Elsewhere in this issue (see page 11), Harrison Ford talks about how he sometimes likes to play against type - or at any rate against the type he reckons his audience thinks he belongs to. Well, it looks as though it may be happening again.

The actor has so far played maverick CIA man Jack Ryan in two highly successful films, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, although he was not in fact the first to take the role: in The Hunt for Red October, Ryan was played by Alec Baldwin. Ford has become closely associated with Ryan in the public mind (and with the profitability of the franchise in the studio’s), but has declined to sign up for a third time. In fact, it looks as though the role will be played in the movie version of the latest Tom Clancy adaptation, The Sum of All Fears, by Ben Affleck, an actor almost 30 years Ford’s junior.

The new film tells the story of a group of terrorists who plan to bomb the Superbowl with a nuclear device in the hope of triggering a war with Russia - standard Clancy stuff, in other words, suggesting that the writer sees little difference between the former USSR and the present CIS.

Plans were well apparently advanced for Phil Noyce - who directed the first two Ryan movies - to do the third, and the script had already been specifically tailored for Ford when the actor decided against doing it. Obviously a little rewriting will be necessary - if, that is, Paramount reaches a deal with Affleck to make the movie.

Noyce, meanwhile, is about to start shooting his first Australian film in 12 years: Rabbit-Proof Fence, the story of three Aboriginal girls - forcibly separated from their parents as part of Government policies in thirties Australia - who escape and set out on the 1,500-mile trek home. The two lead roles will be played by Aboriginal actresses and ace Aussie cinematographer (and Hong Kong resident) Chris Doyle will shoot.

DOING HIS THONG

HAVING ACHIEVED WORLDWIDE stardom with ‘The Thong Song’, the silver-haired Sisqo is planning to try out his talents on the big screen. He is scheduled to play a leading role - although not the lead - in Miramax’s Getting Over Alison, a romantic comedy which Tommy O’Haver -(whose last behind-the-camera outing was the gay flick Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss) is due to direct.

Sisqo, who hosts his own MTV show in the US, will play the best friend of the male lead, a high-school basketball star (played by Ben Foster) who decides to drop out of the team and sign up for the school Shakespeare production because his girlfriend (Kirsten Dunst) has left him to appear in the play. The singer is apparently so serious about taking the part that he has chosen it over a scheduled tour with ’N Sync.

SEVIGNY RISING

IT LOOKS AS though Chloë Sevigny, who has become an icon of the US indie scene, is finally going mainstream. Having first attracted public notice in Larry Clark’s Kids, she segued into Boys Don’t Cry (for which she got an Oscar nomination) and then American Psycho, playing Christian Bale’s secretary.

The Oscar nomination apparently brought with it (surprise, surprise) a flood of offers. But the one Sevigny has finally opted for is a WWII drama called Uprising, about the Warsaw Ghetto revolt of 1943. Written by Paul Brickman, the film is expected to go into production towards the end of the year. It is due to be directed by Jon Avnet, who will also produce alongside Raffaella De Laurentiis.