GEORGE CLOONEY and Mark Wahlberg are good friends and frequent costars on film. But which hottie gets the bigger rush from fans? At the premiere of "The Perfect Storm" in L.A., it was Mark. For all Clooney's star power and mesmerizing in-person charm (he is even better looking in the flesh!), he doesn't send out a lot of "I'm available" vibes. He's very low key. Mark, on the other hand, looks like a boy on the prowl. He was mobbed by squealing women all night long.

And there was a real only-in-Hollywood moment at the preem: Matt LeBlanc-chunky and badly coiffed- waiting 20 minutes to speak to Mr. Clooney.

He finally said, "Hi." Matt makes $750,000 an episode on "Friends," but he's a tongue-tied fan, just like everybody else. LeBlanc was with his fiancee, Melissa McKnight. A reporter passed by and asked when they were finally going to tie the knot. LeBlanc said, "Oh, one of these days." Melissa, hand in his, kept smiling. 

The Perfect Storm'' stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and director Wolfgang Petersen gave a Tinseltown thanks to the people of Gloucester last night with a Hollywood-style premiere of their new flick about a 1991 tragedy at sea that killed six Gloucester fishermen.

``We thought if we did it right, we had to come back and say, we're proud of what we did and we hope you like it,'' Clooney told the Track. ``If we blew it, we figured we shouldn't come back 'cause they'd kill us.''

Clooney and Wahlberg, a Dorchester homey, flew to Boston for the local premiere one day after the big Hollywood opening for the high-seas adventure flick that Warner Bros. is hoping will swamp the box office (and Mel Gibson's ``The Patriot'') this holiday weekend.

The special screening at the Loew's theater in the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers was an invitation-only event for the people of Gloucester, a few VIPs, the extras and the Massachusetts-based crew who worked on the flick.

More than 1,700 locals turned out for the Hollywood hoopla, including friends and relatives of the men who were lost on board the Andrea Gail when a freak 1991 storm wreaked havoc in the Atlantic.

``These fishermen were some very, very heroic and courageous people,'' Wahlberg told the Track.

``To be able to portray them in this light is a wonderful experience. It's the most important thing that I've done.''

Also on the guest list were Hollywood heavy Danny DeVito, who is in town filming ``What's The Worst That Could Happen?''; New England Patriots Drew Bledsoe, Chris Slade and Max Lane; Vineyard crooner Livingston Taylor; and Gov. Paul Cellucci.

The premiere was followed by a big bash at the Cape Ann Marina in Gloucester sponsored by the town.

The star-studded event was a fund-raiser for The Gloucester Fund, a grassroots organization of local charitable organizations.

Meanwhile in Boston, Sebastian Junger had his own ``Perfect Storm'' premiere at the new General Cinemas in the Fenway to benefit his Perfect Storm Foundation. The flick is based on Junger's best-seller about the ``surprise'' October 1991 storm that sank the Andrea Gail off the coast of Nova Scotia, sending her six-man crew to their deaths.

During the filming last year, Clooney and Wahlberg bonded with the locals and the families of the doomed fishermen.

In fact, for a while, Wahlberg was living above The Crow's Nest, the waterfront bar where the fishermen hung out, in the same digs once occupied by his character, Bobby Shatford.

The actors were nervous about the reaction the families of the dead fishermen would have to the movie.

But, the relatives who saw it had high praise for the film.

``I was very apprehensive to watch it,'' said Mary Anne Shatford, the sister of Bobby Shatford.

``It was great. It was wonderful. Mark did a wonderful job portraying my brother and something in his smile reminds me of him.''

``The Perfect Storm'' opens in theaters nationwide tomorrow.

File under: Fish Story.

At first, The Perfect Storm didn't seem so perfect to Hollywood.

The book's journey from page to big screen wasn't as tempestuous as the violent sea storm depicted in Sebastian Junger's best seller, but it wasn't smooth sailing, either.

In early 1996, the true story of a group of New England fishermen caught in a "perfect" storm was shopped to studios before the book was finished. No takers. Then agents started circulating the manuscript of the gripping tale. But again, they couldn't find a buyer.

It wasn't until Junger took the unusual step of traveling to Hollywood from New York nearly a year later to pitch the book that Warner Bros. and producer Paula Weinstein secured film rights in a six-figure deal. The studio then approached Wolfgang Petersen to direct the movie - but only after The Perfect Storm became a best seller.

Despite its cloudy beginnings, The Perfect Storm hits theaters Friday. And with stunning special effects and a dramatic story line, it would seem to have the ingredients to be a hit. But if the filmmakers are feeling a little queasy about how their $125 million movie will do, there's a good reason: A number of recent movies made from books - particularly literary fiction titles and quality non-fiction works - have been battered at the box office.

With the exception of a few films, including The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Green Mile, many of last year's book adaptations were, at best, modest performers. Combined, Snow Falling on Cedars, Angela's Ashes and Girl, Interrupted grossed less than $60 million. Recent films based on more obscure novels, such as The Beach and Fight Club, fared no better.

Hollywood will always turn to books for ideas, but with the recent poor box office results and with Hollywood slashing development budgets, their role is being scrutinized.

"Studios are giving a tougher read to books than they would a few years ago," says literary agent Richard Green, who sold The Perfect Storm with his partner, Howard Sanders. "In the past, we used to sell from galleys (early print copies). Then we started selling from manuscripts. Nowadays, the trend has reversed itself, and many executives wait to see whether books hit the best-seller list" before they start bidding.

Even Oprah Winfrey, whose book club selections become automatic best sellers, can't guarantee box office success for book-to-film adaptations. Moviegoers shunned Beloved, the 1998 film adaptation of Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that starred Winfrey as a former slave. And the Oprah Book Club picks that have been made into movies - including The Deep End of the Ocean, A Map of the World and Where the Heart Is - have hardly been blockbusters.

Oprah-anointed novels and acclaimed non-fiction best sellers such as the Frank McCourt memoir Angela's Ashes share traits - they are intricate, dark - that make them good books but questionable commercial film ventures. Many of them have dealt with difficult topics, including child abuse (A Map of the World), mental illness (Girl, Interrupted) and abject poverty (Angela's Ashes), making them hard sells as mass-appeal films.

