ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Russell Crowe - A BEAUTIFUL MIND

Sean Penn - I AM SAM

Will Smith - ALI

Denzel Washington - TRAINING DAY

Tom Wilkinson - IN THE BEDROOM

Ken’s Pick:  Russell is destined to win a 2^nd consecutive Oscar… although I could see Washington surprising us, payback for his loss to Spacey 2 years ago.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Jim Broadbent - IRIS

Ethan Hawke - TRAINING DAY

Ben Kingsley - SEXY BEAST

Ian McKellen - LORD OF THE RINGS - FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

Jon Voight - ALI

Ken’s Pick:  Although I am pumped to see Ian nominated… and even though I am ecstatic that Ethan Hawke has finally been shown some respect (he should have been nominated for Before Sunrise)… we’ll see Ben Kingsley take home the gold.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Halle Berry - MONSTER'S BALL

Judi Dench - IRIS

Nicole Kidman - MOULIN ROUGE

Sissy Spacek - IN THE BEDROOM

Renée Zellweger - BRIDGET JONES' DIARY

Ken’s Pick:  Great to see Renee on there (her name was missed during the 97 Oscars… Jerry Maguire), thrilled to see Nicole picked.  We’ll see a near dead heat between Kidman and Spacek.  I’d say Spacek… but weaping hearts may vote for Kidman.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Jennifer Connelly - A BEAUTIFUL MIND

Helen Mirren - GOSFORD PARK

Maggie Smith - GOSFORD PARK

Marisa Tomei - IN THE BEDROOM

Kate Winslet - IRIS

KEN’S PICK:  The buzz does not lie, and Connelly is this year’s It Girl… so whether she deserves it or not (I’m sure she does), she’ll get the gold.

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS

MONSTERS, INC.

SHREK

KEN’S PICK:  Still not sure why they have this new award, but Shrek will win.

ART DIRECTION

AMÉLIE - Aline Bonetto (Art Direction) -- Marie-Laure Valla (Set Decoration)

GOSFORD PARK - Stephen Altman (Art Direction) -- Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration)

HARRY POTTER AND    THE SORCERER'S STONE - Stuart Craig (Art Direction) -- Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:    THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - Grant Major (Art Direction) -- Dan Hennah (Set Decoration)

MOULIN ROUGE - Catherine Martin (Art Direction) -- Brigitte Broch (Set Decoration)

KEN’S PICK:  Lord of the Rings has that epic feel going for it, but look for an upset by Baz’s Moulin Rouge.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

AMÉLIE - Bruno Delbonnel

BLACK HAWK DOWN - Slawomir Idziak

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:    THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - Andrew Lesnie

THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE - Roger Deakins

MOULIN ROUGE - Donald M. McAlpine

KEN’S PICK:  Black Hawk Down is my favorite, but again, Moulin Rouge will get a statue.

COSTUME DESIGN

THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE - Milena Canonero

GOSFORD PARK - Jenny Beavan

HARRY POTTER AND    THE SORCERER'S STONE - Judianna Makovsky

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:    THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor

KEN’S PICK:  Lord of the Rings was beautiful… which will entice the Academy to vote for fantasy land.

DIRECTING

A BEAUTIFUL MIND - Ron Howard

BLACK HAWK DOWN - Ridley Scott

GOSFORD PARK - Robert Altman

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:     THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - Peter Jackson

MULHOLLAND DRIVE - David Lynch

KEN’S PICK:  Hmmm… tough one.  Thank goodness Ridley was nominated at least!  Peter Jackson pulled off a big one.  But I think the Academy will hail ole Ron Howard as the winner… more of an ode to his career thus far.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

CHILDREN UNDERGROUND

LALEE'S KIN: THE LEGACY OF COTTON

MURDER ON A SUNDAY MORNING

PROMISES

WAR PHOTOGRAPHER

KEN’S PICK:  Not sure.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

ARTISTS AND ORPHANS: A TRUE DRAMA

SING!

THOTH

KEN’S PICK:  Artists and Orphans?

FILM EDITING

A BEAUTIFUL MIND - Mike Hill and Dan Hanley

BLACK HAWK DOWN - Pietro Scalia

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:     THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - John Gilbert

MEMENTO - Dody Dorn

MOULIN ROUGE - Jill Bilcock

KEN’S PICK:  Seeming that it wasn’t nominated for Best Picture when it should have been, I believe the least they can do is vote for MEMENTO. 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

AMÉLIE

ELLING

LAGAAN

NO MAN'S LAND

SON OF THE BRIDE

KEN’S PICK:  Close race between No Man’s Land and Amelie.  I think No Man’s Land will take the cake.

