Woodward will star

in 'Honorable Defeat'

New York Times Service

Joanne Woodward, who usually comes up a winner, will star in the movie version of Iris Murdoch's "A Fairly

Honorable Defeat." Peter Ustinov will adapt the novel and will also direct a cast that probably will include Deborah Kerr and four other top-caliber actors. The film will be produced by Paul

Newman and John Foreman.

"A Fairly Honorable Defeat." which keeps several plots spinning simultaneously, has for its central character an evil genius who goes about manipulating the lives of others, including a married couple, a female professor and a pair of homosexual lovers. Filming should begin on location abroad later this year.

But first Ustinov must travel to Mexico, where he will direct Richard Burton as an escaped madman in a black comedy by Stanford Whitmore called "Hammersmith Is Out." Elizabeth Taylor will co-star as a wayout waitress. And Miss Woodward, too. has a pressing daté to star as the bitterly frustrated mother in Paul Zindel's "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds," which starts shooting this summer. Alvin Sargent is now writing the adaptation.

After that, both Joanne and Peter should be in just the right mood for a little madcap Murdoch.