Explains John Baker, editorial director at Publishers Weekly, trade publication of the book industry:

"Books with a distinctive literary quality can't be easily translated into a movie. Movies are terribly literal. It is very difficult to achieve poetry in the adaptation of a literary novel. Movies that are really going to have any type of popular audience are going to have a strong narrative line and characters people can relate to."

Many of the box office disappointments "were complex books that became complex movies," says Perfect Storm producer Weinstein. "You have to be careful when you have a complex book."

And then there is the temptation to Hollywoodize books by making them more upbeat. Although the idea was dismissed, some Warner Bros. executives suggested giving The Perfect Storm a happier ending.

That happened with the film adaptation of the best-selling The Horse Whisperer. The sage "horse whisperer," played by Robert Redford, dies in the book but lives in the movie.

"If the book is very popular, one of the difficult things is overcoming the panic of disappointing the fans of the book," says screenwriter/director Richard LaGravenese, who adapted The Horse Whisperer.

But a book's fan base isn't necessarily vital to its success as a movie. Even books that have sold huge numbers by publishing standards (The Perfect Storm, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Deep End of the Ocean) would wither at the box office if only readers showed up. An Oprah Book Club selection may sell more than 1 million copies, but 1 million moviegoers won't land a film on top of the weekend's box office.

"You have to keep in mind that when you're talking about books, a best seller can sell 100,000 copies," says David Rosenthal, publisher of Simon & Schuster. "For a movie, that is maybe a few hours of business on a single day."

The producers of The Perfect Storm learned that lesson when they screened their film for an audience of 500. Although Junger's book has spent three years on various best-seller lists, only a couple of people at the screening said they had read the book, and fewer than 10 had heard of it.

Aside from fickle audiences, Hollywood faces another issue in filming books: time. There is an extra step because a screenplay must be adapted from the book. Many best sellers that were sold a few years ago are still waiting for their film close-ups, including Michael Crichton's Airframe, Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha and Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain.

And because these prestige projects tend to attract big-name directors, scheduling becomes even more of a challenge. Steven Spielberg, for example, plans to direct Geisha but has put it on the back burner for now.

Those factors have left frustrated studios wary about spending big bucks on a book. While film rights to Cold Mountain, Message in a Bottle and How Stella Got Her Groove Back all sold for more than $1 million, executives are more circumspect now. Crichton, for example, didn't receive his normal hefty upfront fee for the rights to his most recent book, Timeline. Instead, he'll receive a sizable fee when the book becomes a film.

Still, don't expect Hollywood to give up on books. They have yielded so many all-time movie greats, from Gone With the Wind to The Godfather. Even in today's marketplace, books make up an estimated 30% of the projects that studios are actively developing, says David Alpert, president of 4filmmakers.com, a site that tracks moviemaking for film professionals.

Historically, novels have been a source for a number of Hollywood's biggest moneymakers, including Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump and Jaws. More serious books also are important to studios because they attract high-profile talent.

"Most of the original screenplays right now are not very good," says The Perfect Storm director Petersen. "If somebody writes a great book - novel or non-fiction - very often it has taken years of work from a serious writer." The result, he says, is a story with more layers and depth than the common script.

On a financial level, studios key in on books of high literary quality because they tend to get serious Oscar consideration, which can translate to a box office boom.

At the past 12 Academy Awards, at least one of the best-picture nominees has been based on a book. Last year, The Cider House Rules' gross, which topped out at $57.5 million, jumped 61% after its nomination, elevating the John Irving adaptation from a mild disappointment to a success. In 1997, The English Patient's take increased 46% after it received 12 Oscar nominations and won best picture.

"Books suggest a certain highbrow quality or an educational imprint on material," says Oscar-winning producer Mark Johnson, who has worked on such adaptations as A Little Princess and The Natural.

Because books are an essential part of "serious" filmmaking, industry types who champion books are not worried about Hollywood's current cautious approach.

"The (novel) and non-fiction book-to-film business waxes and wanes like all things," says literary agent Ron Bernstein, who has sold the feature rights to numerous books. " What is in vogue at this moment is merchandising - toys, games, rides. It is tough to get all that out of books."

But if upcoming films such as All the Pretty Horses, Bridget Jones's Diary and The Perfect Storm succeed at the box office, good books could easily become central characters in the next chapter in moviemaking.

Hollywood, said Mary Anne Shatford, did Gloucester proud.

After a year of nervously waiting - and weeks of intense media build-up - Shatford and scores of other Gloucester residents last night finally saw their story told on the silver screen.

``My family is very pleased with the movie,'' said Shatford, who attended two star-studded, pre-premiere screenings of the big-budget movie, ``The Perfect Storm,'' in Boston and Danvers last night.

``They (Hollywood) were very caring in the way they portrayed the fishermen and Gloucester,'' said Shatford, who also attended a screening in Los Angeles on Monday. ``They portrayed my brother as a hero in this movie. How can you be upset with that?'' ``The Perfect Storm,'' starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, was filmed in Gloucester last summer and is scheduled to open nationally Friday.

The movie, touting monster-sized waves and heart-stopping special effects, is based on the 1997 best-selling book of the same title. It tells the haunting, real-life story of Shatford's brother, Bobby, and five other Gloucester fishermen who were lost at sea - gone without even a final May Day call - in a violent 1991 storm.

For weeks before the premiere, the Shatfords and other Gloucester fishing families said they were torn between excitement and dread.

They were proud of Hollywood's attention to Gloucester's storied fishing industry, and excited because many locals were tapped as extras for the film.

But they worried that Gloucester would be unfairly portrayed as a barroom-brawling town. Many also dreaded the thought of watching Hollywood's version of their loved ones drowning at sea.

Last night, many of their fears were calmed.

``The way they handled (the drowning scene) was OK,'' said Mary Anne Shatford. ``They could have made it much more graphic than it was.''

Before the premiere, Shatford sat down with her two nephews, who were just 5 and 9 years old when their father, played by Wahlberg, was lost at sea. Today they are 14 and 18.

``I told them that `This is a movie. It's Mark Wahlberg up there, not your father. But it's a tribute to him,'' Shatford said.

