SCANDALOUS

Three Hollywood outsiders who have at times worked within the Hollywood Establishment will try to film “Indecent Exposure,” David McClintick’s 1982 best-selling book about the innermost workings of the film industry, revolving around the 1977 financial scandal involving then-Columbia Pictures production president David Begelman. The team: producer Elliott Kastner, director John Avildsen and screenwriter Jack Willis.

McClintick told us that plans to adapt his book have been kept under wraps for some time. And he remained circumspect. “I do not own the property,” he said, “and I’m observing simple rules of business etiquette to allow the owners to announce their plans.”

Willis, a NYC-based TV producer, documentary film maker and writer of TV docudramas, confirmed his hiring by Kastner; a script’s due early next year. His focus so far, he said, is on the power struggles for control of the studio between Alan Hirschfield, then Columbia president and CEO, and its board of directors.

Maverick producer Kastner (“Harper,” “Missouri Breaks,” “Angel Heart”) was home in London and could not be reached for comment at press time. “Indecent Exposure” is not his only project about the inner workings of the film business. He also has the rights to Norman Mailer’s 1950’s novel about the Hollywood community, “The Deer Park,” with Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne adapting.

Sources say Avildsen’s participation hinges on his script approval. No studio is yet involved.