MAKEUP

A BEAUTIFUL MIND - Greg Cannom and Colleen Callaghan

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:     THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - Peter Owen and Richard Taylor

MOULIN ROUGE - Maurizio Silvi and Aldo Signoretti

KEN’S PICK:  Another tough one… LOTR has the advantage, but Rouge could again surprise us.

MUSIC (SCORE)

A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - John WIlliams

A BEAUTIFUL MIND - James Horner

HARRY POTTER AND     THE SORCERER'S STONE - John Williams

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:     THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - Howard Shore

MONSTERS, INC. - Randy Newman

KEN’S PICK:  John vs. John!  Harry Potter is great, but I think LOTR will edge it out.  Sorry Mr. Williams!

MUSIC (SONG)

KATE & LEOPOLD - "Until" Music and Lyric by Sting

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:     THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - "May It Be" Music and Lyric by Enya, Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan

MONSTERS, INC. - "If I Didn't Have You" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

PEARL HARBOR - "There You'll Be" Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

VANILLA SKY - "Vanilla Sky" Music and Lyric by Paul McCartney

KEN’S PICK:  MAY IT BE is my pick… although I believe that Sting’s name will be more main stream for the Academy.

BEST PICTURE

A BEAUTIFUL MIND

GOSFORD PARK

IN THE BEDROOM

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:     THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

MOULIN ROUGE

KEN’S PICK:  LOTR SHOULD WIN!!!!  A Beautiful Mind WILL win.

SHORT FILM -- ANIMATED

FIFTY PERCENT GREY

FOR THE BIRDS

GIVE UP YER AUL SINS

STRANGE INVADERS

STUBBLE TROUBLE

KEN’S PICK: Eeny, meeny, mino… FOR THE BIRDS.

SHORT FILM -- LIVE ACTION

THE ACCOUNTANT

COPY SHOP

GREGOR'S GREATEST INVENTION

A MAN THING (Meska Sprawa)

SPEED FOR THESPIANS

KEN’S PICK:  Hmmmm…

SOUND

AMÉLIE -

BLACK HAWK DOWN

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:    THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

MOULIN ROUGE

PEARL HARBOR

KEN’S PICK:  PEARL HARBOR or BLACK HAWK DOWN?  Probably Pearl Harbor.

SOUND EDITING

MONSTERS, INC.

PEARL HARBOR

KEN’S PICK:  Gee, this is tough (enter sarcasm).  Pearl Harbor.

VISUAL EFFECTS

A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - Dennis Muren, Scott Farrar, Stan Winston and Michael Lantieri

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:     THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - Jim Rygiel, Randall William Cook, Richard Taylor and Mark Stetson

PEARL HARBOR - Eric Brevig, John Frazier, Ed Hirsh and Ben Snow

KEN’S PICK:  I’m so damn mad about Bay’s “film”!!!  It could have been something special.  Pearl’s effects were amazing… but LOTR is too epic to ignore.

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

A BEAUTIFUL MIND - Written by Akiva Goldsman

GHOST WORLD - Written by Daniel Clowes & Terry Zwigoff

IN THE BEDROOM - Screenplay by Rob Festinger and Todd Field

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:     THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson

SHREK - Written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Joe Stillman and Roger S.H. Schulman

KEN’S PICK:  In the Bedroom could surprise, but the mainstream usually rules… A Beautiful Mind.

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

AMÉLIE - Screenplay by Guillaume Laurant and Jean-Pierre Jeunet; Dialogue by Guillaume Laurant

GOSFORD PARK - Written by Julian Fellowes

MEMENTO - Screenplay by Christopher Nolan; Story by Jonathan Nolan

MONSTER'S BALL - Written by Milo Addica & Will Rokos

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS - Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson

KEN’S PICK:  It BETTER be MEMENTO!  It BETTER be MEMENTO!!!

INSIDE SCOOPS (Thanks to Harry Knowles, Cinescape, etc.)…

T3 DIRECTOR’S NEXT

Jonathan Mostow is gearing up for his next film, even though he hasn’t begun shooting TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES. According to Michael Fleming’s VARIETY column, Mostow has hired DONNIE DARKO scribe Richard Kelly to pen THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET.

"Every year, somebody says, this is the scariest movie you've ever seen, and I'm disappointed when I see it," Mostow told VARIETY. "I really just wanted to try my hand at making a truly scary film. This is an idea I'd been working on for a while, and Richard was the right writer for it."

Shooting on T3 starts in two months, with Mostow hoping to shoot STREET in “quick succession.”

CLONNEY BUYS SCANNER

Warner Bros., the studio that released BLADE RUNNER 20 years ago, has snagged the rights to A SCANNER DARKLY, Philip K. Dick’s story of drug addiction for Steven Soderberg and George Clooney’s Section 8 production company.

The book, a fictionalized account of Dick’s drug troubles, tells the story of a drug cop from the future who has an alter ego strung out as an addict.