``Everybody had tissues in their hands,'' Shatford added. ``But everybody left with a warm feeling about the movie.''

That goes for the owner of the Crow's Nest, a rough-around-the-edges Gloucester bar prominently featured in the book and the movie.

``Sure, they showed some roughness. But they also showed the sense of caring, of a family, at the bar,'' said Gregg Sousa.

Others said they were proud that Hollywood accurately captured the fearsome, dangerous job that fishing is.

Sousa summed it up this way.

``It has to give people a real appreciation for the fishing industry,'' he said. ``It shows the world, hopefully, how hard it is to get the fish to your table.''

Mark Wahlberg knew he'd have a lot of responsibility as the star of ``The Perfect Storm,'' the film adaptation of Sebastian Junger's nonfiction bestseller about the 1991 disappearance of a Gloucester fishing boat.

He had to learn to fish. He had to affect a Boston accent. He had to endure wave after wave of soggy special-effects.

What the rapper-turned-actor didn't expect, however, was that the people of Gloucester were counting on him - the pride of Dorchester - to make sure the film had hometown credibility.

Wahlberg, who settled in the waterfront city four weeks before on-location shooting began, first realized his special obligation when he met some of the denizens of the Crow's Nest, the beloved but boisterous bar at the center of Junger's book.

``They said, `Hey, kid, you're from here. You're one of us. Let us know if these (Hollywood) guys are all right. But if they're not, we're going to come looking for you,' '' recalled the 29-year-old.

Yikes. But the threats didn't rattle Wahlberg. This, after all, is a guy who had a parole officer by age 17, and when asked if he ever visited Gloucester as a kid quipped, ``I would have come up to rob the place, but the train stopped miles away.''

No, the townspeople's tough talk only strengthened Wahlberg's commitment to the film, which opens tomorrow, and to his role as one of six fishermen who battle ``the storm of the century'' off the Grand Banks.

The former Marky Mark speaks with intensity - and, yes, integrity - about life in the hard-working North Shore town: ``There's little opportunity here and 90 percent of these kids are going to work on a fishing boat when they're 17 or 18 years old. That's what they have in front of them.''

What's in front of Wahlberg these days is, of course, quite a high-profile acting career. He has avoided becoming a subject of pop-culture trivia - first, as the pants-dropping leader of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch and second, as Calvin Klein Underwear's smirky poster boy - with a string of breakout performances: the psycho boyfriend in 1996's ``Fear,'' the hyper-endowed porn star in 1998's ``Boogie Nights'' and the cell-phone-surrounded serviceman in last year's ``Three Kings,'' his first film with ``Perfect Storm'' co-star George Clooney.

Indeed, the two have become quite the duo. It was Clooney who recommended Wahlberg to director Wolfgang Petersen for ``The Perfect Storm,'' cast him as the lead in ``Metal God,'' which he's producing, and co-stars with him in Steven Soderbergh's remake of ``Ocean's Eleven,'' due out next year.

``There's stuff that Mark can do that cannot be taught,'' explained Clooney. ``You look at his face and you root for him.''

And, boy, did Wahlberg need some rooting during the filming of ``The Perfect Storm.'' During the six-month shoot, the actor spent a lot of time vomiting, nearly drowning or both. He developed polyps on his vocal cords from screaming and nearly had to undergo an operation to remove a deeply lodged ear-plug.

Then there were all those dropped R's. ``I vowed never to play a guy from Boston so I wouldn't have to get that accent back,'' said Wahlberg. ``I worked so hard to shake it. But for this particular story it was a must-do.''

Emotionally, too, the part was demanding. Wahlberg, who's one of nine children, met often with the real-life relatives of his character, Bobby Shatford. He was especially close to Bobby's mother, Ethel, who tended bar at the Crow's Nest and died shortly before the production wrapped.

``I really tried to get across to her and the rest of Bobby's family, and even the people of Gloucester, that I wasn't going to try to do an imitation,'' said Wahlberg. ``They actually felt more comfortable with that.''

So much so that Ethel Shatford offered the actor Bobby's tiny room above the busy bar. Wahlberg shared the quarters with Bobby's brother Rick. ``He'd throw water on me at 5 o'clock in the morning to wake me up and say, `Yeah, I used to do that to Bobby all the time!' '' said Wahlberg, laughing.

Yet for the summer anyway, he hopes such up-with-the-sun schedules are behind him: He just bought a house in Braintree and is planning trips to the Cape and Martha's Vineyard.

This revelation, surely, doesn't surprise those Crow's Nest regulars who put so much faith in Wahlberg's loyalty to his Boston-area roots. As the Dorchester native himself puts it, ``Nothing like being home.''

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The old movie themes of man-versus-nature and man-versus-man team up with a new partner Friday: man-versus-cartoon when ``The Perfect Storm'' ``The Patriot'' and ``The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle'' open, hoping to stir up box offices over the Independence Day holiday.

A lot of talk in Hollywood this week has centered on slumping ticket sales compared to last year. The past three weekends have seen solid, $20 million-plus openings for ``Gone in 60 Seconds,'' ``Shaft'' and ``Me, Myself & Irene.''

However, that relatively normal level of success hasn't matched 1999's huge summer hits like ``Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' ($55 million) or ``Big Daddy'' ($42 million).

Paul Dergarabedian, who heads Los Angeles-based box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, said that from the first week of May to now, domestic ticket sales are down 4 percent at about $1.32 billion versus $1.38 billion last year.

But wait, there's a plot twist this weekend.

Mel Gibson's box office power in action-filled ``Patriot'' and thriller ``Perfect Storm,'' starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, has industry watchers thinking ticket sales may swell over the long weekend, ending with Tuesday's holiday.

``The Fourth of July is pivotal,'' said Dergarabedian. ``It will tell us whether we will have momentum going forward. I think it is definitely going to beat the Fourth last year.''

Like others, Dergarabedian's optimism springs from the fact that last year, audiences saw only one big budget, highly promoted film, ``Wild Wild West,'' which was poorly reviewed.

Strong Praise From Critics

This year, both ``Patriot'' and ``Perfect Storm'' are receiving strong praise from critics and test audiences. Given the long weekend, industry watchers think fans may jump at the chance of seeing both, making for a big splash at box offices.

