'The Italian Job' For Edward Norton

Edward Norton will star opposite Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron in Paramount Pictures' "The Italian Job" for director F. Gary Gray and studio-based DeLine Pictures.

A late July or early August start is being planned. The project reunites Norton with Paramount, for whom he made his acting debut in "Primal Fear" and later starred in "The Score." The studio was said to have had an option on Norton and chose to exercise it on "Job."

Scripted by Donna and Wayne Powers, "Job" is a remake of the 1969 Paramount release of the same name starring Michael Caine and Benny Hill. The new version, a reinvention of the action-oriented heist movie, will be set in Italy and Los Angeles.

It stars Wahlberg as Charlie, head of a robbery crew who stages a traffic jam in order to steal back a safe filled with gold that previously had been stolen by a double-crossing associate (Norton). Theron plays Charlie's love interest.

Norton, repped by Endeavor, is currently shooting Disney's "The 25th Hour" for director Spike Lee. He next stars in Universal Pictures' "Red Dragon" and Miramax Films' "Frida."

Pierre David To Produce The Updated 'Born To Kill'

RKO Pictures will remake its 1947 film noir picture "Born to Kill," the story of a greedy young woman who enlists a con artist to murder her wealthy stepsister without realizing he may have an agenda of his own. The original film starred Claire Trevor and Lawrence Tierney and was directed by Robert Wise.

The original 1947 Born To Kill had as working title for was 'Deadlier Than The Male' (from the pulp novel by James Gunn). It's a title that's easily applied to most of the 'black films' of the forties. This was the first and the nastiest of the noirs directed by Robert Wise, who would also give us The Set-Up (1949), The Captive City (1952), and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). Wise came to genre with a background in the Val Lewton horror team and the expressionistic films of Orson Welles, so he was the right tool for the job when it came to film noir.

Veteran producer Pierre David ("Internal Affairs") will produce the updated version, with a script by Richard Dana Smith. Smith and David previously worked together on thrillers "The Stepdaughter" and "The Perfect Wife."

D'Works, Aardman Let It Not Be 'Flushed Away'

Although their project "Tortoise and the Hare" failed to cross the finish line after script troubles, DreamWorks Pictures and Aardman are giving it another go, this time with the claymation comedy "Flushed Away."

The studio has just closed a high-six-figure deal with writing pair Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais to pen the "Flushed" screenplay, which will center on a pampered British rat who accidentally gets flushed from his posh penthouse flat into the slimy London sewers. As he searches for a way home, he falls in love with the sewer and its inhabitants.

Sam Fell will direct the project, with Aardman topper Peter Lord handling producing duties. No voice talent has yet been signed for roles in the project. DreamWorks animation executive Lance Young is overseeing.

The writers, who are well-known British TV writers, have written "The Commitments" and done production work on several films for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, including "Pearl Harbor" and "The Rock." They also wrote "Hogan's Heroes" for Revolution Studios. Clement and LaFrenais are repped by Broder Kurland Webb Uffner and the law firm Weissmann, Wolff, Bergman, Coleman & Silverman.

DreamWorks and Aardman most recently collaborated on the hit claymation pic "Chicken Run." That film, released in 2000, grossed $172 million worldwide.

Alexandra Holden'How to Deal' With Mandy Moore.

Alexandra Holden (Ross' student girlfriend on "Friends") will star in the Mandy Moore vehicle "How to Deal," which begins production June 24.

Holden will play the best pal of Moore, a teen who is surrounded by examples of love gone wrong and decides it doesn't exist.

Two young-adult novels by Sarah Dessen, "That Summer," and "Someone Like You," provided the genesis for the New Line project. Claire Kilner ("Janice Beard: 45 Words Per Minute") will direct.

Holden recently wrapped Disney's "The Hot Chick" opposite Rob Schneider. Her other TV credits include recurring roles in "Once and Again" and "Ally McBeal," which were both recently canceled.

Brendan Fraser In Joe Dante's To Direct 'Looney Tunes' Pic

Brendan Fraser will star in "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," a Warner Bros. blend of animation and live action that begins production July 29 for a November 2003 release. Joe Dante will direct.

