JUDE LAW - JUDE LAW WITHNAIL REPORTS CRUSHED

LATEST: Reports JUDE LAW is set to star in a London stage production of cult movie WITHNAIL + I have been crushed by RICHARD E GRANT. PATRICK MEEHAN, the chairman of Handmade Films who produced the 1987 film, declared last week (16MAY06) that talks with the COLD MOUNTAIN actor were underway - but writer/director BRUCE ROBINSON has not given his permission for a theatre adaptation. Grant, who played the role of Withnail, tells Empireonline, "Bruce Robinson called me up about this immediately, and he said, 'Do you know anything about this?', and I said, 'No, no, nothing at all.' The guy is a producer, I think he has bought the film and he owns the rights to that but he doesn't own any rights to turn it into a theatre play. So it's pure fantasy and Bruce Robinson said over his dead body, it'll never happen. He'll sue him. "Hearing somebody saying that they're going to do a play, and that they're casting Jude Law is just fanciful."