``Based on the response we are seeing on AOL/Moviefone and Moviefone.com, it looks like these two movies may do just that,'' said Andrew Jarecki, CEO of of AOL/Moviefone, a movie listing guide and ticket service.

``Patriot,'' for which Gibson received $25 million of the film's reported $100 million budget, tells the story of former French and Indian War hero Benjamin Martin (Gibson), who reluctantly enters the Revolutionary War on the side of the colonials after his family is uprooted and farm is burned.

Martin, a native of South Carolina, leads members of the local militia in a year-long, guerrilla-style campaign against English Gen. Cornwallis -- the general Washington eventually defeated to win the war -- that keeps the Redcoats in check while the revolutionaries can refresh their troops.

``Struggle Against Oppression''

Moviegoers may be thinking ``Patriot'' is essentially 1995's Oscar-winning ``Braveheart,'' which Gibson directed, about 13th Century Scotsman William Wallace, who leads an uprising against the English, but Gibson says the two have little in common.

``They are the same in that they are about a struggle against oppression, but it ends there,'' Gibson told Reuters.

``Patriot'' has many layers beyond just battles and fighting that include themes about war's effect on people, romantic entanglement, family bonds and friendship.

``Perfect Storm,'' by contrast, features non-stop action from the time Clooney, as Captain Billy Tyne, Wahlberg, as hired hand Bobby Shatford, and the crew on swordfishing boat Andrea Gail steam from Gloucester, Mass., for the icy North Atlantic.

It is Halloween 1991, and every fisherman in old Gloucester knows the North Atlantic waters grow more treacherous each day the fall gets older. It's hurricane season, so the Andrea Gail is taking a big risk out on the open ocean.

Billy Tyne's luck in the fishing grounds had gone cold in 1991, and he was looking for one big catch to tide him over for the winter. But that October, three major storms collided over the North Atlantic wreaking havoc on shipping and putting him and his crew in a life-threatening situation.

``Perfect Storm,'' based on Sebastian Junger's best-selling novel of the same name, spins a salty yarn about the Andrea Gail's trip that year with the crew battling each other, monstrous fish and a sea churning 50-foot waves.

Finally comes ``Rocky and Bullwinkle,'' which hasn't seen all the hype of the other two movies, but may draw crowds from followers of 1960s animated, ``The Bullwinkle Show.'' The show still runs on cable TV's Cartoon Network, where it is popular among kids, so the movie may appeal to parents and children.

In the film, Bullwinkle the Moose and sidekick Rocky the Flying Squirrel, must defeat rivals Boris Badenov (Jason Alexander), Natasha Fatale (Rene Russo) and their boss, Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro) who are plotting to rule the world.

But before they can, the animated duo must learn how to blend into the real world, and it's that real life action mixed with cartoonish antics that makes the film unique.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--June 29, 2000-- Prominent entertainment attorneys Ken Hertz and Fred Goldring have announced the formation of Goldring, Hertz, Lichtenstein & Haft, LLP after 10 years as partners at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman & Warren where they founded the firm's music practice and have been extremely active in the new technology arena.

They will continue to share offices and co-representation of motion picture and television crossover clients such as Will Smith and Mark Wahlberg with the Hansen firm.

Hertz will be ``of counsel'' to the new practice in order to spend more time focusing on the pair's non-legal consulting business, which will include his serving as chairman of Digital Brandcasting Corporation (DBC), a company that Hertz and Goldring co-founded.

Goldring noted, ``For the better part of a decade, Ken and I have remained determined to bridge the gap between artists and new technology. It is always a challenge to be in the forefront of the radically changing landscape of the music and entertainment business, but our mandate has always been to keep our clients ahead of the curve.''

``We have rendered strategic development and consulting services to a variety of start ups in the digital convergence space, many of whom went on to dominate their respective markets. We are proud of groundbreaking deals such as the pact between MP3.com and Alanis Morissette, Napster and Limp Bizkit, and RedDotNet's deals with the major labels to digitally distribute their content,'' Hertz asserted.

Other artist clients of the new firm include Alanis Morissette, Courtney Love, No Doubt, Destiny's Child, Boyz II Men, Guns 'N' Roses, Deftones, Live, Montell Jordan, Patty Loveless, Lee Ann Womack and Herbie Hancock, among others. Technology clients include MP3.com (Nasdaq: MPPP - news), MusicMarc and RedDotNet/Alliance Entertainment. Consulting clients include Digital Brandcasting Corporation, The Firm, Napster, Yesterdayland, and Uprizer, the new venture founded by Ian Clarke, creator of Freenet.

``This new structure is a natural evolution of our business and also gives well deserved recognition to the stature that Seth (Lichtenstein) and Jonathan (Haft) have achieved in the industry. We are grateful to Tom, Craig and Walter for giving us our start and look forward to continuing our close working relationship with them,'' said Goldring.

Tom Hansen noted, ``We have had a great relationship with Ken and Fred over the last 10 years and they have been an important part of the growth and success of our firm. We are delighted to see their business evolving in this new and exciting direction, and we look forward to continuing our close personal and professional ties.''
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HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Mark Wahlberg has signed to take the lead role in 20th Century Fox's ``Planet of the Apes'' in a two-picture deal that also includes a sequel.

Director Tim Burton is scheduled to begin shooting in the fall, with Fox planning a high-profile release in summer 2001.

Wahlberg's path to serious talks with Fox was cleared earlier last week, when his negotiations to star in Paramount's ``Criminal Conversations'' fell apart. He stars in Warner Bros.' ``The Perfect Storm'' opening Friday. His credits include ''Boogie Nights'' and ``Three Kings.''

Burton's last picture was ``Sleepy Hollow,'' which grossed more than $100 million domestically.

Written by Bill Broyles, the story behind the latest version of the ``Apes'' saga is still a closely guarded secret. It's said to be neither a sequel nor a remake, but rather a reimagining of the original series of five ``Apes'' pictures released between 1968 and 1973.

He weathered The Perfect Storm, but will Marky Mark survive The Planet of the Apes?
Twentieth Century Fox has announced that rapper-turned-underwear model-turned actor Mark Wahlberg has agreed to star in Tim Burton's update of the sci-fi monkey classic, taking over the role made famous by Charlton Heston.

