UP, PERISCOPE

Those two nuclear submarines that the Prez is scrapping as part of the SALT II agreement could end up in a film adaptation of a favorite Reagan book.

Mace Neufeld is producing “The Hunt for Red October” for Paramount, based on a Tom Clancy best-seller about a defecting Russian nuclear sub (with the Ruskies trying to destroy it, the U.S. Navy trying to save it). When Neufeld heard that the two real subs were being dismantled, he shot off a letter to the White House asking if he could use them in his movie.

According to a spokeswoman for Berkley Publishing, which printed the paperback, Reagan got a copy when the hardcover came out in 1984 from the Naval Institute Press. He reportedly was so impressed with Clancy’s military details (gleaned from declassified documents) that he had the author to lunch at the White House.

Neufeld said that access to the two subs would “absolutely” enhance a film version, but a deal is still “up in the air.”