HOLLYWOOD GETS SERIOUS : With the Industry’s $2-Billion Summer Ending, Here Come the Oscar Contenders

The summer to end them all is ending. With Labor Day Weekend, Hollywood’s $2-billion season fades into fall, kids can look forward to hitting the books instead of the theater and film critics can polish up their serious adjectives. “Batman” was fun, but now it’s time to talk art.

Most of last year’s heavily nominated Oscar films--”Rain Man,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Mississippi Burning,” “The Accidental Tourist,” “Working Girl”--were drawn from a pool of post-summer films. This year, the fall-winter schedule seems to be as thick with potential Oscar contenders as the summer was with potential blockbusters.

The star list includes previous Oscar winners Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Shirley MacLaine, Sean Connery, Sally Field and Jack Lemmon. Paul Newman may be competing with himself for a best-actor Oscar with strong leading roles in “Blaze” and “Fat Man and Little Boy.” Meanwhile, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Gregory Peck are showing their faces again after lengthy screen absences.

Directors with films coming include such heavyweights as Sidney Lumet, Roland Joffe, Ridley Scott, Norman Jewison, Costa-Gavras and Oliver Stone. Jack Nicholson, Eddie Murphy and Danny DeVito are all directing themselves in their own films. Steven Spielberg has a fun movie (“Back to the Future II,” which he produced) and a serious one (“Always”). Milos Forman (“Amadeus”) is back with “Valmont,” a re-tooled version of “Dangerous Liaisons.”

Here’s a sampling of the major studio films that should dominate the entertainment pages and theaters until New Year’s. Dates are tentative.

“Sea of Love” (opening Sept. 15)--In his first screen role since the 1985 Colonial flop “Revolution,” Al Pacino plays an emotionally worn-out New York detective who becomes infatuated with a woman (Ellen Barkin) who may be the serial killer he’s stalking. Directed by Harold Becker (“The Boost”). (Universal)

“Black Rain” (Sept. 22)--New York detective Michael Douglas teams up with an Osaka policeman (Japanese star Ken Takakura) in an international thriller directed by Ridley Scott (“Blade Runner”). (Paramount)

“Erik the Viking” (Sept. 22)--Tim Robbins (“Bull Durham”) is a conscience-struck Viking whose search for the meaning of life pits him against a sea monster that director and Monty Python trouper Terry Jones says is so big it will not fit on the screen. The epic spoof co-stars John Cleese, Eartha Kitt and Mickey Rooney. (Orion)

“Johnny Handsome” (Sept. 22)--When an operation gives the disfigured Mickey Rourke a new face, the ex-con must decide which is more important: a new life or revenge. The sultry New Orleans drama is directed by Walter Hill (“48 Hours”) and co-stars Forest Whitaker (“Bird”), Ellen Barkin, Elizabeth McGovern and Morgan Freeman. (Tri-Star)

“A Dry White Season” (due this month)--Marlon Brando, 65, ends a 10-year absence from the screen for two scenes in this story about a white schoolteacher (Donald Sutherland) who is awakened to the evils of apartheid when he questions the death of a boy who dies while in police custody. Brando is a black-rights lawyer, Susan Sarandon a reporter. (MGM/UA)

“In Country” (due this month)--Norman Jewison (“Moonstruck”) directs this adaptation of Bobbie Ann Mason’s novel about a Southern family ravaged by events that occurred during the Vietnam War. Emily Lloyd (“Wish You Were Here”) is a young girl coming to grips with her father’s death in Vietnam; Bruce Willis is her uncle. (Warners)

“Old Gringo” (Oct. 6)--Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck and Jimmy Smits star in the $24-million epic that was originally set for release last Christmas. Based on Carlos Fuentes’ novel “Gringo Viejo,” the story is about a love triangle in the heat of the Mexican Revolution. Luis Puenzo (“The Official Story”) directs. (Columbia)

