CRISIS IN THE KREMLIN : Coup May Jeopardize U.S.-Soviet Films : Entertainment: Several feature films and TV projects are on hold as producers await the outcome of the crisis.

The makers of a number of U.S.-Soviet co-productions and domestic film and television projects scheduled to be shot in the Soviet Union are anxiously watching events unfold to determine whether and when they can proceed.

Two Home Box Office projects are among those in limbo. “Stalin,” a three-hour miniseries starring Robert Duvall, was to be shot almost entirely in Moscow, beginning Oct. 14. Planned locations included the Kremlin, which was to have been made available to filmmakers for the first time.

“This really threw us for a loop,” Richard Licata, HBO’s vice president of media relations, said Tuesday. “As of today, we’re sticking to the schedule but exploring the possibility of shooting exclusively in Budapest.”

The cable programmer’s “Comrades of Summer,” the story of an American baseball player played by Joe Mantegna who goes to the U.S.S.R. to coach its Olympic baseball team, is also exploring other options. Rather than shooting four days in Red Square, producers may use Helsinki, Finland.

Some projects may have to be restructured to accommodate new political realities.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev was to be featured in “The Red Rooster,” a film about an American businessman in the Soviet Union being developed by Rastar Productions and Universal Pictures.

“Bearhug”--a project developed by producer Just Betzer, who made “Babette’s Feast”--tells the tale of an American record executive who falls in love with a Russian when she goes to the U.S.S.R. to promote a rock concert. Joan Micklin Silver, director of “Crossing Delancey,” had been tentatively lined up to direct.

“There’s very little politics in it, but if the Iron Curtain falls again, it’s a very different story,” co-producer Joan Borsten said of the film. “She wouldn’t be going to the Soviet Union to put on a concert, and he couldn’t follow her back here.”

Ilmar Taska, producer and co-writer of “Back in the USSR,” is in a more fortunate position. His film--a Largo Entertainment production to be released by 20th Century Fox--has been shot and is in post-production. The filmmaker doesn’t consider his project, which takes a piercing look at the underbelly of Soviet society, in jeopardy.

“It’s those films down the road for which I fear,” Taska said. “With the hard-liners, it may not be as easy to portray the ‘shadow’ side of Russia. There may be censorship, restrictions. The coup is bound to affect future co-productions--and whether films move ahead isn’t just up to filmmakers but to the bankers and completion-bond people. Who wants to lend money and insure a U.S.S.R. shoot when the country is so unstable? As usual, it comes down to dollars and cents.”

Next month, director Bruce Isacson had planned to start pre-production on “Vanya,” based on the real-life story of a young soldier killed by the Red Army for defending his belief in God. Although the project hasn’t been abandoned, the makers say the current volatility makes it hard to ask American actors to head East.

“This morning, I placed a call to (director) Milos Forman to ask his opinion of shooting in Czechoslovakia,” Isacson said. “He had been interested in directing the film himself but ultimately decided to pull out. Milos told us that, after consulting with (Czech President) Vaclav Havel, he concluded that the political climate was too uncertain--that by the time the picture was put into development, something of this sort would happen. Amazingly, he turned out to be right.”