Will Rokos to pen "Billy Liar"

Artisan Pictures has tapped Oscar-nominated scribe Will Rokos to pen "Billy Liar," an updated remake of the 1963 John Schlesinger film. "Billy Liar" is the story of a man who escapes his dull small-town world by creating a rich fantasy life that inspires him to lie to everyone -- including two women who each believe they're engaged to him.

It was first a bestselling novel written by Keith Waterhouse in 1959. It was then adapted as a play by Willis Hall and Waterhouse, who later collaborated on the screenplay. The property also inspired a 1973 U.K. television series that ran for one season. 

Billy Liar
"One of the great movies of the 1960's! Brilliant comedy! Pure ambrosia!"
—A.O. SCOTT, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Named one of the 100 Greatest British Films of the 20th century in a recent poll, Billy Liar is a landmark of the early 60s "New Wave" of British Cinema. In one of his most memorable performances, Tom Courtenay (Doctor Zhivago, The Dresser) plays Billy Fisher, a Walter Mitty-like daydreamer stuck in a dead end job in a funerla parlor, but in his rich fantasy life he's everything froma best-selling author to dictator of "Ambrosia." Stringing along two fiancées and spinning lie after lie, Billy's wish to escape his small town life becomes a possibility when he meets Liz, a free-spirited icon of rebellion, played by the dazzling Julie Christie (Doctor Zhivago, Darling in the role that catapulted her to stardom. Click here for more classic's every industry professional want to watch

Rokos penned "Monster's Ball" with Milo Addica; they are nominated for an Academy Award and an Independent Spirit Award for their original script.

Director F. Gary Gray Accepts Italian Job

F. Gary Gray ("Friday") has signed a seven-figure deal to direct a remake of "The Italian Job," the 1969 heist movie that starred Michael Caine, Noel Coward and Benny Hill.

The Paramount Pictures project is slated to start production July 22 for a planned summer 2003 release.

The original picture told the story of a bungled, high-risk heist undertaken in Italy under the nose of the Mafia. It boasted one of the most famous celluloid car chases, featuring a Mini Cooper, two Jaguars and a bus, as Caine's character Charlie Croker brought traffic to a standstill in Turin attempting to steal the gold and escape.

Though executives were unwilling to unveil plot twists in the new version, the feature will start in Italy and wind up in Los Angeles.

Gray most recently directed New Line's upcoming "Diablo," starring Vin Diesel, Larenz Tate and Timothy Olyphant. Other directing credits include "The Negotiator" and "Set It Off."

David Koepp  to write, direct The Secret Window

After writing two highly anticipated projects for Columbia Pictures -- "Panic Room" and "Spider-Man" -- David Koepp is teaming with the studio on another project. He will write and direct "The Secret Window," based on a Stephen King novella that the studio optioned for "Panic" producer Gavin Polone and his studio-based Pariah.

The project will mark Koepp's third outing as a director, following "A Stir of Echoes" and "The Trigger Effect," both of which he wrote.

"Window" is about a writer going through a painful divorce who is stalked by a psychotic stranger claiming that the writer stole his story.

Columbia executive vp production Matt Tolmach is overseeing the project reporting to production president Peter Schlessel. The duo said they are fans of Koepp's "Echoes" and had been wanting to find a vehicle for Koepp to direct at the studio.

"This is great material for an adaptation," Tolmach said. "We gave it to David, and he said he wanted to write and direct it."

Said Schlessel: "Both Matt and I believe in his potential as a director. He is one of the best writers in the business. 'Secret Window' is an intelligent psychological thriller, and we think this is something David will be great at."

Koepp, who also produced "Panic," has written such high-profile projects as the first two installments of the "Jurassic Park" franchise, "Mission: Impossible," "Snake Eyes" and "Carlito's Way

Love Actually, Richard Curtis' directing debut

Working Title Films and National Lottery franchise DNA Films have teamed to produce leading UK writer Richard Curtis' directing debut, a romantic comedy in which Hugh Grant is to play the British prime minister.

