It's Going to be a Long, Fun Summer

SCREEN

THEY’RE BAAACK!

Feline Pfeiffer, miffed Mel and a Peaks peek renew the déjà viewed

LETHAL WEAPON 3

L.A. detective Danny Glover just wants to retire. But a week before he’s to turn in his shield, a cache of weapons vanishes from a police lockup. Suddenly his wild-eyed partner, Mel Gibson, is dragging him into nasty situations, Richard Donnor returns to direct the explosive thriller. Rene (One Good Cop) Russo gets to sidle up to Macho Mel, while Joe (My Cousin Vinny) Pesci returns as the comic foil.

May 15

BATMAN RETURNS

America’s must-see destination this summer? Gotham City. The murky metropolis has expanded in scale, with 12 new sets, including a vast Gotham Square. Returning director Tim Burton, working in what’s said to be a quirkier, more personal style, confronts hero Michael Keaton with nifty new nemeses: the Penguin (a padded and pallid Danny DeVito), a leather-clad Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer, left, with Keaton) and corrupt businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walken). The Caped Crusader counters with the trusty Batmobile, a jet Batboat and a pocket Bat hand glider—good for escaping ambushes or, say, traffic jams. Keep eyes peeled for Paul Reubens, stripped of his Pee-wee Herman bow tie, in a bit part.

June 19

HONEY, I BLEW UP THE KID

Reversing Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, nutty scientist RICK MORANIS turns his baby boy into a 112 Kid Kong who threatens Vegas. “I get to save the day,” says MARCIA STRASSMAN (Honey).

July 17

ALIEN³

It’s the future, and prisons are still full of lice. Which is why SIGOURNEY WEAVER (right) shaves her head when she crash-lands on a penal planet. Doesn’t bug the alien though. Despite cost overruns and delays, costar CHARLES DUTTON believes A³ will be the most eye-popping yet.

May 22

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME
Director DAVID LYNCH reveals the last week of Laura Palmer’s life. SHERYL LEE is Laura; KYLE MACLACHLAN has another cup.

Aug. 28

KISS! KISS!

Love makes the plots go round as Tom and Nicole get their Irish up and Jack and Ellen spar

FAR AND AWAY

Tom Cruise and his real-life wife, Nicole Kidman, step out in brogues as a tenant farmer with a dream and a self-reliant rich girl who run away from Ireland to America together in the late 1800s. The old-fashioned script about their crossed stars blends misty-eyed drama with comic banter and a few dizzying boxing scenes. (Cruise fan alert: bare chest bonanza!) Says director Ron Howard: “It’s kind of like Raiders of the Lost Ark in that what’s old is new again.” He also praises his stars’ comic clashes. “That’s where they really excel.”

May 22

ONE HOT SUMMER

Cape Fear Oscar nominee Juliette Lewis plays a vivacious teen who falls for a hood (C. Thomas Howell) at a howling alley. Set in ’61 and based on an Alice McDermott novel, the movie follows her to a home for unwed mothers and a troubled reunion with her beau.

July

MAN TROUBLE

Bob Rafelson (director) and Carole Eastman (writer) team with Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces star Jack Nicholson in a dark comedy about a guy in the attack-dog biz. Ellen Barkin is his client, Beverly D’Angelo her saucy sis.

July 7

BOOMERANG

EDDIE MURPHY needs a hit—arid a laugh. “He told me, ‘I went from being funny on Saturday Night Liveto shooting guns,’ ” relates producer BRIAN GRAZER. Would you believe Murphy as a ladies’ man (sure) who meets his match (nah) when he falls for his barracuda of a boss, ROBIN GIVENS? (Hmmm.)

June 26

COOL WORLD

GABRIEL BYRNE (left) is a cartoonist seduced by his own creation. Like Pinocchio (the movie will be rereleased by Disney in June), she yearns to be real; unlike that puppet, she becomes KIM BASINGER.

July 10

BANG! BANG!
Pecs’ bad boys Van Damme and Lundgren are out to prove might makes money as Eastwood goes West

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER

Like a Doublemint ad on steroids, this high concept shoot-’em-up pairs action heroes Jean-Claude (Double Impact) Van Damme and Dolph (Rocky IV) Lundgren as U.S. soldiers frozen since Vietnam and science-enhanced in a government plot to create indestructible killing machines. “Jean-Claude and I are on the cusp of getting a mainstream audience,” says Lundgren hopefully. “There’s something special about having two personalities like us in one movie.” Van Damme plays the good guy trying to regain his humanity. Lundgren is the meanie hunting him down. “I’m dangerous and crazy,” he says, “a little like the Terminator mixed with Jack Nicholson’s Joker. It’s good to be bad sometimes.”

