Hollywood Digest

BLAKE EDWARDS READY FOR '10' MORE

Writer-director Blake Edwards has announced plans to direct "10 Again" -- a remake of his 1979 hit sex comedy "10."

The original featured Dudley Moore and Bo Derek in star-making roles as a happily married man who throws it all away for a beautiful woman -- a "perfect 10." Moore died last year at 66 of complication from progressive supranuclear palsy.

No casting decisions have been made for Edwards' new take on "10." Filming is scheduled to begin in August in England.

KEVIN SPACEY WILL PLAY BOBBY DARIN

Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey will direct and star in "Beyond the Sea," a movie about the life of singer Bobby Darin.

The project has been kicking around in Hollywood for more than a decade, and Spacey has been interested in playing Darin since 1998 -- when he was told that, at 38, he was already too old for the role.

This week, Spacey laughed when Daily Variety asked him he is too old now.

"Bobby always looked a little older," he said, "but if I waited any more I might be too old."

The movie will cover Darin's life from the 1940s through his death at 37 in 1973. Filming is scheduled to begin in June.

Spacey, who sang "That Old Black Magic" as a tribute to Darin on the "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" album, said he would sing several Darin tunes in the movie -- including "Dream Lover," "Mack the Knife," "Splish Splash" and the title song.

CANADA TRYING TO GET IT BACK

Officials in Canada are taking steps to reinstate a tax credit for foreign producers who shoot movies and TV shows there.

There had been reports earlier this week that Canada had undermined its own recent success in attracting entertainment production from the United States and other countries, by eliminating the tax credit. Canada's finance minister introduced plans on Tuesday to raise the tax credit from the current level of 11 percent up to 16 percent.

The credit applies to the cost much of the wages paid to Canadian production workers employed on projects brought into Canada from other countries.

CASTING NOTES

Columbia Pictures has announced that Alfred Molina will play the evil Doc Ock in "The Amazing "Spider-Man," the sequel to the top-grossing movie of 2002.

Molina's credits include "Frida," "Chocolat" and "Boogie Nights." Doc Ock -- Dr. Otto Octavius -- is an atomic researcher who becomes a criminally insane in a laboratory mishap that transforms him into sort of a human octopus. Filming is scheduled to begin in April, with plans calling for a 2004 release.

There is word in Hollywood that Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce and Robin Williams are in talks to star in "Brothers Grimm" for director Terry Gilliam.

The movie envisions Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm as itinerant folklore collectors who travel from village to village pretending to protect people from supernatural creatures -- but are severely tested when they come across real monsters with terrifying powers.

HONORS FOR WRITER DAVID RINTELS

The Writers Guild of America, west said Thursday that writer-producer David W. Rintels will receive the Morgan Cox Award at the 55th WGA Awards next month.

The Morgan Cox Award is presented to recognize a WGA member "whose vital ideas, continuing efforts and personal sacrifice best exemplify the ideal of service to the guild."

Rintels, a former president of the WGA, has served several terms on the guild's Board of Directors and has served or chaired more than 25 guild committees -- including the screenwriters council, the president's committee on the professional status of writers, the freedom of expression committee, the cultural exchange committee and the censorship committee.

"No one knows better than I the countless hours of devoted service David has given to the guild over many years," said WGAw President Victoria Riskin. "He has tirelessly committed himself to improving and ennobling the life of the writer."

Rintels has won three Emmys and three WGA Awards. His credits include the TV miniseries and movies of the week "Nuremberg" (2000), "The Member of the Wedding" (1997), "Andersonville" (1996) and "World War II: When Lions Roared."

In 1997, Rintels received the Writers Guild's Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television. He received the guild's Valentine Davies Award in 1980, the same year that the American Civil Liberties Union honored him with its Bill of Rights Award.

The 55th Annual Writers Guild Awards will be presented on March 8 in dual ceremonies in Beverly Hills and New York.