German filmmaker Werner Herzog again tackles the...

German filmmaker Werner Herzog again tackles the theme of humans overcome by their landscape in “Scream of Stone,” a German production getting under way in Argentina later this month. Donald Sutherland, Brad Dourif and Matilda May star in this tale of mountain climbers who attempt to scale the highest peak in Patagonia. Walter Saxer produces.

The great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune will play Lou Diamond Phillips’ father and Jennifer Tilly his girlfriend in “Agaguk,” a 1930s tale about the first Eskimo to leave his tribe. Director Jacques Dorfman rolls cameras in Alaska and Canada the first week in November.

Matthew Broderick will star in Interscope Productions’ “Welcome to Buzz Saw,” a dark comedy written by Joshua and Daniel Goldin (brothers who share in the writing credits on “Darkman”). Francis Veber, one of France’s top comedic writer-directors, will direct while Robert Cort and Scott Kroopf produce in an as-yet-undetermined Northwestern location in December or January. Universal will distribute.

Maureen O’Hara will end a 19-year exile from feature films Oct. 1 when she plays John Candy’s mother in Hughes Entertainment/ Fox’s “Only the Lonely.” Writer-director Chris Columbus’ story concerns a cop who lives with his mom. Bert Remsen has also joined the cast of the film, which John Hughes will executive produce in his hometown of Chicago.

In Paramount’s comedy “Soap Dish,” Sally Field plays a star, Robert Downey Jr. a producer and Whoopi Goldberg a writer of a popular soap opera. Michael Hoffman will direct and Aaron Griefman will produce from a script by Robert Harling. Start date is pending.

Armand Assante has been cast in CineTel’s “Past Midnight,” a thriller written by novelist Frank Norwood about a pregnant woman who discovers the man she’s about to marry is a rapist-murderer. Jan Eliasberg will direct for producers Lisa Hansen and Paul Hertzberg. Start date is January, 1991.

Helen Slater joins Billy Crystal, Bruno Kirby and Daniel Stern in Castle Rock/Nelson Entertainment’s “City Slickers,” now going before director Ron Underwood’s cameras in Santa Fe, N.M., and later Durango, Col., and Los Angeles. Rounding out the cast are Jack Palance, Kyle Secor, Dean Hallo, Josh Mostel, Daniel Taymer, Karla Tamburrelli, Bill Henderson and Lindsay Crystal (Billy’s daughter). Irby Smith produces and Crystal serves as executive producer for this Lowell Ganz/Babaloo Mandel story about three city dudes who go on a cattle drive.

Griffin Dunne and Hillary Wolf begin work tomorrow in Mammoth, Calif., in Mitchell Entertainment/New Line Cinema’s “Step Kids,” a comedy about stepchildren and their parents written by Frank Magavero, directed by Joan Micklin Silver and produced by Melissa Goddard, Peter Morgan, Laurie Perlman and Jerry Olson.

Correction: Tom Sizemore is the actor who has one of the lead roles in producer Mario Sotela’s “Where Sleeping Dogs Lie.” The name of the director is Charles Finch.