“Fat Man and Little Boy” (Oct. 20)--Director Roland Joffe, whose first two films (“The Killing Fields,” “The Mission”) each received seven Oscar nominations, ushers in the Atomic Age with Paul Newman as Gen. Leslie Groves, the man who gave physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz) the task of creating the atom bomb. (Paramount)

“Dad” (Nov. 13)--A family is reunited when Ted Danson returns home to comfort his 75-year-old father (Jack Lemmon) when his mother (Olympia Dukakis) is hospitalized. Gary David Goldberg, who recently laid to rest his TV creation “Family Ties,” leaps to the big screen as writer, director and producer. (Universal)

“The Little Mermaid” (Nov. 17)--Disney’s first animated fairy tale since 1958’s “Sleeping Beauty” is the Hans Christian Andersen story of a beautiful mermaid who wants to shed her scales and become human. Disney veterans Ron Clements and John Musker (“The Great Mouse Detective”) co-wrote and co-directed, with seven original songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (“Little Shop of Horrors”). (Disney)

“All Dogs Go to Heaven” (Nov. 17)--Former Disney animator Don Bluth (“An American Tail”) goes head-to-head with “The Little Mermaid” with the animated musical tale of Anne-Marie, a small girl who can talk to the animals. Familiar voices provided by Burt Reynolds, Loni Anderson, Dom DeLuise, Charles Nelson Reilly and Vic Tayback. (MGM/UA)

“Harlem Nights” (Nov. 17)--In 1938 Harlem, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy are the father-son nightclub owners of the popular Club Sugar Ray. In a story written and directed by Murphy, a notorious gangster (Michael Lerner) demands a cut of their action. Danny Aiello co-stars. (Paramount)

“Steel Magnolias” (Nov. 17)--Shirley MacLaine, Sally Field, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, Julia Roberts and Dolly Parton star as six Southern women united in friendship and comedy. The successful Off-Broadway play by Robert Harling is directed by Herbert Ross (“Pennies From Heaven”) and produced by Ray Stark. (Tri-Star)

“Valmont” (Nov. 17)--Director Milos Forman’s first film since “Amadeus” is a new version of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” which was also the source material for last year’s Oscar contender “Dangerous Liaisons.” Forman co-scripted his story with Jean Claude-Carriere about handsome 18th-Century French aristocrats who play unscrupulous games of love and revenge. Stars Meg Tilly, Colin Firth, Annette Benning and Henry Thomas. (Orion)

“Back to the Future Part II” (Nov. 22)--Producer Steven Spielberg’s estimated $30-million sequel will pick up where the 1985 mega-hit left off, with Michael J. Fox and Lea Thompson buzzing off to the future in Christopher Lloyd’s time-traveling DeLorean. Not only does director Robert Zemeckis (“Who Framed Roger Rabbit”) return for Part II, he is currently shooting a third sequel with cast intact for release next summer. (Universal)

“We’re No Angels” (Dec. 8)--The unlikely comedy duo of Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn are two-bit hoods who are forced into a prison escape and then hide in a peaceful New England town disguised as priests. The divine script is written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet and directed by Neil Jordan (“Mona Lisa”). (Paramount)

“The War of the Roses” (Dec. 8)--The Roses, played by Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, want a divorce but neither is willing to move out of the house, which soon becomes an emotional and physical battleground. Danny DeVito directs the black comedy and co-stars as the couple’s divorce lawyer. (Fox)

“Tango and Cash” (Dec. 8)--Rival cops and prison inmates Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell escape and team up to find the men who framed them. Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky (“Runaway Train”) was fired from the production this week over creative differences with the studio and replaced by Albert Magnoli (“Purple Rain”). (Warners)

“Blaze” (Dec. 15)--Paul Newman (Gen. Groves in “Fat Man and Little Boy”) plays another real-life character in this biographical story about Louisiana Gov. Earl K. Long, whose steamy romance with stripper Blaze Starr (Lolita Davidovich) rocked the Southern political machine in the late ‘50s. Ron Shelton (“Bull Durham”) writes and directs. (Touchstone)

