In Hollywood

Associated Press

Movies

LOS ANGELES — The devil is planning a comeback in Hollywood.

Filmmakers began casting Wednesday for a prequel to the Academy Award-winning 1973 horror film “The Exorcist,” which chronicled an aging priest’s fight to save a possessed girl.

In the original film, Max Von Sydow played Father Merrin, who reveals that he encountered the same demon during his time as a missionary in Africa.

The prequel, tentatively titled “The Exorcist: Dominion,” will follow this early battle between the young missionary and the evil spirit, according to Morgan Creek Productions.

It’s unknown whether the 71-year-old Von Sydow will have a role in the new movie.

Warner Bros., which re-released “The Exorcist” last year with never-before-seen footage, plans to distribute “Dominion.”

This would be the fourth movie in “The Exorcist” series. The original was followed by “Exorcist II: The Heretic” in 1977 and “The Exorcist III” in 1990.

LOS ANGELES — Films about show dogs, ballet dancers, Asian warriors and record-store geeks were among nominees for best screenplay by the Writers Guild of America.

The guild nominations are a good indicator for how Academy Award screenplay nominations might shake out next Tuesday. A surprise nominee for original screenplay was “Best in Show,” a spoof about prize-winning dogs by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy. “Gladiator,” a best-picture front-runner for the Oscars, was not nominated.

Other nominees announced Wednesday for original screenplay were:
“Almost Famous,” the music memoir written by Cameron Crowe; the British dance flick “Billy Elliot” by Lee Hall; the legal drama “Erin Brockovich” by Susannah Grant; and “You Can Count On Me,” a sibling-reunion tale by Kenneth Lonergan.

Nominated for best adapted screenplay were:
“Chocolat,” by Robert Nelson Jacobs, based on Joanne Harris’ novel about an itinerant chocolatier; the Chinese martial-arts epic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” by Wang Hui-Ling, James Schamus and Tsai Kuo Jung, based on Wang Du Lu’s book; the record-shop romance “High Fidelity,” by D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack and Scott Rosenberg, based on Nick Hornby’s novel; the drug-trade saga “Traffic” by Stephen Gaghan, based on a British TV miniseries; and the campus drama “Wonder Boys” by Steve Kloves, based on Michael Chabon’s novel.

The 53rd annual Writers Guild Awards take place March 4.

SALEM, Ore. — Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones will film “The Hunted” in Portland and in Silver Falls State Park, The Statesman Journal reported.

Filming will begin in mid-March and will take about 10 weeks to complete. William Friedkin (“The Exorcist,” “Rules of Engagement”) will direct the action-thriller.

Jones plays an FBI “deep-woods tracker” who captures an assassin (Benicio Del Toro). When Del Toro escapes, Jones must team up with a female FBI agent (Connie Nielsen) to find the assassin before he comes after them.

The crew will spend two weeks shooting at Silver Falls, Oregon’s largest state park, 26 miles east of Salem. The park will figure prominently in the film, said Liza McQuade of the Oregon Film and Video Office in Portland.

“It’s a very big budget, so we’re very pleased they chose Oregon,” McQuade said.

Music

LOS ANGELES — Carlos Santana and Mary J. Blige will receive the Rock the Vote Patrick Lippert Awards on Feb. 20 at the House of Blues.

Santana will be honored for his support of the rights of indigenous peoples and for his work with the Milagro Foundation, which he and his wife started in 1998 to help young people.

Blige will be recognized for her community activism with groups including the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the Special Olympics.

In making the announcement this week, Rock the Vote founder and record industry executive Jeff Ayeroff said Santana and Blige embody “the spirit of community activism that is being embraced by youth across America.”

The event, open to the public, will include a live performance by the Foo Fighters. MTV personality Tyrese will be the host.
Previous honorees include Neil Young, Wyclef Jean, Sting, Bono, R.E.M., Pearl Jam and Queen Latifah.

Awards

NEW YORK — “My Dog Skip,” “Billy Elliot,” “Finding Forrester,” “Remember the Titans” and “Cast Away” were named winners of the 52nd annual Christopher Awards as films that “affirm the highest values of the human spirit.”

Television and cable winners include an episode of NBC’s “The West Wing” called “Take This Sabbath Day,” the History Channel’s “Founding Fathers,” the PBS documentary “American Experience: Eleanor Roosevelt,” TNT’s “Baby,” PBS-TV’s “Seeing Red,” TNT’s “Freedom Song” and HBO’s “Cancer: Evolution to Revolution.”

Winners in the books for adults and young people categories also were announced Tuesday. The awards will be presented Feb. 22.

Books

BERLIN — While Oskar Schindler’s efforts to save Jews from Adolf Hitler’s death camps are well known, thanks to the movie “Schindler’s List,” a new book tries to show that his wife was just as involved in shielding Jews from the Nazis.

Argentinian author Erika Rosenberg says the biography will highlight Emilie Schindler’s bravery during World War II when her husband saved more than 1,000 Jews from the Holocaust.

“She took the same risks with her life as her husband,” Rosenberg said during a recent visit.

“Ich, Emilie Schindler” (“I, Emilie Schindler”), a German-language book, is scheduled for publication this fall.

Emilie Schindler, now 93 and living in Argentina, was “a good angel” to many Jews, Rosenberg said.

Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist, saved Jews by drawing up lists with fictitious jobs in his factory in Nazi-occupied Poland. He and his wife emigrated to Argentina in 1949. Oskar Schindler left her in 1958 and returned to Germany, where he died in 1974.