SCANNER has been bouncing around Hollywood for years, and was once set up at Universal with Leonardo DiCaprio set to star from a script by BEING JOHN MALKOVICH’s Charlie Kaufman.

The movie is being contemplated as some sort of animated film, so it is not known if Soderbergh will direct or Clooney will star.

MARSHALL ON INDY 4

“Well, I’m very optimistic; we all want to do it,” said Marshall. “There was a time when we felt that three movies was enough, but now Harrison [Ford], Steven [Spielberg], George [Lucas], myself and everybody else involved feels like, ‘Yeah, it’d be fun to do one more.’ So, obviously, it’s a complicated deal and it’s complicated to come up with a good story. We’ve had like four or five ideas that have reached the working point, but I think now that everybody has agreed to go forward and really try to flesh out a story, it’s going to happen in the next three or four years.”

How does this jibe with George Lucas’s famous resolve not to do another INDY film until he’s finished with the STAR WARS prequels?

“It may happen at about the same time,” says Marshall. “Whether it’s after EPISODE III or not, I don’t know because we all have to find the window. Steven is booked up pretty solidly, too. But Harrison keeps saying, ‘You know, I’m not getting any younger.’”

ALSO ON ROGER RABBIT 2??

“We developed a script for ROGER 2, which was sort of a prequel,” revealed Marshall. “[It showed] how Roger came to Hollywood, but it was too expensive. When we laid it all out, there was too much animation and it was too expensive. But now that things are what they are with CG, we may look at it again. But it’s pretty dormant right now.”

POTTER VS. TITANIC

According to SCREEN INTERNATIONAL, a British counterpart to VARIETY or HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE has gone where only TITANIC has gone before.

Namely, the J.K. Rowling creation has taken in over $600 million outside the United States, a feat only equaled by James Cameron’s boat sinking epic. POTTER has taken in $313 million since its release in America. This take, some $916 million worldwide, puts POTTER on a course to take the second slot in the all-time box office race.

T3 TRAILER ON OLD DVD?????

In a little news bite from the latest PREMIERE comes word Warner Bros. is planning to re-release the MATRIX documentary THE MATRIX REVISITED with a first look trailer of TERMINATOR 3.

The magazine reports the trailer will be plopped on the disc (which was originally released in November 2001) though the exact date is yet unknown.

WHEATON ON STAR TREK FAME

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION’s Wil Wheaton admitted being “obnoxious and selfish” after his stint on TNG, but was turned around by hanging out with some of the crew from the original series.

“I was 19 and lying in bed thinking, 'Oh my God, what has my career come to?' I had left STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION to do more things, and I was actually worse off, doing this awful movie,” Wheaton remembers, referring to 1993's THE LIARS' CLUB. “Being out there, I learned a lot about myself. I'd been very obnoxious and selfish. I made concerted efforts to change.”

That change came hardest on a STAR TREK convention cruise with some of the stars from the first TREK show. “Most of them were bitter and sad. It was like the ghost of Christmas yet to come. I didn't want to be 40 saying, 'Hey, remember what I did when I was a teenager?'”

Wheaton is currently involved in the next film, STAR TREK: NEMESIS, though his return as Wesley Crusher is reportedly limited to a cameo.

CRAVEN TAKES ON HORROR CALLED “ALICE”

The story, billed as a “gothic horror version” of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, will be written by Jon and Erich Hoeber and produced by Dimension films, which brought us Craven’s SCREAM series. While chatting over the film with VARIETY, Craven said, “I can't wait to follow Alice down the rabbit hole for a completely new and nightmarish journey.”

TAKEN FROM VARIETY AND HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

CASTING

* Joseph Fiennes will play Protestant reformer Martin Luther in LUTHER, a project to be shot on location in Germany in April. Erich Till (BONHOEFFER: AGENT OF GRACE) will direct. The film will examine the rebel Catholic's personal battles and his transformation from a simple monk into leader of the Protestant movement. Peter Ustinov, Bruno Ganz and Uwe Ochsenknecht will also star.

* Whoopi Goldberg, Christopher Plummer, Kevin Pollak and Zoe Warner will star in the indie family pic BLIZZARD for director LeVar Burton. Brenda Blethyn is in negotiations to join the cast. Production begins Feb. 18 in Toronto and Quebec City. Murray McRae wrote the script about a young girl and her relationship with Santa's most magical reindeer, Blizzard. The girl is saddened after her love of skating is taken away from her and Blizzard helps the girl find her way back to what she loves most. Meanwhile, Blizzard is in danger of being banished from Santa's kingdom by the chief elf.

* Omar Epps will star alongside Meg Ryan in the drama AGAINST THE ROPES, based on the story of Jackie Kallen, the first female boxing manager. Charles Dutton will direct.

