Tom Berenger joins Aidan Quinn, John Lithgow,...

Tom Berenger joins Aidan Quinn, John Lithgow, Laura Dern and Kathy Bates in the Saul Zaentz production, “At Play in the Fields of the Lords,” filming in Brazil under Hector Babenco’s direction next month. Before he takes off for the Amazon, John Lithgow will play a small role in Carolco’s “L.A. Story” with previously announced stars Steve Martin and Victoria Tennant. Production gets under way Monday.

Robert Loggia plays a movie studio chief and Joe Montegna is Bugsy Siegel in Hollywood Pictures’ “The Marrying Man,” which stars Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin. Also in this Neil Simon period romance--inspired by the story of millionaire Harry Karl who married actress-singer Marie (The Body) McDonald three times--are Peter Dobson, Paul Reiser, Fisher Stevens and Steve Hytner, who play characters based loosely on Tony Martin, Phil Silvers, Sammy Cahn and Leo Durocher. The David Permut production, directed by Jerry Rees, begins shooting May 14 at the Ambassador Hotel and in Lancaster, where a replica of the old El Rancho Hotel in Las Vegas has been built.

Patsy Kensit (Mel Gibson’s love interest in “Lethal Weapon 2”), Tracy Scoggins, Richard Jordan and boxer Ray Mancini join Michael Biehn in Raffaella De Laurentiis’ “Nameless.” The action-thriller, directed by Avi Nesher, gets under way in the Santa Clarita Valley this month.

Glenda Jackson, who once starred opposite Walter Matthau, will be directed by his son, Charles Matthau, in “Charades,” an independent film produced by Lee Caplin and Dale Rosenbloom. Ruth Sacks’ adaptation of a novel by British writer Elizabeth Taylor (no relation to the actress) concerns a young man who pretends to be an old lady’s grandson. Production gets under way in London in June.

In “Blue Desert,” Courtney Cox plays a comic book artist who moves to the desert after being mugged and raped in New York only to find desert far more dangerous than the city. D.B. Sweeney and Craig Shaffer also star in this thriller produced by David Andrew Peters and directed by Bradley Battersby for Overseas Film Group. Production gets under way this month.

Dina Merrill has joined the cast of Herbert Ross’s “True Colors,” playing opposite Richard Widmark. The Paramount pictures is in production in Virginia. . . . Singer-songwriter-actor Paul Williams has a cameo as a publicist in writer-director Oliver Stone’s “The Doors,” shooting locally for Carolco. . . . Robert Davi, ever the villain, joins the baddies’ ranks in “The Taking of Beverly Hills,” starring Ken Wahl. Production is now under way in Mexico . . . Lara Flynn Boyle, one of the stars of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” on ABC, has been cast as Charlie Sheen’s love interest in “The Rookie.”

In AWGO’s and producer David Swinson’s “Roadside Prophets,” two bikers heading through Death Valley encounter Hunter S. Thompson, playing a sheriff; Dr. Timothy Leary, playing a desert rat; and singer-musician Mojo Nixon, playing a dine-and-dasher--a guy who orders meals in restaurants, then disappears without paying. Rock video director Bill Henderson makes his feature debut with this Abbe Wool screenplay. A May 14 start date is planned.