Both have experience in the genre: Fraser starred in the 2001 bomb "Monkeybone," while Dante was last in theaters with 1998's "Small Soldiers."

"Back in Action" follows the animated Looney Tunes gang -- including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Taz and Tweety -- through live-action adventures in Hollywood, Las Vegas and Africa as they search for the Fraser character's missing father and the mythical Blue Diamond. It will shoot on soundstages and on location in southern California and Las Vegas, with animation production at the WB animation facilities in Sherman Oaks.

In addition, the studio has committed to producing a series of Looney Tunes shorts that will run in theaters in tandem with high-profile Warners releases. The Warner Bros. Animation unit, headed by president Sander Schwartz, is also producing a new "Baby Looney Tunes" series to premiere this fall on Cartoon Network.

The push to revive the Looney Tunes franchise has been a big part of the expansion of the Warner Bros. Animation unit during the past 18 months since Schwartz signed on as president. The division, which will produce the animation for "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," has stepped up its output with new animated series for the Kids' WB! service; direct-to-video productions, including a fresh "Scooby-Doo" adventure; and more Looney Tunes shorts for the studio's looneytunes.com Web site.

Production on "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" is set to begin July 29 in Southern California and Las Vegas for a November 2003 release. The movie, set in a live-action world in which animated and real characters interact, begins on a studio backlot in Hollywood as the celluloid heroes embark on a comic adventure that takes them from Las Vegas to the jungles of Africa in search of Fraser's character's missing father and a mythical blue diamond.

Larry Doyle wrote the script, which is being produced by Bernie Goldmann and executive produced by Chris DeFaria and Doyle.

"The Looney Tunes are a perfect example of stylish wit that never dates itself," Warner Bros. Pictures president of worldwide production Lorenzo di Bonaventura said. "We're really pleased to welcome Brendan Fraser, with his terrific comedic timing and gift for physical comedy, to the Looney Tunes fold. And it's great to have this series of opportunities to bring Bugs, Daffy and Co. to theatrical audiences in both feature-length and short stories that highlight the humor, action and imagery that made these characters famous."

As for theatrical shorts, the series now in the works will mark the first time since 1961 that the studio has had an in-house division dedicated to Looney Tunes production. Legendary animator Chuck Jones supervised the production of a handful of animated shorts during the past dozen years, including 1990's "Box Office Bunny" and 2000's "Little Go Beep," but those were handled largely outside the studio by Jones and did not receive the promotional and marketing support that the studio plans for the current Looney Tunes initiative.

"It's an exciting and almost frightening thing for us to be working on Looney Tunes," Schwartz said. "The classics are still so popular on TV and through merchandising. The key for us is going to be maintaining the level of writing and wit and timing and all the elements that have made the (Looney Tunes) characters last for so many years."

To handle the increased workload, Warner Bros. Animation has expanded its staff to nearly 400 employees this year, compared with less than 200 in March 2001 when Schwartz joined the studio after a successful stint as head of Columbia TriStar TV's animation unit. Warner Bros. Animation has benefited from the cutbacks in local employment of animators made in recent months by the Walt Disney Co. and Viacom's Nickelodeon. The 21st century version of Termite Terrace is a large complex in Sherman Oaks that was once home to a Robinsons-May department store.

"We've been able to get some really great people. You can only get great product if you have really talented people," Schwartz said.

And Looney Tunes isn't the only archival project that Warner Bros. Animation has its eye on. There's a wealth of characters to be revisited from the Warner Bros.-owned DC Comics library, Schwartz noted.

"There are several thousand characters in the DC library -- many we know, and many we don't know," Schwartz said. "They're just ripe for development."

Not surprisingly, Warner Bros. Animation also is involved in the studio's push to resurrect "Scooby-Doo." It helped provide much of the animation featured in the film that opens this weekend, and it is also producing two feature-length direct-to-video "Scooby-Doo" titles, plus the "What's New Scooby-Doo" series for Kids' WB!

But as much as it looks to the past for inspiration, Warner Bros. Animation also is developing a slew of original properties for the Kids' WB! and Cartoon Network outlets. Among the series in the hopper for Kids' WB! this fall are "Mucha Lucha," a wacky comedy revolving around Mexican pro wrestling, and "Ozzy & Drix," a buddy-cop comedy based on offbeat characters from the studio's 2001 animated feature "Osmosis Jones."

