O, SAY CAN YOU SEE THESE REMADE FOREIGN FLICKS

In recent years, as conscientious film-goers surely have noticed, there has been a trend by Hollywood to remake famous and obscure foreign films.

French director Coline Serreau is already Americanizing “Three Men and a Cradle” as “Three Men and a Baby” for Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg. Disney is hoping that this upcoming release will be as big a success as their hit from last year, Paul Mazursky’s adaptation of Renoir’s classic “Boudu Saved From Drowning,” which became “Down and Out in Beverly Hills.”

The reason for this trend, say industry insiders, is simple--Americans just are not writing enough good scripts anymore. This is true. Last year, only 185,000 screenplays were written in the United States, down 20,000 from the previous year.

Taking this into account, Hollywood is clamoring for more foreign remakes. Already there is talk of Paul Newman and Martin Scorsese following their “Color of Money” success with a stateside version of “ ‘Round Midnight.” And hotshots Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe are rumored to be in a furious bidding war for the rights to every Gerard Depardieu film of the last 10 years. There’s even a possibility that Paul Hogan will break his Crocodile Dundee image wide open in his first American film--a drastically altered version of Volker Schlondorff’s “The Tin Drum.”

Here is a list of other films in various stages of production:

Sylvester Stallone’s next macho opus has an unusual twist. He uses Louis Malle’s classic screwball comedy “Zazie dans le Metro” as a springboard for “Rambo in the Subway.” Stallone updates Malle’s rapid-cut editing style to kill an estimated 1,000 punks per second while still getting a PG-13.

Another superstar remake will be Eddie Murphy’s “Chockey La Mocha,” the fourth filmization of Julien Duvivier’s French classic, “Pepe Le Moko.” In this new version, Murphy plays a street-wise pickpocket caught in Detroit who yearns to return to his hometown of Miami, but can’t because a police detective (Don Johnson) awaits him. Lonette McKee co-stars as the sophisticated beauty who causes Chockey’s demise.

Neil Simon returns to the screen with a very interesting project--a comedy adaptation of Italian director Francesco Rosi’s acclaimed “Christ Stopped at Eboli,” tentatively titled “The Rabbi Slept in the Bronx.” Alan Arkin stars in the title role with support from Herb Edelman and Barbara Harris. Arthur Hiller directs, with an original score by Marvin Hamlisch.

Steven Spielberg’s next project is a Drew Barrymore vehicle inspired by Hector Babenco’s chilling Brazilian juvenile-delinquent film, “Pixote.” Barrymore plays a young Midwestern girl abducted by thuggish creatures from another planet. This as-yet-untitled Amblin/Touchstone co-production promises to be softer in tone than the original and is being dubbed “ ‘Goonies’ with a social conscience.”

Little social conscience of any sort will be evidenced in another children’s film, Sid and Marty Krofft’s very loose remake of the Jacques Demy musical “Young Girls of Rochefort”--now called “Young Girls in Roquefort.” The plot revolves around a girls school that is magically transformed into a giant slab of Roquefort cheese and is pursued by giant singing mice (Michael Jackson, Rex Smith and Andy Gibb). This $40-million Dino De Laurentiis production is considered iffy by market analysts.

Far more of a sure thing is Lawrence Kasdan’s “Big Chill”-style version of Jean Renoir’s immortal “Rules of the Game.” This one’s about an all-yuppie suburban house party that is devastated when one of the guests dies (accidentally?) from too much Nautilus. Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, Teri Garr, William Hurt and, in the role originated by Renoir himself, John Candy, head the cast. Working title: “The Bottom Line.”

A strange but seemingly dedicated hybrid would be Paul Schrader’s Americanization of the long-running Japanese character Tora-San. This film is called “Bickle-San--The Further Adventures of Travis Bickle,” with Robert De Niro re-creating his acclaimed “Taxi Driver” role, this time as a shy, lovable but often violent little man traveling through modern America. This idea reportedly came to Schrader as a vision while he was eating sushi and editing “Mishima.”

Prince returns to the screen in a work based on Milos Forman’s “Loves of a Blonde.” Little is known about this project other than that Prince will direct and star and tennis star Hana Mandlikova has been signed as co-star and technical adviser. Shooting is to start in Prague next spring.

Perhaps the most promising of all these films is Woody Allen’s soon-to-be-released work based on Visconti’s “Death in Venice.” Allen will star as an aging comedian who embarks on a farewell tour after his wife (Mia Farrow) kicks him out. He winds up in Venice, Calif., hopelessly smitten with a female break-dancer while all around them people are dropping like flies from a combination of smog and poisoned croissants. A haunting score by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band is promised to underscore what Woody himself has called his most lyrical film. Others are calling this one a cross between “Limelight” and “The Blob.”

John Boorman is scheduled to helm Madonna’s next film, an update of Werner Herzog’s “Aguirre: The Wrath of God.” Madonna is a white-water rafter who, while searching for alternative tuna, stumbles upon an odd tribe of young, blond girls who begin to worship her every move to the point of dressing exactly like her. Those who have seen the early rushes report the film features a moving conclusion where Madonna leads the girls back to their native homeland--the Sherman Oaks Galleria, raising the profound dilemma: Just what is civilization?