Cinefile

Blazing Magnums: Dirty Harry, filmdom’s toughest cop, will get his psycho and hopefully find a title for his fifth screen outing to shoot in San Francisco mid-February. Clint Eastwood, natch, stars in the yarn written by Steve Sharon, Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw and directed by Buddy Van Horn (“Any Which Way You Can”). . . . Oscar-winning makeup artist Chris Walas (for “The Fly”) makes his directing debut in “The Fly II: The Insect Awakens” for Brooksfilms and Fox to start in March. The Frank Darabont script picks up with the birth of Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis’ spawn. The producers are negotiating a Davis cameo. . . . Former “Fly” director David Cronenberg starts “Twins,” also for Fox, Feb. 1 with Genevieve Bujold cast as the actress who bewitches twin gynecologists played by Jeremy Irons. . . . And first “Fly” producer Stuart Cornfeld segues to make his directorial debut in April with “Hider in the House” for Vestron. Cornfeld describes it as “a tragic love story,” screenplay by Lem Dobbs.

Still on the sequel trail: Robert Solo and Phil Kaufman are preparing to co-produce a “new version” of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” which Kaufman directed as a remake in 1978. . . . Director Joe Dante has a March start in Atlanta and NYC on “Little Man Tate” for Fox, about a boy with a super intellect navigating in an adult world. Dante’s still searching for his title performer. . . . Denzel Washington plays a Caribbean cop investigating a murder in a tourist resort in “Finding Maubee” for A&M; and MGM. Filming begins mid-March in Jamaica with Carl Schenkel directing a script by Hampton Fancher. . . .

General Cinema is set to break ground for a six-screen complex in Dart Square, opposite the Beverly Center. . . . Jeff Daniels goes from a cameo as a stoned-out animal handler in Atlantic’s “1969” to a man consumed by his own mortality in HandMade’s “Checking Out”--David Leland directs Joe Eszterhas’ script to film next month. . . . Adrian Pasdar’s into Lorimar’s “Cookie” as Emily Lloyd’s boyfriend who’s unaware her mystery dad, Peter Falk, is a crime czar.

Gary Busey portrays gunslinger John Wesley Hardin’s last days in “Howling at the Moon.” The FilmDallas production shoots late spring in Texas and marks the theatrical directing debut of video film makers Godley and Creme.