* Sergi Lopez (WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY) will star alongside Daniel Auteuil in a historical adventure film set during the Crusades for director Helene Angel and producer Michel Saint-Jean. Emmanuelle Devos and Gilbert Melki will also star. Saint-Jean is also producing a fantasy script by HARRY director Dominik Moll with a fall production start expected.

* Rob Schneider is attached to star in THE ADVENTURES OF SINBAD THE INSURANCE SALESMAN about a claims officer who is unlucky in love until he meets a girl who transforms his life. Mike Reiss ("The Simpsons") wrote the script.

* Wanda De Jesus will play the female lead in BLOOD WORK for actor/director Clint Eastwood. Brian Helgeland wrote the script about a woman who hires an ex-FBI profiler to solve a crime.

* Crispin Glover will star in New Line's horror remake of the 1971 movie WILLARD for writers/producers James Wong and Glen Morgan ("The X-Files," FINAL DESTINATION). Morgan will direct the pic. It's about an outcast whose only friends are his pet rats. When one of the rats is killed where he works, Willard goes on a rampage, using his pets to help him exact revenge.

* French actor Vincent Cassel has left SIN EATER due to creative differences and been replaced by Benno Furman. The feature stars Mark Addy, Heath Ledger and Shannyn Sossamon for writer/director Brian Helgeland.

* Christian Kane joins Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher in JUST MARRIED for 20th Century Fox and director Shaw Levy.

* Ed Harris will star opposite Nicole Kidman, Anthony Hopkins and Gary Sinise in THE HUMAN STAIN. Shooting begins March 25.

* John Cusack, Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet are in final talks to star in Columbia Pictures' ensemble feature I.D. for director James Mangold and Konrad Pictures. The feature begins shooting next month in Los Angeles. It's a modern psychological thriller where 10 people marooned at a roadside motel during a fierce desert storm discover that they are being killed off one by one.

* William H. Macy will star in THE COOLER for ContentFilm about a man whose ability to cool hot hands at casino gambling tables makes him the perfect "cooler" for the shady Shangri-la Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, a job he is forced into to pay off a bad debt. Once his debt is paid off, however, the casino realizes that it has come to rely on him and, in an effort to keep him on the floor, throws a gorgeous waitress his way.

* Gabriel Byrne, Karl Urban and Alex Dimitriades join Desmond Harrington, Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard and Isaiah Washington in GHOST SHIP for director Steve Beck and Dark Castle Entertainment.

* Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts are in talks to star in the comedy LE DIVORCE for producers Merchant Ivory and Fox Searchlight with James Ivory directing. The project is based on Diane Johnson's bestselling novel about a film school dropout who heads to Paris to serve as an emissary between her pregnant, cuckolded stepsister and the upper-class family of her French painter husband. Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote the script. Production is expected to begin this September in France.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Jerry Bruckheimer Films has snapped up the pitch SIGNATURE from writers Cormac and Marianne Wibberly. It's a psychological thriller that centers on the way violent serial criminals are rehabilitated in the future.

* Paramount Pictures has grabbed THE ADVENTURERS CLUB, a modern romantic adventure pitch by Dan McDermott, for Mutual Films to produce. It's about a man and a woman who team up to complete the Valley of the Immortals expedition that their grandfathers died on 50 years ago.

* Dan Wilson and David Gilbreath sold their comedy script SMART AND SMARTER to New Line Cinema for Charles Roven to produce. The story centers on two brainiacs who have spent their lives in a think tank. When they head out into the real world to reclaim a lost love, they constantly overthink ways into messy situations.

* Jan de Bont is in final talks to direct the action pic THE COURIER, written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, about a mythic figure who makes deliveries to anyone, anywhere, no questions asked. The courier is hired to make a delivery to a legendary underworld figure considered impossible to find.

* DreamWorks Pictures has purchased the comedy spec script UNDERDOGS from Rawson Marshall Thurber about a group of misfits and outcasts who enter a Las Vegas dodge ball tournament in hopes of saving their beloved gym.

* Tony-winning director Susan Stroman will direct the pic CONTACT, based on the Broadway musical, for USA Films. The film will be adapted by John Weidman, focusing on the third act, in which a commercials director who can't connect with anyone finds himself taken with a girl in a yellow dress he sees on a dance floor.

* David Fincher will develop, with an eye to direct, Regency Enterprises' supernatural thriller STAY. David Benioff wrote the script about a psychologist at an Ivy League university who tries to prevent one of his students from committing suicide.

* Bernardo Bertolucci will direct PARIS '68 about a real-life student uprising that took place in France's capital during the late 1960s.

