• Kerkorian wants shares, not cash for stake in MGM
• Gary Sinise booked as novelist for 'Human Stain'
• Author Jerry B Jenkins bows football picture
• Jeff Bridges taker of 'The Giver'
• Deals, Deals… in Sundance
• Robert Altman plugging into Voltage
• Russell Crowe in Fox "Master" plan
• Studios Are Filling Their Pipelines, And Executives Are Opening Their Wallets.
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Gary Sinise booked as novelist for 'Human Stain'

Gary Sinise will star in Miramax Films/Lakeshore Entertainment's "The Human Stain" opposite Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins. The project will begin shooting March 25 on the East Coast.

"Stain" reunites Sinise with Miramax, for whom he worked on "Impostor" and "Reindeer Games."

Directed by Robbie Benton, "Stain" is based on Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Roth's novel of the same name and revolves around an unfairly disgraced light-skinned-black college professor, Coleman Silk (Hopkins), who spent his life passing himself off as Jewish. He also had an affair with Faunia Farley (Kidman), a troubled yet fiercely independent young woman. The story is told through novelist Nathan Zuckerman (Sinise), who investigates Silk's life and death and discovers that the man led a life of dark secrets.

Nicholas Meyer adapted the novel, which is being produced by Lakeshore chairman Tom Rosenberg and president Gary Lucchesi. Scott Steindorff of Village Stone Prods., who brought the book to Lakeshore, also is producing.

Sinise is repped by Endeavor, Brillstein-Grey Management and attorney Mark Gochman. The actor has starred in such features as "Mission to Mars," "The Green Mile," "Snake Eyes," "Apollo 13" and "Forrest Gump."

Author Jerry B Jenkins bows football picture

Jerry B. Jenkins, author of 150 books, including the bestselling Christian series "Left Behind," has formed a film production and distribution company with son Dallas.

 The first film from Jenkins Entertainment is an adaptation of Jenkins' novel "Hometown Legend," an inspirational football drama set in a small town in Alabama.

The movie will begin a platform regional theatrical release in 25-30 theaters in Alabama on Friday and then move into Texas and other states in February and March, according to Jenkins Entertainment distribution supervisor Seth Willenson. Warner Home Video has acquired domestic video and TV rights.

In "Hometown Legend," a struggling town facing the closure of its high school brings back the legendary coach of a once-great football program to reconstruct a team and ultimately resurrect the people's faith in their town. Terry O'Quinn, Lacey Chabert and newcomer Nick Cornish star.

James Anderson made his feature directing debut on the film, with Jerry and Dallas Jenkins on board as executive producer and producer, respectively. Additionally, Dan Haseltine, lead singer of Grammy-winning Christian rock band Jars of Clay, has his first turn as co-composer of the film's music and produced the soundtrack.

Book Description (Buy This Book) The author of the phenomenal Left Behind series and eight New York Times bestselling titles, Jerry B. Jenkins is one of the most widely read and deeply admired novelists of our time.

Athens City, Alabama, has fallen on hard times and the Athens City Crusaders, once a powerhouse high school football team, are in disarray. Former football coach Buster Schuler, who left town following a tragedy during a championship game in 1988, has returned for one last chance to lead the Crusaders to glory. But he soon discovers the challenge is overwhelming. As the Crusaders head for a final confrontation with their most powerful rival, their last drive for victory mirrors the struggles of everyone in Athens City to recapture the heart and soul of their town.  About the Author  Jerry B. Jenkins is a novelist and biographer whose work has appeared in Reader's Digest and Parade and dozens of Christian periodicals. Best known for the forty-million copy bestselling Left Behind series, he has been profiled in TIME, the New York Times, and USA Today, and featured on Good Morning America and Larry King Live. Jerry B. Jenkins and his wife live in Colorado.

Jeff Bridges taker of 'The Giver'

Jeff Bridges will star in and produce through his AsIs Prods. a feature film adaptation of author Lois Lowry's 1994 novel "The Giver" for Walden Media.

RCN Entertainment also is producing the project. There is no writer on board to adapt the Newberry Award-winning novel as of yet.

