PUCK EVERLASTING Dennis Quaid reignited his career with The Rookie, and now Kurt Russell has his own feel-good Disney sports movie. He's in Vancouver to shoot Miracle, in which he plays Herb Brooks, coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, whose Cold War-era underdog win against the Soviets became the story of the decade. For homework, Russell met with the real-life Brooks. ''He's a very inventive, creative hockey mind in a very disciplined, tough Midwestern body,'' Russell says. ''Ultimately he reeks of that thing that is indefinable -- he's a winner.'' Directed by Gavin O'Connor (Tumbleweeds), the movie also stars 2003 Sundance prizewinner Patricia Clarkson as Russell's wife. ''You know working every day with Kurt Russell is going to be a good thing,'' she says. ''I'll make the sacrifice.''
SLEUTH ACHE While working on the police drama Dark Blue (opening Feb. 21) -- also starring Russell -- director Ron Shelton chatted regularly with his technical adviser, retired L.A. detective Robert Souza. ''By the end, I [thought], There's a movie to be made about the sometimes comically absurd lives of these career Hollywood homicide detectives.'' Thus Hollywood Homicide, Shelton's police action-comedy, starring Josh Hartnett -- and, in a return to his lighter side, Harrison Ford. ''In a certain way, it's the twinkle of the guy of Indiana Jones,'' Shelton says. ''It's about a veteran detective, and Harrison is a veteran movie star. I gave him an opportunity to let some of the flaws and wrinkles show.''
FURTHERMORE Michael Cunningham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours, has just adapted his first novel, A Home at the End of the World, which theater director Michael Mayer (Thoroughly Modern Millie) will start shooting in May with Colin Farrell.
