Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger will topline the Western drama "Appaloosa," with Harris directing from the screenplay he co-wrote with Robert Knott. New Line is on board to distribute and Michael London is producing via his Groundswell Prods., which is co-financing the film.

Harris and Knott also are producing. Lensing is set to start Oct. 1 in New Mexico, giving New Line a strongly cast project to shoot before a possible strike by actors next summer....

As promised -- good news on the feature film. New Line Cinema has green lighted APPALOOSA (greenlit?). It will star Ed Harris as Virgil Cole, and Viggo Mortenson as Everett Hitch. Harris will direct. Probably start shooting in the fall. Where, is yet to be decided. I've seen the first script and think it's about perfect (I had nothing to do with it). So far, Ed Harris has done everything he said he'd do -- that is not common, and I feel fortunate to be in business with him. I'm now angling for a walk on as a still deadly, but aging, gun fighter with a good looking hat, who doesn't have to get on a horse . . .

With spring on its way, the Sedona Film Office is gearing up for the next season of production and events. Recent requests include two TV pilots for Buena Vista Television, internet series "Yoga Today", Lisa Williams' Lifetime series "Life Among the Dead", a taping for the Volvo for Life Awards, a short film project, and "Appaloosa" a film directed by and starring Ed Harris and featuring Viggo Mortensen and Diane Lane.

Saturday, July 29, 2006
Plans
9:20 AM PDT, July 29, 2006

Now that I've had a week or so to sort things out, it is my plan to post a new message every Saturday. There are many questions, and a lot of them overlap. So I'll try to answer them in some sort of categorical way. As we move along I'll probably modify and improve. But here we go: What's ahead? At the moment Blue Screen (Sunny Randall) is the most recent book. In October will come Hundred Dollar Baby (Spenser), in the Spring will appear a Young Adult novel called The Edenville Owls (my first try at this), and in the fall of 07 will come Jesse Stone again (High Profile). We start shooting the next Jesse Stone movie, Seachase (Tom Selleck as Jesse), this October, and it will be on CBS sometime duringthe 06/07 season. When I know, I'll tell you. Incidentally I think Tom has absolutely nailed the role. Ed Harris is developing my western novel, Appaloosa for a feature film. He plans to star (as Virgil Cole) and to direct. So far he has Viggo Mortenson attached (Everett Hitch) and Diane Lane (Allie). I'm very pleased with the casting choices, and have a lot of confidence that Harris will get the movie made (as you may know, most movies don't get made). He should be wonderful in the role. I've seen the script and it seems flawless. Stay tuned.