"We've had a tremendous partnership between Kids' WB! and the (Warner Bros. Animation) studio," said Kids' WB! executive vp Donna Friedman, who worked with Schwartz on several shows during his previous tenure at Columbia TriStar. "Sander's coming to the studio brought a whole new energy and spirit to the production. He's got a clear understanding of the kind of diverse, character-driven shows that have made us No. 1 with kids. 'Scooby-Doo,' 'Mucha Lucha' and 'Ozzy & Drix' are all very distinct in their own right, and we're very proud of them."

New Harry Potter II trailer released

A 30-second trailer for the second Harry Potter film has appeared on the internet, giving fans a peak at what to expect in the sequel to last year's record-breaking film.

The teaser for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets opens with a glimpse at Dobby, the mischievous house elf who warns Harry of the danger of returning to Hogwarts for a second term. It then shows Harry and his best friend Ron, in Ron's dad's flying Ford Anglia, avoiding a head on collision with the Hogwart's Express.

The film reunites most of the original cast and also introduces some new characters, including Lucius Malfoy played by Jason Isaacs, Tom Riddle (Christian Coulson) and the new Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, Gilderoy Lockhart, played by Kenneth Branagh.

The full-length trailer for the sequel will be shown in the UK from July 12 when it will run exclusively alongside the new Scooby-Doo film. The Chamber of Secrets opens in the UK on November 15. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the second biggest grossing film of all time.

Television; CBS Will Explore The Rise Of The Third Reich

CBS will explore the rise of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany in an upcoming mini-series based on the best-selling book Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris by historian Ian Kershaw, the network said on Monday.

Producers have received the network's OK to make the four-hour mini-series, titled Hitler, which is slated for broadcast sometime during the 2002-2003 season. The CBS special, like Kershaw's book, will examine Adolf Hitler's ascent to power in the context of the society from which he came.

Ed Gernon, one of the executive producers behind the mini-series, acknowledged that bringing such a story to prime-time television could be risky. "I'd be lying if I said we aren't a bit nervous about attempting the examine one of history's most heinous characters," Gernon said in a statement.

 "But in this age of megalomaniacal terrorism, we feel it is all the more important and relevant." Gernon and fellow executive producer Peter Sussman also shared Emmy nominations for biographical mini-series about singer Judy Garland and 15th-century French heroine Joan of Arc.

"Hubris," along with Kershaw's follow-up bestseller, Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis, is considered one of the definitive biographies of the Nazi dictator.

It was the first to incorporate material from the recently recovered diaries of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. No casting decisions have been announced.

Industry; Investors See Exhibitors as Ticket to Success

As media giants such as Vivendi Universal and AOL Time Warner watch their stocks slide, investors are eying recently bankrupt, much-maligned theater chains as the best -- perhaps only -- way to cash in on the red-hot box office.

With ticket sales brisk, up 20% year-on-year, and a string of promising pictures on the way, it's nearly impossible to translate that uptick into a perky stock portfolio. Hollywood studios -- relatively small parts of firms such as Vivendi, Time Warner, News Corp., Walt Disney, Viacom or Sony -- may make the movies, but they don't offer stock.

There aren't many other pure entertainment plays around. So exhibitors, who spent the last few years swimming in red ink -- and whose profits can be tied to real estate rentals, interest rates and popcorn sales as well as box office revenue -- now are getting top billing. Shares of Regal, AMC and even Carmike are buoyant.

Investors can't feel a "Spider-Man" buzz from holding Sony Corp. stock. But Spidey, "Star Wars," et al., are selling lots of tickets and popcorn at a time when theater chains have restructured, slowing the costly building surge that crushed their business.

"It's ironic, but they may be the best way to play Hollywood," one fund manager said. Regal Entertainment, a huge combination of the Regal, United Artists and Edwards circuits, launched an initial public offering May 9. Demand pushed the offer price above expectations and the stock rose 14% its first day of trading. As of Monday, it was up 16% overall at $22.60.

