News & Notes

MODERN GUY
Irish actor-director Kenneth Branagh won critical acclaim last year for his Shakespearean saga Henry V, but it looks like he's tired of remaking history. Production sources say his next project, Dead Again, will be a contemporary romantic thriller set in Los Angeles. The movie will feature Branagh's wife, Emma Thompson (The Tall Guy), as an enigmatic woman who becomes the subject of a private eye's relentless investigation. As her past unravels, Branagh — who plays the detective in additton to directing — finds himself immersed in a legendary murder case. Also set to star in the film are Andy Garcia and Hanna Schygulla. The project, which went into production on October 1, is tentatively scheduled for a fall '91 release.

EDGE OF ENDEARMENT
It looks like the stars of Postcards From the Edge are leading the pack of this year's Best Actress Oscar probables. But when the Meryl Streep-Shirley MacLaine hit was originally cast, industry insiders didn't expect the news on this Postcard to be so upbeat. They were remembering the last time Old Hollywood met New — when veteran MacLaine went head to head with then newcomer Debra Winger on the set of Terms of Endearment — and were predicting more skirmishes. Well, they were wrong. ''Meryl is a genius,'' gushes MacLaine. ''You don't say her name in the same breath as Debra Winger's. Or mine. She's got a whole other thing going there. It's more akin to channeling than anything else. It's awesome.''

PAGE TURNER
In Romancing the Stone Kathleen Turner played a romance novelist accidently thrown into a world of intrigue. It's a role she must have liked, because the actress has signed a contract with Disney Studios' new division, Hollywood Pictures, to play fictional detective V.I.Warshawski in a series of movies. The character, created by Chicago author Sara Paretsky, is a tough, feminine sleuth, and Paretsky has filled six books with her adventures, including Blood Shot and Burn Marks. Turner's first movie installment, Warshawski, goes into production in November under the direction of Jeff Kanew (Revenge of the Nerds), and is scheduled for an August '91 release. What does Paretsky think of this casting coup? ''If you love a book, you see yourself as the lead character, so a movie can be disappointing,'' she says. ''Turner doesn't look like the hazy character I envision when I write, but I like that under her soft good looks, there's a sexy gleam that captures the spirit of the character.'' Paretsky, who doesn't plan to write any of the screenplays, sold the rights to the character in 1985 — when the author was less famous — for the small sum of $350,000. ''It enabled me to write full time,'' she says. ''You can't look back.''

BROADWAY BUNNY
Guess who's running hard for the title ''Broadway's hottest ticket'' these days. Phantom? Les Mis? No, it's Bugs Bunny on Broadway, eight classic Warner Bros. cartoons accompanied by a live 50-piece orchestra. The show, which opened to sell-out crowds on Oct. 3, includes What's Opera, Doc?, The Rabbit of Seville, and other Bugs bits. ''I can't believe the audience is reacting to Bugs like a live presence,'' says conductor-producer George Daugherty. ''When he says 'Of course you know this means war,' New York audiences go berserk.'' Bugs will play the Great White Way until Oct. 21, and in 1991 the show will embark on a national tour, including one-week engagements in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Detroit in an extended rabbit run.

BLUE TOON
Are you tired of hippos in pink tutus prancing across your neighborhood movie screen? Seen enough of Mickey Mouse's animated mug? Bruno Bozzetto's Allegro Non Troppo, an adult-oriented parody of Disney's 50-year-old Fantasia, is returning to theaters alongside its recently recycled target. First released in 1976, this striking synthesis of live-action slapstick and vibrant animation features a horny old Satyr searching in vain for a willing faun and a revised Adam and Eve sketch, among other risqué numbers. Appropriately, the classical soundtrack, which incl inclcompositions by Debussy, Sibelius, Vivaldi, and Dvorak, grooves hardest on Ravel's ''Bolero.''
— Additional reporting by Jess Cagle and Christopher Henrikson