Connery Row

Sources tell us that Sean Connery--currently busy filming “The Hunt for Red October” for Paramount--will also star in Pathe Entertainment’s adaptation of John Le Carre’s current best seller, “The Russia House.” Producer Paul Maslansky is now in the Soviet Union negotiating to shoot there--Le Carre’s novels have recently become popular in the U.S.S.R.

Connery will portray a publisher--in close contact with a Soviet scientist--who reluctantly agrees to help British intelligence grapple with matters affecting the delicate East-West balance.

Adapted by playwright Tom Stoppard, the production is scheduled to begin filming in London in November. Fred Schepisi will direct for release by Warner Bros.