Film: Out takes

It's good to see art imitating life when it comes to the astronomical action movie. Hot on the heels of 77-year-old John Glenn's trip into outer space comes the news that 68-year-old Clint Eastwood is due to direct and star in Space Cowboys, the story of two retired astronauts brought out of moth balls to fly the space shuttle. Also slated to star are pensionable pin-ups Sean Connery and Jack Nicholson.

After the fantastically surreal Butcher Boy, director Neil Jordan (above) is making his first "period" film, an adaptation of Graham Greene's wartime novel The End of the Affair. Originally directed by Edward Dmytryk in 1955 with Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, John Mills and Peter Cushing, Jordan's remake will star Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea. Ian Hart will play the private investigator hired by a man who suspects his wife is having an affair.

Robert Downey Jr's career rehabilitation should get a boost with the release of James Toback's intense three-hander, Two Girls and a Guy in January next year, in which Downey gives a scorching performance as a slippery charmer cornered by the two women in his life.

Finally, Barbarella for the White House? CNN founder and billionaire media mogul Ted Turner is thinking of running for president, although his wife - Jane Fonda - is said to be less than happy about the idea.