American film makers are already eyeing Eastern...

American film makers are already eyeing Eastern European locales now that the Iron Curtain has collapsed. One of the first productions will be “Midnight Spy,” which will shoot in Poland and East Berlin in March. Christopher Reeve stars in the true story of Polish count Adam Tarnowski, who used his social status as a cover to spy against the Nazis for the Polish army in the late ‘30s. Joan Severance (the current Playboy cover girl seen in “Hear No Evil, See No Evil”) plays a German woman in his network of spies in Berlin. Polish-born director Witold Orzechowski makes his American debut in this co-production between the Polish government’s Zodiac Films and New York-based North Coast Prods. Axelia International will distribute worldwide. . . .

Meanwhile, events have forced Nicholas Meyer to alter his script for “Dinosaurs,” which he will direct for Pathe. Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryshnikov play over-the-hill CIA and KGB spies involved in a Berlin spy swap. The film remains on course for a March 5 start in Germany and France. . . .

Randy Quaid joins the cast of Paramount’s “Days of Thunder,” the Tom Cruise stock car racing feature being directed by Tony Scott in North Carolina. Quaid plays the race car team owner. . . . Max Von Sydow will do a cameo role in January for Columbia’s “Awakenings,” the Robert De Niro-Robin Williams drama directed by Penny Marshall. . . .

“Wiseguy” Ken Wahl, his manager, Lloyd Bloom, and Bloom’s partner, former sports agent M. L. Trope, have optioned three books to develop as starring vehicles for Wahl: “Marine” by Burk Davis, a biography of Lt. Gen. Lewis B. (Chesty) Pulleur, the most decorated marine in World War II; George Chesbro’s “Bone,” a thriller about a homeless man accused of murder and a beautiful social worker who believes his innocence, to be scripted by Cindy Cirile; and Trope’s own book, “Necessary Roughness,” to be developed as a football comedy by John Fasano (“48 HRS. II”) and Cirile. . . .

Dom DeLuise will star with Austen Tayshus--reputed to be the most banned comic in Australia--in “Cop-Outs,” a comedy for producer-writer Lance Peters about the two worst cops in the world. Philippe Mora (“Communion”) directs for Underworld Prods. Pty. Ltd. in Sydney in April. . . . Then, in November, Mora will reteam with “Communion” author Whitley Strieber for the screen adaptation of Strieber’s best-seller “Majestic,” concerning an alleged UFO landing in New Mexico in 1947. . . .

Directions International has purchased film rights to Ron Arias’ recently published book, “Five Against the Sea: A True Story of Courage and Survival.” The company plans to film this true story of Costa Rican fishermen lost at sea for 142 days in 1988 under the title “Miracle at Sea.” . . .

Screenwriter Jere Cunningham will make his directorial debut for New Line Cinema in early 1990 with his original script “Centurion.” The “Predator”-like action tale has elite army robots hunting down an special forces squad. . . . Over at Amblin, Steven Spielberg is said to be rethinking the concept behind his live-action version of “The Flintstones.”