`LOST WORLD' CAST ANNOUNCED.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

Richard Attenborough, in a special appearance, and actors Vince Vaughn, Arliss Howard, Richard Schiff, Pete Postlethwaite, Peter Stormare, Thomas F. Duffy, Harvey Jason and Vanessa Lee Chester have been announced as stars of Steven Spielberg's sequel ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park,'' which is currently shooting.

The film, based on the best-selling novel by Michael Crichton, also stars previously announced cast members Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore. ``Lost World'' is Spielberg's first film since 1993, when the director made ``Jurassic Park'' and ``Schindler's List,'' which won a total of seven Academy Awards.

After Disney, Bantam bites on shark tale: In a happy twist of fate, ``Meg,'' an unpublished novel that sold several months ago to Walt Disney Pictures for a mid-six-figure sum, has been bought by Bantam-Doubleday-Dell as part of a two-book deal worth $2.1 million.

After heated bidding during the past few days, the publishing house obtained the rights to two novels - one of which has been written - from first-time novelist Steven Alten, who until just last week was the manager of a Florida meat-processing plant. Because of downsizing, Alten was laid off Friday, just one week before he was due to receive his first payment through the Disney deal.

``Meg'' tells the story of an 80-foot-long monstrous prehistoric shark predecessor, megalodon carcharodon carcharius, discovered in the unexplored depths of the Marianas trench off the Philippines. The creature surfaces to terrorize the area, then moves on to Hawaii and California. A paleontologist sets out to capture it.