Analysts at Lehman Bros., CS First Boston and Salomon Bros. have rated Regal, respectively, "strong buy," "buy" and "outperform." All were part of the banking consortium that underwrote the IPO. Analyst David Menlow of IPO Financial made Regal his pick of the week.

Carmike Cinemas recently was listed on the Nasdaq market with a new stock symbol and closed at $25.99, up 85% from a 52-week low of $14.25. It previously traded over the counter as it waded out of bankruptcy. Carmike announced plans Friday to sell 2.5 million more shares.

AMC Entertainment, one of the few chains to avoid Chapter 11, has seen its shares rise 67% from its 52-week low, closing at $13.70 Monday.

Entertainment Properties Trust, a movie theater REIT (real estate investment trust), also has seen its stock jump this year.

Cinemark plans to go public in July. Loews Cineplex, which was delisted and filed for bankruptcy last year, is likely to seek another public offering.

Amidst the hoopla, Wall Streeters still urge caution. Analysts warn many exhibitors still carry heavy debt loads and remain dependent on a fickle box office. Despite the heft that's come with rapid consolidation -- Regal controls 5,900 screens, nearly 17% of the U.S. total -- chains haven't made much headway negotiating more favorable revenue splits with studios, which take the bulk of box office receipts in the first few weeks of a movie's release.

"They haven't gotten the balance of power back. I'm surprised, they've got so much control," one Wall Streeter said.

Industry; Less Studio Interference And A Cut In Stars' Fees Is Being Demanded In Hollywood

Some of F Scott Fitzgerald's most entertaining work is contained in the Pat Hobby stories, the tales of a Hollywood hack writer down on his uppers in the innocent days before uppers meant what they do now. They were first published at the start of the second world war, but they have a strange topicality as was shown by events that took place in LA last weekend.

In one of the stories, Pat Hobby's Preview, our hero tries to impress a young woman who has got lost while on a tour of a studio. Having informed the young woman that he is a writer, Hobby is somewhat taken aback by her response: "A writer?...Oh, of course. I knew they had to have writers but I guess I never heard about one before."

Hobby tells her: "Writers are some of the biggest shots in Hollywood. Bernard Shaw was out here - and Einstein, but they couldn't make the grade."

Last weekend, some of Hollywood's finest writers gathered at the Universal Hilton for an event called Confab, sponsored by the Writers Guild Foundation to air their many grievances about the way the film industry is going. Among the commonest complaints were those of interference by studio executives only concerned about how much a film might be grossing.

One of the finest of scriptwriters, Robert Towne (Chinatown, Shampoo, The Last Detail, Mission: Impossible) told the meeting that a few decades ago, when he was making his first movies, a deal with a writer could be hammered out in 60 seconds or so. Now too much time and energy went into negotiating such a deal. "Everyone has conspired to attenuate the process so it makes everyone think the emphasis is on the deal and not the movie," Towne said.

Screenwriters, actors and directors increasingly complain about the proliferation of executives who know little about film but much about finance. While making money was always a function of the studios, the feeling now is that at least in the old days many of the autocratic studio heads did love film and wanted to be associated with great movies rather than just great profits.

The gathering produced some interesting suggestions, even if they were mostly as close to fantasy as a Disney plot line. One suggestion was that stars' fees should be cut on the grounds that paying $20m to an actor for a film takes control of that film away from the director.

Another suggestion was to stop the reporting of opening weekend box office gross figures, one of the media rituals of the entertainment industry through which films are often judged a success or failure.

For instance, yesterday's lead story in Variety, the industry daily newspaper, read: "Sum Nukes Ya-Ya: Par thriller holds off chick pic to lead BO." (Sum is the new Morgan Freeman/Ben Affleck film, The Sum of All Fears, Ya-Ya is another new film, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Par is Paramount studios, BO is box office.)

A film without a lot of promotional money behind it often seems to disappear in such lists when compared to the big budget numbers which top the box office returns. And a final suggestion was that at least one senior executive at a studio should be a writer or director. Now that's something Pat Hobby could well agree on.

In another of the stories, A Man in the Way, Hobby is being asked by studio executives to come up with some good storylines about the war. He thinks for a moment and tells them: "A man can think better on salary." Even Bernard Shaw and Einstein would agree on that. (Duncan Campbell)