HERE WE GO AGAIN

Cannon Films is readying an April shoot for “52 Pickup,” from Elmore Leonard’s 1974 crime novel, with John Frankenheimer directing Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret and John Glover. But . . . Leonard told writer Bob Ellison in Gallery magazine that Cannon’s “The Ambassador” (1984, Rock Hudson’s last film, now playing on cable) sprung from the same book--purchased in 1978 by Menahem Golan, before he bought Cannon with Yoram Globus.

Golan turned Leonard’s story of a wealthy Detroit businessman fighting the porn underworld into a Mideast war suspenser--and Leonard nipped his name from the credits. “There was absolutely no resemblance to any part of the story or any of the characters,” Leonard told Gallery.

When Outtakes contacted Globus, he flatly denied any connection between “Ambassador” and the book--until apprised of Leonard’s remarks. He recanted: “In the beginning, we wanted to adapt the book, you’re right. But as the adaptation went on, we decided we didn’t want to blow a bestselling book on an Israeli subject.”

“52 Pickup,” he promised, will be as different from “The Ambassador” as “the moon and the Earth.”