things are written or said without corroboration and in a sensational way. Johnson, who turns 54 on Dec. 15, has certainly seen this side of the media, especially in his relationship with Melanie Griffith.
"A lot of our news organizations are driven by the bottom line," Johnson said, when asked how his feelings dovetail with his character's. "I get uncomfortable sometimes when I watch news programs when they're talking to someone who is a victim and going beyond the comfort level. There's nothing sacred."
Did he have any reservations about working with his son?
"Not at all," he said. "Listen, that was out of my hands. They came to me and asked me about it. I said, he auditions with everyone else and you guys make the decision. If he can earn the part, you have my blessing."
The conversation naturally segued into his personal life, which Johnson said "has never been better." After two marriages to Griffith and a relationship with Patti D'Arbanville (Jesse is their son), Johnson settled down with Kelley Phleger, whom he wed in 1999.
"I'm in the greatest shape of my life," Johnson said. "I'm happily married, I've got two beautiful young children to go with my other three, and everybody is accepting and gets along, and we put in a lot of work on that, in combining our family. I'm very proud of my personal position right now."
As for returning to series television, the Nash Bridges star sounds a bit more reserved.
"I learn never to say never in this business," he said. "You never know. I would prefer to do a picture or two a year and see what the Tao brings."

______________

Word of Honor
Wed Dec 3. 2003
BRIAN LOWRY

Condensing a complex novel into 90 or so minutes of actual movie is always tricky, but the narrative seams are particularly apparent in "Word of Honor" --- an otherwise well-made military drama worth seeing principally for Don Johnson (news)'s flinty performance. Hardly groundbreaking, this TNT pic is interesting if only by virtue of its timing, focusing on a military atrocity that parallels recent Vietnam-era revelations, even as sister channel CNN carries its own harrowing images from a different far-flung portion of the globe.
Piecing together its mystery through extensive, sometimes conflicting flashbacks, the film also features Johnson's son, Jesse, as the star's younger self, sporting a resemblance so striking that Disney's animatronic unit couldn't have constructed a more convincing replica.
Based on a novel by Nelson DeMille, whose previous adaptations include "The General's Daughter," "Honor" centers on a successful businessman, Benjamin Tyson (Johnson), suddenly accused of having presided over a mass murder in a Vietnamese hospital three decades earlier.
Unwilling to speak about those wartime events, Tyson finds himself on trial and his family thrust into the midst of a tabloid hurricane, down to allegations about his wife (Sharon Lawrence (news)) and her past sexual peccadilloes.
On paper, the producers have assembled a top-notch cast, with Jeanne Tripplehorn (news) as the JAG officer investigating the case, Arliss Howard as Tyson's country lawyer and John Heard as the whistle-blower, driven by pangs of conscience as he faces his mortality due to cancer.
Put together, though, the movie adds up to considerably less than the sum of its parts, as a team of writers and director Robert Markowitz have little time to develop characters or set up plot twists. Utterly unconvincing, for example, is the only way to describe a survivor who conveniently provides the key to unlocking what really happened, prompting trite "oohs" and "aahs" from the courtroom gallery.
Although offscreen antics have occasionally overshadowed his career, Johnson remains a somewhat underrated actor --- not for "Nash Bridges" and "Miami Vice," necessarily, but for film roles such as "Guilty as Sin" or even "A Boy and His Dog." Here, he's a tightly coiled man with a tortured past, hiding a murky relationship with the platoon he hopes to protect through his silence.
No one else fares especially well, with Tripplehorn (her billing notwithstanding) proving hard to read and underdeveloped in limited screen time. When she talks in the production notes about the nuanced roles and attraction between her character and Tyson, you have to wonder whether she has seen the finished product.
In spite of its shortcomings, the film delivers reasonably powerful and timely messages by sheer force of its subject matter --- weighing the difficulty in judging morality in time of war, as well as the dubious morality of media swarms in the modern age.
They are both points worth making. Alas, you just wish "Word of Honor" had honored those ideals better by making them a bit more artfully.
--
(Movie; TNT, Sat. Dec. 6, 8 p.m.)
Filmed in Calgary by Voice Pictures and Jaffe Braunstein Films in association with Greif Co. and Robbins Entertainment Group. Executive producers, Michael Jaffe, Howard Braunstein, Wendy Hill-Tout, Lance Robbins, Leslie Greif; co-executive producer, Don Johnson; producer, Clara George; co-producers, Michelle Wong, John Matthew, Troy Westergaard, Tiffany McLinn; director, Robert Markowitz; writers, Jacob Epstein, Greif, Jean-Yves Pitoun, Tom Topor; based on the novel by Nelson DeMille; camera, Guy Dufaux; editor, David Beatty; production designer, Lindsey Hermer-Bell; music, Gary Chang; casting, Pat McCorkle.
Benjamin Tyson ..... Don Johnson
Maj. Karen Harper ..... Jeanne Tripplehorn
Tyson ..... Sharon Lawrence
Dr. Steven Brandt ..... John Heard
J.D. Runnells ..... Arliss Howard
Gen. Norm Van Arken ..... Peter MacNeill
Capt. Michael Taix ..... Peter Stebbings
in Vietnam ..... Jesse Johnson