July 10

UNLAWFUL ENTRY

In this psychological thriller directed by Jonathan (The Accused) Kaplan, Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe play a couple who befriend a nice cop (Ray Liotta) only to discover too late that he has a dark and violent side. “The audience feels it could happen to them,” says Stowe.

June 26

PATRIOT GAMES

Harrison Ford replaces Alec Baldwin, who played CIA agent Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October. This time Ryan has to shield his family (including wife Anne Archer) after he accidentally bumps off a terrorist’s brother. When test audiences panned a weak ending, a new fight-to-the-finish boat chase was added.

June 5

UNFORGIVEN
In his first western since 1985, reluctant vigilante CLINT EASTWOOD saddles up (as producer, director and star) with MORGAN FREEMAN to avenge a prostitute’s death. “Have a nice day” is not exactly the way crooked shriff GENE HACKMAN greets them.

Aug. 7

• HA HA HA!
• Whoopi gets a new habit, Madonna plays the field, and Meryl schemes to stay young

SISTER ACT

Whoopi Goldberg reportedly hated making this nuns-‘n’-guns caper for Disney, and rewrites flew like Hail Marys, or just plain hail. “It was like, ‘Cast, meet your writer this week,’ ” says costar Kathy (Soapdish) Najimy. But the final cut had preview crowds howling. Goldberg plays lounge singer who, after witnessing a mob rubout, hides in a convent, where she teaches the choir to sing with a new kind of soul. Maggie Smith plays the brittle Mother Superior.

May 29

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

It’s 1943, and Tom Hanks is coaching a women’s pro baseball learn led by Geena Davis. Directed by Penny (Big) Marshall, the comedy spends more time off than on. But Madonna, says producer Elliot Abbott, ran daily at 5:30 A.M. and “when most people were eating lunch, she was in the balling cage.”

July 1

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

Kristy Swanson is a Val Girl with a talent for terminating vampires. Paul Reubens is one such toothy terror. Luke Perry is a high school loser who teams up with Kristy in this wiggy farce.

July 31

DEATH BECOMES HER

MERYL STREEP plays an aging actress who takes a potion to stay young, the better to keep surgeon hubby BRUCE WILLIS from succumbing to the advances of svelte GOLDIE HAWN. “It’s a subject I sparked to,” says director ROBERT (Back to the Future) ZEMECKIS, “because it deals with baby boomers’ obsession about aging.”

July 31

HOUSESITTER

STEVE MARTIN, an architect, builds his dream house, but when his dream girl, DANA DELANEY, doesn’t want to move in, GOLDIE HAWN, a kooky waitress, does, passing herself off as his wife. “It takes more energy to do comedy,” says Delaney. “You can’t stay out late the night before.”

June 12

ENCINO MAN

The big screen bought Wayne’s World big-time, but is it ready for chillin’ MTV dude PAULY SHORE? He and SEAN (Toy Soldiers) ASTIN play geeky best bu-uds in Encino, Calif. They dig up a frozen caveman (BRENDAN FRASER) and teach him local customs like babe-chasing. Says Shore: “It’s a funny, sweet story, like E.T.”

May 22

OOH LA LA!

Sexy or sordid (or both), these offbeat flicks could work wonders for Bridget, Damon, Brad or two Jennifers

SINGLE WHITE FEMALE

Jennifer Jason (Rush) Leigh and Bridget (Scandal) Fonda are set to cause chills in this psychological thriller directed by Barbet (Reversal of Fortune) Schroeder. Leigh answers Fonda’s ad for a roommate in New York City and proceeds to assume her identity. “You invite someone in because you’re afraid to be alone, but he or she may be 10 times more dangerous,” says Schroeder. “Working with these women was my whole idea for choosing the project. I wasn’t going to do it without them.”

