German film maker Volker Schlondorff has been...

German film maker Volker Schlondorff has been tabbed by Paul Newman to direct the adaptation of Glendon Swarthout’s “The Homesman” at Columbia. The story centers on a man leading a group of mentally unbalanced women through the rugged American west of 1850. Naomi Foner (“Running on Empty”) is writing the screenplay for a planned fall 1989 production start. . . . . Touchstone’s “Hard Rain,” starring Tom Selleck as a man unjustly imprisoned, gets underway in early 1989 with director Peter Yates. The Larry Brothers screenplay is being produced by Bob Cort and Ted Field. . . . . Ralph Macchio will find out “How to Be a Hitman” next year after he completes his “Karate Kid III” chores. The Davis Entertainment production for Paramount will be directed by Italian Franco Amurri.

“Barfly” director Barbet Schroeder and actor Mickey Rourke re-team for “In the Life,” a yarn of a man working the mean streets of L.A. Playwright John Steppling wrote the script which films in March 1989. . . . . Gary Oldman stars as a mental patient being treated by doctor Dennis Hopper in Hemdale’s “Chatahoochie,” a black comedy written by James Hicks. Mick Jackson directs in Florida in late October. . . . . Beverly D’Angelo gets to trill as a lounge singer caught up in foreign intrigue in “The Cold Front,” for the Beacon Group. Allan Goldstein directs the Sean Allan screenplay next month in Vancouver. . . . . Jack Palance plays Chicago crime czar Carl Grissom in “Batman.” Grissom is screen hood Jack Napier’s boss. Napier’s the guy who, after an unwanted chemical dip, a bullet through the cheeks and plastic surgery, will emerge as the Joker, a.k.a. Jack Nicholson. . . . . Burt Young also goes crooked as a malevolent porn king in Limelight Entertainment’s “Medium Rare,” a black comedy written and directed by Paul Madden. Reid Shane produces for a late November start in L.A.

Peter Boyle, Tim Matheson, Mimi Kuzyk, the Smothers Brothers, Lee Van Cleef, Eugene Levy and Shari Belafonte-Harper join John Candy in Orion’s “One for the Money” cross-country car crash comedy.