12-03-03
Don Johnson on Miami Movie
by Daniel R. Coleridge
From:TVGuide.com

Whatever happened to the Miami Vice movie? Hollywood chatter has it that Vice creator Michael Mann is still developing the big-screen version of his '80s cop show. For his part, Don Johnson doesn't like the idea. "I've heard some rumblings about that," he tells TV Guide Online, "but that's gonna be kinda tough to do.
"I really believe that Miami Vice was specific for its time," he adds. "There were certain elements that were going on in the '80s that don't exist today. It was a time of excess, and this, if anything, is a time of austerity. It's such a different climate."
Plus, who would play those stylish drug-busters, Crockett and Tubbs? "I would think that anybody who was going to do a Miami Vice movie would at some point have to deal with the Don Johnson factor," he says. "Because we were sort of inexorably bound. I haven't been approached, so I'm not sure how real [this movie] could be."
Johnson, who turns 54 on Dec. 15, knows he's a little ripe to play Sonny Crockett again. He's just surprised nobody's talked to him about doing a cameo or said boo to him about the film. But just for kicks, who could fill his shoes (sans socks) as Crockett?
"I'd like to think that there isn't anyone!" laughs Johnson, who stars in TNT's Word of Honor on Saturday at 8 pm/ET. "But surely they'd find Colin Farrell or somebody like that. I think it's a very difficult project to do. I don't think you're going to win any fans. You're going to have people making comparisons, obviously....
"I'm not even sure if myself and Philip Michael Thomas and the original cast got back together and did it, if you'd make any fans," he chuckles. "You'd maybe have to do it as a spoof. Cheech Marin had the best idea: Miami Vice vs. Cheech and Chong! The biggest drug dealer in the world has stolen their pot stash, so we have to go together and bust him."

12-02-03
Johnson Digs Deep for Word of Honor
By David Martindale
From:TNT web site

The main thing many people remember about Sonny Crockett, the TV character that made Don Johnson famous in the mid-1980s, is the classic Miami Vice look: a European sports jacket with pushed-up sleeves worn over a T-shirt and baggy pants, pastel color schemes, no socks, no belt, three-day beard. Johnson in this get-up launched a widely copied fashion craze, although most of the men who tried to capture Crockett's tropical tough guy aura wound up looking rather silly. The reason it worked for Johnson, but for so few others? It was attitude. It was charisma. It was Johnson's know-how at developing an inimitable character. It so happens that Johnson had considered every detail of his appearance, no matter how seemingly superficial, and came up with a look that allowed instant insight into his character. "There wasn't anyone saying, 'Hey, we'll make this guy a fashion icon,'" Johnson explained to one interviewer a few years ago. "The character was a very loose, hard-partying, hard-crime-fighting guy. The fact that he wore no socks? Well, it's too hot in Miami for socks. And the stubble came out of the fact that he hadn't been to bed in three days."
The point of this story is to illustrate how Don Johnson has been fooling us for years. All this time, we had believed he was just being his bigger-than-life self and not putting much thought into his work in front of the camera. It turns out he's actually a master of making it look effortless. "I'm better than De Niro, I'm better than Pacino," he once declared. "I've got the talent. They've got the material."
That's an audacious claim, one that can probably never be satisfyingly proven. But Johnson's latest -- a quietly dignified and emotionally charged performance in the TNT original movie Word of Honor -- might win him some believers. He plays Ben Tyson, a corporate giant and family man whose involvement 30 years earlier in a Vietnam war crime comes back to haunt him. It's not the flashy kind of role he's known for. "I think people have a preconceived notion that I only play heroes like Nash Bridges and Sonny Crockett." But this movie allows him to flex an entirely different set of acting muscles.
"Don's performance will be a revelation to some, but it was not to me," director Robert Markowitz says. "I don't think I've worked with an actor who knows as much and is as skilled at film acting as Don. In the tradition of William Holden and Harrison Ford, Don digs pretty damn deep in finding the performance he gives at his court-martial. If it is possible to manifest a demon and put it on the screen, Don does it."
Johnson's life in show business began somewhat by accident. He was a senior in high school, needing one more course credit to graduate, and the only class left open to him after his being booted from business administration was drama. Not expecting much, he signed up and soon discovered he had a knack for this stuff, landing the male lead in a production of West Side Story.
Johnson then endured a requisite struggling-actor period of about 15 years (during which he appeared in more than a dozen movies, most of them forgettable, and five failed TV series pilots). Then Miami Vice made him an "overnight" success in 1984. A decade later, Johnson scored with another long-running TV cop show, Nash Bridges, a show perhaps best characterized as an under-the-radar hit. Johnson was not only the star, but also a hands-on executive producer, involved in virtually every aspect of the show's production -- although he never made a big to-do about it, unconcerned with impressing others with his multi-tasking ways. Perhaps it's because Johnson, who often has been unflatteringly portrayed in the celebrity-gossip-fueled tabloid media, doesn't especially care what most people think of him. Like a true artist, he professes to find his self worth in areas that have nothing to do with popularity. "What people think about me is none of my business. If (public acclaim) is what you do this for, you're going to end up pretty unhappy. I stay with the work."

