Cinefile

Marlon Fishing: Reps at MGM confirmed final details are being tied up for Brando (last seen in 1980’s “The Formula”) to appear in “Dry White Season,” a drama set in South Africa to film in May. Euzhan Palcy (“Sugar Cane Alley”) directs and Donald Sutherland will co-star. . . .

Producer Arnold Kopelson follows “Platoon” with “Warlock,” a thriller about a 17th-Century demon who flees into the modern world. Steve Miner directs the D. T. Twohy screenplay. It starts Feb. 3 in Boston for New World. Cast are Julian Sands in the title role, Richard Grant (“Withnail and I”) as his pursuer and Lori Singer. . . . Diane Keaton will star in the film version of Sue Miller’s best-seller “The Good Mother.” Leonard Nimoy directs the Michael Bortman script about a messy custody battle for Touchstone, to film in April in Boston and Toronto. . . . Burt Lancaster’s been cast in RAI’s “The Betrothed,” an epic Italian miniseries now filming in Rome. Lancaster reports in several months to play Cardinal Borromeo in the 17th-Century love story, which also stars F. Murray Abraham and Alberto Sordi. . . .

In case you wondered: Director John Waters insisted on using Aqua Net for his forthcoming New Line release “Hairspray.” . . . “22 Romance,” the story of a repressed librarian who becomes pen pal to a convict, not only earned Randi Allison Mayem UCLA Extension’s first Diane Thomas Screenwriting Award, it also picked up a $100,000-plus option from Orion Pictures for the KFI news reporter. Star Dennis Quaid will co-produce with Kathleen Summers. . . . “Atuk,” writer Mordecai Richler’s yarn of an Eskimo who arrives in the big city and becomes an instant media celebrity, starts production next month in Toronto. Alan Metter (“Back to School”) directs the United Artists’ production, which stars stand-up comic Sam Kinison. . . .

Laird Hamilton takes over Dolph Lundgren’s He-Man role in Cannon’s “Masters of the Universe II.” Albert Pyun directs the sequel, which takes the superhero to Earth disguised as a football quarterback.