Turner, Wolper set docus

By RAY RICHMOND

Turner Original Prods. (TOP) is going into business with producer David L. Wolper to make a 10-hour documentary series on the historic events that have shaped this century for broadcast on CNN in 1999.

Called "The Greatest Events of the 20th Century," docu will feature a compendium of the modern world's defining moments in advance of the millennium. Series will be produced by the Wolper Organization in association with TOP, with Warner Bros. Intl. TV Distribution handling the project overseas.

Wolper and Robert Guenette serve as producers, with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. consulting on the series.

"David Wolper is one of the great storytellers of the century," said CNN prexy David Kaplan, "and the subject matter he has chosen for this series has the same range and human dimension that made his 'Roots,' 'The Thorn Birds' and 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' such landmark television events."

Coinciding with the U.S. broadcast premiere of "The Greatest Events of the 20th Century," Warner Home Video will make the project available on videocassette, laserdisc and digital videodisc for educational use as well as public sale.

Wolper and his films have won more than 150 awards, including two Oscars, 52 Emmys, five Peabodys and seven Golden Globes.