Sheryl Lee Ralph has landed the lead...

Sheryl Lee Ralph has landed the lead lady role opposite Richard Dreyfuss in Hollywood Pictures’ “Randall & Juliet.” The film is another Americanization of a French comedy by Coline Serreau, whose “Three Men and a Cradle” was remade as “Three Men and a Baby.” The French version of “Randall & Juliet” opened here recently under the title “Mama, There’s a Man in Your Bed.” Ralph--who starred in the TV series “It’s a Living” and received a Tony nomination for “Dreamgirls” on Broadway--plays a cleaning woman who opens the eyes of a CEO to corporate back-stabbing. Serreau, who adapts her original script, will direct starting July 9. Laurence Marks produces.

With Sigourney Weaver signed for her third trip to outer-space hell and pre-production fast approaching, “Alien III” director Vincent Ward has thrown out the script. A 20th Century Fox official has confirmed that John Fasano is writing a completely new script based on an idea by the director, but added there is still hope for a September start-up. Ward, whose “The Navigator” received much critical acclaim, was brought aboard by producers Walter Hill, David Giler and Gordon Carroll after Renny Harlin bowed out. The rejected “Alien III” script--by David N. Twohy--concerns a prison ship in space and may yet be used for a future film, possibly even “Alien IV.”

Casting is now complete for “Scorchers,” a film written and to be directed by David Beaird, based on his play which ran for two years in L.A. Joining the previously announced cast of Faye Dunaway, James Earl Jones and Emily Lloyd are Jennifer Tilly, Denholm Elliott, James Wilder, Leland Crooke and Anthony Geary. The PRO FilmWorks production, financed by London’s Goldcrest Films and Television Ltd., goes before the cameras Monday in the bayous of southern Louisiana. The comedy/drama--produced by Moorie Eisenman and Richard Hellman--concerns two Cajun women, a bride who won’t sleep with her husband, and a married woman whose husband prefers the town hooker.

During filming, Dunaway will have to break away for a cameo appearance in Oliver Stone’s “The Doors.” Chevy Chase is also paged for a cameo in “L.A. Story,” which stars by Steve Martin and Victoria Tennant. Both Carolco films are currently shooting in L.A.

Billy Zane has the lead opposite Jennifer Beals in IRS Media’s rock ‘n’ roll comedy-drama “Blood and Concrete.” He plays a likable hood who meets Beals as she is trying to commit suicide. Harry Shearer has also been added to the cast by director Jeffrey Reiner, who co-wrote the script with Richard LaBrie. The film rolls in early May.

Dennis Haysbert--the voodoo practicing infielder in “Major League”--has replaced Eriq LaSalle as Michelle Pfeiffer’s love interest in the Orion-Sanford/Pillsbury drama, “Love Field.” LaSalle only recently replaced Denzel Washington, who dropped out due to differences over the script. Shooting continues in North Carolina under the direction of Jonathan Kaplan.

Keith Coogan (Jackie Coogan’s grandson) has been cast as Christina Applegate’s brother in “The Real World.” Stephen Herek directs Neil Landau and Tara Ison’s script about a young woman leaving high school to get out in the real world. Warners will distribute in a negative pick-up deal with Outlaw Prods. in association with Mercury Douglas.

Another Jim Thompson novel heads for the big screen, joining “The Grifters,” “After Dark, My Sweet,” “The Kill Off” and “South of Heaven.” American Road Productions has acquired film rights to “Cropper’s Cabin,” a romantic thriller set in Oklahoma in the 1950s about an affair between a sharecropper’s son and a wealthy Indian’s daughter. Lorenzo DeStefano is writing the screenplay for producers Don Guest and Debra Capogrosso.

Moshe Mizrahi, who has directed three Oscar-nominated foreign language films (and one winner, “Madame Rosa”), is in L.A. preparing his first American film. “Paradise Man,” shooting this fall mostly in New York (with some locations in France), is based on a detective novel by Jerome Charyn, an American writer much celebrated in France. Casting for Rosa/Guy Prods. will get under way shortly.

Audrey Meadows, one of the original “Honeymooners,” will play a madam in Red Rock Prods.’ “Thunder and Lighting,” which stars martial artist Larry Tatum. Production begins May 7.