Everybody wants to make thrillers these days....

Everybody wants to make thrillers these days. West German director Wolfgang Petersen (“Das Boot”) starts production on his contemporary thriller, “Plastic Nightmare,” Jan. 8 in San Francisco. Tom Berenger stars as a man suffering from amnesia. The West German film maker will write, produce and direct for FilmAccord Productions. . . .

Meanwhile, negotiations continue for Kurt Russell to play the lead in “Ricochet,” an urban crime thriller for producer Joel Silver and HBO Productions. Fred Decker (“Monster Squad”) will write and direct. This film gets under way in January in L.A. . . .

Carl Weathers will play a hit man on the trail of a serial killer in the thriller “Fever of the Hunt” for Esparza/Katz Prods. The twist in Larry Cohen’s script is that Weathers has been hired by victims’ families. No director is yet set for the production which hopes to get under way in early 1990, probably in Texas. . . .

Corey Haim (“Lucas”) is currently tooling around Utah in “The Dream Machine”--actually a Porsche that, unknown to Haim’s character, contains the body of a murder victim in its trunk. Lyman Dayton directs the independent feature for International Creative Exchange. . . . Bruce Dern has signed to do his 50th feature film.

He co-stars with Jason Patric and Rachel Ward in Avenue Pictures’ “After Dark, My Sweet,” a contemporary drama directed by James Foley. Filming begins Monday. . . .

Busy Eileen Brennan, having completed “Stella,” “It Had to Be You” and “Texasville,” joins Susan Sarandon and James Spader in Universal’s “White Palace.” She plays Sarandon’s sister in this tale of a May-to-December romance. Lewis Mandoki (“Gaby”) directs. . . .