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Hollywood Digest

By PAT NASON, UPI Hollywood Reporter
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RECORDING INDUSTRY OPENS ANTI-PIRACY AD BLITZ

American newspaper readers, radio listeners and TV viewers are being targeted with a new ad campaign intended to spread the word that illegal downloading and piracy of music doesn't just hurt record companies -- it also hurts artists and even people who work in record stores.

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A coalition of music industry organizations worked up the campaign, featuring messages from nearly 100 recording artists -- including Eminem, Madonna, Luciano Pavarotti and Stevie Wonder -- after commissioning research that found that a large majority of downloaders did not know it was illegal.

The research also found that after people were told that downloading is illegal, most of them said they would stop doing it.

The ad campaign represents a new phase in the record industry's ongoing battle against free downloading -- which has focused in the recent past on court challenges aimed at putting file-sharing services out of business, and efforts by record companies to start up their own digital music online services.

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The music industry coalition behind the ad campaign -- Music United for Strong Internet Copyright (MUSIC) -- is made up of music industry groups including the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the American Federation of Musicians, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and the Recording Industry Association of America.


NO 'RUSH' FOR 'SUPERMAN' DIRECTOR

Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour," "Rush Hour 2") will have to wait a while to get to "Rush Hour 3," now that he has hooked on with Warner Bros. to direct a new "Superman" movie.

Going back to the mid-'90s, when there was talk that Nicolas Cage would star as the Man of Steel with director Tim Burton, there have been repeated attempts to get a new "Superman" movie to the big screen. Most recently, there were plans for "Charlie's Angels" director McG to make the movie Ratner has just picked up, and there were reports that Wolfgang Peterson ("The Perfect Storm," "Air Force One") was lined up to direct "Batman vs. Superman."

McG is currently working on "Charlie's Angels 2," and Peterson recently announced that he was starting work on "Troy," based on Homer's epic poem "The Iliad."

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"Superman" is described as a "reimagining" of the Superman legend. Ratner told Daily Variety it's been a dream of his since he was a little boy to make the movie.

"I was born to make this movie," he said. "It's the perfect time to make this movie, as everyone is looking for someone to save the world, and who better than Superman?"


MINNIE DRIVER'S TV DEAL

Oscar-nominated actress Minnie Driver ("Good Will Hunting," "Return to Me") has signed a deal with NBC to develop a TV series.

Driver -- who also starred in "Gross Pointe Blank" and "Circle of Friends" -- is expected to star in a prime time series in the 2003094 season. She's due on U.S. theater screens later this year in the romantic comedy "Hope Springs," co-starring Colin Firth ("Bridget Jones's Diary").


'ENIGMA' DIRECTOR PREPS STONES DOC

Michael Apted, the director of last year's World War II romantic spy thriller "Enigma," has worked with his share of top stars in a career that has included "The World Is Not Enough" (Pierce Brosnan), "Always Outnumbered" (Laurence Fishburne), "Nell" (Jodie Foster), "Class Action" (Gene Hackman) and "Coal Miner's Daughter" (Sissy Spacek) -- but his next project involves some of the biggest stars in the history of rock 'n' roll.

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Apted has just finished shooting a documentary that looks back at the Rolling Stones' 40 years together. Apted said he wasn't sure when it will be in theaters, but he hopes it will be soon.

"Hopefully in the next few months," he said, "while the tour is still going on."

The Stones "Licks World Tour" is scheduled to wrap up in Denver on Feb. 1, 2003.

As for "Enigma," just out on home video, Apted said it's based on historic accounts of World War II, but it's only "half-true."

The true parts of the story have to do with a mad scramble at Britain's code-breaking center after Nazi U-boats change their Enigma Code. The fiction has to do with the hiring if a brilliant young man (Dougray Scott) to help break the code again, and the search for his missing girlfriend (Saffron Burrows) with the help of her best friend (Kate Winslet).


DATE SET FOR 'HUNTER' RETURN

NBC has announced that "Hunter: Return to Justice" -- a new TV movie reuniting "Hunter" stars Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer -- will air during the November sweeps on Nov. 16.

The story calls for Los Angeles Police Det. Rick Hunter (Dryer) to take some time off from the job and visit San Diego to see his former partner, the now-retired Det. Dee Dee McCall (Kramer). He finds himself unexpectedly pressed into service after McCall's fiancé -- a candidate for San Diego mayor -- kills an intruder during a home robbery and sets off a chain of events that links him to the former KGB agent.

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ROMERO SPEAKS

George Romero -- who breathed new life into the horror movie genre with his 1968 low-budget project "Night of the Living Dead" -- will deliver the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in Film on Oct. 17 at the academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Romero will talk about movies that have influenced, his own take on filmmaking and the consequence of his decision to remain an independent filmmaker based in Pittsburgh.

The presentation will feature clips from Romero's "Martin" (1978) and "The Dark Half" (1993), as well as "Night of the Living Dead." It will also feature clips from "The Tales of Hoffmann" (1951), "The Thing" (1951), "Diabolique" (1955), "Touch of Evil" (1958) and "Repulsion" (1965) -- all of which Romero says influenced his work.

The George Pal lecture was established in 1980 to honor a filmmaker who not only created the Puppetoons animated series, but also produced and directed fantasy classics including "Destination Moon" (1950), "War of the Worlds" (1953) and "The Time Machine" (1960). Previous speakers have included Rick Baker, Ray Bradbury, Jim Henson and Carl Sagan.

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