Described as being in the vein of "1984" and "Brave New World," the book carries the theme of sacrificing humanity for societal stability. It presents a world without pain, pleasure, racial or socioeconomic differences, crime, poverty, sickness, free will or love. In the community, every member has a role, and 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of a wise old man known as the Giver, he gradually discovers the disturbing truth about his world: that its people have chosen to give up their humanity to create a more stable society. They must now struggle against the weight of this hypocrisy.

Bridges' manager Neil Koenigsberg is producing the project with RCN's Orly Wiseman and Nicole Silver. Bridges initially partnered with RCNE to secure film rights to the novel after his daughter brought "Giver" to his attention. Walden senior vp production Alex Schwartz and vp production Perry Moore will oversee the project.

"Just about every school in America has 'The Giver' on its recommended or required reading lists," Walden Media president and co-founder Michael Flaherty said. "We welcome the chance to bring it to audiences of all ages."

"Giver" is the second Walden project to have been the recipient of the Newberry Award, following Louis Sachar's book "Holes," which the company is producing with Phoenix Pictures. Other projects on the company's slate include the pre-Revolutionary War drama "Rebels" and late author C.S. Lewis' seven-part fantasy book series "The Chronicles of Narnia."

Cary Granat, former head of Dimension Films, and billionaire investor Philip Anschutz launched Walden nearly six months ago with plans to create film, TV, new-media and publishing products that marry popular entertainment with education. Bridges, also repped by UTA, most recently starred in "K-PAX" and "The Contender."

Deals, Deals… in Sundance

The brisk buying pace continued at Sundance yesterday as Fine Line Features made its first buy of the festival, taking North American rights to competition title Cherish, while new distributor THINKFilm took North American rights to Gus Van Sant's experimental film Gerry which premiered here at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday. Both deals were closed by Rena Ronson and Cassian Elwes of WMA Independent.

At the same time, Lions Gate Films acquired worldwide rights to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Intacto, the well-received Spanish thriller that has been screening in the World Cinema sidebar this week in Park City.

Cherish - directed by Finn Taylor (Dream With The Fishes) - is a comic thriller about a love-starved animator who is wrongly accused of running over a cop and incarcerated in the electronic bracelet programme for two years. It stars Robin Tunney in the lead role alongside Tim Blake Nelson, Nora Dunn, Liz Phair, Lindsay Crouse and Jason Priestley.

The deal was worth $1m and sources say that Fine Line is eyeing a summer release. Included in the deal is the soundtrack which includes a host of 80s classics from the likes of Soft Cell, Hall & Oates and David Cassidy.

The THINKFilm deal, which was under $1m, was closed with the company's US distribution head Mark Urman, who said that he plans to release Gerry in the autumn.

"I want to give us the luxury of time to prepare people for the experience," he said yesterday. "Some people will get lost in it and some people will tell it to get lost."

Gerry, which was shot last summer in Argentina and Death Valley in the US, stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck as two friends who stray off the path on a wilderness trail and get lost in the desert. With takes lasting up to ten minutes and minimal, improvised dialogue, the film divided audiences at Sundance where it was listed both as a premiere and in the Frontier section.

"I think that it behoves us - and this is one of the most exciting things about the film - to do everything in the spirit of the film, ie nothing normal," said Urman. "The challenge and the fun of it is to ask what do you always do when you release a film and do the opposite."

Urman said that other festival slots are possible so long as the film is screened in the spirit of the film. "People are looking for alternate entertainment experiences," he said. "By the time I get through with it, there'll be a surprising number of people who will invite Gerry home."

Elwes and Ronson arranged the financing for the film - budgeted between $5m and $7m - at Cannes last year, selling Germany, Italy and France to Elie Samaha and Tarak Ben Ammar's Dante Entertainment, Spanish rights to Lauren Film and the rest of the world to Film Four International.

Robert Altman plugging into Voltage

"Gosford Park" director Robert Altman has set his next film, plugging into "Voltage," a satiric comedy based on the Robert Grossbach novel "A Shortage of Engineers."

The project so far has a ensemble cast of Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Bob Balaban, Harry Belafonte, William H. Macy, Tony Shalhoub, Elliott Gould and Liv Tyler.

