Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

The up-and-down careers of filmmaker Renny Harlin and actor Val Kilmer could each use a jolt of fresh energy — and they're going to get it with Harlin's upcoming film "Georgia," set against last year's deadly conflict between Russia and its fellow former Soviet state. At least, that's the opinion of Dean Cain, who is also part of the cast of the dramatic thriller.

"I couldn't tell you the checkered parts of his career and I won't even try — because I definitely want to work with him again — but this is one of Renny Harlin's good ones. He is on his game," claims Cain, speaking of the director who scored with such fare as "Die Hard 2" and "Cliffhanger," but also suffered flop after flop including the notorious "Cutthroat Island."

The "Georgia" project, he says, "is a great story and a true story, about an American (Rupert Friend) trying to get the story out about what was going on there. It's an anti-war movie. The Georgians gave us such incredible access. We did one thing with 10,000 extras ... We were actually shooting in Mikheil Saakashvili's office," he adds, speaking of the Georgian president, played by Andy Garcia in the flick. Kilmer plays a Dutch journalist, Cain a U.S. adviser, and Emmanuelle Chriqui and Johnathon Schaech round out the cast.

The actor has been working in back-to-back projects all year. Next up: the Hallmark Channel's Dec. 19 Christmas movie, "The Three Gifts," in which Cain and Jean Louisa Kelly play a childless couple who agree to allow three badly-behaved boys from a shelter stay with them over the holiday. Cain's son Christopher, 9, has a cameo in the movie. Then there's "The Dog Who Saved Christmas," which Cain has out on DVD.

"Mario Lopez does the voice of the dog," notes Cain, who adds that he likes taking on roles that Christopher and his buddies will see, in between more grown-up fare. "I like to work," he adds. "Work begets work. I'm not the kind of guy who likes to sit at home."

IMAGINE THAT: Ian Ziering doesn't know what it's like to be a dad, but he tells us his latest movie, "The Christmas Hope," got him excited about the possibility.

"I was playing a father to be, which one of these days, hopefully, I'll know what that's like in real life. There's no bun in the oven, I don't want to give you the wrong idea," clarifies Ziering. "But I do want to be a dad one day so I got vicarious thrill through that," says the actor, who stars alongside Madeleine Stowe and James Remar in the TV movie airing Sunday (12/13) on the Lifetime Movie Network.

"The first two movies were wildly successful so you really had to take notice when the third movie came along," he adds of the trilogy. "It's just a very heartwarming holiday movie. You'd really have to be heartless not to be touched by the story. Just the fact that I was a part of a project that touched so many people in such a positive way just really did a lot to fill up my love tank."

In the meantime, the former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star tells us he's keeping busy working on his craft. "I'm in an ongoing acting class that I've been in for a long time that I really love. I always felt it was important to maintain my skills. I also took a writing class at UCLA last semester," he says. "I've always had a thirst for knowledge, and writing a half-hour sitcom has always interested me. I'm auditioning all the time and I work out every day. I've got a lot of things going on professionally and personally so I'm a very happy guy."

INDUSTRY BITS: Chris Black is jumping on the timeliness of "Paranormal Activity's" breakout status to make a yet-untitled spoof of the low-budget horror movie business. About a first-time director who is filming a "Paranormal" style scary movie, the flick starts production late this month with Black producing and starring. Plans call for lots of improvisation, ala "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Could be good — or not.

Subsidiary roles are being cast in the Colin Hanks-Bradley Whitford "Jack and Dan" cop dramedy pilot, involving new school and old school LAPD detectives, for Fox. They're interviewing actresses of any ethnicity for the supporting part of Liz.

Barry Sonnenfeld's "Funny in Farsi" is also in the casting stage. All the principal roles are still to be filled in the "Men in Black" filmmaker's single-camera half-hour comedy project — about an Iranian family that moves to Newport Beach, Calif., in the 1970s.

With reports by Emily Feimster

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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