* RAW Entertainment has nabbed Brandon Bodie Beaver's spec script MR. MYSTERIOUS with Simon West's Wychwood Prods. attached to produce. The gothic action/fantasy, set in the 1880s, concerns a blind magician and his traveling troupe of carnival performers who are forced to return to London to stop an evil sorcerer from plaguing the world with black magic.

* Lasse Hallstrom will direct a Miramax adaptation of the David Liss novel A CONSPIRACY OF PAPER this fall. It's a thriller set in London in the early 18th century, framed around the inception of the stock exchange. Robert Nelson Jacobs (CHOCOLAT) will adapt the novel.

* RKO Pictures will develop, finance and distribute a feature film tentatively titled DURHAM GRILL, written by Clyde Edgerton and John Schulian, about the efforts of a large corporation to hoodwink residents of a small Southern town and the Southerners' unusual and successful defense.

* Director Simon Wincer (FREE WILLY) will help bring a prequel to THE BLACK STALLION to theaters for Disney. YOUNG BLACK STALLION explores the origin of the legendary horse in a tale of a young girl and a black stallion who come into each others' lives and rescue one another from dangerous situations. Production begins March 4 in Africa

* Artists Production Group and StudioCanal have picked up the comedy spec NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH from Yoni Berkovits and Tony Dreannan. It's the story of a valet parking guy who chronically lies to impress women until a strange twist of fate forces him to live out his lies and realize that he has been overlooking true love.

* MGM has grabbed SOUL PLANE from writer Chuck Wilson and writer-producer Bo Zenga. It's described an urban version of AIRPLANE!

* Sarah Thorp's script BLACKOUT was sold to Paramount/Intertainment AG for Kopelson Entertainment to produce. The project's story line has been kept under wraps and is described only as a female-driven gritty thriller.

* New Regency has purchased the comic pitch BRAD PITT WANTS MY GIRLFRIEND to be written and directed by Les Firestein. It centers on an attractive couple that grows estranged because the girlfriend feels the guy is taking her for granted. While on a trip to Canada, she meets Pitt as he's shooting a film. The actor takes a shine to her, and the boyfriend tries every way he can to win her back.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* Singer/Jensen Entertainment has purchased the rights to Nicholas Sparks' bestseller A BEND IN THE ROAD about a sheriff in a small town whose wife was killed several years before. He romances his child's schoolteacher, only to discover a trail of clues related to his wife's death. Singer/Jensen also has optioned MEPHISTO, a Top Shelf comic by Jason Hall and Matt Kindt, about a couple trying to save their troubled marriage. They attend a magic show and the wife volunteers for a disappearing trick, but the magician dies midway through. The wife is nowhere to be found, and the husband, not sure if she's dumped him, journeys through a metaphysical world to try to find her. The company is also developing two projects with W.R. McKinney (TEACHERS), one is a drama called ONE SHOT ONE KILL, the other for BOOKER AND CHANCE, a Western about two scam artists who hype themselves as famous outlaws as an easy way to rob a town.

* Southpaw Media Group co-founder Richard B. Lewis has teamed with Pandemonium to co-produce a pair of event movies: THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, an action love story set amid NASA's early lunar missions, and an intergalactic epic adventure set in outer space dubbed ACROSS THE UNIVERSE.

* Gran Via Productions is teaming with Pacifica to acquire rights to remake the 1955 Orson Welles-directed film THE CONFIDENTIAL REPORT. Joshua Safran will pen the remake about a grifter who's hired by a wealthy financier to trace figures from his past. The grifter gets more than he bargained for when he falls in love with the power broker's daughter.

* New Line has grabbed the rights to co-produce HIS DARK MATERIALS a trilogy of kids' books by Philip Pullman.

* Artists Production Group has partnered with MGM to option Michael Connelly's latest novel CHASING THE DIME, about an L.A. computer researcher who becomes obsessed with a missing woman whose former phone number is randomly assigned to him. His private investigation leads him through the murky world of online adult entertainment.

* MGM is developing a remake of FOXY BROWN, a 1974 pic starring Pam Grier as a woman seeking revenge. Tyger Williams (MENACE II SOCIETY) will adapt the script.

* Industry Entertainment has optioned Jonathan Safran Foer's first novel EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED about an American Jew who is looking for his family's roots in Eastern Europe. Liev Schreiber is producing the project with Industry, adapting the script with Foer, and also considering making the picture his directorial debut.

* Warner Bros. Pictures has acquired the rights to THE INFORMANT: A TRUE STORY that Steven Soderbergh is developing at his Section Eight shingle with an eye to direct. Scott Burns will adapt the book, which was written by Kurt Eichenwald. The book's protaganist is Mark Whitacre, who wore an FBI wire for more than two years to uncover a major price-fixing scam with ADM's Japanese competitors that gave the company millions of dollars in profits. ADM pled guilty in 1996 and paid a $100 million fine, but the whistle-blower winds up doing more time than the corrupt leaders he helped nab.

