Robert De Niro will star in and...

Robert De Niro will star in and executive produce “Mistress,” a film that will mark the feature directorial debut of actor Barry Primus. The dark comedy, written by J.F. Lawton and Primus, is about a filmmaker trying to get his project off the ground. Produced by Meir Teper and Ruth Charny, it gets under way this fall. Distribution is pending.

Keanu Reeves stars as a detective in the action-thriller “Riders on the Storm” (a.k.a. “Johnny Utah”), which Kathryn Bigelow will direct starting July 9. Largo Entertainment recently acquired rights to the project after Columbia put it in turnaround. Peter Abrams and Robert Levy will produce from a script by Peter Iliff, James Cameron (who is also executive producer) and Bigelow. Fox will distribute.

Peter O’Toole is a villainous ex-British soldier who returns to Israel to hunt for treasure in Orbit Entertainment’s “Worlds Apart.” Karen Black and Navin Chowdhry co-star for Israeli director Dror Soref, who co-wrote the script with Michael Lewis. The film, produced by Lee Nelson, shoots in Jerusalem’s Old City starting the end of June.

Rosanna Arquette will star in “The Linguine Incident,” a female buddy film shooting Oct. 8 in New York and L.A. for GO Entertainment. Richard Shepherd wrote and will direct the romantic comedy for producers Arnold Orgolini and Sarah Jackson.

Madeleine Stowe replaces Isabella Rossellini in Imagine’s “Closet Land,” a low-budget film with an anti-torture theme. Radha Bharadwaj directs from her own script later this spring.

Willard Pugh joins Lou Diamond Phillips and Haing S. Ngor in Spirit Films’ “Mind Game,” a thriller that Phillips also wrote. Scott D. Goldstein directs starting June 11.

Tanya Roberts stars in “Down and Dirty,” a thriller written by husband Barry Roberts for Amritraj Entertainment. Robert Davi plays a P.I. who helps Roberts when she gets framed for murder. The still-uncast villain is the flamboyant head of a drug-laundering S&L.; Director Jag Mundhra and producer Ashok Amritraj launch production in L.A. later this month.

Bill Fishman replaces Neil Israel as the director of Orion’s film version of the old TV series “Car 54 Where Are You?” written by Erik Tarloff and produced by Robert Solo.