After donning robotic armor for Orion Picture's "RoboCop" and "RoboCop 2," Peter Weller is out as the star of "RoboCop 3."
The studio declined to comment on Weller's status, but sources say that director Fred Dekker ("Monster Squad") is now recasting Murphy, the cop who fights crime while trapped in a robot's body.Weller, according to his representative, was in negotiations with Orion to continue the series but faced a scheduling conflict. He elected to make his directing debut on "Morning Glory" for producer Michael Viner. It's due to begin shooting Oct. 1 in Texas; Weller co-stars with Deborah Raffin.
"He's studied directing at the Sundance Institute," his representative adds. "He's really wanted to direct."
After "Morning Glory," Weller will star in director David Cronenberg's film adaptation of William Burroughs' "Naked Lunch."
"I'm excited about my new projects," Weller relays through his spokeswoman, "and I wish Orion and `RoboCop 3' well." _ JOHN M. WILSON
- One More Time:
HOLLYWOOD _ "Unchained Melody," first recorded by Al Hibbler in 1955, is back: the 1965 Righteous Brothers version, from the sound track of "Ghost," was No. 66 with a bullet last week on the Billboard chart, expected to shoot into the Top 40 this week.
A spot check of several major record stores indicates that the cassettes and CDs _ no LPs were pressed _ have also been selling out. The manufacturer is working "pretty much around the clock" to fill orders, says Robert Townson, vice president of Varese Sarabande Records, which is distributed by MCA.
"The song is laced throughout the film, both vocally and instrumentally, so people leave the theater with the song firmly set in their mind," Townson says. "It's reaching a whole new generation."
Alex North composed the music for the original "Unchained Melody" single; Hy Zaret wrote the lyrics. Maurice Jarre composed "Ghost's" score. A sound-track album was planned only six to eight weeks before the film's July 13 release, and hit stores July 24. The film, which has grossed more than $115 million, is still selling tickets _ and sound tracks.
Townson predicts it will "go gold" _ 500,000 copies _ "very soon." _SUSAN KING and JOHN M. WILSON
-Where Fur Art Thou?:
HOLLYWOOD _ Steven Spielberg and Andrew Lloyd Webber may have plans to turn the musical "Cats" into an animated film, but two lesser-knowns already have a jump on those two entertainment fat cats. Not only a jump _ they used real felines. For an all-cat version of "Romeo Juliet" no less.
Brussels-based P.H. Consulting and Los Angeles-based Moonseed Productions produced the film, which premieres Thursday at the Venice Film Festival (no U.S. distributor yet). Loosely based on William Shakespeare's drama, it's played as a ballet, utilizing the music of Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" ballet as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Andre Previn.
Actually, there is one human character amid the furry cast _ actor John Hurt in drag as "La Dame aux Chats," a Venetian bag lady. Moved by Romeo and Juliet's plight, she transports them to the New World, where Romeo, a smoky, long-haired gray, and Juliet, a cloud-white Turkish Angora, are free to purr-sue their romance in peace.
Director Armando Acosta kept Shakespeare's famous balcony scene in the script _ sort of. Acosta shot it atop the Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island.
Still, there was one more detail that gave us pause: "The cats themselves do not speak," said a press release. Were they expected to?
A spokeswoman explained that such stellar British actors as Maggie Smith, Ben Kingsley and Vanessa Redgrave convey the cats' thoughts in voice overs. _DAVID J. FOX
-Bo Knows Acting:
HOLLYWOOD _ Former Loyola Marymount University basketball star Bo Kimble just wrapped his first film role _ in "Heaven Is a Playground" _ and feels "very confident" about acting as a second career. "As long as it doesn't interfere with basketball," adds Kimble, who was a first-round draft choice of the Clippers and is scheduled to report to training camp in October.
Kimble's contract called "for eight hours sleep every day and four hours of basketball in a first-class gym" during filming on location in Chicago. The 6-4 guard worked with former University of Southern California assistant coach and longtime mentor David Spencer.
In "Heaven," a drama about the world of inner-city pickup basketball, Kimble portrays a local superstar who considers giving up his chance at college ball until he's challenged by an older player (played by Victor Love). Michael Warren is the team's coach; D.B. Sweeney plays a young white lawyer trying to cut it on the all-black courts.
"I grew up playing playground ball (in Philadelphia)," Kimble says, "and the way it was portrayed in the film was very realistic."
Writer-director Randy Fried picked Kimble for the part after seeing how he handled a range of emotions _ and media pressure _ when Kimble's Loyola teammate and best friend Hank Gathers died during a game March 4.
What Fried didn't know was that acting was Kimble's second love _ he performed in church plays as a child and took acting classes at Loyola, where he earned a degree in broadcasting.
Asked to assess "Heaven," Kimble already sounds like a Hollywood pro.
