Joe Pesci, winner of two critics’ association...

Joe Pesci, winner of two critics’ association awards for his supporting performance in “GoodFellas,” and Ralph Macchio will star in Palo Vista Productions’ “My Cousin Vinny,” getting underway Feb. 11 in Georgia. Pesci plays a New York attorney, fresh out of law school, who must defend his cousin in a murder trial. Fred Gwynne, Harissa Tomei, Austin Pendleton, Lane Smith and Mitch Whitfield also star in the comedy written by Dale Launer and directed by British director Jonathan Lynn. Paul Schiff and Launer produce.

Jeff Fahey, Brad Dourif and Lindsay Duncan are set to star in Paramount’s “Body Parts,” a psychological thriller written and to be directed by Eric Red in Toronto beginning in mid-January. Fahey plays a psychologist who has the limb of a criminal grafted onto his body. He then realizes the criminal’s personality is invading his. Frank Mancuso Jr. produces.

Marshall Bell, Michael Ironside, Colleen Camp and Patrika Darbo are set for Brooksfilms and MGM-Pathe’s dark comedy “The Vagrant.” Chris Walas (“The Fly 2”) directs and his wife, Gillian Walas, produces a script by Richard Jefferies concerning a vagrant who terrorizes the new owner of a house the vagrant previously occupied. Filming gets underway March 11 in Phoenix. Mel Brooks is the executive producer.

On the sequel trail: Fox’s “Alien III,” which has gone through three directors and as many writers, finally gets underway this week in London with Sigourney Weaver again starring. According to Fox, the writers of credit are now two of the film’s producers, David Giler and Walter Hill. . . . Sequels to unsuccessful films are rare enough but a sequel to two unsuccessful films? Nevertheless, a spokesman for ITC says “Stepfather III” is slated to go into production this spring under the direction of Guy Magar. While neither film did well domestically, they performed well enough internationally to warrant a third go. Terry O’Quinn, who starred in the previous two “Stepfathers,” will not appear in the third film. Dennis Brown will produce Marc Ray’s script for Tough Guys Productions.