FoxNews.com reports: “Fear of Flying,” Erica Jong’s sexy novel that blew people’s minds in the early 1970s, may finally be coming to the big screen. The word is that Diane English, best known for “Murphy Brown,” will write and direct. And English wants Maggie Gyllenhaal to play the lead character, Isadora Wing.

Gyllenhaal is a perfect choice based on her unbridled (and unrivaled) performances in “Secretary” and “Sherrybaby.”

Wing, as the book’s many readers know, was out there on the sexual frontier. Jong even invented a term for her that should gain a risky new popularity in this generation: “The zipless” you know what.

The saga of making or not making “Fear of Flying” is one of those Hollywood legends at this point. For years and years, famed producer Julia Phillips (”Taxi Driver,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”), who won an Oscar for “The Sting,” tried to make the movie at Columbia Pictures.

The story is spelled out in her bestselling memoir, “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again.” Phillips wanted Goldie Hawn to play Isadora and it almost happened. The book was the toast of the town in Hollywood in 1973, when, as Phillips put it, the “Shampoo” crowd was obsessed with it. She even had Hal Ashby on the hook to direct it. But Phillips, who passed away in 2002, was never able to get “Flying” off the ground. Meantime, the project has sat at Columbia Pictures collecting dust.

But hope springs eternal.

English is getting ready to go into production this July on a remake of “The Women,” yet another long-anticipated project. She may have the golden touch at this point to restart movies whose fates were up in the air.

As for “The Women,” English was mum about the cast last night at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s tribute to Diane Keaton. But this column has already reported Meg Ryan, Sigourney Weaver and Candice Bergen’s involvement.

I’m told that with new financing in place, English now has the go ahead to reach out to some big names. Included among them are Penelope Cruz and possibly even Gyllenhaal, who would seem like a natural. Lisa Kudrow is also a name in the hat.

Will Keaton be in the film? Is that why English was at her tribute? “We live around the corner from each other,” English told me coyly. Stay tuned.

The 1939 “Women,” by the way, had about 20 speaking roles for actresses, and another 20 minor parts. And … no men.

One last footnote, and it’s just speculation: Way back in 1973, Warren Beatty was pretty interested in “Fear of Flying.”

I told you recently that he had lunch in Hollywood with Mick Jagger, whose production company is involved in “The Women.”

Perhaps Beatty is circling “Flying,” while proposing Mrs. Beatty, Annette Bening, for “The Women” (she’d be perfect). Anything’s possible.

Thanks to Herman for sending it in