“The Two Jakes” (Dec. 15)--Jack Nicholson, summer’s Joker, picks up the part of detective Jake Gittes 15 years after “Chinatown,” this time in a mystery revolving around the postwar Southern California real estate boom. Nicholson also directs from another Robert Towne script. Co-stars Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeline Stowe and Ruben Blades. (Paramount)

“Always” (Dec. 15)--Steven Spielberg directs Richard Dreyfuss, a daring pilot killed while fighting a forest fire. But is death enough to separate him from lady love Holly Hunter? Inspired by the 1944 film “A Guy Named Joe” starring Spencer Tracy, the estimated $24-million adventure just might bring Spielberg that elusive Oscar. Co-stars Audrey Hepburn, John Goodman and newcomer Brad Johnson. (Universal)

“Enemies, a Love Story” (Dec. 16)--Ron Silver becomes emotionally involved with three women at the same time in this postwar drama. The unlucky trio: Anjelica Huston, as his first wife; Margaret Stein, as his current wife; and Lena Olin (“The Unbearable Lightness of Being”), as his mistress. Paul Mazursky directs. (Fox)

“Driving Miss Daisy” (Dec. 22)--Alfred Uhry has adapted his Pulitzer Prize-winning play into a film about the 25-year relationship between a fussy Southern Jewish matron (Jessica Tandy) and her patient, stalwart black chauffeur (Morgan Freeman, in a role he made famous Off-Broadway). Dan Aykroyd is Miss Daisy’s son. (Warners)

“Glory” (Dec. 22)--The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry--the first black fighting regiment in U.S. history--follows its white officers into battle against Confederate forces. The epic Civil War drama stars Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, Jane Alexander and Cary Elwes. Edward Zwick directs. (Tri-Star)

“Stella” (Dec. 22)--In this second remake of “Stella Dallas” (the most famous version starred Barbara Stanwyck in 1937), Bette Midler is a headstrong single mother who struggles desperately to be an ideal mother and at the same time give her daughter the life she never had. With Marsha Mason, John Goodman, Stephen Collins and Trini Alvarado. (Touchstone)

“Family Business” (Christmas)--Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick--three generations of one family--band together to commit a low-risk, high-return robbery. But is it? Sidney Lumet directs a Vincent Patrick screenplay, based on his novel. (Tri-Star)

“She Devil” (Christmas)--Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep, America’s favorite TV housewife and Hollywood’s finest leading lady, square off as the women (the dumped wife and romance-novelist girlfriend) in Ed Begley Jr.’s life. Barr plots revenge and sets out to ruin her ex-husband’s love life, career and reputation. Susan Seidelman directs. (Orion)

“Music Box” (Christmas)--Costa-Gavras (“Missing”) directs Jessica Lange in this story about a woman attorney who defends her Hungarian father (East German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl) from charges of war crimes. But the difficult task is explaining the shocking events to her 11-year-old son Lukas Haas (“Witness”). (Tri-Star)

“Born on the 4th of July” (Christmas)--Tom Cruise portrays Ron Kovic, the paraplegic Vietnam veteran and social activist who never surrendered his will. Oliver Stone (“Platoon”) is the director, co-writer and co-producer. With Willem Dafoe and Kyra Sedgwick. (Universal)

The independent film companies, which have mostly taken the summer off because of heavy competition, are firming up their release schedules to compete with the majors. In New Line’s “Communion” in October, Christopher Walken stars as Whitley Strieber, the international best-selling author who claims he was abducted by aliens. Also in October, 21st Century, Menahem Golan’s new company, will release its version of “Phantom of the Opera,” with Robert Englund (a.k.a. Freddy Krueger) as the Phantom.

A distinguished, graying Burt Reynolds will play an aging safecracker who takes on a quirky kid sidekick (Casey Siemaszko) in Samuel Goldwyn’s comedy “Breaking In,” directed by Bill Forsyth and written by John Sayles. At Christmas, Cinecom will release Volker Schlondorff’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a visionary story in which religious fundamentalists have overthrown the government and the remaining fertile women are required to be personal handmaids. The film stars Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway and Natasha Richardson.