A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : CASTING CALL : Andy Garcia, Godfather to Rain Forests

Andy Garcia as slain environmental activist Chico Mendes?

It’s still under negotiation and sources say the schedule of the production remains a roadblock, but Garcia has been asked to star in “Chico,” a Warner Bros. production about the life of Mendes, a peasant who captured the world’s attention with his valiant attempts to save Brazil’s rain forests from destruction.

Garcia is currently in Kenneth Branagh’s “Dead Again” and was nominated for an Academy Award this year as best supporting actor for his role in “The Godfather Part III.”

In the wake of Mendes’ 1988 assassination--believed to be the result of an attack by opposing ranching interests in Brazil--filmmakers ranging from Robert Redford to Peter Guber to David Puttnam raced to sew up the rights to Mendes’ life story. Mendes’ widow, the target of much of the lobbying, was even treated to private screenings of Guber’s past movies at a tiny theater in the heart of the Amazon.

The one surviving project will be directed by Chris Menges, the renowned cinematographer (“The Killing Fields”) who made his directing debut with the anti-apartheid film “A World Apart.”

Puttnam, the former Columbia Pictures chief, will produce from a screenplay written by William Nicholson, author of “Shadowlands,” a success on the London stage that transferred to Broadway this year and was nominated for a Tony award as best play. Adrian Cowell, a documentary maker who grew close to Mendes, will be portrayed in the movie and will consult on the film.

Filming of “Chico” is scheduling to begin, probably in Costa Rica, sometime next spring.