Indefatigable John Candy has signed to star...

Indefatigable John Candy has signed to star in “Only the Lonely,” a “Marty”-like comedy-drama which Chris Columbus will write and direct for Fox. John Hughes will produce, which usually means a Chicago location. However, this time San Francisco is a possibility. Filming begins this fall. “Only the Lonely” will go into production after Candy finishes work on “Git,” a Warner Bros. fantasy that co-stars pals Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase.

Dueling “Bojangles”: Two independent film biographies of one of American’s most beloved musical performers, Bill Robinson, head for the screen. Ben Vereen will play the title role in “Bojangles,” for producers Esther Luttrell (who wrote the script), Larry Luttrell and Paul Kennedy (who will also choreograph) in association with Kensuke Haga. Donald O’Connor will play Marty Forkins, Robinson’s agent and confidante. Discussions are under way with Debbie Allen to direct. Production is slated for July, possibly in Florida . . . Meanwhile, writer-producer-director Clyde Ware has cast jazz singer and actor Scotty Wright as Robinson in “Top of the World,” his Robinson “biopic.” Hall of Fame hockey great Phil Esposito has agreed to play Harry Houdini, who was a friend of Robinson’s. Ware hopes to film this fall. . . .

The Dillon brothers--Matt and Kevin--and Anthony Michael Hall have worked closely with writer Phil Fahey to develop “Tommy Gun,” as a starring vehicle for all three actors. The film, a co-production between Ed Pressman and Wild Street Productions, shoots this fall in New York under Adam Friedman’s direction. Fahey’s script, based on a true story, deals with two petty thieves who get in over their heads with a major criminal. Jamie Grossman and Josh Young produce while Ed Pressman and Paul White executive produce. . . .

Robin Williams, veteran producer Jerome Hellman and Japanese investor Haruki Kadokawa are developing Frank Parken’s novel “Krippendorf’s Tribe,” a black comedy about an anthropologist who invents an imaginary tribe in the Amazon. Paul Bartel and Dick Blackburn, his “Eating Raoul” collaborator, will script and Bartel will direct. Sources say Williams has not signed to play the anthropologist, but may if he likes the script. . . .

Brandon Lee, son of the late Bruce Lee, will star in “The Red Pole,” for Fox and producers Robert Lawrence and John Fasano. Cindy Cirile is writing the tale of a martial artist who comes up against the Hong Kong crime syndicate New York. (In Chinese Mafia lingo “red pole” means “enforcer.”)

Samuel Goldwyn Jr., fresh off the remake of his father’s film, “Stella Dallas,” wants to remake two more films from the Goldwyn library, “Ball of Fire” (1942) and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1947).