‘Look Who’s Talking III’--Hey, Mikey, Who’s <i> Not</i> Talking?

The last time we saw Mikey, the world-famous baby of “Look Who’s Talking” fame, he was 3 years old, toilet trained and speaking in the golf-cleats-on-gravel voice of Bruce Willis.

When TriStar’s “Look Who’s Talking III” goes before the cameras in mid-January, Willis won’t be a part of the package: Mickey, now a monosyllabic 5-year-old, has finally found his own voice.

But Willis, who reaped millions lending his baritone hipspeak to “Look Who’s Talking” and its sequel, isn’t the only one who won’t be around for the third installment. Although John Travolta is firmly committed to the project, female lead Kirstie Alley won’t be reprising her role; neither, for that matter, will Amy Heckerling, who thought up the chatty-baby concept and directed the first two films.

With Alley out of the picture, “Look Who’s Talking III” will revolve around the adventures of daddy Travolta, father of two, as he searches for a female role-model substitute for his children. Allie’s character has been dispatched in what is being described as a “non-traumatic way” so as not to upset young viewers. This plot development, says one, is a Zen way of saying she’s been killed off.

Although opinions differ on why Heckerling and Alley won’t be reprising their duties, one source close to the project says it is a clear-cut case of “look who’s balking.”

According to the source, Heckerling was asked by TriStar and producer Jonathan Krane to direct the further adventures of the very verbal family but refused. “She felt the thing had run its course. And after the sequel did half the domestic gross of the first film, she didn’t have much faith that this was a franchise.”

Heckerling, it is said, felt that any continuation of the story was not only unnecessary but silly, and set her sights on directing another story--Disney’s “Rat Race,” about talking vermin. Heckerling will serve as a creative consultant to the film and will receive a producer’s credit.

Alley’s lack of interest, says one, was more a matter of money and jockeying--she wouldn’t completely commit, waiting for a better project to come along, and so was finally written out. But a source close to the actress says this is “absolutely not true.” Alley was asked to reprise her role a year ago but immediately said no, the source said; she’s had enough of talking babies.

One source close to the project said “doing this movie without their involvement makes about as much sense as doing ‘Teen Wolf II’ without Michael J. Fox. And we all know how that turned out.”

Bur producer Jonathan Krane offers a different tale.

“Amy is a close friend, so I can tell you these stories aren’t true,” Krane says. “Amy has been very involved with this project, she’s been there at every single story meeting. She’s just not directing it because it conflicts with ‘Rat Race.’ It’s our bad luck, but there are no negative feelings.”

According to Krane, Heckerling did not bow out because of the disappointing gross of the last “Look Who’s Talking” film (which grossed $50 million domestically, compared to the $120-million gross of the original) or the blistering reviews that greeted her project.

“Any film that does $50 million domestically is not a disappointment,” corrects Krane. “Amy wasn’t crushed at the figures for the second film, but sure, she was disappointed. We all were. She wanted the thing to make $500 million.

“As for the bad reviews,” continues Krane, laughing, “the ones for the first picture were even worse! Variety, in a review I will never forget, said not only that we wouldn’t make any money but we wouldn’t even be able to sell it in video.”

Within TriStar, some are completely baffled at the studio’s attempt to turn “Look Who’s Talking” into a “Rocky”-type franchise, pointing to the below-expectation grosses of the second film and the disastrous television spinoff, “Baby Talk.”

“But both Amy and I said that television show would be a failure,” Krane says. (Neither were involved with the TV show). “We knew it wouldn’t work because with a television schedule, there’s no way you would have the time to capture the babies’ expressions, which takes a long time to set up. But all these things have nothing to do with Amy not directing this film. It was just a matter of scheduling.”

So the search is on for a replacement. “We’re looking at a list of about eight people now,” Krane says. “We want a young hip director who’s done a film or two or an interesting TV thing.”

And after “Look Who’s Talking III” is released next Thanksgiving, Krane says moviegoers can expect a fourth film, and a fifth, and a sixth. . . .

“I’m looking forward to doing 15 of these,” he says excitedly. “This is absolutely a legitimate franchise.”