Cinefile

Emilio Estevez will star in Brooksfilm’s “Ask the Dust,” to film in April. Daniel Vigne (“Return of Martin Guerre”) directs playwright John Fante’s script on a young man’s struggle to survive in the ‘30s. . . . On a less serious note: Mel Brooks is developing a Wall Street comedy--tentatively titled: “Money, Money, Money”--for himself and Rick Moranis as, respectively, an unscrupulous broker and a wide-eyed newcomer who loses his innocence in the trading pits. . . . Upon completing his role as Sherlock Holmes in the currently filming “Sherlock and Me,” Michael Caine retains his Victorian garb as the police inspector tracking “Jack the Ripper” for Lorimar. CBS will air in the U.S. and four endings are planned to keep the actors in the dark about whodunit. . . .

Yes, that Elton John who’s credited as “production associate” on Island’s “The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne” is the Elton John. Producer Peter Nelson said John, a close friend of exec producer George Harrison, wanted to be involved with the production of Nelson’s adaptation of the Brian Moore novel. . . . Director Dan Petrie (“Dollmaker,” “Resurrection”) had lined up Burt Lancaster for Petrie’s production “The Suspect” (no relation to Cher’s “Suspect”)--then project financing fell out and the actor went on to Columbia’s “Rocket Gibraltar.” But a week into the “Rocket” shoot, director Amos Poe split over “artistic differences” and Lancaster told the producers he just happened to know a good director who was free. And Petrie got the job! . . .

Busy Gene Hackman plays an FBI investigator in “Mississippi Burning,” to go before the cameras in February. Focusing on the true-life 1964 murder of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Miss., the Fred Zollo-Robert Colesberry production will be directed by Alan Parker with Robert Duvall set for a major role.