"The dailies," he says, "looked terrific." _ JOHN M. WILSON
-More `Pillow Talk'?:
HOLLYWOOD _ After a lengthy absence from American film making _ his last picture here was the 1973 musical remake of "Lost Horizon" _ producer Ross Hunter ("Magnificent Obsession," "Imitation of Life") hopes to make a comeback with a "sequel of sorts" to the 1959 Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedy, "Pillow Talk."
"It's going to be I hope a high-style comedy," says Hunter, now 69, who has been working in Europe in recent years. He's now at work on the script with a writer he won't identify. "It's going to be exciting for the public. We're going to do a picture about beautiful people for a change."
Meanwhile, Hunter is chipping away at his biography, "More Than Pillow Talk," which he insists will not be a "kiss and tell" book.
Known for his glossy production values, Hunter rejects the notion that he has become a Hollywood anachronism.
"My type of movies are definitely coming back," he insists. "They gave audiences an opportunity to escape and live vicariously by what they saw on screen. Wherever I go, that's all I hear: `When are you coming back? We miss your kind of movies.'
"I think it's time we brought beauty and entertainment back to the screen." _ KYLE COUNTS
-Quibbles & Bits:
_ Oversight: In a recent item, we should have mentioned that Deborah Dalton shares screenwriting chores with director Ken Russell on "Whore."
_ How far will publicists go to exploit the current Middle East crisis? One sent out a "media alert" on actor Nicholas Kadi ("Navy SEALS"), pointing out his Iraqi heritage and offering his assessment of Saddam Hussein. . . . Another has advised the public that Army technical adviser-actor Sgt. Daniel R. Fetterly (the upcoming "Eve of Destruction") could be called to Middle East duty at any moment.
-Cinefile:
HOLLYWOOD _ Cindy Williams, David Rasche and several well-trained border collies will star in Barkoff Productions' "Bingo!," described by one person close to the production as "Benji on acid." Jim Strain's script concerns the smartest dog in the world and his determination to find the family of his dreams. Matthew Robbins directs and Thomas Baer produces starting Sept. 12 in Vancouver. Tri-Star distributes.
Lauren Hutton will co-star opposite Billy Zane in Penta Pictures' "Millions." Carlo Van Zina directs the drama, written by Enrico Van Zina, about a fight over a family business that breaks out when the father goes into a coma. Cameras roll mid-September in Mexico, Italy, France and Barbados.
Julie Brown has replaced JoBeth Williams in IRS Media's "Shakes the Clown," currently filming in Los Angeles under the direction of its writer-star, Bob Goldthwait. Williams was forced to drop out due to personal reasons.
David Heavener is a quadri-hyphenate in Hero Productions' "Blood Law." He not only stars as a renegade, small-town cop caught between the FBI and the underworld in this comedy-thriller, he also serves writer, director and producer. Tony Curtis plays a mob boss while Isaac Hayes plays a police captain. Production gets under way this month in Bakersfield, Calif.
Robert Wuhl and Eric Idle will star in Aaron Russo Entertainment's buddy comedy, "Missing Pieces." Leonard Stern wrote and will direct the film starting Oct. 9 in New York and Los Angeles. Orion distributes.
Marc Singer has signed with Linda and Christopher Lewis' Entertainment Group to re-create the role of 1940s Hollywood detective Dan Turner, whom he first played in "The Raven Red Kiss-Off," in two more films. The character originally appeared in a series of pulp novels written by Robert Leslie Bellem. The films "Lights, Action, Murder" and "Off-Stage Murder" go into production next year.
Two sci-fi action-thrillers get under way this month. In Concorde's "Future Kick," Meg Foster hires a bounty hunter _ played by light-heavyweight karate kickboxing champion Don "The Dragon" Wilson _ to seek killer Eb Lottimer and his half-man, half-machine sidekick, Christopher Penn. Damian Klaus directs and Mike Elliott and Catherine Cyran produce from a script all three wrote. Filming has started in Los Angeles. _ KIRK HONEYCUTT
-The Movie Chart:
Films going into production:
FUTURE KICK (Concorde). Shooting in Los Angeles. "Bloodfist I and II's" kick-boxing machine, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, plays a bounty hunter from the moon in this futuristic actioner. His task is to descend to Earth and locate nasty folks selling human organs on the black market. Producer Roger Corman. Director-screenwriter Damian Klaus.
PRINCE OF THIEVES (Morgan Creek). Shooting in London. Kevin Costner plays the title role with supporting players Christian Slater, Robin Wright and Morgan Freeman in this redux of the Robin Hood legend. Producers John Watson, Pen Densham and Richard Lewis. Director Kevin Reynolds ("Fandango"). Screenwriters Densham and Watson. Distributors Warner Bros. (U.S.), Morgan Creek International. (foreign). Summer release.
RAW NERVE (American International Pictures). Shooting in Mobile, Ala. Glenn Ford's still pumpin' them out, this time playing a police captain.