* Disney bought rights to the THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, based on the classic tale by Kenneth Grahame, treatment, art and related aterials developed by Corey May, Michael "Dooma" Wendschuh and Baruch Inbar .

* Swedish writer.director Lukas Moodysson's TOGETHER, is getting an English remake by FilmFour and production company Number 9. The duo is also working on a film version of the 1941 novel THE DEADLY PERCHERON, a surreal crime story by American author John Franklin Bardin.

* MGM and Hyde Park Entertainment will develop a remake of the 1973 actioner WALKING TALL with David Klass in talks to write the script.

* Paramount Pictures has grabbed the screen rights to Doug Marlette's novel, THE BRIDGE, about a cartoonist fired from a Gotham newspaper, who moves his family to the North Carolina house in which he grew up and tries to come to terms with his past and family. Mark Andrus (AS GOOD AS IT GETS) will adapt the screenplay.

Extra… Extra…

* Kevin Spacey will take a supporting role in his Trigger Street Prods.' UNITED STATES OF LELAND for writer/director Matthew Ryan Hoge. Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Chris Klein, Jena Malone, Martin Donovan, Sherilyn Fenn, Ann Magnuson and Michelle Williams also star. It's about 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 solve 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.

* Halle Berry is attached to star in NAPPILY EVER AFTER, based on the Trisha Thomas novel, for Universal Pictures. Berry will play Venus Johnson, a beauty who grows impatient waiting for her dream man to marry her. They break up, but her resolve is tested when he falls for someone else.

* Reese Witherspoon will star in an Intermedia Films drama set in the world of professional women's tennis. Production is expected to begin in May. The story centers on a former phenom whose intensity led her to lose her composure at the U.S. Open. She's considered washed up, and is working as the resident pro at a tennis club teaching rich people to swing a racquet. She soon meets a beautiful Anna Kournikova-esque athlete who has endorsements, but not the intensity to win major tournaments.

* Jonny Lee Miller has replaced Gerard Butler in Dimension's MINDHUNTERS for director Renny Harlin and Intermedia Films. Christian Slater, Kathryn Morris, Patricia Velazquez, LL Cool J and Val Kilmer also star. Butler had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with Paramount's TIMELINE, which Richard Donner is helming.

* Edward Norton and director Spike Lee are teaming up on a feature adaptation of David Benioff's novel THE 25TH HOUR for Disney. Shooting begins in May in New York. Benioff also adapted the screenplay, which chronicles the last day of freedom for a young man before he begins serving a seven-year jail term for drug dealing. He prowls through the city until dawn with his two close male friends and his girlfriend, re-examining his life and how he got himself into his predicament, which leads to a disturbing finale.

* Michael Clarke Duncan will join Ben Affleck, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Garner in 20th Century Fox/Regency Enterprises' DAREDEVIL, a live-action adaptation of the Marvel comic book, for writer/director Mark Steven Johnson. Shooting starts March 25.

* Jude Law is in talks to star in DIARY OF YOUNG LONDON PHYSICIAN, a new take on the Jekyll/Hyde story, for writer/director David Mamet. Penelope Cruz is also in early negotiations to play the female lead. Production is expected to begin in the late spring.

* Mark Dacascos (THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) is in talks to join DMX and Jet Li in CRADLE TO THE GRAVE for director Andrzej Bartkowiak.

* Tim Daly joins BASIC for director John McTiernan. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson star.

* Will Yun Lee ("Witchblade") has nabbed a role in the latest James Bond pic.

* Molly Shannon has landed a cameo role opposite Tim Allen in the Disney's THE SANTA CLAUSE 2.

* Ewan McGregor will join Renee Zellweger in the comedy DOWN WITH LOVE for director Peyton Reed (BRING IT ON). The twisted romantic comedy, written by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake, closely follows the romantic Doris Day/Rock Hudson films and includes scenes that take place in cars, just so audiences can see the process shots of a fake background passing behind them. The film is set in New York during the '60s.

* Devon Sawa, Amanda Detmer, Ian Virgo, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Andrew Keegan will star in the indie comedy EXTREME DATING for Filmstar Prods. and director Lorena David (EASTSIDE). The story follows two friends who scheme a false kidnapping so one can get his girl. Shooting starts Monday.

DIRECTOR/WRITER ATTACHMENTS

* Christopher McQuarrie will write the English-language remake of the 1999 Hong Kong action pic THE MISSION for Intermedia Films. It's about five elite bodyguards who form a tight bond while protecting a key Triad mob boss after an attempted assassination.

* New Line Cinema grabbed the horror script NEXT DOOR from writer Jake Wade Wall. It's set in a small town where a wraithlike serial killer comes home to roost.