Wahlberg is signed to a two-picture deal, covering the remake and a potential sequel. The pact comes as negotiations broke down for the actor to take part in Paramount's Criminal Conversations

Keeping mum on the script written by William Broyles Jr., Oscar-winning producer Richard Zanuck (who supervised the original) only says that the new version features a more humanistic storyline, as well as a younger male lead, a role perfectly suited for Wahlberg.

"Both Tim and I are thrilled to have Mark on board," says Zanuck tells the Hollywood Reporter. "As we always envisioned, he is the lead of this piece, a young pilot who comes into this strange culture of ape and man. He combines both great acting talent as well as physical ability."

Released in 1968, the original Planet of the Apes centered on a trio of astronauts marooned on a world featuring talking simians lording over enslaved humans. Heston's character tried to escape from the "damn, dirty apes" only to find out he was actually on a post-apocalyptic Earth. The movie was an instant cult classic and garnered four sequels.

Fox is reportedly also in talks with Gary Oldman to play the militant gorilla in charge of the simian senate, a role originated by James Whitley. Meanwhile, there's no word on whether Wahlberg's seemingly inseparable costar George Clooney (Three Kings, The Perfect Storm, the upcoming Ocean's Eleven remake) will be going ape, as well.

In any case, shooting is slated to start in the fall, with Fox planning a massive opening on the July 4, 2001 holiday.

The updated Apes has gone through a tortured evolution. The project intitially got off the ground in 1995 when Oliver Stone announced plans to reincarnate the franchise, with Arnold Schwarzenegger reportedly traveling back in time to to save the human race from war-mongering apes.

When Stone dropped out, the project looked headed for extinction until a series of A-list directors took interest. The project went through several incarnations, with such notable directors as Home Alone's Chris Columbus, Clear and Present Danger's Phillip Noyce and James Cameron attached at the helm.

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Mark Wahlberg is set to star in the remake of "The Planet of the Apes" for 20th Century Fox and director Tim Burton. The deal for Wahlberg also includes a sequel.

Wahlberg, who will star in the same role that Charlton Heston made famous, had been orbiting "Planet" for the past couple of weeks.

Gary Oldman is also in talks to join Wahlberg, sources said. Oldman may play the ape who is head of the anti-human Senate, a role originally played by James Whitmore.

"The Planet of the Apes," which debuted in 1968, follows astronauts who find themselves in a world where men are enslaved by apes who consider themselves the superior species. The picture became a cult classic and started a franchise for TCF.

The project, being scripted by William Broyles Jr., is expected to go before cameras in the fall. The studio is positioning the film as a tentpole and has carved out a July 4, 2001, release. TCF president of production Hutch Parker will oversee the project.

Richard Zanuck is producing, and five-time Oscar winner Rick Baker is providing the special effects makeup for the project. Baker worked with Burton on "Ed Wood," helping to transform actor Martin Landau into an aged Bela Lugosi.

"Both Tim and I are thrilled to have Mark on board," Zanuck told The Hollywood Reporter. "As we always envisioned, he is the lead of this piece, a young pilot who comes into this very strange culture of ape and man. He combines both great acting talent as well as great physical ability."

Wahlberg may be able to expand the film's sci-fi cult following. The actor is "considered by young girls to be very cool, cute, sexy and buff," Zanuck said.

Wahlberg's star in Hollywood rose after his starring turn in "Boogie Nights." The actor recently wrapped shooting Warner Bros.' "Metal God" and is attached to star in the studio's remake of Frank Sinatra's "Ocean's Eleven," which reteams him with George Clooney, his co-star in the upcoming "Perfect Storm." The two first worked together in last year's critically acclaimed "Three Kings." Wahlberg is repped by Endeavor, Leverage Management and attorney Jason Sloane.

Mark Wahlberg as the new Mr. Fourth of July? The hunky star of The Perfect Storm, which hits June 30, has just signed to star in Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes, which is angling for the July 4th, 2001, weekend.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the 29-year-old actor will take over the role originated by he-man Charlton Heston in the 1968 classic as an astronaut who survives a crash landing on a foreign planet — run by talking apes!

Terminator team Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron were long attached to the project and Matt Damon was more recently said to be in the running as the nearly naked human prey of those damn dirty apes.

Did we say nearly naked? If director David O. Russell found a legitimate reason to get former underwear model Marky Mark in his undies in Three Kings — remember, he was running from captors, and he simply had to be in his Calvin Kleins to make the scene believable — then Apes, if it stays true to the stripped-down Heston original, should feature more wall-to-wall Wahlberg than we saw in Boogie Nights.

Wahlberg recently told columnist Cindy Pearlman, "Tim is the kind of guy where I just say yes to anything he wants me to do. I did say, 'What kind of ape do you want me to play?' and Tim has said, 'You're the human.'"

As washed-up The Simpsons actor Troy McClure said when offered the same role in the musical version (Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off) — "It's the part I was born to play, baby."

Filming of Apes is scheduled to start in the fall to hit that scheduled Fourth of July launch. Oscar-winning F/X man Rick Baker will provide the ape makeup.

Wahlberg, who's teamed twice with George Clooney now, has yet to really carry a film. His leading man status will be put to the test with his rock star turn in Metal God, due later this year.

Mark Wahlberg, whose next picture "The Perfect Storm" bows this weekend, is set to star in the remake of "Planet of the Apes" for 20th Century Fox and director Tim Burton. The deal for Wahlberg also includes a sequel. Wahlberg, who will star in the same role that Charlton Heston made famous, had been orbiting "Planet" for the past couple of weeks. "The Planet of the Apes," originally debuted in 1968. The project is expected to go before the cameras this fall. The studio is positioning the film as a tentpole and has carved out a July 4, 2001 release

DANVERS, Mass. (AP) It was a bittersweet event.

Proud to see the New England premiere of ''The Perfect Storm,'' but mindful that it pays tribute to local men who died, loyal fans lined up Wednesday night to get their first glimpse at the film and the actors starring in it.

