Disco music icon Donna Summer died in Florida Thursday after a private battle with cancer, TMZ reported. She was 63.

The celebrity news Web site said she had been working on a new album in recent weeks.

The five-time Grammy Award winner is known for the 1970s anthems “Last Dance,” “Hot Stuff” and “Bad Girls.”

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Ron Mann is to direct and produce a feature-length documentary about late American filmmaker Robert Altman, Sphinx Productions announced.

Altman died in 2006 at age 81. His film credits include “M*A*S*H,” “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” “Nashville,” “The Player,” “Short Cuts,” “Gosford Park” and “A Prairie Home Companion.”

“I am pleased and honored to have acclaimed documentarian Ron Mann shepherd this long overdue project,” Kathryn Reed Altman, Robert Altman’s widow and a consultant on the documentary, said in a statement. “Ron’s prodigious, challenging, engaging, and one-of-a-kind films revealed him to be the perfect choice to examine and celebrate Bob’s monumental life and art. I have no doubt Bob would be happy and may well be smiling right now.”

“Robert Altman reinvented not only what a movie might be, but how we might view ourselves. His films continue to inspire us today,” Mann said.

The film is scheduled to be completed in mid-2013. Accompanying the documentary will be a touring exhibit, an illustrated companion book, and music soundtrack, its producers said.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Police officers working in Los Angeles’ downtown skid row neighborhood have been told to keep an eye out for missing actor Nick Stahl, officials said.

Stahl’s estranged wife, Rose Murphy, reported the film star missing Monday, telling police she has not seen the father of her toddler-age daughter since May 9.

Murphy also said the 32-year-old star of “Terminator: Rise of the Machines,” “In the Bedroom” and “Sin City” had been using drugs and hanging out on skid row.

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Richard French told the Los Angeles Times officers working the city’s downtown drug district are looking for Stahl and foul play is not suspected at this time.

E! News quoted an unidentified source, who allegedly saw Stahl May 10, as saying the actor is known to go missing and his absence isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm.

“He does this sometimes,” the insider told E! News. “He’ll be back.”

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Mark David Chapman, the man who killed British music icon John Lennon in 1980, has been moved to a different New York prison after 30 years, officials said.

The State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision told The New York Times Chapman was moved Tuesday from Attica Correctional Facility 18 miles west to Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

The newspaper said no reason was given for the move and noted Chapman would remain in protective custody at Wende as he was at Attica.

Chapman is serving a 20-year-to-life sentence for second-degree murder.

He was found guilty of shooting the former Beatles musician Dec. 8, 1980, in front of Lennon’s Manhattan apartment building.

Officials told the Times Chapman had “a very good disciplinary history” and incurred no infractions since he disobeyed a direct order in 1994. He has been denied parole numerous times since he became eligible in 2000. His next hearing is scheduled for August.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

A new stage musical based on Drew Barrymore’s Cinderella-themed movie “Ever After” is headed to Broadway, producers announced.

Producers Scott Landis and Philip Morgaman said this week the show will open in the 2013-2014 season following a pre-Broadway engagement to be announced.

The production will be directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Kathleen Marshall. It features music by Zina Goldrich, and book and lyrics by Marcy Heisler.

“Ever After” tells the story of Danielle de Barbarac, the daughter of a nobleman in 16th century France, who “embarks on a series of adventures, standing up to her scheming stepmother, befriending Leonardo DaVinci and winning the love of the crown prince of France,” a synopsis said.

Casting, dates and other creative team members will be announced at a later date, the producers said.

Marshall’s Broadway credits include “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” “The Pajama Game,” “Follies,” “1776,” “Wonderful Town,” “Grease” and “Boeing-Boeing.”

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

British actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson says she is penning a contemporary screen version of the musical “Annie.”

The BBC said Will Smith is producing the film, which will star his 11-year-old daughter, Willow.

Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, the father of an infant daughter with singer Beyonce, is writing new tracks for the New York-set musical, which will begin shooting next year.

Jay-Z had a hit several years ago with “Hard Knock Life,” an R-rated rap song that riffs on a tune from “Annie.”

Some other songs from the original stage musical, such as “Tomorrow,” will also be included on the new movie’s soundtrack, Thompson said.

“I think it’s a very good combination,” the BBC quoted Thompson as saying. “We’re looking for directors so the management will come up with a director in the next week or two weeks.”

Thompson, who has acted with Will Smith in “Men in Black 3″ and “I Am Legend,” won an Oscar for her screenplay for “Sense & Sensibility.” She also wrote and starred in the Nanny McPhee movies.

Based on the long-running comic-strip, “Annie” follows the adventures of a young orphan trying to find her biological parents just as a kind-hearted millionaire offers to adopt her. The original version was set during the 1930s, but the new edition will take place now.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International

Singer, actress, model and producer Jennifer Lopez will not serve as a judge on TV’s “American Idol” for a third season, a source told UsMagazine.com.

Lopez, a 42-year-old divorced mother of 4-year-old twins, has been part of the “Idol” judges’ panel alongside Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler for the past two years, but she won’t return to the show next season, the insider said.

“There is just too much going on for her right now,” the source told UsMagazine.com.

“She regrets she can’t stay on the show,” the insider said. “It’s been an incredible experience and she is forever grateful that she did it.”

Lopez recently admitted to the magazine she is “a little tired right now.”

“I’m not going to lie,” said Lopez, who is planning a concert tour this summer and recording a new album. “I’ve been rehearsing, doing ‘Idol,’ promoting this movie ['What to Expect When You're Expecting'] … the kids, it’s a lot of stuff!”

However, she also said she feels “really in the zone.”

“I feel really good about everything. I feel like everything’s going so well. I feel blessed. I do,” she said.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International