Seeing the Rain Forests Through the Films

In the aftermath of Hollywood’s race for the rights to the story of Chico Mendes, the martyred Brazilian rubber tapper who fought to save the rain forest from cattle ranchers, a crop of films with rain forest themes or backdrops has taken root.

First to blossom: Columbia Picture’s “The Fifth Monkey,” starring Ben Kingsley as a hunter journeying from forest to city, encountering a woman and four monkeys that change his life. It’s due Oct. 5 from producer Menahem Golan and 21st Century Pictures. Eric Rochat directs.

Among the other titles:

* “Amazon,” an action-adventure story about a quest for gold, with Finnish actor Kari Vaananen, Robert Davi and Rae Dawn Chong. Finland’s Mika Kaurismaki directs, co-produces. Distributor not set.

* “At Play in the Fields of the Lord,” based on the Peter Matthiessen novel, now filming in Brazil. Hector Babenco directs and co-writes the screenplay in which missionaries, soldiers-of-fortune and developers scheme to push the Indians out of the forest. Produced by Saul Zaentz, the $28-million film stars Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn, Kathy Bates and Tom Waits.

* The animated “FernGully: The Last Rainforest,” now in production, with direction by Bill Kroyer. 20th Century Fox plans a November, 1991, opening.

* “The Stand,” a love story from screenwriter Tom Schulman, starring Sean Connery and reuniting him with “Hunt for Red October” director John McTiernan, expected to get under way in January.

* “Rain Forest,” a fictional story involving a Mendes-like environmentalist, being written by John Lewis Carlino for producer Robert Redford.

As for the Mendes project, Warner Bros., producing with David Puttnam and Brazilian-based J.N. Filmes, has approved a screenplay outline by William Mastrosimone, based partly on Andrew Revkin’s nonfiction book about Mendes’ murder, “The Burning Season.”

Neither a director nor start date is set, according to Colin Vaines, director of development for Puttnam’s London-based Enigma Prod.

The battle for the rights to Mendes’ story--including such participants as Redford, Steven Spielberg and Ted Turner--was the subject of headlines in the summer of 1989.

“It’s fair to say that all of us were slightly aghast at how things got out of hand,” says Vaines. “All that bidding--for the story of a man who led a modest life.

“We’d like to think that we behaved very well in the circus.”