BIO DIVERSITY : Marvin Worth Segues From Malcolm X to James Dean

From a religious icon to an ill-fated screen idol?

Only Marvin Worth, Mr. Biopic producer, would go from 25 years of hell to bring “Malcolm X” to the screen (not to mention the hellish production itself) to tangling with the image of James Dean in one of his next movie projects.

Worth has already tackled Lenny Bruce, Patty Hearst and Janis Joplin (or a thinly veiled Janis Joplin in “The Rose”), plus, of course, the slain religious leader played by Denzel Washington in last year’s controversial biopic directed by Spike Lee.

“Here’s a kid (Dean) who died at 24 and has grown bigger now than he ever was in life. I’m interested in what makes a legend,” Worth said of the moody young actor who died in a car crash in 1955 and has taken on near-mythical proportions since.

Playwright/screenwriter Israel Horovitz (“Author, Author”) has done the first draft of the screenplay and Worth is now looking to sign a director. The project is on the fast track at Warner Bros., the studio that took so much heat over “Malcolm X.”

Worth has also acquired the rights to New York magazine crime reporter Steven Blauner’s novel “Slo Motion Riot” with Broadway legit producers Fran and Barry Weissler (and also of the current revival of “My Fair Lady”). Harold Becker (“Sea of Love”) will direct from a script by Seth Rosenfeld.

The book, which received the 1992 Edgar Alan Poe Award for best first mystery novel, is an account of a Manhattan probation officer’s pursuit of a drug-dealing client. No studio is yet attached.