Grant is in talks to play a bachelor PM who falls in love on his first day in office with the girl who brings him his tea. Emma Thompson is also understood to be in talks to star in the film, which has the working title of Love Actually.

The film interweaves ten separate stories about Londoners looking for love in the run-up to Christmas, climaxing on Christmas Eve. Shooting is scheduled for the autumn.

"I know Richard will make an excellent front-seat director!" said producer and DNA Films co-chief Duncan Kenworthy. "And with 20 leading roles in the film, it will be exciting to work with a really wide range of talented British actors."

Having first teamed with Curtis on Four Weddings And A Funeral, Kenworthy went on to produce Curtis' Notting Hill, also with Hugh Grant, outside DNA. The franchise takes an in association credit on Love Actually, but is not investing in the production.

Working Title co-chiefs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are also producing, making this their sixth film with Curtis. Along with Notting Hill and Four Weddings, Working Title collaborated with Curtis on Bean, The Tall Guy and Bridget Jones's Diary.

"We are excited about Richard channelling his comic brilliance into directing the same way he does into scripts," said Bevan. "Let's hope there's fun in store," added Curtis.

Mister Blandings Builds His Dream House, With Steve Carr To Direct For RKO

 Steve Carr has signed on to direct a modern-day remake of the 1948 comedy feature "Mister Blandings Builds His Dream House" for Ted Hartley's RKO Pictures.

"Blandings," from the RKO Pictures library, was originally directed by H.C. Potter and starred Cary Grant and Myrna Loy as Jim and Muriel Blandings, a couple who live in a New York apartment and decide to move to the country and build a home, a task that proves much easier said than done.

Melvin Frank and Norman Panama wrote the original screenplay, which earned the duo a Writers Guild of America Award nomination in 1949. There is no screenwriter on board yet to write the remake.

Hartley will produce the project. Carr's manager, Aaron Ray of Nine Yards Entertainment, will executive produce. Carr's producing partner Heidi Santelli also will receive producing credit. RKO development vp Peter Morgan will oversee the project alongside creative executive Rachel Murray.

" 'Blandings' represents one of the crown jewels of the RKO library," Hartley said. "We are very excited to be working with Steve on this picture as he shares our excitement and enthusiasm for the project."

In an interview, Carr said: "For someone who really loves movies, to be able to be part of reinventing a Cary Grant classic is very exciting to me. To be in business with RKO, who made 'Citizen Kane' and 'King Kong,' is an amazing opportunity. They've really embraced me over there."

Carr, also repped by CAA, made his feature directorial debut on New Line Cinema's "Next Friday." He followed that up last year with the boxoffice success "Dr. Dolittle 2." He is also developing the Spyglass Entertainment comedy "Balls of Fury" and Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies' "Gateway to the Gods"

Ron Howard Ready to Mess with Texas

Oscar-nominated director Ron Howard ("A Beautiful Mind") is scouting Texas locations for a film about the Alamo, and he vows that his version will deal with many of the historical complexities -- including the Mexican point of view -- that were glossed over in John Wayne's eponymous 1960 film.

 Howard held a press confab here Monday, discussing the project with Texas Gov. Rick Perry before a portrait of Sam Houston in the Governor's Mansion.

Also to be dealt with would be Alamo heroes William Barret Travis' serial marital infidelities, Jim Bowie's slave trading and Davy Crockett's overall political incorrectness.

"I believe audiences are ready to embrace the complexities of the film, but it still boils down to heroism," Howard said. "The simplistic approach is not appropriate and it's not interesting. We know there will be limitations and controversies."

Previous reports have had filming of a John Sayles-penned script beginning as early as this summer near Austin and in North Carolina.

But Tom Copeland, director of the Texas Film Commission, said it might be fall before filming could begin, because of the massive sets that would need to be constructed.

