UPDATES...
It must be coming up for summer: projects that have been around
for a couple of years are being dusted down and given a fresh coat
of paint (aka yet another rewrite), while others are the subject
of the usual seasonal musical chairs among the A (and a few B+)
stars who were attached to them last time we mentioned them but
aren't any more. Check back through a few May/June issues from previous
years and you'll find the same thing starts  to
happen whenever Memorial Day is about to dawn in Hollywood.
RKO 281, the story of the making of Citizen
Kane that hovered on Ridley Scott's wish-list for
a year or so - with American History X Oscar nominee
Edward Norton suggested as a possible candidate to play the
young (and, in those days, relatively sprightly) Orson Welles,
has finally transmogrified into an HBO movie.
 So
it won't be Norton. Nor will it be Marlon Brando as William
Randolph Hearst, Madonna as Marion Davies, Dustin
Hoffman as Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz or Meryl
Streep as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper... OK, OK, I
know. But, since no contracts were signed, what was the sense in
them not dreaming? No, it'll be the same screenplay (by John
Logan, inspired by the Oscar-nominated
documentary, The Battle Over Citizen Kane), but with
a slightly lower-key line-up. Still tasty, though. James Cromwell
will play Hearst; John Malkovich will be Mankiewicz; Brenda
Blethyn will take the Hedda Hopper role; and Liev Schreiber
will play Welles.
Production was due to get under way in London as we went to press,
with young British director Ben Ross - featured in Preview
with his indie pic, The Young Poisoner's Handbook
- at the helm.
Having waited three years for the iron to cool, meanwhile, the
first version of the life-story of murdered Irish journalist Veronica
Guerin is finally about to go in front of the cameras.
Within a couple of months of Guerin's murder, apparently at the
hands of a Dublin crime syndicate, on June 26, 1996, two separate
versions of her life were in the pipeline. One was going to be produced
by Jerry Bruckheimer at Disney. The other one was called
Though the Sky Falls, and Guerin herself had been
collaborating on it prior to her death.
The latter is the one that is finally about to roll, with the journalist
being played by Joan Allen (as was originally proposed back
in 1996), alongside Pete Postlethwaite, Patrick Bergin
and Liam Cunningham. The script is by Michael Sheridan;
the director is John Mackenzie; and production was due to
start in late April.
 And
finally, a couple of megamovies - Kevin Costner's Cuban-missile
crisis drama 13 Days and Arnold Schwarzenegger's
medieval epic, Crusade - seem to be back on the rails
again.
13 Days looks likely to be directed by Francis Ford Coppola,
after a brief period which would have seen either Martin Campbell
or Roger Donaldson at the helm came and went in February
(original director Phil Alden Robinson quit over 'creative
differences', as is wont to happen with Costner projects).
And Schwarzenegger has been talking to his almost-namesake, producer
Arnon Milchan, about rescuing his film, which has been put
on hold so many times (the first was so original director Paul
Verhoeven could make Showgirls) that the title
Crusade could well be applied to Arnie's campaign to get
it made.
PLUS...
 File
this under 'Unconfirmed': having worked for the kiddie market for
the first time in his life (albeit only in a vocal capacity) on
Antz, Woody Allen is now likely to team up
with those aforementioned poets of pubescence, the Farrelly Brothers,
on a movie called Stuck on You.
The part lined up for him is that of a Siamese twin who, because
his sibling has the liver, is ageing at a hell of a rate. His other
half will be played by someone like Matt Damon or Jim
Carrey, so you get the picture.
The Farrellys are also involved as producers in a couple of romantic
comedies - Say It Isn't So (the 'It' being the rumour
that the new love of the hero's life is, in fact, his sister), plus
Me, Myself and Irene - and a sports comedy called
Basketcase, starring Denis Leary.
 Last
but not least, although his reputation as high priest of angst took
a bit of a knock with The Idiots, Danish director
Lars von Trier is the last person you'd associate with a
musical. But that's what's next on the cards for him in the form
of Dances in the Dark, which is supposed to shoot
in Iceland some time this year. It stars Catherine Deneuve
and Icelandic singer Björk, and features not only songs but
tap-dancing. Will this be one for your millennial line-up, Monsieur
Jacob?
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