Toomorrow (film)

Toomorrow
Original UK quad poster
Directed by	Val Guest
Produced by	Don Kirshner Harry Saltzman
Written by	Val Guest
Starring	Olivia Newton-John Benny Thomas Vic Cooper Karl Chambers Roy Dotrice
Music by	Ritchie Adams Mark Barkan Hugo Montenegro
Cinematography	Dick Bush
Edited by	Julien Caunter Alan Osbiston
Production company	Lowndes Productions Limited
Distributed by	Rank Organization
Release date	27 August 1970
Running time	95 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Toomorrow is a 1970 British musical film starring Olivia Newton-John, and directed by Val Guest.

A group of students pay their way through school by forming a pop band called Toomorrow; sonic vibrations from a special instrument called a "tonaliser" cause an extraterrestrial to abduct the group, and have them entertain the Alphoid population. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) this movie is based on the 1967 film The Gang.

James Bond film producer Harry Saltzman entered into a three-picture deal with Don Kirshner. Kirshner had been the initial producer of the musical output from The Monkees. However, according to director Val Guest, Kirshner and Saltzman grew to loathe each other during the increasingly troubled production.

Saltzman hired novelist David Benedictus to write the script, but after 30 pages neither Saltzman nor director Val Guest felt it was working. Guest concedes that it was "very well written, but a little bit too 'high-faluting'." Saltzman advised Guest to write a new script. However, unbeknownst to Guest, Saltzman never informed Benedictus. Only during production did Benedictus learn that a new script had been commissioned.

Guest had been working on the film for six months beyond the time specified for in his contract and still hadn't been paid, nor had anyone else who worked on the film. Saltzman didn't have the money nor did his company "Sweet Music" which was in Switzerland. Guest waited until after the film's premiere at the London Pavilion to obtain an injunction. The film could not be shown until Guest and the other people who worked on the film were paid. According to Guest in 1994, he still had not been paid and the injunction was still in effect.

As a result, the film, which took about two years to make, was shown (in the London Pavilion, then a cinema) for only one week, then was shelved. Aside from isolated showings in the British forces cinemas during 1971 and early 1972 on British military bases, and one showing in Los Angeles in 2000 (see below), Toomorrow was not seen in public for over four decades.

In a March 1971 edition of the British music magazine, NME, Newton-John commented "Our film died a death and it was all a bit of a shambles. But it was a good experience".