When last we inquired about “The Dead...

When last we inquired about “The Dead Poet’s Society” at Touchstone, it was in limbo awaiting a commitment from Dustin Hoffman to direct/act as a flamboyant teacher who inspires his classes in the classics. Now, comes word the dormant project has been revived with Robin Williams. The Tom Schulman script has also attracted director Peter Weir and will film in November. . . . Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn are set to star in Fox’s “The Abyss” for writer-director James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd. To film mid-August in South Carolina. The slightly futuristic romantic thriller takes place on a remote sea mining station, with conflict between bosses and humans genetically bred with gills who mine the sea floor.

John Cusack has a Marine’s last fling prior to Vietnam duty in 1963 in Atlantic’s “Dogfight.” Writer Bob Comfort’s romantic-comedy has a fall start in San Diego, with Michael Dinner directing for producers Peter Newman and Lewis Allen. . . . Concorde’s “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II”--a Lance Smith script filming locally next week in Venice--brings back the creators of the 1959 “Little Shop of Horrors” but with slightly different roles. Director Roger Corman is now producing and writer Charles B. Griffith has assumed the director’s mantle. A sword and sorcery tale about a young shepherd (Bobby Jacoby) instructed by a powerful wizard to eliminate several earthly evils. Mel Welles--the flower shop owner in “Horrors”--is an inept wizard, David Carradine a powerful, friendly warrior.

CineCorrection: A Turner Broadcasting spokesman said the company never had plans to colorize its 1929 Greta Garbo feature, “The Kiss,” as we were CineMistakenly informed.

The family that plays . . . The Moores--Dudley and Brogan (Lane)--will fall in love in “Sketch Life,” a comedy about a writer whose imagination literally runs wild on screen. Writer Stan Daniels will make his directing debut in the Peter Shaw production to film in NYC in September.