12-02-03
Don Johnson and Son Act in TNT Movie
BRIDGET BYRNE - Associated Press

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - When Don Johnson saw his son Jesse in uniform, he got all choked up: "It was very moving ... my emotions were right at the surface when I was making this film."
In "Word of Honor," Jesse Johnson portrays Benjamin Tyson, an Army lieutenant in the Vietnam War. Some 30 years later, Tyson's seemingly tranquil life as a successful business executive and family man is shattered when he's blamed for a massacre at a village hospital during the war. Johnson, 53, plays the mature Tyson.
The Turner Network Television movie, which also stars Jeanne Tripplehorn, premieres 8 p.m. EST Saturday, and repeats throughout the month.
Seeing Jesse - very much his dad's younger self - in the movie's flashback sequences made Johnson reflect on his own state of mind at the time of the Vietnam War. He shared those feelings with his son.
"We talked about what it was like to lose my friends," he said, "what it was like to see the news coverage, and how frightened and terrified I was approaching my 19th birthday, because, when you were 19, boom! You just went."
But Johnson got lucky. The draft adopted a random selection system in 1969 and a high lottery number kept him out of the conflict. He was able to continue "hustling around trying to get jobs as an actor." He also joined Hollywood activists such as Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland in protesting the war.
Besides stirring personal memories, Johnson notes there are issues in the movie that are resonant of current conflicted opinions about the war in Iraq.
"We didn't want to get too political," says executive producer and co-writer Leslie Greif, "but we did want to focus on the murkiness of war - the morality, the immorality. When is your enemy your enemy? When is he your prisoner? When is he your patient? ... all the ambiguities that drive all the madness and passion."
And Greif thinks Johnson was quite right for the role. "He can be the bad guy, he can be the good guy. He can walk that line," Greif says, referring to the mystery surrounding what happened to Tyson in Vietnam. "He has that twinkle that makes you say, `Even if he's a bad boy, I love this guy!'"
Asked about that gleam in his slate-blue eyes, Johnson - most famous as cop Sonny Crockett in the 1980s NBC series "Miami Vice" - chuckled, "What look?"
The actor, who starred as another cocky cop in "Nash Bridges" from 1996 to 2001, is dressed formally in a navy blue suit - no pastel garments in sight. And the man who made stubble a must in the '80s is clean-shaven as he chats in a Beverly Hills hotel suite.
There's a bandage on his finger. It covers a gash caused when he tried to catch a glass of water that his 3-year-old daughter, Gracie, had knocked over when she was reaching for something of greater interest.
Johnson, 53, and his wife, Kelley, also have an 18-month-old son, Jasper. And he has a daughter, Dakota, with Melanie Griffith, to whom he was twice married. Jesse, who turns 21 Sunday, is Johnson's son from his relationship with Patti D'Arbanville.
The actor's romantic life has attracted its share of tabloid headlines. But despite the dubious exposure, Johnson, whose films include 1996's "Tin Cup" with Kevin Costner, considers himself "very lucky with the reportage over the years."
No such luck for Lt. Tyson. When the story of the massacre is revealed, he and his family become the target of a media frenzy - another aspect of the story Johnson found intriguing.
He describes Tyson as a "shutdown kind of guy," typical of many Vietnam War veterans who "carry around things with them for the rest of their lives no one can relate to. They are locked inside ... there are parts of them that aren't totally functional."
So the role demanded a lot of between-the-lines nuance that is "hard to play, but rewarding for an actor," Johnson says. "I would much rather play an emotion or a moment, or body language. In fact, I never think about delivering lines. They either fall out of my mouth, or they don't."
_______