* Sid Quashie will adapt Susan Kelly's 1995 book THE BOSTON STRANGLERS for Paramount and producers Gale Anne Hurd and Jesse Beaton. Carl Franklin is attached to direct. The book postulates the theory that the Boston Strangler's infamous crimes were actually committed by multiple killers rather than only confessed murderer, Albert DeSalvo.

* John Polson (upcoming SWIMFAN) will co-write and direct THE UP AND COMER for Michael Douglas' Furthur Films. Polson and Howard Roughan will adapt the screenplay from Roughan's debut novel. It's a dark comedy about a cutthroat attorney who's enjoying the high life in the big city. That changes, however, when a broke prep-school buddy comes to town and proceeds to blackmail him.

* Mike Newell will develop and direct A SEASON IN CENTRAL PARK for Warner Bros. and Outlaw Prods. The project is about a wealthy man in a relationship with a woman, but unbeknownst to him, his best friend wants to be with her. Said best friend concocts a scheme with a working-class girl -- who has her sights set on the wealthy man -- in an effort to drive a wedge between the couple. Tey do not plan on, though, is falling in love with each other. Aline Brosh-McKenna is penning the latest draft of the script.

* Brian Robbins will direct THE PERFECT SCORE, a Paramount dramatic comedy about seven high school seniors who heist the SATs.

* Francois Girard (THE RED VIOLIN, THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD) will helm THE SINGING DETECTIVE for Icon Prods. Robert Downey Jr. may star. It's about a novelist who is bedridden with a crippling disease and mentally begins to rewrite a novel with himself in the title role. Taking himself into a fantasy world set in 1945 with spies, criminals and swing music, he somehow finds the cure for his disease. The project is based on Dennis Potter's screenplay and was first produced as a BBC miniseries in 1986, starring Michael Gambon.

* Robert Harmon (GOTTI) will direct HIGHWAYMEN for New Line Cinema from a script by Hans Bauer (ANACONDA) and Craig Mitchell. Shooting may begin this summer. It's about a dehumanized villain who uses a car as an expression of his rage against the world and the hero who chases him down. An innocent woman gets caught in their game as they chase each other in 1970s muscle cars.

* Stephen Gaghan has written HAVOC, picked up by MDP Worldwide, based on the screenplay by Jessica Kaplan. The script is a multilayered drama about a gang of wealthy L.A. teens faced with the real-life gangster lifestyle they have long tried to imitate when they encounter a drug-dealing Latino gang.

* Robert Luketic (LEGALLY BLONDE) is set to direct DreamWorks' first feature film in a planned franchise based on Donald Hamilton's 27 books in the Matt Helm action/spy series. Team Todd is attached to produce. Luketic is also attached to develop and direct BOYS-R-US for 20th Century Fox and 1492 Pictures about a middle-aged woman who opens a brothel where older women can have sex.

* Ed Decter and John Strauss (THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) have rewritten THE SANTA CLAUSE 2 and Disney now has the pic on a fast track with a Feb. 13 start in Vancouver. Tim Allen stars for director Michael Lembeck. The story centers on Santa having to get married within a month, if he is to remain in the job. Decter (THE NEW GUY) will direct Disney's THE JANE PLAN about a Donald Trump-type whose empire is dependent upon Jane, his personal assistant.

* David Dobkin will direct TOY MEN for MGM from a pitch from actor/producer Vince Vaughn. The project is an ensemble piece about four reps on the road competing in the no-holds-barred arena of toy sales. When they set their sights on a housewife who has come up with what could be a new best seller, one of the reps brings his young daughter to improve his chances to land the account. Steve Pink (HIGH FIDELITY) is attached to write the script.

* Joel and Ethan Coen are in talks to write a remake of the 1966 British caper comedy GAMBIT as a potential starring vehicle for Hugh Grant. It's about a British thief who conspires with a beautiful woman to rob a rich guy of his expensive statue.

* Michael Bay's new low-budget production company, Platinum Dunes, is developing a remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Production is set to begin in the spring. Tobe Hooper, is writing a draft with his original co-writer, Kim Henkel.

* Antoine Fuqua (TRAINING DAY) will develop and direct WHITE OUT, based on Bergen County, N.J., Police Chief Jerry Speziale's untitled manuscript for Gaylord Films. It's about Speziale's real-life Pygmalion-esque experience as a New York police officer.

* Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy are working with Castle Rock on an untitled feature film about the world of folk music that Guest will direct. Three folk acts get together for a concert at Carnegie Hall after the death of a legendary folk manager. Production will begin in the spring in Los Angeles. Guest, Levy, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean will write original material as well as take roles in the pic.

