Ayk of All Trades
Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actor Dan Aykroyd is set to make
his directorial debut with an as-yet-untitled adventure-comedy
scheduled for Christmas release. The ghostbusting SNL veteran also
will star alongside old pals John Candy and Chevy Chase.
Top Swapper
Don't think you're wigging out if you've just seen the new
romantic comedy Joe Versus the Volcano. It's Meg Ryan who's doing the
top swapping. The perky Ryan dons different combinations of wigs and
contact lenses to play three different characters encountered by a
man (Tom Hanks) who decides to take a trip around the world after
he's diagnosed as terminally ill. The three faces of Meg: DeDe, the mousy, brown-eyed, brunette office clerk;
Angelica, a bratty Beverly Hills redhead with green eyes; and
Patricia, an independent, lovable gray-eyed blond — just like the wigless Meg.
Desperately Seeking Wanna-bes
Disneyland is busy prepping a Dick Tracy-inspired, Broadway-style
stage show for its Videopolis theater to coincide with the movie's
opening in mid-June. According to specifications detailed in a
recent casting call, the extravaganza needs a ''handsome, smart'' male
who ''always does the right thing'' and a ''very strong
singer-dancer-actress'' to play the Dick Tracy-Breathless
Mahoney — Warren Beatty-Madonna — lead couple.
Three Men Again
Those hunky bachelor dads from Three Men and a Baby are teaming up
again in Three Men and a Little Lady. Ted Danson, Tom Selleck, and
Steve Guttenberg will be joined by a 5-year-old girl — as yet
uncast — when shooting starts in April. Dirty Dancing's Emile Artolino
is directing the sequel, scheduled for year-end release.
Translation, Please
Subtitles in an American movie? That's how The Hunt for Red
October begins, with Sean Connery as a Soviet sub commander ordering
his crew about in Russian. Just when audiences probably fear they'll
have to read the entire movie, a skillful switch is made to English.
''I'd love to take credit,'' says director John McTiernan, ''but I
actually stole it from Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg.'' In
that 1961 drama, Maximilian Schell, as a lawyer defending accused
Nazi war criminals starts a courtroom speech in German and finishes
in English.
It's Not a Wonderful Life
As the ''kinder, gentler'' '90s wave good-bye to the greedy,
materialistic '80s, Mel Brooks is following suit by producing,
directing, and starring in the upcoming serio-comedy, Life Stinks.
Brooks plays corrupt billionaire Goddard Bolt (God for short), who
discovers compassion and humanity when forced to live among the
homeless in East L.A.
Purple Reign
The long-range weather forecast for this August calls for sun
mixed with some purple rain. That's when Graffiti Bridge, Prince's
new musical drama, is scheduled to open. Morris Day, Jerome Benton,
and Jill Jones join the diminutive dynamo in a tale about two
feuding nightclub owners.
directorsomething
Fresh from success with Glory, director Edward Zwick
(thirtysomething) plans to adapt Jim Harrison's Legends of the Fallfor his next project. Critically acclaimed poet-novelist Harrison is
suddenly hot — he's coscreenwriter of current Costner-starrer Revenge,
based on his 1979 novella.
