FIRST OFF . . .

“Two Jakes,” the long-delayed sequel to the celebrated film “Chinatown,” will begin shooting early next month in Los Angeles, according to a source close to the production. The Paramount film re-teams producer Robert Evans, screenwriter Robert Towne and star Jack Nicholson, who will direct and reprise his starring role as Jake Gittes, the private eye who got involved in the deadly L.A. water wars of the 1930s. “Two Jakes” came within about a week of filming in the spring of 1985, coming apart over “creative differences” after running up more than $1.5 million in pre-production costs. The sequel is set in the late ‘40s, about a dozen years after the first film, and involves oil and a scheme that finds Gittes an unwitting accomplice to a killing.