American Film magazine once called it one...

American Film magazine once called it one of the 10 most famous unproduced scripts in Hollywood; it was almost made several times, including once with Al Pacino. Now, finally, “America Me,” written by Floyd Mutrux 14 years ago, is going before the cameras this year. Edward James Olmos, who has rewritten Mutrux’s script, will direct and star in this drama about gangs in the U.S. penal system. Robert M. Young will produce and Universal will distribute in a negative pick-up deal.

Amanda Plummer and Mercedes Ruehl join Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges in Tri-Star’s “The Fisher King,” which director Terry Gilliam starts filming in New York May 21 for producers Lynda Obst and Debra Hill. Tom Waits and Harry Shearer have been cast in cameo roles. In the comic drama, written by Richard LaGravenese, Bridges plays a cynical shock deejay whose life is transformed by Williams, a charismatic ex-professor who lives on the streets of Manhattan and sees the world in medieval terms.

Joanne Whalley-Kilmer will star in “Early Days After” as an English housewife having trouble readjusting to her husband’s return from World War II. Simon Langton will direct the Landmark Entertainment Group production written by Trevor Bentham and produced by Peter Waggs. Production gets under way this summer in the U.K.

Andrew McCarthy has been set for Columbia’s “The Year of the Gun,” a political thriller set in Rome during the Red Brigade terrorism in 1978. John Frankenheimer directs David Ambroise’s script for producer Ed Pressman. Filming gets under way in Italy this August.

Carrie Snodgress will play Powers Boothe’s wife in Orion’s “Blue Sky,” a drama about army life in the ‘50s, which also stars Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones. Chris O’Donnell, who played Lange’s son in “Men Don’t Leave,” plays her daughter’s boyfriend in this film. Amy Locrane from “Cry-Baby” will play one of Lange’s daughters. Director Tony Richardson calls for action later this month in Alabama and Florida.

Greg Louganis joins Traci Lords--in her first lead role--John Vernon, Nick Cassavetes, Martin Kove and Joe Cortese in Abba Entertainment’s mystery whodunit, “Object of Desire.” Director Joel Sieberg rolls cameras for producer Jessica Rains (Claude Rains’ daughter) in Belize May 14.

Jennifer Tilly has a cameo in Oliver Stone’s “The Doors,” currently shooting in the Southland for Carolco.

Katharine Ross, Mia Sara, Steve Bauer and John Beck will star in Propoganda Films’ “A Row of Crows,” a murder-mystery with a love triangle written and to be directed by J.S. Cardone. The film, produced by Carol Kottenbrook, gets underway in Yuma, Ariz., in early June.

Rachel Talalay, who produced “Hair Spray,” “Cry-Baby” and two in New Line’s “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, now gets a chance to direct with “Nightmare 6.” The film is scheduled to shoot in early September.

Moshe Mizrahi, whose directing career in Israel and France has resulted in three films nominated for Oscars as best foreign film, including the Oscar-winning “Madame Rosa,” has come to Los Angeles to prepare for his first American film. “Paradise Man,” filming this fall mostly in New York (with some locations in France) for Rosa/Guy Prods. It is based on a detective novel by Jerome Charyn, an American writer more celebrated in France than here.