By CHARLES EALY

The controversial movie “Waco” will begin production in two months in Louisiana, Emilio Ferrari of Entertainment 7 said Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival.

The news comes a year after a dispute erupted in Cannes over whether the movie would qualify for state incentives. At the time, Bob Hudgins of the Texas Film Commission said that Entertainment 7, the production company, need not apply for incentives because they would not be approved, citing what he called inaccuracies in the script about the government raid on the David Koresh compound near Waco.

Ferrari received the news about the Texas incentives during the festival last year and strongly rejected the contention of script inaccuracies.

On Thursday, Ferrari said that Kurt Russell has been cast to play Byron Sage, the key FBI agent at the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, which left 54 adults and 21 children dead.

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The owners of the Iowa site where the “Field of Dreams” movie was filmed have put the place up for sale.

Don and Becky Lansing say they love the land, which has been in Don Lansing’s family for more than a century, but they think its time to give it up.

The movie, released in 1989 with Kevin Costner as its star, was based on the book “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella. The site has been a popular tourist destination ever sinc, with the family maintaining the baseball diamond built by Universal Studios.

The Lansings haven’t listed a price for the baseball diamond, two-bedroom house, six outbuildings and 193 acres.

Lindsay Lohan has signed on to play porn star Linda Lovelace in an upcoming biopic called “Inferno.”

The 24-year-old actress will star in the independent film about Lovelace, who gained worldwide fame for the 1972 porn film “Deep Throat,” according to the Associated Press. Bill Pullman is reportedly set to play “Playboy” founder Hugh Hefner. The movie will follow Lovelace and “the difficult stuff she went through and overcame,” producer Wali Razaqi said. Lovelace, whose real name was Linda Boreman, starred in several adult films, but later denounced the porn industry.

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Lohan was recently dropped from the film “Other Side,” because producers reportedly felt she was no longer “bankable.”

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Few parts have as much pressure on the actress that plays it as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

But Rachel Weisz is stepping up for the challenge.

Entertainment Weekly reports the Academy Award-winning actress is going to play the title role in Jackie, about the days immediately following President Kennedy’s assassination.

Weisz’s fiancee, director Darren Aronofsky, is slated to direct and produce.

By MADELEINE MARR

Dakota Fanning is a rare breed — a child actor who hasn’t let success mess with her brain.

At 16, she’s poised, collected and headed for a grown-up career as we see in her new movie, The Runaways. The Georgia native plays Cherie Currie, the lead singer of the 1970s band that launched Joan Jett’s Blackhearts career.

Though she’s gone head to head with screen legends like Robert De Niro (Hide and Seek), Denzel Washington (Man on Fire) and Tom Cruise (War of the Worlds), playing the rocker was her most challenging role.

“It was different, because you are living someone else’s life,” Fanning says by phone from L.A. “I definitely did more preparation than usual. The person you are playing is right there. I had to sing like her too . . . a great responsibility.”
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The lone privately owned list drawn up by Oskar Schindler of Jews he helped save from Nazi Germany is now for sale at $2.2 million, according to reports.

AFP and MSNBC are reporting the list of 801 names, which is dated April 18, 1945, and popularized by Steven Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s List, is “arguably the most important World War II document,” according to the agent of the list’s owner.

Gary Zimet told the Daily Telegraph of London: “It’s the only one remaining in private hands.” He is selling the list on a “first come, first served” basis at his site, MomentsInTime.com.

There were seven different versions of the list, Zimet told AFP, but only four were known to have survived. Three are in museums.

By BEN FRITZ

Jason Isaacs and Matt Damon in 'Green Zone', which has found difficulty at the box office.

For better or worse, Hollywood is now done with Iraq.

“Green Zone” is the last drama set to be released by a major studio related to the Iraq war, and Hollywood is undoubtedly grateful for it after the picture, directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Matt Damon, opened to just $14.5 million domestically and $9.7 million overseas.

It’s the latest in a string of flops that include “Body of Lies,” “The Kingdom” and “Stop-Loss.” Even “The Hurt Locker,” while not a major disappointment given its low budget, is the lowest- grossing best picture Oscar winner in recent history.
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By ANDREW McGINN

'Easy Rider: The Ride Back' stars Jeff Fahey and Sheree J. Wilson with producer Phil Pitzer. (Springfield News-Sun)

In the spring of 2007, when first-time movie producer Phil Pitzer rolled back into his hometown to shoot scenes for a prequel to “Easy Rider,” it seemed as unlikely as, well:

• Anyone digging every lick of Ten Years After’s “blues jam” at Woodstock without being seriously stoned, drunk, possessed or all three at once.

• Someone weaseling past the Hell’s Angels at Altamont to snatch several strands of Bill Wyman’s hair … for means of a future cloning project.

• The cannibalization of Yoko Ono by George Martin in order for The Beatles to continue their work in peace.

• An American victory in Indochina.

The idea that this guy from Springfield, Ohio, was coming back to Springfield to make a prequel to the great counterculture film of the ’60s — in Springfield — seemed doomed.

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Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio celebrated nearly a decade working together as they presented the director’s latest film, “Shutter Island,” at the Berlin film festival Saturday.

Based on a novel by “Mystic River” author Dennis Lehane, the 1950s psychological thriller is the fourth film pairing Scorsese with DiCaprio, after “Gangs of New York” (2002), “The Aviator” (2004) and the Oscar-winning “The Departed” (2006).

“Each experience has been unique. It’s been a progression, now it’s been 10 years,” DiCaprio, 35, said at a news conference with the director as their new film premiered out of competition in Berlin.

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Coming March 6: Jett to play celebrity dog wash at Jupiter’s Carlin Park

Joan Jett kicked open doors for women to rock out in a man’s music world. So when the time came for a film drama on how she got her start, Jett wanted to be on hand to help make sure the story was told right.

Jett was an executive producer for “The Runaways,” a Sundance Film Festival premiere that spins the raucous tale of her first band in the 1970s. The all-girl group of teenagers — branded as a gimmick at the time — left behind some hard-rocking music in their short time together.

“Twilight” star Kristen Stewart plays Jett and her “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” colleague Dakota Fanning plays Cherie Currie, the Runaways’ lead singer. The film captures the hurdles they faced at a time when the notion of female guitar gods was practically unheard of.

“Everybody knows Joan Jett, but nobody really knows how hard it was to become her,” Stewart said. “We’ve grown up being told that we, us girls, can do whatever we want, and that just wasn’t the case for them.”

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