News and Notes

Riders on the Storm
Val Kilmer is getting ready to slide into a pair of black leather pants for his role as Jim Morrison in director Oliver Stone's upcoming film about the late rock legend. The Lizard King's on-screen entourage will include L.A. woman Meg Ryan along with Kyle MacLachlan and Kevin Dillon as fellow Doors Ray Manzarek (keyboards) and John Densmore (drums).

Wedding Party
Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Madeline Kahn are dressing up for actor-director Alan Alda's offbeat comedy, Betsy's Wedding. The ceremony is scheduled for May.

Boffo Hoffa
David Mamet (The Untouchables) is writing a biopic of vanished and presumed dead former Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa for 20th Century Fox. Casting commitments have yet to be set in cement.

Bette and Allen
Talk about an odd couple. Woody Allen, in a rare acting-only appearance, and Bette Midler play husband and wife in director Paul Mazursky's upcoming Scenes From a Mall

Hollywood and Wall
Deceit, greed, petty jealousy, antisocial behavior, late-night intrigue — sure sounds like the makings of a down-and-dirty drama. Well, sort of. It's actually the story of the biggest leveraged buyout in U.S. history. Producer Ray Stark (Steel Magnolias) has acquired the rights to current best-seller Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco and is banking that '80s Wall Street pirates will still have sex appeal next year when he attempts a friendly takeover in theaters.

No Kidding
Those new kids at Columbia, Peter Guber and Jon Peters, have signed the hot New Kids on the Block for their first feature film.

Till Death Do Us Part
Always costars Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter may be taking Steven Spielberg's eternal love theme a bit too seriously. The romantic screen tandem is encoring in director Lasse Hallstrom's (My Life as a Dog) lighthearted Once Around, now in production.

Bait and Switch
If you've seen the trailer for Saturday Night Live regular Dana Carvey's new movie, Opportunity Knocks, you might think his famous Church Lady character will be making her screen debut. Nope, her presence in the coming attractions is just part of an ''audience awareness'' strategy devised by Imagine Film Entertainment, Universal, and Satan to sell the very talented but not very recognizable Carvey.

A Matter of Seconds
What's the difference between an X and an R rating? For Nightbreed, it turned out to be 4 1/2 seconds. No scenes were lost, just the length of some shots. ''A knife goes into somebody's chest,'' director Clive Barker says, ''and you trim a few frames of the insertion.''

Raging Bullhorn
Working both sides of the camera seems to be the latest fad in Hollywood — Kevin Costner, Jack Nicholson, and Warren Beatty all have directed themselves in movies scheduled for release later this year. Now Robert De Niro is getting into the act with Tales of the Bronx based on an Off Broadway play. Look for his directorial debut next year.

Roger's Re-Toon
Disney's wacky rabbit returns in a brand-new, five-minute toon, Rollercoaster Rabbit set to share the bill this summer with Dick Tracy.

Time Warp, Again
At long last, a sequel to the 1975 transvestite rock & roll cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show is in the works. British composer-director Richard O'Brien is behind the musical encore, provisionally titled Revenge of the Old Queen.

More Than Zero
Thomas Sanchez is adapting his critically acclaimed best-seller Mile Zero the, story of colliding cultures and cocaine set in Key West, for the screen. Due out in 1991.