Movie audiences once again displayed their independence from film reviewers over the Independence Day weekend by pouring into theaters showing the critically panned Wild Wild West (1999). With an estimated $27.8 million for the weekend (and $41.1 million since its Wednesday opening), West was easily the big winner, topping the second week of Big Daddy, which took in $20.5 million -- less than half what it earned last week, but a substantial figure nonetheless. After ten days, the Adam Sandler comedy has earned $84.2 million. Despite efforts by exhibitors to vigilantly enforce the R rating for South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999), the animated film opened with about $11.3 million for the weekend. Another newcomer, Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (1999), debuted with a so-so $5.8 million. The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations: 1. Wild Wild West (1999), $27.8 million; 2. Big Daddy (1999), $20.5 million; 3. Tarzan (1999), $13.4 million (to bring its three-week total to $105 million); 4. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999), $11.3 million; 5. General's Daughter, The (1999), $9.7 million; 6. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), $9.5 million; 7. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), $8.9 million; 8. Summer of Sam (1999), $5.8 million; 9. Notting Hill (1999), 3.6 million; 10. Ideal Husband, An (1999), $2.7 million.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is planning to write and produce a movie version of his stage musical Aspects of Love (2000) and has signed former Polygram Filmed Entertainment chief Michael Kuhn to oversee the production, Webber's company announced on Friday. Kuhn will also reportedly take over development of the film production of Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera In a statement, Lloyd Webber said: "Michael Kuhn is one of the most respected members of the film industry and the fact that he is joining us shows that we mean serious business. With Michael Kuhn at the helm of the film division in both Britain and Hollywood I am confident that a whole range of film and television projects will be in development in the near future." Said Kuhn: "I am confident that together we can break some exciting new ground in the field of film musicals."

Nicolas Cage says he still wants to play Superman. In an interview with Britain's Popcorn Internet site, operated by media conglomerate Carlton Communications, Cage said that he has told Warner Bros.: "'I will still make the movie when you guys are ready.' I hope I can still do this because I think it will be a very enchanted movie."

Godfather, The (1972) writer Mario Puzo died of a heart attack in New York on Friday at the age of 78. He had won two Oscars for screenplays based on the book and had recently talked about writing yet another Godfather film. His recently penned novel Omerta is due to be published next year. Among Puzo's other works for the screen: Earthquake (1974), Superman (1978), Cotton Club, The (1984) and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992). He also wrote the hit 1997 miniseries The Last Don.

Edward Dmytryk the only member of the "Hollywood 10" to recant after he served time for contempt of Congress in 1950, died Thursday in Encino, CA at age 90. After serving a six-month sentence, Dmytryk agreed to "name names" and was allowed to continue working as a director. Among his films were Caine Mutiny, The (1954), starring Humphrey Bogart, Young Lions, The (1958), starring Marlon Brando, and Raintree County (1957), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift

Forrest Mars, who built his father's small candy company into a confectionery giant, becoming one of America's wealthiest men in the process (reportedly worth $4 billion), died in Miami Thursday at the age of 95. The American-born Mars launched the Mars Bar product while working for his father's candy company in England. In an obituary today (Monday), the London Times observed: "In what was later considered the biggest marketing blunder made by a confectionery company, Forrest Mars turned down Universal Studios when they approached him with the idea of having the alien in the film E.T. (1982) led out of the brush by a trail of M&Ms another Mars introduction. Instead, the film used Hershey's product, Reese's Pieces, sales of which promptly tripled."

Rupert Murdoch has indicated that Peter Chernin, chief executive of Fox Group, is likely to become the next CEO of News Corp. In an interview appearing in the current issue of Newsweek, Murdoch said that his three children, long viewed as his probable successors, are not ready to assume control of his media empire in the near future. "They all have to prove themselves first, " Murdoch told Newsweek, adding, "Peter is very much senior to them. ... It would certainly be a matter for the News Corp board. I would think Peter would probably be the CEO. Maybe my older son Lachlan, 27 would become chairman. I don't know." In an interview with Newsweek, Chernin remarked: "I may very well have the best job in the world, " says Chernin. "I get to control movies seen all over the world. Magazines. Channels. Internet businesses. Television businesses. What could be more fun?" The Newsweek article also reported that Chernin has ordered cuts in the budgets of all 30 primetime TV series produced by Fox. "We can't live with these numbers, " Chernin told Fox TV production execs last month, according to the magazine.

Providing a new angle on the features it produces with Court TV, Dateline NBC, beginning Tuesday, will ask viewers to go online to its Web site <http://www.msnbc.com/news/DATELINE_front.asp> and cast their vote to convict or acquit the accused person being scrutinized in the segment. The entire hour of Tuesday night's program is devoted to the case of Linda Stangel, charged with murdering her longtime boyfriend David Wahl The Internet vote, updated every 10 seconds, will appear at the bottom of the TV screen during the telecast.

NBC is set to debut its new soap opera Passions on Tuesday in all major markets except Detroit and Houston. Electronic Media reported on Friday that the network was close to making a deal with the UPN affiliates in those markets to carry the new daytime drama from James E. Reilly, former head writer for Days of Our Lives.

In an effort to speed up the roll out of its digital satellite TV service in Britain, BSkyB is planning to create 2, 650 new jobs -- 600 telephone support staff to handle customer calls and 2, 050 engineers to handle installations, the London Financial Times reported today (Monday). Although the DBS service reportedly has been signing up around 10, 000 new subscribers every day since it started giving away settop decoder boxes more than a month ago, it has reportedly fallen far behind with installations, with many new subscribers told they must wait up to five weeks to be hooked up.