CASTING AROUND

Dianne Wiest will play Michael J. Fox’s mother in “Bright Lights, Big City.” . . . John Travolta is a by-the-books federal investigator teamed with street savvy detective Rebecca De Mornay in Cannon’s “Crack,” which Stan Dragoti directs in August on location in S.F. . . . Christopher Walken plays a police detective (in a role previously announced for Al Pacino) on the trail of a killer in “The Investigation,” based on the 1970 Oscar-winning foreign-language film “Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion,” with Andrei Konchalovsky set to direct. . . . Amanda Pays, the computer controller on “Max Headroom,” will play a nun aiding military policeman Willem Dafoe in finding a prostitute killer in Fox’s “Saigon,” about to shoot in Thailand. . . . Sam Neill will join Meryl Streep in “Evil Angels,” about a couple whose child is stolen by a wild dog, with Fred Schepisi to direct in Australia come August. . . . Ben Kingsley is set for the title role in Cannon’s “Gunga Din” remake, with Michael Caine and Roger Moore as British soldiers, Sidney Furie directing in early 1988. . . . Dorothy Lamour goes back on the road to do a rock ‘n’ roll comedy routine with host Jimmy Aleck and Sinbad on May 15 on the CBS late-night variety show “Keep On Cruisin’.” . . Mickey Rourke’s long-discussed project “Home Boy,” which casts him as a rising boxer who gets involved with the Mob, now goes before the cameras in November in Atlantic City. . . . Dennis Hopper hosts the last “Saturday Night Live” show of the season on May 30.