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Manoj Shyamalan for Indiana Jones!

Manoj 'Night' Shyamalan, meet Indiana Jones

The Indian with the Sixth Sense has been roped in to script the fourth instalment of the Indiana Jones saga.

The usual suspects -- producer John Lucas, director Steven Spielberg, star Harrison Ford -- are all present and accounted for in the lineup for this one.

Catch being it will be a while before Shyamalan actually puts pen to paper -- the hottest ticket around Hollywood these days (the hugely-hyped $5 million contract with Disney has had quite a few of his peers turning an interesting shade of green) has a schedule like you wouldn't believe. So it will be well into 2001 before work begins on the script.

For actor Harrison Ford, the revival of the Jones saga comes as a bit of a relief. He was slated to star in the film version of Tom Clancy's Sum Of All Fears. Piece of cake you'd think, given that Ford has pretty much defined the part of Jack Ryan in two earlier Clancy thrillers. But after Paramount Pictures spent a cool couple of million dollars in script-writing talent to precision-engineer the script to suit Ford, the actor decided he didn't like it. Sherry Lansing will produce for Paramount. And buzz around the Boulevard is that Ben Affleck has been hired to replace Ford in the film.

Damned Demme!

I'll be damned' could well be his motto in the event, the unlikely event, that Jonathan Demme ever gets knighted.

Talk of indecision. The man just can't seem to make up his mind. The Silence Of The Lambs sequel, Hannibal, was offered to him on a plate. He passed it. He was on the inside track to create Hollywood's next great long-running property, Harry Potter. He turned his nose up at that one.

Then he figured he wanted to remake the Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn thriller Charade, and hit upon Will Smith and Thandie Newton for the lead roles.

Then Newton got herself pregnant. But Demme refuses to budge, saying he wants Thandie, the full Thandie, and nothing but Thandie, for the Aubrey Hepburn part.

Call that hard to please? Elizabeth Taylor in a jewellery shop has nothing on Demme!

Beatty can wait!

The world of heavyweight boxing came damn near to losing its premier stud, Muhammad Ali, as far back as 1978. Apparently, Warren Beatty, it turns out, had his eye on the guy with the sting like a bee, for the lead role in Heaven Can Wait. Beatty did the part himself only after the former Cassius Clay turned it down, expressing a preference for the boxing arena instead.

Stand by for the updated, new, improved version of Heaven Can Wait, titled Down To Earth. This time round, they aren't eyeing Evander Holyfield for the lead role, though -- that honour goes to Chris Rock, who gets his name in the screen-writing credits as well.