• Better Luck Tomorrow, MTV
• John Edward's Vision On Drama Series
• Kevin Spacey returns to indie state in 'Leland' role
• Michael Douglas, The Up and Comer
• HBO, Bruce Beresford Sailing To Post-Mutiny Pitcairn Island
• The Wrongful Conviction of Albert DeSalvo and the True Story of Eleven Shocking Murders
• The Mission Set For Remake By Intermedia
• Weekend Box-office leaves Boys Lonely.
• International superspy Austin Powers has just lost some of his mojo to James Bond.

Better Luck Tomorrow, MTV

In the first-ever acquisition of an Asian-American film from Sundance, MTV Films has ponied up just under $1 million for North American distribution rights to the controversial drama ``Better Luck Tomorrow.''

The picture sparked heated debate among viewers at its packed Jan. 16 screening in Park City due to its depiction of Asian-Americans as frustrated high school kids in a world that seems to force an overachiever identity upon them.

``Tomorrow'' uses crime film techniques to explore modern identity and cultural issues among some upper-middle-class kids. Directed by Justion Lin, it stars Parry Shen, Jason Tobin, Sung Kang, Roger Fan and Karin Anna Cheung.

Paramount-based MTV Films is currently in theaters with ''Orange County,'' a college comedy starring Jack Black and Colin Hanks. Upcoming is next month's release of the Britney Spears feature ``Crossroads.''

John Edward's Vision On Drama Series

TV psychic John Edward is looking to cross over into yet another dimension through a deal with Studios USA Programming to develop a primetime drama series.

Edward, hot off the success of his syndicated/Sci Fi Channel series "Crossing Over With John Edward," will play a man who wrestles with the ramifications of his psychic gift, leaving a career in medicine to examine his spirituality and how it intersects with the law.

Edward is co-creator of the untitled project, produced through his JECO Prods. banner and Studios USA, also home to "Crossing Over." Edwards' manager/producing partner Gina Rugolo will be a co-executive producer. Studios USA has yet to shop the project to network buyers, nor has a showrunner been attached.

Edward has gained fame as a medium during the past few years on the strength of his television series and best-selling books "One Last Time" and "What If God Were the Sun?" "Crossing Over" was a hit for Sci Fi from its debut in July 2000, and it ranks as the top new strip of the 2001-02 season since it premiered in syndication in August.

The Long Island, N.Y. native maintains that he became aware of his psychic abilities while in his teens. Edward's TV show revolves around his efforts to reunite guests with deceased loved ones who have "crossed over."

Edward and Rugolo were repped in the deal by Endeavor and attorneys Joel McKuin and Marc Chamlin.

Kevin Spacey returns to indie state in 'Leland' role

Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey is going back to his indie roots, taking on a supporting role in his Trigger Street Prods.' "United States of Leland," which first-time helmer Matthew Ryan Hoge is directing from his own script.

MDP Worldwide and Thousand Worlds are co-financing the project, which begins shooting Feb. 4 in Los Angeles.

Additionally, Martin Donovan, Sherilyn Fenn and Ann Magnuson also have signed on to the join the cast, which includes previously announced cast members Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Chris Klein, Jena Malone and Michelle Williams.

"Leland" stars Gosling as 15-year-old Leland, who murders an autistic child and claims that he committed the act out of sadness. Leland is sent to a juvenile facility, where a male teacher named Pearl must unravel the mystery behind his murderous act and sadness while dealing with how the tragic killing affects the families of both the victim and the perpetrator.

Trigger Street's Spacey and Bernie Morris are producing the project with Thousand Words' Palmer West and Jonah Smith. The most recent Trigger Street production that also featured Spacey onscreen was Franchise Films' 1999 feature "The Big Kahuna."

MDP's Mark Damon is executive producing the film, with MDP holding international distribution rights to the piece and Thousand Words taking domestic rights.

Spacey, repped by WMA, manager Joanne Horowitz and attorney Doug Stone, stars onscreen in Miramax's "The Shipping News." He next stars in Universal Pictures' "The Life of David Gale." The actor, who recently appeared onscreen in "K-PAX" has won Oscars for his performances in "American Beauty" and "The Usual Suspects."