And Howard said he still has to convince studios to shoot in Texas, not Canada. Howard and business partner Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment are based at Universal, but it occasionally makes films for other studios, such as the Disney thriller "Ransom."

"It wouldn't quite make sense to make it anywhere else," said Howard, who added that actor Russell Crowe suggested he discuss the project with Perry.

Australian Crowe has become an honorary Texan himself. "Texas" is the name of the documentary about Crowe's band, 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts. The picture, which follows the band's performance at an Austin club, screened at last week's SXSW Film Festival. The band also performed at the birthday party of Perry's daughter.

Copeland said it would be a major blow if the legend of Texas were filmed elsewhere, particularly if it falls victim to the filming incentives and devalued Canadian dollar that have sent so many U.S. productions across the border.

"We're just pleased they're here and considering it as strongly as they are," Copeland told reporters huddled in the Governor's Mansion entrance -- just a few feet from a massive painting of the Alamo battle in which Crockett wields a rifle butt as a weapon against the attacking Mexican Army.

David Hasselhoff is getting ready to make some Knight moves again.

Revolution Studios is gearing up to revive Knight Rider--NBC's cult hit 1980's action series featuring Hasselhoff as the titular crimefighter aided by his trusty talking Trans Am K.I.T.T.--for a potential big-screen franchise.

Hasselhoff is on board to executive produce the flick with series creator Glen Larson. There's no word yet what kind of screen time, if any, Hasselhoff will have.

Hasselhoff has been trying to jumpstart the project for a while. Last September, he told E! Online, "I'm really excited about it. We're working hard to get it off the ground."

When Hasselhoff first started shopping the new Knight Rider around, it was reported that his character, Michael Knight, would be a supporting player, acting as mentor to a new generation of younger (and presumably hotter) operatives. A Revolution spokesperson, however, says the story still needs to be hashed out and the stars need to be cast.

"Right now we just bought the pitch, and no script has been written, so [Hasselhoff's] involvement or what he's gonna do is up in the air," said the spokeswoman. "But once we get the other cast down then we'll kind of work the script around him."

Larson is currently hammering out a script that will update Knight Rider to appeal to The Fast and the Furious set.

"It's going to be a big action film," says the Revolution rep. "[Larson] is going to write the script but obviously it's not a remake of the TV show."

To that end, the studio plans to overhaul the black Trans Am (originally voiced by St. Elsewhere star and former Screen Actors Guild president William Daniels) and refurbish the story to appeal to a more high-octane, teen-male market.

"There will be a lot of gadgets and a lot of toys [in K.I.T.T.]," the studio spokesperson adds. In the original series, the souped-up sports car was equipped with enough options to make a car salesman drool and James Bond jealous. The Trans Am could travel upwards of 300 miles per hour and used its turbo boost to jump through the air. It also had infrared X-ray, audio-video recording capabilities, mircrowave jamming, chemical and blood analyzers, ejection seats, oil jets, a smokescreen, flame thrower and a grappling hook.

The original Knight Rider featured Hasselhoff as a young undercover cop who, after getting shot in the face, is recruited by a dying billionaire's secret Foundation for Law and Government to battle the baddies. He gets a new identity via plastic surgery, a new name and a new ride. Hasselhoff and his garrulous car entertained audiences for four seasons before NBC axed the show in 1986.

It wasn't exactly the end of the line for Hasselhoff, who not only became a hit singer in Germany but also produced and starred in Baywatch, for a time the most popular TV show on the planet.

While there's no Baywatch feature in sight (gasp!), a TV reunion featuring Hasselhoff's hunky lifeguard Mitch and other Baywatch hardbodies is in the works.

As for Knight Rider, Revolution will coproduce the movie with Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray of Mayhem Pictures, the partners behind Disney's upcoming Dennis Quaid baseball drama, The Rookie, and Sony's spring teen flick The New Guy.

Hasselhoff & Co. hope to get the new Knight Rider up and running on the big screen by 2004.