They weren't disappointed. Former ''ER'' star George Clooney, rapper-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg, and director Wolfgang Petersen showed up to see the film. They were joined by some relatives of the fishermen who were at sea when the fateful and frightful storm hit the North Atlantic in October 1991 and cost the six crewmen of the ''Andrea Gail'' their lives.

''They did a wonderful job,'' said Maryanne Shatford, sister of Bobby Shatford, who was played by Wahlberg in the film.''After seeing this I am proud to be Bobby's sister, and proud to be from Gloucester.''

Maryanne's brother, Rusty, said the film was difficult to watch.

''It was, you know, like a white-knuckle, holding on,'' he said. ''I wanted it to end, but I didn't want it to end. I was happy with the outcome.''

Gloucester Mayor Bruce Toby said he expects the movie to be a ''wonderful thing'' for Gloucester.

''(Director) Wolfgang Petersen sat in my office 18 months ago and said he would respect the survivors and not exploit them,'' he said, prior to screening the movie. ''I have every sense that he tried to do just that.''

Fans started lining the street outside of the Loew's 20 Theater in Danvers hours before the 8 p.m. invitation-only premiere. A red carpet led to the entryway and was the route Clooney and Wahlberg took into the theater.

''What we thought was that if we did it right, we could come back and say with any luck we served their story,'' said Clooney, who plays the boat's skipper, Billy Tyne.

Wahlberg, a Boston native, said he was mindful of the sensitive nature of the story about the Gloucester-based crew.

''It's a very sensitive subject,'' Wahlberg said. ''This is not something that happened a century ago. It happened a decade ago.''

Tickets to the premiere were sold for $150 each, with proceeds going to The Gloucester Fund, which benefits charitable organizations in the fishing community.

Mary Lou Koch, 25, of Quincy a Clooney fan for years got to the theater at 1 p.m.

''I hope this movie does well for him,'' she said. ''And I hope it (does well) for the relatives of the people from Gloucester.''

The movie tells the real-life story of the ill-fated fishing vessel ''Andrea Gail'' and its crew, who were lost in a ferocious storm at sea in 1991. At the time, the storm informally was known as the Halloween Storm. The book on which the film is based dubbed it the ''Perfect Storm.''

Viewers sat silently through the nearly three-hour movie, many sniffing audibly as the intensity of the storm grew on screen.

''They died the hard way,'' said Richard Burgess, a long-time fisherman from Manchester-By-The-Sea, who said he knew several of the men on the boat. ''This is pretty much what I expected to see. You fight these storms. EVerybody does it.''

Much of the film was shot on location last summer in Gloucester, including scenes at a well-known local bar, the Crow's Nest.

While the premiere drew fans, stars, friends and family of the men lost in the storm, Gloucester residents said they'll wait to see the movie when it comes to town.

Marcia Chick of Gloucester said she wants to see the movie, but couldn't justify spending $150 on a ticket.

Still, many of the regulars at the Crow's Nest were hard to find Wednesday. Friends said they were getting ready for their night mingling with the visiting stars.

Crystal Naylor, 16, of Danvers, didn't go through elaborate preparations. She just showed up five hours early.

''We've never had a movie premiere in Danvers before,'' she said. ''This is pretty exciting.''

But outside of the glitz and the glamour of the premiere, Maryanne Shatford said she hopes people don't lose sight of what the movie is really about.

''It's a tragedy,'' she said. ''I hope everyone remembers that.''

Before he was a movie star, before he got big bucks for prancing around in Calvin Klein ad campaigns, before he was known as the white rapper Marky Mark, Mark Wahlberg was a punk, hanging out in the streets of Dorchester, waiting for trouble to happen, usually there when it did.

"Before the music and the movies, I was just trying to get off probation and parole," says Wahlberg candidly.

"But I cleared all my warrants up before I trekked off to Hollywood," he adds with a laugh.

With starring roles in high-profile films like "Boogie Nights" and "Three Kings," Wahlberg has established a reputation for taking risks with gritty roles. His newest, "The Perfect Storm," might not provide as much of a challenge to his acting chops - since he and his co-actors are often overwhelmed by the film's visual intensity - but it's certainly a step in the right direction in maintaining his current popularity. And Wahlberg had a lot to consider in the way he would portray Bobby Shatford, the real-life character he plays in the film.

"I think I was certainly in the position where I could've just gone and played the part a lot more like myself than any Gloucester fisherman," he says. "But that's certainly not what I wanted to do. I also wanted to reach out to the families but didn't want to impose either. It's obviously a very sensitive subject. This isn't World War I here, this thing happened less than a decade ago. So just by being respectful to them, they opened up to me right away. They really wanted to share as much as they could so it would be a lot more accurate.

"And I think they were all really glad that it was me and not some kid from the Valley," he adds. "I could see it now, 'The boat, man. We're goin' down, dude.' "

Until now, Wahlberg has actually stayed away from film parts that have had any local flavor to them. He hints that part of the reason is that he spent so much time trying to lose his Boston accent and didn't want to have to dredge it up again (which he does in "The Perfect Storm"). But it goes much deeper.

"It was just because I wanted to get away from that," he explains. "People were always offering me the tough kid from Boston parts or the white rapper roles. But my whole thing of being tough was to survive my neighborhood. Once I was out of my neighborhood, I could breathe easy. I have no problem putting on a suit, but I still listen to rap music. I'm proud to be from Dorchester, and I'm proud to have made it out of Dorchester. But I'm certainly not forgetting where I came from."

Asked what he would likely be doing if he didn't luck into acting, Wahlberg believes that because he had a rough upbringing, he wouldn't be doing anything related to the activities of his wayward youth.

"I would be doing something constructive, something positive," he says. "Maybe working with my hands. That's another thing I related to right off the bat [about the film]. These are all blue-collar guys that are real hands-on. This is the working man. This is my dad. He was a Teamster and a truck driver."

But Wahlberg is an actor, and he happens to be hot. He's already finished a starring role in the mystery "The Yards," he's halfway through filming the rock 'n' roll epic "Metal God," and early next year he'll be tackling the role originated by Peter Lawford in the George Clooney-produced remake of "Ocean's Eleven."

Even though Wahlberg is supposed to be tub-thumping "The Perfect Storm" right now, he's too excited not to rave a bit about "Metal God."