Michael Douglas, The Up and Comer

Australian John Polson, who recently helmed ``Swimfan,'' will co-write and direct ``The Up and Comer'' for Michael Douglas' USA Films-based Furthur Films.

He and Howard Roughan will adapt the screenplay from Roughan's eponymous debut novel, published in June.

``Up and Comer'' is a dark comedy about a cutthroat attorney who's enjoying all of the fruits that Gotham has to offer the rich and hip. That changes, however, when a penniless prep-school buddy blows into town and proceeds to blackmail him.

Polson is finishing up ``Swimfan'' (working title) for Furthur and GreeneStreet Films (''In the Bedroom'').

Polson also directed ``Siam Sunset,'' a comedy that premiered in the Official Selection at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and won the audience award in Critics' Week. He began as an actor and was most recently featured in ``Mission: Impossible 2.''

HBO, Bruce Beresford Sailing To Post-Mutiny Pitcairn Island

The British HMS Bounty is embarking on another voyage to the screen with "Pitcairn Island," a telefilm in development at HBO.

The film, which Oscar-nominated writer-director Bruce Beresford is set to direct, focuses on the lives of the Bounty mutineers after the uprising, when they found safe haven on the isolated volcanic island of Pitcairn. The movie will be produced by Gavin Polone's production company Pariah, which also has another project about historic events in the hopper at HBO, a telefilm about the ill-fated 1840s Donner party trek to be directed by John Rubin.

There have been several movies about the Bounty -- starring such Hollywood bigwigs as Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins -- all of which have centered on its 1788 trip to Tahiti, where first mate Fletcher Christian and others found companions, and on the famous onboard mutiny on the way back, led by Christian.

"Pitcairn" picks up the story where most of the other movies ended, with Christian and other sailors returning to Tahiti, taking their Tahitian women and a few Tahitian men and landing on Pitcairn Island in 1790.

During the next 18 years, until an American whaler discovered the island in 1808, envy and animal instincts overtook the tropic island, causing the men to turn against one another. "Pitcairn" will be based on historic books, which describe the "Lord of the Flies"-like events that left eight of the nine mutineers who settled on the island dead, victims of murder or suicide.

Polone, who will executive produce the film, said that today's violent society is what drew him to "Pitcairn," which he said is like a case study that can help us understand the roots of why people become violent toward one another.

In addition, "two of my favorite movies are ' "Breaker" Morant' and 'Black Robe,' so it's like an honor to be able to work with Bruce Beresford," Polone said.

Beresford was nominated for an Oscar for writing "Morant" and directing "Tender Mercies." His directorial credits also include "Double Jeopardy" and "Driving Miss Daisy."

Polone executive produces HBO's comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and executive produced the World War II movie "When Trumpets Fade" for the cable network.

The Wrongful Conviction of Albert DeSalvo and the True Story of Eleven Shocking Murders

Paramount Pictures and producers Gale Anne Hurd and Jesse Beaton have tapped Sid Quashie to adapt Susan Kelly's 1995 book ``The Boston Stranglers,'' with Carl Franklin attached to direct.

The book put forward the notion that the Boston Strangler's infamous crimes were actually committed by multiple killers rather than just the confessed murderer, Albert DeSalvo. Paramount execs hope to have a shooting script by the summer.

Franklin, who recently helmed ``High Crimes,'' also directed ``One True Thing'' and ``Devil in a Blue Dress.''

Quashie has also been hired by HBO and DePasse Entertainment to write ``A Taste of Power,'' based on the 1992 autobiography of former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown.

The Mission Set For Remake By Intermedia

In a high-six-figure deal, Intermedia Films has bought the rights for an English-language remake of ``The Mission,'' the 1999 Hong Kong action film originally directed by Johnny To.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (''The Usual Suspects'') will write the script for what is expected to be a star-driven, big-budget drama.

Pic is about five elite bodyguards who form a tight bond while protecting a key Triad mob boss after an attempted assassination.

Weekend Box-office leaves Boys Lonely.

America's teen-age boys may have been a little lonely this weekend. That's because young girls were busy flocking to ``A Walk to Remember,'' a Warner Bros. romance marking the feature debut for pop singer Mandy Moore.