Aug. 14

JOHNNY SUEDE

While acting in mainstream films like Cool World and Robert Bedford’s next directorial venture, A River Runs Through It, Brad Pitt, the sexy hitchhiker of Thelma & Louise, indulged the art itch in this quirky $500,000 paean to dreams. He’s a dead-end musician who finds his rockabilly mission when a pair of suede shoes fall in front of him.

August

MO’ MONEY

On the heels of The Last Boy Scout, DAMON WAYANS gave up his spot on In Living Color to star in this romp he wrote about a street hustler who tries to go straight (good luck, pal) when he meets Ms. Right. “If it makes me a star, wonderful,” he says. “If not, I can still go home to my four kids.”

July 15

WIND

Will the real America’s Cup races this month whet appetites for cinematic spray and romantic tacking between MATTHEW MODINE, as a racer who loses the cup, and JENNIFER GREY, as the woman who helps him win it back? By the end of filming, the leads were skilled sailors.

Aug. 8

TUBE

ON WITH THE SHOW!

As in Grant Show, sexy star of the new 90210 spinoff, Melrose Place

MELROSE PLACE

If life on Beverly Hills, 90210 seems alluring but—let’s face it—a little unreal, has Fox got a show for you. “Melrose Place is about the problems that arise when you no longer have parents to lean on,” says Grant Show (right), describing the highly anticipated 90210 spin-off about twentysomethings, of which he is the hunky and happy star.

Moving on from the high school setting of 90210, Melrose follows an ensemble cast (below) who live in a modest apartment complex off Hollywood’s atmospheric and funky Melrose Avenue.

Show, 30, who spent three years on Ryan’s Hope as officer Rick Hyde, plays a construction worker, a likably brooding loner named Jake. The nuts-and-bolts stuff comes naturally—raised in Northern California, he used to work in a machine shop, and his dad and uncles were all mechanics and plumbers. Right now he seems a reasonable bet to become the next Luke Perry. “That’s up to the audience,” says Show, who was one of 700 actors screened for the part. “I have a feeling Jake will be looked at that way. But I’m not banking on what happened to Luke Perry for myself.”

Be real! If one lean, soulful soap actor (Perry, from Loving) can wind up a national target for screaming mobs of teens, why not two—especially since their careers have crossed? “I’ve known Luke since we were both in New York working on soap operas,” says Show.

Before Show becomes mall bait, though, Jake will have to settle in at Melrose‘s less than glamorous (by Spelling standards) apartment complex. He’ll be romancing 90210‘s Kelly for a few episodes, but, Show notes, “relationships become a little heavier for Jake. He starts them, then runs away.”

Summer

THE HUMAN TARGET

Former pop star and General Hospital physician RICK SPRINGFIELD is Christopher Chance, the target of the title. Based on a comic-book character, the hero of this ABC series outwits villains by disguising himself as their intended victims. “It’s expensive-looking,” says Springfield. “I liken it more than anything to Mission: Impossible” Well, Mission, Incognito, at any rate.

Date TBA

THE OLYMPICS

Carl Lewis runs and jumps; Kim Zmeskal flips and vaults. In Barcelona from July 25 to Aug. 9 more than 10,000 athletes from 183 nations will join them to punch, paddle, parry, hurl (in the, ahem, pre—Wayne’s World sense) and sweat through the XXV Olympiad. NBC will barely graze the surface with its more than 160 hours of coverage. But hard-core fans can order a variety of pay-per-view packages, including one at $125 that delivers every event, plus repeats, on three channels—1,080 hours in all. Lewis, 30, who has bagged six golds in the last two Olympics, is still a favorite in the 100 meters and the long jump. World champion gymnast Zmeskal, 15, is also favored in her first Olympiad. “A lot of people recognize me,” she says. “That’s kind of strange.” Kim, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

ON THE AIR

Director David Lynch, who gave us the jokey-eerie Twin Peaks, has come up with this just-jokey ABC sitcom about a variety show in the late ’50s. Your host: Lester Guy (Ian Buchanan, right). Unlike Peaks, predicts producer Bob Engels, this one “you’ll have no difficulty following.”

Date TBA

REN & STIMPY

JON KRICFALUSI’s campus cult hit, an edgy, idiosyncratic cartoon series about a nervous Chihuahua (Ren) and a dim yet devoted cat (Stimpy), returns to Nickelodeon with new episodes in August. The jokes hit on everything from flatulence to Stimpy’s hairballs. “On the taste meter, this show runs pretty low,” says an admiring Matt (The Simpsons) Groening. “It demonstrates that there’s hope for the smartass in the back of the class.”

