SANDLER TARGETTING NEXT FILM
As New Line opened his latest comedy Little Nicky, Adam Sandler’s zeroing in on his next film. He is in talks to join a modestly budgeted New Line comedy, to be directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, from a script the Boogie Nights director wrote especially for Sandler, and Oscar-nominated actress Emily Watson.

While Sandler recently eyed another comedy, penned by his writing partner Tim Herlihy, which began as an homage to Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, but became different enough that it’ll be considered an original work, it’s unclear whether he’ll make that film before or after anticipated strikes next summer by actors and writers.

Anderson’s comedy is small by comparison and easier to ramp up quickly. New Line, which contracted for Sandler’s next slot, is likely to be involved with both, and had been in coproduction talks with Columbia on the Herlihy film.

FORD SEPARATES FROM WIFE OF 17 YEARS
Harrison Ford has separated from his wife of 17 years, screenwriter Melissa Mathison, but their split has nothing to do with “false and inaccurate” tabloid reports linking him romantically to actress Lara Flynn Boyle.

In a joint statement, Ford and Mathison said, “We have been living apart for the past month. We sincerely hope we can work out our differences. We would appreciate it if the media and the public would respect this as a very painful time for both of us, and consider this a private matter henceforth.”

News of the split followed recent tabloid stories suggesting an affair between Ford, 58, and Boyle, 30, the raven-haired co-star of ABC’s legal drama The Practice, who has dated veteran actor Jack Nicholson. Those accounts had Ford and Boyle sharing conversation and drinks at a celebrity-packed nightclub party in Manhattan last month.

But Ford’s manager and publicist said there was nothing romantic about the encounter, and she denied reports that the two took a carriage ride together afterward. “That’s silly. He met her at that event that they were at, and he never saw her again,” she said, “I don’t know how they invent those things.” She added that Ford’s marital problems were not related to any third-party relationship.

Boyle herself dismissed reports of a fling with Ford as “pure poppycock” in an interview published in the latest issue of US Weekly magazine.

Ford, whose most famous roles include the swaggering Star Wars space pirate Han Solo, and the rugged adventurer Indiana Jones in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, married Mathison, 50, in March 1983. They met in 1976 while she was working as an assistant on the set of Apocalypse Now. She went on to become a successful screenwriter, earning an Oscar nomination for 1982’s hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She also wrote Kundun (1997) and The Black Stallion (1979).
The couple have two children, Malcolm, 13, and Georgia, 10. Ford also has two adult sons, Benjamin, 34, and Willard, 31, from his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1979.

Ford and Mathison chose to go public with their separation because of “a number of false and inaccurate media reports that have recently appeared in the tabloid press,” the publicist said.

TITANIC STAR WINSLET CAUGHT IN FLOODS
British actress Kate Winslet, star of the blockbuster film Titanic, was immersed in a real water drama when floods threatened her riverside home. Winslet, who gave birth to daughter Mia last month, and husband Jim Threapleton, are hoping sandbags will protect their historic home on an island in the River Thames, in southern England, from perilously high flood waters. “If it gets any worse, we will have to think about evacuating. We are just keeping our fingers crossed,” Threapleton was quoted as saying.

Thousands of Britons have been forced out of their homes over the last few weeks by the country’s worst floods in 50 years. Winslet and Threapleton were virtually marooned when the only road connecting the island to the mainland was rendered impassable by floodwaters.

Winslet is not the only celebrity affected by the rising waters. Boyzone singer Ronan Keating, talkshow host Michael Parkinson and Australian entertainer Rolf Harris also have homes in flooded areas. The situation is unlikely to ease soon, with many parts of Britain so waterlogged that even the briefest of downpours could trigger flooding.

ENOUGH FOR LOPEZ
Jennifer Lopez and Michael Apted are in negotiations to star in and direct, respectively, Enough, which follows a newly married young woman’s descent into domestic violence. The Columbia Pictures project is based on a spec script by Nicholas Kazan (Bicentennial Man).

Apted most recently helmed the hit James Bond film The World Is Not Enough for MGM, while Lopez starred in the New Line frightener The Cell. Her next film, The Wedding Planner, bows in January via Columbia.

In Enough, Columbia is going once more to the suspense well, grabbing elements from Julia Roberts’ Sleeping With the Enemy and Ashley Judd’s Double Jeopardy. When the bride’s dream man becomes a mortal danger to her, she flees. Realising he’ll never stop pursuing her, she begins martial-arts training in preparation for a final, deadly showdown. Columbia acquired the script in February for nearly $1 million. Kazan is one of the writers encompassed by parent firm Sony Pictures’ unique writers pact, under which the studio grants certain screenwriters two per cent participation in a picture’s gross receipts.

CONAN SET TO CONQUER AGAIN
Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to Conan The Barbarian, and plans to mount a feature that will be written and directed by John Milius, the director of the original 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger film. The deal is worth a mid-six figure advance, against a payout north of $2 million if the film is made.
Milius, who wrote the original Universal Pictures film with Oliver Stone, has talked with Schwarzenegger about coming back in some capacity, though they are still working out the story, and it’s unclear how prominent a role the actor would play.

The Matrix writers-directors Larry and Andy Wachowski will co-create the concept with Milius, and are eyeing directing the second unit on the film.
Early talks with WWF champion grappler Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to wield a sword in the pic looks to have gone by the wayside, as Johnson committed to a $5.5 million deal with Universal to star in The Scorpion King, an action film that is a prequel to The Mummy 2.

Although Universal did two Conan films with Schwarzenegger in the 1980s, the rights to the Robert E. Howard-created character were controlled by Stan Lee Media, when it purchased Conan Properties in a stock swap. Stan Lee Media has had a number of suitors for Conan, among them Fox, Columbia, Revolution, Dimension, Beacon and Universal.

The Wachowskis, who have been longtime fans of the pic, will juggle their pre-production involvement with their plans to mount two sequels to The Matrix, a process complicated by the threat of strikes next summer by both the Writers and Screen Actors Guilds.

DOWNEY JR. TURNS UP ON CHRISTMAS CD
From jailbird to songbird. Since his release from prison in August, actor Robert Downey Jr. is wasting no time immersing himself in all areas of the entertainment business. As he mulls movie offers, Downey is currently on TV in a recurring role on legal comedy Ally McBeal, and he is about to enter the music world with the spin-off album, A Very Ally Christmas, which is due in stores soon.

Downey sings a cover version of Joni Mitchell’s River and the seasonal chestnut White Christmas, the latter a duet with the show’s musical supervisor, Vonda Shepard. “He’s such a good actor and it translates musically as well,” Shepard said in a recent interview. “I think his passion and his pain and his longing come out through his voice.”

Downey is currently being seen on the big screen in the critically acclaimed Michael Douglas drama Wonder Boys, which bombed earlier in the year, and is getting re-released in order to boost its chances of Academy Award nominations.