Published last summer by St. Martin's Press, the Grossbach book is set in 1991 and revolves around an engineering school graduate who goes to work for a defense firm. He's faced with impossible deadlines and specifications, bullying bosses and plenty of harried, quirky, engineer co-workers.

Altman is setting the firm in suburban Long Island, and the tale visits the kind of satirically comedic turf prevalent in films such as "MASH" and "The Player."

Filming will begin in May in New York, with Altman working from an adaptation by Alan Rudolph. "Voltage" doesn't yet have a distributor, but it is unclear whether Altman will seek out such a deal before he begins production on the film.

Russell Crowe in Fox "Master" plan

Russell Crowe is negotiating to star in 20th Century Fox's "Master and Commander," the Peter Weir-directed adaptation of the Patrick O'Brian book series.

After months of on-again, off-again discussions, Crowe appears poised to play Royal Navy Capt. Jack Aubrey, who is given his first command of a British sailing vessel sent to battle. Fox is aiming to shoot the film at Fox Studios Baja, the Mexico studio with the gigantic water tank built to house James Cameron's "Titanic."

The book, which has been adapted by Weir, is as much about the machinations of managing such a wind-powered vessel and its large crew as it is about actually battling French warships and pirates on the high seas.

While Fox has tried for nearly a year to get the Oscar-winning "Gladiator" star to board its period epic, Crowe's availability has been a problem. He seemed unlikely after committing to star as heavyweight boxing legend Jim Braddock in "Cinderella Man," the Lasse Hallstrom-directed film for Universal and Miramax. Sources said that picture might be pushed until next year, with "Master and Commander" setting sail immediately. If that happens, it seems plausible that both Universal and Miramax might partner in the Weir epic. This would facilitate switching pictures and won't hurt Fox.

Even though the Golden Globe-nominated star of "A Beautiful Mind" is as bankable as any leading man, the film's sheer size would likely have led Fox to seek out a risk sharing partner anyway. Crowe would probably follow that film by making his directorial debut on and starring in the Intermedia-based "The Long Green Shore," the WWII tale that is now being adapted by scribe Michael Petroni. He would then don the boxing gloves for "Cinderella Man."

Neither Fox nor Crowe's reps were commenting on "Master and Commander," a film that will be produced by Samuel Goldwyn.

The emergence of New Line's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" as an Oscar contender couldn't have been more of a surprise to Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson's partner both on the trilogy and in the New Zealand house they share with their two young children. The clan's feeling the pressure of sudden fame, even so far removed from Hollywood.

"New Zealand is as cut off and insulated as the Shire, but as a country it's more like a village, and Peter can't go out now without being accosted," Walsh said.

That hasn't been a problem lately, given that the director has been globetrotting endlessly to promote the blockbuster.

"The other day, John Rhys-Davies, who is unrecognizable playing the dwarf Gimli, was on TV without costume and I said to my daughter, 'look who it is.' She said, 'ooh, it's Daddy,' and I thought, 'we'd better get him home here soon."'

Walsh and Jackson are prepared for the heightened expectations of the sequel, though they feel it has a certain advantage over the first.

"We had to give so much backstory last time so that the audience needed to understand Tolkien's tale," she said. "Next one, we can just take off and assume the audience understands."

Timing is everything, and Andy Garcia's high profile performance in "Ocean's Eleven" could not have been better for the two passion projects he's been working on.

After producing and starring in HBO biopic of Arturo Sandoval, Garcia served the same roles on the indie films "The Man From Elysian Fields" and "The Unsaid," the latter of which made its U.S. bow at the Palm Springs Film Festival last week. Helped by his "Ocean's Eleven" performance, "Elysian" got distribution from Samuel Goldwyn Films and Fireworks Pictures before it opened at Sundance. "The Unsaid" is under consideration by several distributors.

But just because Garcia held the screen so well with Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Brad Pitt doesn't mean he's abandoning indies. After turning down "Traffic" because of a scheduling conflict, Garcia was surprised Steven Soderbergh gave him such a high profile role.