EMI Recording Unit Cuts 1,800 Jobs

EMI Group is cutting nearly 1,800 jobs in its recorded music unit that has struggled in a depressed music market. The cuts represent about 19 percent of the division's work force.

EMI chairman Eric Nicoli said the restructuring of EMI Recorded Music would put the company "back on a growth track" and "will transform the performance of this part of our business."

EMI has 70 labels and 1,500 artists, including The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Lenny Kravitz, Janet Jackson, Garth Brooks and Pink Floyd.

In January, EMI's Virgin Records said it would pay singer Mariah Carey $28 million to end their contract, which was to last for several albums to the tune of $100 million.

EMI aims to achieve most of the job cuts by the end of this month and the entire amount by the end of September.

It said the cuts represent the total of a process of contraction which began in April 2001, when EMI Recorded Music had 9,388 employees. By September, total employment will be 7,600.

The cash saved will be invested in restructuring the music division, whose lagging performance has led EMI to issue two profit warnings in the past six months.

EMI Recorded Music operates in 58 countries, and the company did not immediately say how the job cuts would affect each nation.

EMI shares were down 1.4 percent in trading on the London Stock Exchange.

The company said it was taking an exceptional charge of 110 million pounds ($153 million) for the reorganization of EMI Recorded Music, and it will take an additional charge of 92 million pounds ($131 million) to write off loss-making investments and other assets.

That's in addition to the 38 million pounds ($54 million) charge in conncetion with the Carey contract buyout.

The company announced last month that its profit before tax, amortization and one-time items in the year ending March 31 would be about 150 million pounds ($215 million), compared with market estimates ranging from 160 million pounds to 207 million pounds ($229 million to $296 million).

The company attributed the disappointing results to declining sales of recorded music, adverse exchange rates and some specific one-time costs.

Last week EMI announced it was closing its compact disc manufacturing plant in Swindon, western England and transferring production to its other European operation in the Netherlands. The Swindon plant employs 192 people.

New Oscar may be curse for animation

For the first time in its 74-year history, the Academy Awards will hand out an Oscar on Sunday for best animated film -- a new category seen as a potential curse by some industry insiders.

"I think it's an honor but I also think that it unfortunately runs the risk of ghettoizing animated films," says Steven Hulett, an official of the American Animation Institute.

"I think animated films should be in the running for best picture not just best animated picture, as we don't have best western, best mystery, best comedy, best drama."

Animated films have in the past received Oscars, starting in 1938 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first-ever feature length cartoon film.

The honorary Oscar that went to Walt Disney included one normal size statuette plus seven miniatures ones.

Since 1933, the Academy has also been awarding an Oscar for the best animated short film. Winners include the 1968 Walt Disney short Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.

But in general, despite many of them being excellent money-earners at the box office, cartoons and animated films have had to make do with lesser awards, such as in special effects or soundtrack categories.

Only one feature animation, the 1991 Beauty and the Beast, has ever been nominated for best film -- seeking to garner the prestigious awards ceremony's most sought-after honor. It lost out to Silence of the Lambs.

The three candidates up for the new Oscar are Jimmy Neutron: boy genius, Monsters, Inc. and "Shrek."

Shrek, in fact, campaigned hard to get a nomination for the best film Oscar. And many in Hollywood think it missed out only because the new award was on the cards.

That makes some people consider the new award "a double-edged sword," according to Hulett.

"It's high time that animation was recognized but I think it should be recognized as the mainstream entertainment that it has always been," he added, noting that many animated films have been the biggest box-office hits of all time.

"I think if films like The Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mullah had been live-action they would have gotten far more Academy Award nominations," Hulett went on.

According to one widely held view in Hollywood, animation gets scant reward at the Oscars because actors -- who form the majority of Academy members who vote the winners -- do not consider them of benefit to their own careers.

This could change, however, with actors like Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy working on Shrek, and John Goodman and Billy Crystal on Monsters, Inc.