* Cineville has purchased the rights to Christopher Okum's script ALPHAWAVE for Carl Colpaert to direct. The offbeat comedy centers on a misfit teen, subjected to the misguidance of adult authority figures, who finds salvation and love in an emotionally troubled young woman. Production begins this fall.

* Warner Bros. is moving forward on a live-action/CGI sequel to CATS & DOGS with Kevin Lima (102 DALMATIANS) set to direct. John Requa and Glenn Ficarra will write the script.

* Kimberly Peirce (BOYS DON'T CRY) is in final talks to direct a feature adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's novel CHILDHOOD'S END for Universal/Beacon Pictures. The book features giant spaceships that suddenly appear over every major city on Earth. The arrival of the mysterious aliens bring a half-decade of unprecedented peace and prosperity. However, this "golden era" is the precursor to a new evolution for mankind, bringing about the end of the human race as we know it.

* Paramount has picked up the thriller script THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS from writer Cristi Limm for producer Scott Rudin. The project is about a trusting woman whose life spirals out of control and suspects that her new best friend and co-worker might be behind her troubles.

* J.P. Donahue and Kevin Polay have sold their action-thriller pitch ADRENALINE to DreamWorks Pictures and the pitch BOOK OF THE DEAD to Warner Bros. Jon Shestack will produce both projects. ADRENALINE is about two detectives from different coasts who team up to solve a series of deaths, only to find out that the deaths are connected to an experimental drug funded by the government. DEAD centers on the demons and deities of the Far East and is set during the present.

* New Line Cinema has grabbed the action/comedy script ACTION ABRAMOWITZ, penned by Aaron Mendelsohn, for producer Noah Emmerich. It's about an accountant who, after getting hit on the head, begins to believe he is his favorite action star.

* Miguel Sapochnik will develop and direct the thriller WIRED, about a woman who is either experiencing schizophrenia or is about to unravel a major conspiracy. Roy Carlson wrote the script. Sapochnik will also direct HUMAN, based on his short film THE DREAMER, for Miramax.

MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTION TIDBITS

* DreamWorks Pictures is in talks to pick up the comedy SURVIVING CHRISTMAS in turnaround from Sony with Ben Affleck attached to star. Tall Trees Prods. is producing the pic about a man faced with spending the holidays by himself, but goes back to his childhood home and persuades the family that now lives there to take him in.

* Dimension Films is picking up the comedy BAD SANTA from Working Title Films. Terry Zwigoff will direct the story of two con men who dress up as Santa and an elf, traveling from mall to mall each Christmas to rob them, until they meet a shy 8-year-old who reminds them of the true meaning of Christmas. Joel and Ethan Coen will serve as executive producers.

* RGH/Lions Share Pictures has acquired rights to SUGAR WARS, based on the life of 91-year-old Angelo Lonardo, a founding father of the Mafia, and one of the highest ranking crime figures to go the turncoat route. The Lonardo family fought the Porello family over control of corn sugar used to make bootleg whiskey during the 30s. Paul Murray (VERY MEAN MEN) will write the script. RGH/Lions Share is also working on a feature adaptation of the Ray Cooney play FUNNY MONEY from an adaptation by Harry Basil and Leslie Greif, with the latter making his directorial debut. Shooting begins in March.

* Buena Vista is in final talks to grab the remake rights to the Spanish-language thriller INTACTO about a Nazi concentration camp survivor who lives in the basement of a casino on a Spanish island. He possesses the gift of "good luck," which can be bought, sold and gambled.

* Paramount has optioned William J. Forstchen's eight-part, time-traveling sci-fi action series THE LOST REGIMENT' for C/W Prods. The first installment in the series, RALLY CRY, centered on a Civil War regiment swept in a time warp to a futuristic world where humans are slaughtered like cattle.

* The Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) denied New Line Cinema's appeal of an earlier decision blocking use of the title AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER for the third pic in their Austin Powers franchise.

* Miramax Films will finance and distribute a feature film version of David Auburn's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play PROOF. Auburn also wrote the screenplay. It's a drama about the daughter of a recently deceased mathematician who must face the legacies of brilliance and madness her father left her. Hart Sharp Prods. (BOYS DON'T CRY, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME) will produce the pic with Miramax.

* Michael Mann plans to produce, in partnership with Spyglass Entertainment and Mirage Enterprises, a biopic on Enzo Ferrari, whose family redefined the concept of the high-powered Italian sports car and almost single-handedly created Formula One racing. The project is inspired by Brock Yates' 1991 book ENZO FERRARI: THE MAN, THE CARS, THE RACE, THE MACHINE. David Rayfiel (SABRINA) is writing the latest draft.

* Dimension Films has optioned the rights to the comic book/video game SHADOW MAN about a dead man powered by voodoo and capable of dwelling in both our world, Liveside, and the world beyond, Deadside.

Ken Miyamoto