BBC - Movies -news article - High Noon

		Indy Goes Fourth? Bad news for Indiana Jones fans: the fires of development hell are still singeing the fourth instalment in the creaky old franchise. Scribe Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can) has been hired by director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas to whip the much-anticipated film into shape after an earlier draft by a different writer was rejected. Spielberg, Lucas and ageing star Harrison Ford have been waiting for a decade to make the fourth and (presumably) final film in the series. But with Spielberg already committed to delivering Tom Cruise sci-fi flick War Of The Worlds for 2005, we might have to wait a few years more before Ford dons the fedora again. Indiana Jones and the Geriatric Home Of Doom, anyone?

		Snake Chambers Speaking of snakes - OK so we weren't, but you Indiana Jones fans will get the joke - there's news just in that helmer David R Ellis (Final Destination 2) is replacing Ronny Yu (The 51st State) on aviation thriller Snakes On A Plane. It's the story of an assassin who unleashes a box full of deadly snakes on a packed passenger jet over the Pacific Ocean in order to kill a witness in protective custody. The pilot and passengers have to fight off the slippery serpents until they land.

		Woo Wants Dummies John Woo is such a fan of the ultimate bluffer's guide that he's making a movie about it. The Hong Kong action director is eyeing up Espionage For Dummies, a comedy caper based on the ubiquitous "For Dummies" series of books. Written by Starsky & Hutch scribe Stevie Long it's a larf-a-minute tale of a high school principal who's mistaken for a US super spy and has to bluff his way through the world of international espionage. "It is a great marriage. We tell our readers that with a little help from us, they can do anything. This story takes that promise to the extreme, with lots of laughter and action in the process," says Marc Mikulich, Vice President of Brand Management at "For Dummies's" publishers Wiley. Sounds like someone's been reading "Desperate Filmmaking Ideas For Dummies" to us.

		It's An Odyssey! Not content with adapting classic children's novel Harry Potter for the silver screen, producer Andrew Heyman is turning his attention to a less contemporary classic - Homer's The Odyssey. Obviously not one for modesty, Heyman thinks his planned film version can improve on the original: "What appeals to me about our approach is that we're telling the story from the point of view of Telemachus, who is Odysseus' son. This enables us to have a youthful view of the greatest adventure ever told... At its core, it's about the relationship between father and son." And absolutely nothing to do with cashing in on the international box office bonanza of Troy, naturally.

		Extra! Extra! Michael Mann is producing The Kingdom with helmer Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), a Middle Eastern thriller about a team of US agents investigating a bombing. Controversy? What controversy? Brittany Murphy's in trouble after joking about the size of Just Married co-star Aston Kutcher's manhood. Speaking about Kutcher's relationship with older woman Demi Moore, Murphy said: "I suppose that the crux of their relationship is that, to him, age doesn't matter and, to her, size doesn't matter." Oops. And, after weeks of speculation, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has officially signed on to play Johnny Depp's swashbuckling dad in the Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Treasures Of The Lost Abyss. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum (or anything else, for that matter).