SONG

THE BEATS!

Presley’s lost ’50s tracks are found, Lollapalooza gets the Chilis, and a girl group gets, like, serious

EARLY ELVIS

Eisenhower-era Presley is the subject of The King of Rock ‘n Roll—the Complete 50’s Masters. This definitive compilation—140 tracks on five CDs or cassettes—brings together all of Presley’s master studio takes from his Sun and RCA sessions, plus 14 previously unreleased cuts. Among the gems: alternate takes, demos and such rarities as “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” the B-side of “My Happiness,” the acetate Elvis recorded for his mom when he was 18. Future boxes will be devoted to the ’60s and ’70s.

June 23

WILSON PHILLIPS

The new album is called, aptly, Shadows and Light. As on their pure-pop debut (which sold 8 million copies worldwide), “there are very fun, up, aggressive, exciting songs,” explains CHYNNA PHILLIPS (far left). “But there’s a lot of dark, sort of serious songs too.” Some of the shadows the trio explore involve the insecurities of their celebrity upbringing. CARNIE and WENDY WILSON (center and right), daughters of Brian Wilson, delve into Dad’s emotional distance in “Flesh and Blood” (“If you never plan to come out of your shell/You’re never gonna get well”). “All the Way from New York” is Chynna’s plea for support from her dad, John Phillips. “I’m so proud of the first album,” says Carnie, “but, s—, with this one we really let go.”

June 2

LOLLAPALOOZA ’92

The sequel to one of last summer’s few successful tours, this raucous alternative-rock road show has a bit of everything, from rap (ICE CUBE) to the thumping Seattle scene (SOUNDGARDEN) to rock-funk (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, left) and post-punk (JESUS AND MARY CHAIN). Visits 24 cities, starting in San Francisco

July 18.

BOBBY BROWN

Brown’s third album—arriving four years after his multiplatinum Don’t Be Cruel—includes “We’ve Got Something in Common,” a duet with his fiancée, WHITNEY HOUSTON. The album’s working title (listen up, Whitney): ‘Til the End of Time.

Early July

PAGES

THE BOOKS!

Jay McInerney lights his own Bonfire, Ken Kesey heads north, Judith Krantz deals Billy a bad baroness

BRIGHTNESS FALLS

by Jay McInerney

Has the writer who enshrined club-hopping, coke-sniffing Manhattan in Bright Lights, Big City penned an epitaph for the glittering’ 80s? The answer lies in his pointedly titled new novel, an epic saga of a New York City book editor, his stockbroker wife and their gliterary friends. It’s billed as a sadder, more realistic Bonfire of the Vanities. “This is a book about outgrowing some youthful illusions and enthusiasms,” says the writer, 37, who was 29 when Bright Lights was published. “The central characters are essentially honorable people. It’s hard to dismiss them by calling them yuppies.” (Knopf)

June

DINO

by Nick Tosches

Dino Crocetti, a barber’s son from Steubenville, Ohio, didn’t speak English until he was 5. As Dean Martin, he partied into the ’70s with Frank and Sammy and leggy Vegas showgirls on his own TV series. But in Tosches’ bio, he comes across as a solitary, burnt-out case, anything but a swingin’ good time. (Doubleday)

July

CAPITOL GAMES

by Timothy M. Phelps and Helen Winternitz

A behind-the-scenes account of last fall’s tumultuous CLARENCE THOMAS hearings, as well as the story of Thomas’s 10-year campaign, nearly derailed by ANITA HILL’s charges of sexual harassment, to reach the Supreme Court. (Hyperion)

June

SCRUPLES TWO

by Judith Krantz

An obsessive baroness tries to muck up the lovely life glamorous boutique owner Wilhelmina “Billy” Hunenwell Winthrop fought for and won in Scruples. (Crown)

June

SAILOR SONG

by Ken Kesey

Almost 30 years after Sometimes a Great Notion, Kesey is back with a new novel. It’s a dark, rollicking tale set in an Alaskan fishing village some 30 years from now, after the economy and ecology have gone to hell. (Viking) August…And, in a warmer clime, ELMORE LEONARD pours a RUM PUNCH, a thriller starring an odd couple: flight attendant and bail bondsman. (Delacorte)

August