Sunday, November 30, 2003
Don Johnson takes role of Vietnam vet hiding a secret
By Luaine Lee - Knight Ridder News Service

Actor Don Johnson plays a Vietnam veteran in "Word of Honor," airing Saturday on TNT.

You take away the mahogany tan, the convertible, the white suits with pastel shirts and what have you? You have Don Johnson the person.
Buried in the debris of publicity for most of his adult life, Johnson has not only survived the white-hot lights, he's turned them inward.
As an actor, Johnson has given up his breezy banter for words of significance in his latest teleplay, "Word of Honor," premiering Saturday on TNT
Johnson plays a Vietnam veteran who harbors a devastating secret that threatens to destroy several lives 30 years after the fact. How he handles the crisis examines the essence of honor.
For years it was hard to see the real Johnson behind his Nash Bridges-Sonny Crockett image. And his flamboyant lifestyle didn't help. Married and divorced twice to actress Melanie Griffith, he admitted at one time to abusing drugs and alcohol.
But now, at 53, Johnson says it was not difficult for him to hang on to his values in spite of the hysteria that swirled around him.
"I'm from the Midwest. I was born in Missouri on a farm. I have those values. And that upbringing that I have is from that time and it's with me my whole life, and I bring that to my own parenting and also to the choices I make in my work and my relationships," he says, dressed in a perfectly tailored navy-blue suit, a sky blue dress shirt and a silk navy blue tie with tiny green dots.
"I have a strong sense of values and what's really valuable in life and what things are lasting and the things that are temporary. I'm not a person who is possessed by my possessions. I'm willing to let go of things a lot more easily than I've seen in some of my other contemporaries who are defined by their big houses or cars, or those sorts of things, or their careers or stature. I don't nurture those things like other people do," he says.
Johnson is married to Montessori school teacher Kelly Phleger, with whom he has a daughter, age 4, and a son, 1�. He also has a 20-year-old son, Jesse, whose mother is actress Patti D'Arbanville and who plays Johnson as a young man in "Word of Honor." Johnson and Griffith have a 13-year-old daughter. Starting a family all over again is great, he grins.
"It's like being a father and grandfather all at once, and they're all yours.
"You get better at a lot of things as we get older. Life is a long road, and gosh knows I've made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I've learned and been fortunate enough to be given second and third and fourth and fifth chances."
Finding honor in his own business hasn't been difficult, either, he says.
"I have the same agent for 20 years, the same PR guy for 30 years. I'm a fiercely loyal person," says Johnson, seated on a nubby couch in a hotel meeting room here.
Becoming a father for the first time was a pivotal moment in his life, says Johnson, who dreams of establishing a kids' camp on acreage he owns in Missouri.
"When I had Jesse, I couldn't believe how quickly I fell in love with this little creature. It was instantaneous. And I also couldn't believe how important it was for me to be there for him every second of his life � every play date, every hockey game, every play performance. He's graduating from Occidental College this year and Jesse and I are so close, and that relationship I'm so proud of. I tell all my kids they're my favorite, but I have a special relationship with him. I think everyone does with their first child. And he's kind of grown up in my fame world."
Johnson also confesses that starring in the five-year juggernaut "Miami Vice" profoundly influenced him.
"I didn't really change, but it changed the way that I had to learn some things I never thought I'd have to learn � like how to be famous. You can learn how to be an actor, being famous is a very different ball of wax. And fame as we know it in the 20th century � and as we know it in the last 20 years � is completely different. It's a different landscape out there. It's a different time. There are greater demands put on you. The scrutiny ...
"They get away with saying things like you're a public figure, but even public figures have the right to a private life. And there is no such thing for celebrities these days. And people take advantage of that as well. It made me have to learn how to do things I didn't necessarily think I'd ever have to do." "I think it was the late, great Katharine Hepburn who said, 'I don't care what anybody writes about me as long as it's not true.' And by and large, nothing anybody has written about me has been true. So what do I care?" he laughs.
"Word of Honor" also airs Dec. 7, 10, 19, 20 and 21 at various times.

