Spielberg's Olympic dreams becoming a reality
Steven Spielberg will focus on the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics for a feature to be written by Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump"). The director has begun casting, setting his "Schindler's List" star Ben Kingsley for a role.
The film doesn't have a title and remains shrouded in secrecy, even as Spielberg and his production crew lock down European locations for a June start date. Spielberg declined to comment on the project.
The 1972 Munich Olympics is most vividly remembered for the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian extremists. For Spielberg, the new film will be his first European shoot since "Saving Private Ryan." He has contemplated the project for some time, but it only became a reality over the past week.
ANOTHER HERO: Heading back into hero mode, Harrison Ford is set to star in "The Wrong Element." Ford will play the security chief for a global bank whose family is kidnapped. He's asked to topple his own security safeguards and steal $37 million from the bank to save his family. Then he has to stop the kidnappers, who've created a trail that will make him look guilty of embezzlement.
The film is the next project for Ford, whose plans to reprise his Indiana Jones role were dashed after he, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas felt they needed a new script.
ON TRACK: Clive Owen will star in "Derailed," to be directed by Mikael Hafstrom, who makes his English-language debut. The film is a thriller that centers on an advertising executive whose life takes an unpredictable turn when he misses his morning train to the office. Stuart Beattie ("Collateral") adapted the screenplay from James Siegel's novel.
Owen stars next in "King Arthur," opening in July, and in "Closer," scheduled for December.
IRONCLAD: "X-Men" scribe David Hayter has been signed to rewrite "Iron Man," which first appeared as a Marvel comic in 1962. It's the story of billionaire inventor Tony Stark, whose work in corporate espionage and international terrorism leads to an accident that forces him to go on life support in the form of high-tech body armor.
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, creators of "Smallville," wrote the previous draft. Hayter also wrote "X2," "The Scorpion King," and an adaptation of DC Comics' "The Watchmen."
Material from wire services was used in this report. 