"I play a guy from Pittsburgh who's the lead singer in a tribute band," he says excitedly. "It's loosely based on the Judas Priest story. And he actually becomes the lead singer of the real band and is thrust into the spotlight and the life of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Of course, at the end it's really about him trying to find his own voice. He's been living as this guy's clone for 29 years so it was time. Jennifer Aniston plays my girlfriend-manager."

Wahlberg goes on to describe a concert that was staged as one of the film's set pieces, for which almost 20,000 showed up at a sports arena when the movie band opened for Great White and White Snake.

"Here I am thinking there's gonna be all Marky Mark people in the audience," he recalls. "And it'll be fine and I don't have anything to worry about. But I looked out there and it was all hardcore heavy metal fans. They still had their Wasp T-shirts from the '84 tour. It was crazy. But they loved the show.

"It's a big movie and it was a lot of work," he adds. "I had to do more preparation than I've ever done. I worked 62 days out of 64 shooting days, and I had to spend six months of singing lessons and guitar lessons and then work on my bad English accent. It was tough."

But so was it tough to break out of a young life of crime and achieve some stardom in the music business. And so was it even tougher to make the jump from music into movies. None of this is lost on Wahlberg.

"Well, crazier things have happened," he says. "Looking back on it, it seemed to be impossible to gain the amount of respect that I have in this industry and the amount of success. But I knew that going in, so I just didn't pay attention to it. All I wanted to do was take it one project at a time, convince a filmmaker that I was right for the part, never take on more than I could handle and just focus on the work. And if the work was any good, then I'd get a little bit closer to having more to choose from and finding myself in a better position. Now looking back, it's like how the hell did I do that?" 

      GLOUCESTER, Mass., June 27 —  On a clear summer day, this coastal town is a tourist’s delight — a hilly merging of sea, scenery and shops that looks out past the boats in its harbor to the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Since 1650, approximately 10,000 Gloucester fishermen have died in the ocean’s depths, among them the six crew members of a swordfishing boat named the Andrea Gail.

NO ONE KNOWS for sure what happened to them or the boat that was bringing them home from the waters off Newfoundland during the Halloween nor’easter of 1991. But Nancy Riley of Gloucester, who knew crew member Bobby Shatford as “a really sweet guy,” has a wish.
       “I went to the memorial service for the crew,” she says of the town’s official goodbye to Shatford, Captain Billy Tyne, David “Sully” Sullivan, Dale “Murph” Murphy, Michael “Bugsy” Moran and Alfred Pierre. The farewell was held at St. Ann’s Church atop a hill overlooking the harbor.
       “They gave each of us a flower to throw into the sea. But I kept mine. I thought if I did, they might come home.”
       The Crow’s Nest, a hole-in-the-wall bar patronized by Shatford and his fisherman friends, is separated only by a driveway from The Tourist Trap, where Riley sells souvenirs and copies of “The Perfect Storm,” a best seller by Sebastian Junger that has afforded the Andrea Gail and its crew immortality.
 Sebastian Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm"
          Shatford’s mother, Ethel, no longer tends bar there; she died of cancer last year on the anniversary of the Andrea Gail’s disappearance. But she lived long enough to visit the set of the Warner Bros.’ movie version of the book, scheduled to open Friday, and to meet the actor who would play her son, former rapper Mark Wahlberg, who rented Bobby’s room upstairs for the two months of 1999 that “The Perfect Storm” was shot in Gloucester.
       A late weekday afternoon finds the bar’s smoky interior filled with red-eyed drinkers and more than its share of tourists. Some of them even rent the room upstairs where Shatford — and now Wahlberg — slept. Others timidly approach this serious drinker’s bar to buy T-shirts for $15 or to order cups of chowder or cheap bottles of beer.
       A few regulars play pool alongside the window looking onto Gloucester harbor. Others sit at the bar and drink, watching as strangers huddle around pictures on the wall — pictures of the real men of the Andrea Gail and pictures of the actors who play them.
       “George Clooney came in here and sat in a corner. He was quiet. But Mark Wahlberg was real friendly,” the bartender says.

BEING RESPONSIBLE ON FILM
       The film version of “The Perfect Storm” stars Clooney as Capt. Billy Tyne and Wahlberg as Bobby Shatford. German director Wolfgang Petersen, who established himself with the thrilling German-language submarine drama “Das Boot” in 1981, was at the helm.
       “This wasn’t a caper,” Clooney says while seated on a Gloucester dock on a perfect June day, a weathered red “Perfect Storm” cap on his head. He and others involved with the film were in town earlier this month on a promotional visit. “I felt a great sense of responsibility. This was like making ‘Titanic’ nine years after it happened.
       “Originally in the movie, there was a tendency to slowly turn Billy Tyne into Captain Bligh, but those elements were taken out and it kept the movie from being another ‘Mutiny on the Bounty,”’ Clooney emphasizes. “Every time these characters do anything, they do the best they can. These are people with their backs up against the wall.”
       In the scenes during which the Andrea Gail is assailed by what a local weatherman termed “the perfect storm,” Clooney, Wahlberg and their castmates were pummeled with drums of water that washed over them so violently, Clooney was thrown from one part of the boat to another.

The making of ‘The Perfect Storm’

  The key, both from an economic and safety standpoint, was the computer. “We had so many computer people, you wouldn’t even know,” director Wolfgang Petersen said.
• “Sometimes you see people on the Andrea Gail and they’re ducking down with the plywood and they’re computer-generated people -- small, but great actors,” he said, laughing. A cast like that keeps commissary costs down and does not complain. ”You don’t need trailers and they work beautifully and they act beautifully.”
      When Hurricane Floyd made its way up the East Coast, Petersen capitalized on its effect by putting on his survival suit and calling his cast and crew into action.
       “We all went out and almost everyone threw up — the crew and Mark especially. But not me. It never got me,” Clooney recalls. “When we were filming back at the soundstage (in Los Angeles), we were blasted with dumping tanks of water and when that stuff comes down, it’s hard not to react.
       “The first time I did it, I did it without straps and the water knocked me from the front of the boat to the side. After that, I wore the strap.
       “But I could have killed Mark. Before that drum of water comes down you hear a kah-jung noise, and Mark would react before the water hit. We had to do it about five times.”
       Raised in Kentucky near the Ohio River, Clooney “had no idea of the difficulty of fishing. I didn’t think it was nasty work or deadly work.”
       In fact, it is the deadliest work a person can do professionally in the United States, as more people are killed per capita on fishing boats than in any other line of work. It’s just one of the fascinating facts found in Junger’s book.
       A handsome, blue-eyed man who had never before written a book, Junger still seems flabbergasted by the impact his book has had, not only on his life but on the lives of readers who continue to visit the Gloucester he so vividly described. Now an adventure-journalist who free-lances for magazines, he heads The Perfect Storm Foundation, which is dedicated to helping educate the children of Gloucester.
       “I felt it was a little bit of a class issue,” he says of its writing. “There are a lot of jobs that really cost a lot of lives — men’s particularly — and no one acknowledges it.