DreamWorks recently announced it would pay 10 million dollars a contract for the main actors in the sequel to Shrek.

Increasing numbers of animated films are likely to appear in the next few years, in a sector that was traditionally the almost exclusive domain of Disney. That is because computer innovation has made animation easier.

"Now you have more animated films being made that probably ever in the history of the media so maybe now is a good time to have its own category," John Lasseter, executive producer of Monsters, Inc. and director of Toy Story and A Bug's Life, told reporters. "What's exciting is that these tools are available to everyone."

However, Steve Oederkerk, chief scriptwriter for "Jimmy Neutron" said: "Technology will never negate the need for talent."

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Oederkerk said the medium now merely "allows people to play a game that previously they never would have been able to play."

Legal; Binman Benji wins the day in offbeat court drama

Judge criticises claimant for 'absolute nutter' stance, but finds for him against businessman who duped him over Hollywood biopic

Benji "the Binman" Pell yesterday won a high court action against a businessman who duped him into handing over thousands of pounds to make a Hollywood blockbuster of his life story, despite being condemned by the judge for attempting to pass himself off as "an absolute nutter".

Mr Pell, who has made a living by scavenging through the rubbish bins of the rich and famous and selling their private papers to newspapers, won back £77,000 from John Mappin, whom he had sued for fraudulent misrepresentation.

During the hearing, the court was told Mr Mappin had promised to introduce Mr Pell to some of the biggest names in Hollywood, and demanded the money to pay for the travel costs and expenses of an American "filmmaker" who had helped shape the career of John Travolta.

In fact, the filmmaker turned out to be Mr Mappin's hairdresser, Iain Jones. In his evidence, Mr Mappin agreed he had extolled the virtues of Mr Jones but said he made it clear that any film project was completely speculative.

In his ruling yesterday, Mr Justice Gray described the decision he had to make as to who was telling the truth in the case as an "unwelcome task".

"I have already commented that the business in which Mr Pell is engaged is contemptible," he said. "Whether or not he was guilty of stealing documents, Mr Pell was dealing dishonestly in other people's confidential information."

Describing a videotape which showed Mr Pell boasting about his ability to deceive judges and court officials, the judge said: "He appears proud of his ability to pass himself off as 'an absolute nutter' so as to hoodwink his psychiatrist."

But, the judge ruled, Mr Pell's conduct in the witness box "paled into insignificance" when compared to Mr Mappin's "mendacity" in the case.

He said his deception began when he "lied to the police" over the money Mr Pell had paid to him, and he "compounded" his lies by "putting before the court a witness statement which gives a wholly mendacious account of his dealings with Mr Pell".

The judge added that it was only after discussions with his barrister that Mr Mappin withdrew the false witness statement.

"Ironically, the second witness statement indicates that Mr Pell was telling the truth in relation to many of the matters which Mr Mappin had controverted in his first witness statement," the judge said. "I have no hesitation in concluding that the claims which Mr Mappin made about Mr Jones were, and were known by him to be, false.

"Mr Jones was, as I have found, a hairdresser. No doubt he cut the hair of some famous actors and actresses and may well have got to know some of them socially. But Mr Jones had no knowledge or experience of filmmaking, as Mr Mappin, his best friend, must have been well aware.

"Mr Jones was certainly not a suitable person to make a blockbuster film about Mr Pell, as Mr Mappin well knew.

"Mr Mappin was wholly unable to explain why he never mentioned to Mr Pell that his friend was a hairdresser who had never directed or produced a film."

After the judgment, Mr Pell said the money he paid over in 1999 represented his life savings."But I'm happy with the decision and with my lawyers."

Mr Mappin, who was also ordered to pay costs estimated at $250,000, said the high court failed to understand the way Hollywood worked. "We are actually on track to deliver exactly what was promised to Mr Pell," he said. "There are no guarantees where filmmaking is concerned, but the Pell film project is certainly on track." (Copyright Jamie Wilson The Guardian)