With an estimated three-day haul of $13.6 million since its Friday bow, the adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' bestselling 1999 rite-of-passage yarn attracted an audience that was 84% female, with 53% of patrons under age 18.

``We're calling it the little movie that could,'' said the film's producer, Denise Di Novi.

Studio marketers hope to expand the film's audience based on favorable notices in exit interviews among older women.

``I've never had exit polls like this in 20 movies,'' Di Novi said.

The marketing campaign has also targeted Christian groups based on the picture's message of love and understanding.

``There's definitely a market for spiritually oriented movies,'' observed David Davis, box office analyst at Houlihan, Lokey, Howard and Zukin. ``And in this the main female character is the daughter of a minister.''

He added that the picture's success bolsters prospects for the upcoming Britney Spears starrer ``Crossroads.'' Paramount will launch the drama Feb. 15 for the long Presidents Day weekend.

Warner Bros. and its co-production partner Pandora evenly split the $10 million production budget for ``Walk,'' and also will divide domestic grosses evenly. Warners also holds distribution rights in some foreign territories.

The solid bow represents a second consecutive January success for director Adam Shankman, following last year's ``The Wedding Planner,'' starring Jennifer Lopez. The romantic comedy opened Jan. 26, 2001, to $13.5 million and ended up with $60.4 million domestically for Sony.

International superspy Austin Powers has just lost some of his mojo to James Bond.

The title of the upcoming third installment of the hit comedy franchise ``Austin Powers in Goldmember,'' has been ruled ''inadmissable'' by the Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA), following a protest by MGM/UA, home of the Bond films.

MGM and Bond producer Danjaq Prods. had claimed that New Line Cinema's Austin Powers title was an unauthorized parody of 1964's ``Goldmember,'' the third film in the Bond franchise.

New Line quietly took down its online promotional sites and began rescinding marketing materials on Friday, a day after the edict was handed down by the MPAA's three-member title administration arbitration panel, but has vowed to appeal.

Until the issue is resolved, New Line said in a statement it would refer to the film as ``the third installment of 'Austin Powers.''' It is scheduled for a July 26 release.

New Line added that ``the issue currently in dispute does not pertain to the title or content of the film. Indeed, in 1997, New Line's use of the title 'The Spy Who Shagged Me' was cleared by the MPAA. Thursday's hearing was solely about a procedural infraction, and nothing more, between New Line and the MPAA, which we are in the process of resolving privately. We find it unproductive and will not tolerate any deliberate attempts to manipulate the facts in the press to further aggravate this matter.''

In case anyone missed the joke, ``Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' echoes the title of the 1977 Bond film ``The Spy Who Loved Me.''

Despite using titles such as ``Octopussy'' themselves, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, its United Artists unit and Danjaq have always been notoriously humor-impaired when it comes to the Bond franchise: they have been known to sic hard-hitting Hollywood litigator Pierce O'Donnell on auto companies that had the temerity to use a well-dressed spy as the subject of a TV ad.

Similarly, MGM and UA would have loved to put a stop to the use of ``The Spy Who Shagged Me,'' but when they registered a protest with the MPAA in 1997, New Line countered the suit and won. This time, New Line apparently failed to go through the proper channels in its counter and, for now at least, does not have the right to use the ``Goldmember'' title.

``MGM/UA and Danjaq have a zero-tolerance policy towards anyone who tries to trade in on the James Bond franchise without authorization,'' an MGM spokesman said Friday.

Given MGM's attitude toward its sacred Bond cow, it's hard to believe that it would see fit to abandon its advantage at this point. New Line could conceivably fight the ruling under fair use in copyright law.

Rappers 2 Live Crew, for example, took their use of the Roy Orbison song ``Pretty Woman'' all the way to the Supreme Court, which then reached the explicit conclusion that a parody falls within the scope of the fair-use defense. It would, however, be impossible to market the film as ``Goldmember'' during that process.

A new title, then? New Line marketing president Russell Schwartz is certainly up to the task, but it would be a brain teaser: ``Goldmember'' is the name of one of four characters that ''Powers'' star Mike Myers portrays in the film.