July 7 [14:00 EDT] -- There's an inordinate number of rock bio flicks in the works.

Dreamworks declined to comment specifically on the status of the much-discussed Phil Spector movie now that the movie's co-producers, Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise, have aligned themselves with that company, but it's assumed the movie is still being developed.

Spector, the famed producer of the 'wall of sound' of the sixties, is a story and a half given his well-documented oddities -- like forcing people to listen to his records at gunpoint.

Meanwhile Cruise's Oscar-winning acting partner in "Jerry MacGuire," Cuba Gooding Jr., is in talks to star as soul legend Otis Redding in a bio pic.

Also on the schedule are two dueling Janis Joplin films. One picture is done with the permission of the family and will feature Joplin's actual tracks, while the other is unauthorized and is restricted in it's musical contribution but has the opportunity to tell the story sans the family's

whitewash. Expect Melissa Etheridge to star in the latter.

And just announced is a documentary about the late great Frank Zappa to be done with the cooperation of his family. And with the family including Moon-Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva Zappa, it¹s a good bet the truth will be told in this one.