7-18-03
From a Bad Boys 2 article--
It may not sound like something Ken might say, but remember,
this is Miami -- where cops might talk dirty, but at least they dress clean.
Maintaining the Don Johnson clothing standard, Smith parades
around in tailored silk suits and drives a Ferrari.
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/news/story.asp?id=8E9AD158-681F-4A0B-8D5B-D3D861D2FBD9

7-16-03
'It hasn't been the same here in San Francisco since
Don Johnson left', a local actor said, with no trace
of irony in his voice. You don't hear that sentiment
expressed too often. 'Say what you will about Don Johnson',
the anonymous actor says. 'But he made sure the cast
and the entire crew had restaurant quality food served
on the set for three meals a day. That doesn't happen anymore.
Don was a real pro. He and Cheech Marin knew how to do it.'
FROM: Of infinite chaos
By Bruce Bellingham
Of The SF Examiner Staff
Published on Wednesday, July 16, 2003

July 14, 2003
NICE 'VICE'
Best known as Sonny Crockett on TV's Miami Vice, Don Johnson has
captivated fans everywhere. See the actor's site for an extensive
photo gallery, filmography and related links, at www.donjohnson.com.
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/technology/article/0,1299,DRMN_49_2107000,00.html

7-12-03
Programming notes from critics tour
By STEVE MURRAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
...Others slated: "Word of Honor" (Dec.) with Don Johnson.

7-1-03
Five Make TNT's 'Honor' Roll
By Nellie Andreeva
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Jeanne Tripplehorn, Sharon Lawrence,
John Heard, Christopher McDonald and Arliss Howard have joined Don Johnson
in TNT's original movie 'Word of Honor', based on Nelson DeMille's novel.
'Honor', a courtroom drama, centers on Ben Tyson (Johnson),
a hotshot corporate executive, family man and Vietnam veteran
who is accused of a massacre committed by his platoon 30 years
earlier during the war.
Tripplehorn will play Maj. Karen Harper, a judge advocate general
lawyer who prosecutes the case. Lawrence will play Tyson's wife.
Heard will play a former Army medic from Tyson's platoon who becomes
his accuser. Howard will play Tyson's attorney. McDonald will play
a CIA agent who offers Tyson a deal the administration hopes he can't refuse.

_________________________________

6-11-03
Here is a description from the book Word of Honor.

He is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest,
handsome family man admired by men and desired by women.
But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam.
There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity--
and together swore never to tell the world what they had done.
Now the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget
have caught up with Ben Tyson. His family, his career, and his
personal sense of honor hang in the balance. And only one
woman can reveal the truth of his past--and set him free

New movie for Don!!!

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) 6-3-03
- Don Johnson will star in and executive produce 'Word of Honor',
a TNT courtroom thriller based on Nelson DeMille's novel
of the same name. Johnson plays a hotshot corporate executive,
family man and Vietnam veteran who is accused of a
massacre committed by his platoon 30 years earlier during the war.
Production is set to begin at the end of the month in Calgary,
with Robert Markowitz (CBS'The Pilot's Wife) on board to direct.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Faded screen hunks flock to Alberta Actors who defined
sexiness in the 1980s filming movies here

EDMONTON - Welcome to Alberta, where has-been hunks
come to die. Or at least cling to their fading careers
in front of the camera.

Don Johnson, Tom Selleck and Ted Danson are coming to
work on different telemovie projects filming in
southern Alberta this summer. Though now in their 50s,
the three made hairy chests, white sports coats and
bartenders the sex symbols of an earlier era.
Johnson, Selleck and Danson are best known for their
respective roles on 1980s television hits Miami Vice,
Magnum PI and Cheers.
...in 1996 and '97. Johnson enjoyed some recent success
with the CBS action show, Nash Bridges.
The former heartthrobs will be in the Calgary area to
shoot separate Movie of the Week films for CBS and
American pay cable's TNT. All three films will be
produced, in part, by Calgary-based Voice Pictures.

The king of the black book, Johnson arrives in July to
film Word of Honor, the story of a stock trader who is
unable to escape the ghosts of his war crimes in
Vietnam. Johnson himself has survived three marriages
(remarried once) and an equal number of sexual assault
scandals, and is still most fondly remembered for his
days as Detective Sonny Crocket on Miami Vice.