About Face

In the wake of his third big-screen dud--the current box-office loser “Worth Winning”--Mark Harmon has shifted career gears. He’s starring opposite Theresa Russell in “Cold Heaven,” directed by the offbeat Nicolas Roeg, due out next year.

“Audiences are going to see a different side of Mark,” predicted J.J. Harris, Harmon’s agent of eight months. (We’ve been tipped that for storyline purposes, makeup will alter Harmon’s glamour-boy features.)

“This may be his coming-out party,” added exec producer Jack Schwartzman. “After all, Nicolas is known as ‘an actor’s director.’ And in this one, the material is definitely different.”

Harmon portrays a pathologist who begins having supernatural experiences. Unknown to him, they’re related to a vision of the Virgin Mary that his wife (Russell) may have had during an adulterous affair. Allan Scott scripted (he did Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now”).

Harmon’s been hot on TV, but since 1987’s “Summer School” (gross: $36 million) he hasn’t fared well on the big screen. “Worth Winning” ($2.9 million in ticket sales after two weeks) follows the weak-performing “Stealing Home” ($7.5 million) and “Presidio” ($20 million).

When “Cold Heaven” wraps, Harmon will film “Till There Was You,” an action-adventure love triangle. Peter Weir’s longtime cinematographer John Seale makes his directorial debut.