AT RISK EVERY WORKING DAY
       “These fishermen often have no education. They have little or no money. There are people who get applause for being at risk during a performance. Not these men. If no one ever climbs Mount Everest again, it will be absolutely fine. But what if these fishermen stopped fishing?”
       Junger asked director Petersen for only one thing — that if the fate of the Andrea Gail’s crew was changed with a Hollywood ending, the real names should be changed because then it would be fiction.
       Petersen agreed.

Battered about by ‘The Perfect Storm’

  “Brutal” is how George Clooney described the filming of "The Perfect Storm," which required most of the cast to be cold and wet and thrown from one side of the battered ship to the other.
• “I got my ass killed and I was terrified,” said co-star Mark Wahlberg. Sometimes, after a 12-hour day of being slammed into bulkheads and blown by wave machines and water dump tanks, he would go back to his trailer and just cry.
• Director Wolfgang Petersen conceded he might have “gone overboard ... Was it just too much? Maybe with Mark. And I did not know that because he is such a tough cookie he would not tell me.”

       “It’s such a dangerous world and so complex,” Petersen explains. “We could not put a romance or something like that in there for a summer audience. I even told the (special-effects people) that I would only accept photo-realistic re-creations of the storm.”
       Junger spent 30 months stretched over a four-year period researching and writing the book, which describes the final days of the Andrea Gail based only on what happened with other Gloucester vessels caught in hurricane conditions. Its title refers to the once-in-a-lifetime convergence of weather elements, including Hurricane Grace.
       Everyone connected with the film seems touched in some way by making it in Gloucester. John C. Reilly, who plays Murph, met the Shatford family and says he’s “proud to tell the story of these guys.” Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who plays the real-life captain of a boat called the Hannah Boden, gives a eulogy in the film.
       “I felt unworthy,” she says of the scene filled with extras from Gloucester, many of whom knew the crew members. “I am just an actor and I kept thinking, ‘One of these people should be up here.’ The church was thick with emotion.”

REAL-LIFE ENDING
       Producer Gail Katz emphasizes that the movie company “never considered changing the ending” of Junger’s book, adding, “It wouldn’t be honorable to the men who died.”
       When the studio suggested shooting the film in Nova Scotia instead of Massachusetts to save money, Katz and Petersen stood their ground.
       There’s a premiere planned in the nearby Boston suburb of Danvers. But a number of locals saw the film in Boston during two special screenings. One of them is a woman whose best friend is married to Bobby Shatford’s brother. Quietly weeping during the film, she wiped her eyes and thought the filmmakers did a good job of telling the story of the Andrea Gail and the men who disappeared with her.
       But Clooney has already told Billy Tyne’s sister to go to the premiere party and skip the movie.
       “It’s not necessary for her to see the film,” he says out of concern for the grief that it may bring her. “The results of this movie don’t matter, ultimately, to my career. But we have a great relationship with these people and we have a great responsibility here, not only to the people but to Sebastian Junger.”

The Perfect Storm star Mark Wahlberg has learned the hard way that being a fisherman isn't an easy life.

The actor tells TV Guide Online that he nearly drowned three times while filming the movie's intense water scenes. And that's not all — he also lost his voice, suffered sea sickness and wound up with a nasty ear infection.

"I got a big piece of ear plug wax jammed in my ear," he recalls. "I assumed it just got pushed out, but two days later my head swelled up like a balloon. I went to the doctor and they wanted to surgically remove it, but I said, 'No, that will take too long.' They were talking about shutting the production down. I just said, 'Rip it out with a pair of pliers!' "

Wahlberg also had to reluctantly dredge up his old New England accent for the role. "I vowed to never play a guy from Boston and never get that accent back. I worked so hard to shake it. With this particular story, it was a must-do. I promised myself that I'd jump into (another film) right after."

Wahlberg next plays a rock star in Metal Gods with Jennifer Aniston. "I get these films in my head and it's all about that," he says. "I'm getting chased by fish in my dreams. Now, it's the rock dreams. Some crazy groupies chasing me around."

Still, with critically acclaimed roles in Boogie Nights and Three Kings, the former Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch pop star doesn't have any regrets about leaving his singing days behind for an acting career. "I definitely feel like I made the right decision," he says. — Eddie Roche

 HOLLYWOOD -- There have been a few storms brewing around Mark Wahlberg lately.

There have been rumours that he was dating Winona Ryder and Jennifer Aniston.

"The Winona rumour is really ridiculous. I did not break up her relationship with Matt Damon. I've met Matt. He's a really nice guy," says Wahlberg.

"Winona and I had met a few times to talk about doing a movie together. The project never materialized. That's all there ever was to that."

Wahlberg and Aniston just completed work on the film Metal God, in which she plays his girlfriend.

There were reports of a steamy, secret off-screen romance between the actors.

"My mom read the stories ... and called me. She was furious. She told me to leave that nice Brad Pitt's girl alone.

"I couldn't believe my mom bought that nonsense.

"I consider Brad a good friend. I'd never do something like that to him.

"Besides, I have my own girlfriend. I don't need to steal anyone else's girl."

Wahlberg has been dating Jordana Brewster, who played Nikki Graves on As the World Turns, since he broke up with China Chow, his co-star in The Big Hit.

He may be in a relationship, but don't expect to see Wahlberg marching to the altar any time soon.

"I have some problems with commitment, or else you'd see me married with children."