Garcia hopes his newfound bankability will help turn around some hard luck suffered on the search for domestic distribution for "The Unsaid," which is playing in foreign territories. A psychological thriller was enough of a hard-sell in that it deals with teen suicide and molestation. The pic's big chance at a showcase came in Toronto, but it had the misfortune of premiering on Sept. 12.

"The saturation of movies made because of the supposed strike last year and the unfortunate incidents of Sept. 11 have thrown the business out of whack and a lot of indie films have fallen into this valley," Garcia said. "But I've got to go where my heart takes me. As an actor, I can't control what is being offered, but you can control what you spend your days doing and trying to achieve. I've got things in my pocket all the time I'm trying to get made."

Studios Are Filling Their Pipelines, And Executives Are Opening Their Wallets.

For the first time in a long while, the film biz is a hive of activity. But you would never know it by looking at the schedule of winter releases.

From now until March, thanks to Olympic fever and awards season, no single title boasts enough across-the-board strength to intimidate anyone. That's a big change from the past few years, when heavyweights like "Scream 3" and "Hannibal" posted huge weekends in February and set the tone for the seasons to follow.

By Darwinian box office law, of course, something has to connect in January and February. Those hits will by definition be sleepers, a notion that will delight anyone still reeling from the binge of hit-and-run bows in recent months.

U.S. audiences will be served platform-release Oscar hopefuls such as "I Am Sam," "Black Hawk Down" and "The Shipping News." Depending on their grosses and award tallies, "In the Bedroom," "Monster's Ball" and "Gosford Park" could also take up a considerable number of screens.

Several are quality pictures; thus their gradual rollouts. But industryites who saw this roster last year and reflexively debate the pictures' merits and demerits at every social gathering will soon be yearning for something new.

The holiday hangover is already so pronounced that when a journo told a studio publicist he was going to "Orange County," she wondered, "Where are they doing an Academy screening? Anaheim?"

The list of January and February titles with commercial thrust is short. Atop it are Disney's "The Count of Monte Cristo," MGM's "Hart's War" and "Rollerball," New Line's "John Q" and Warner Bros.' "Collateral Damage."

There are two reasons for the bleak midwinter: the Winter Olympics, which run Feb. 8-24 in Salt Lake City, and the Feb. 12 Oscar nominations announcement.

The awards angle is understandable. In this wide-open year, who wouldn't want a crack at a slow-burn winner before closing the book on 2001?

The Olympic excuse, though, is a nag of a different color. The last time studios steered clear of the Games was in September 2000, and the posture proved lamentable. By opting for flops like "Duets" and "Woman on Top," distributors held total grosses to anemic levels even as TV ratings for the Games vastly underperformed NBC's sky-high predictions.

As a U.S.-hosted event in a time of war, the 2002 Games are expected to set ratings records. Other networks are ceding that by not scheduling new series against the NBC juggernaut.

Looking back to the last Winter Games (usually a bigger TV draw than the summer edition, incidentally), Hollywood took the same approach it's taking this winter. With "Titanic" dominating every weekend in that first quarter, new entries were limited to the ill-fated likes of "Replacement Killers," "Blues Brothers 2000" and "Sphere."

One surprise hit in the middle of those Nagano Games was "The Wedding Singer," which opened to $21.9 million and launched Adam Sandler's A-list run. It was the ideal combo: a star with an established young male fan base not entranced by figure skating, and a measure of date appeal for Valentine's Day.

This year's muted selection doesn't lack testosterone. But Hollywood appears determined to fulfill its own grim winter prophecy.

Spring is a much rosier story, however. The first three weekends in March boast the Mel Gibson drama "We Were Soldiers," "40 Days and 40 Nights," "The Time Machine," Jodie Foster starrer "The Panic Room," the animated picture "Ice Age," "Clockstoppers" and the Robin Williams-Edward Norton comedy "Death to Smoochy."

The March 22-24 frame figures to serve as a symbolic turning point, as the only picture scheduled that Oscar weekend is the 20th-anniversary "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." Only then, after paying full tribute to the past with statuettes and a theatrical re-release, will the studios finally be ready to start toasting the New Year.