CAN PENGUIN CONES BE FAR BEHIND?

By Jay Carr

From The Boston Globe, 06.21.1992, City Edition

CRUNCH: We thought Michael Keaton was just doing standup when he said during an interview that his pick for goofiest piece of Batmerchandise was tie-in tortilla chips. But no: They're here. The makers missed a bet, though. They use yellow corn chips. Real artists would have held out for blue. . . . Meanwhile, as a reminder that nothing lasts, news comes that Tim Burton and his Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns producer, Denise Di Novi, will part professional company. But not before they do Mary Reilly, Burton's long-cherished chambermaid's-eye-view of &quiot;Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." . . . Not surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal reports that studios are scrambling to attach trailers to Warner Bros.' Batman Returns. Definitely pitched will be Warners' own Stay Tuned, One Hot Summer and Unforgiven, the new Clint Eastwood Western (he'll next do Line of Fire, playing a Secret Service agent).

HEAR HIM ROAR: Speaking of comic book heroes, Wesley Snipes says he'll pounce into The Black Panther, about an African king who changes into a panther and does heroic deeds. . . . First, though, Snipes will shoot The Rising Sun with Sean Connery. Tia Carrere, the babe-osity champ in Wayne's World, also joins the Rising Sun cast. . . . Michael Myers, the Waynester himself, says he's pondering a sequel. Meanwhile, he signed for So I Married an Axe Murderer. . . . And Eddie Murphy says yes, the original Boomerang ending was a drag. That's why they shot a new one. It arrives July 1. . . . Murphy and Boyz N the Hood director John Singleton are huddling over a new project. Singleton is saying we shouldn't expect Poetic Justice, his new film starring Janet Jackson, to be a Girlz N the Hood. . . . You want comic strips? Variety says the long-dormant Annie sequel is alive again. New title: Annie and the Castle of Terror. Does Daddy Warbucks visit the IRS?

CROWNED AGAIN: Terry Gilliam, still feeling kingly, will follow The Fisher King with a new version of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, previously filmed in 1921, 1931, 1949, 1979 and 1989. It's the '49 version, with Bing Crosby as the time-traveling antihero, that's best remembered. . . . Randa Haines, acclaimed for her direction of Children of a Lesser God and The Doctor, will helm her first comedy, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, about two 75-year-old men who become friends. . . . Billy Crystal says he doesn't know if he'll front any more Oscarcasts. But about directing, he's definite. He wants to do more, he says, and is weighing a City Slickers II. . . . Bertrand Tavernier will direct the film of Mona Simpson's debut novel, Anywhere But Here, about a teen-age girl and her single mom heading for Hollywood to chase the latter's dream.

HAND THAT ROCKS THE JURY: Rebecca De Mornay, the nanny from hell in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, will switch to the other side of the law in Sidney Lumet's Beyond Inocence, playing a criminal lawyer. . . . Tom Selleck says he's prepping a big-screen version of his TV series, "Magnum, P.I." . . . Columbia bought film rights to the late Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" and other books. . . . Documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophuls, best known for The Sorrow and the Pity and Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie, will join the Dartmouth College faculty for three years starting in September. . . . Finally, the Norwood Cinemas claims it's the area's cheapo-ticket champ, with a $2 tab for all shows and $1 for all concession items.