Dudley Moore and Richard Griffiths will star...

Dudley Moore and Richard Griffiths will star in Hollywood Pictures’ “Blame It on the Bellboy,” which will be filmed in Venice, Italy, this spring. In the script by British writer-director Mark Herman, a bellboy mixes up the hotel rooms for six guests with similar sounding names to everyone’s comic confusion.

Marlee Matlin will star in Eagle Entertainment’s “Fox,” a contemporary romantic fantasy which shoots in Ireland this fall. The screenplay, written and directed by Terry Kahn and produced by Lawrence Vanger and Ed Elbert, is adapted from a French novel, “Sylva” by Vercors, about a fox that escapes death by turning into a young woman.

Peter Boyle, Brent Jennings, Paxton Whitehead, James Le Gros and Kim Walker join Bill Pullman and Julie Brown in Grandview Avenue Pictures’ comedy “Nervous Ticks,” which is going into production locally. Rocky Lang directs David Frankel’s script for producer Arthur Goldblatt.

Paramount’s “Frankie & Johnny,” which began as a two-character play by Terrence McNally, is being expanded by McNally and director Garry Marshall into a film with 40 speaking roles. Recent additions to the Al Pacino-Michelle Pfeiffer film include Hector Elizondo, Kate Nelligan, Laurie Metcalf, Dedee Pfeiffer (Michelle’s younger sister) and Nathan Lane.

Cindy Herron of the rock group In Vogue and rapper Queen Latifah will make cameo performances in Island World Productions’ “Juice.” The coming-of-age story set in Harlem marks the feature directorial debut of Ernest Dickerson, cinematographer on Spike Lee’s last three films. Dickerson wrote the script with Gerard Brown. Producers are Neal Moritz and David Heyman; shooting starts March 13 in New York.

Cliff Robertson and Ned Vaughn of “China Beach” join Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey in the yacht racing drama “Wind.” Director Carroll Ballard is currently hoisting sails in Australia for Filmlink Int’l and Zoetrope.

Christian Bale, the young star of Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun,” and David Moscow, the boy who grew into Tom Hanks in “Big,” have landed roles in the Disney musical “Newsies,” which Kenny Ortega will direct and choreograph this April. Max Casella and Trey Parker have already been cast.