HBO’s Tall Order : HOW TO TURN A CULT SCI-FI FLICK INTO A FILM WITH A FEMINIST SLANT

On a small, stuffy sound stage in North Hollywood, Daryl Hannah stands patiently, decked out in a tiny torn skirt and tank top. Her long blond hair is teased to make her look like the Wild Woman of Borneo.

The actress, now uncomfortably used to fans following after her and John F. Kennedy Jr. in real life, is getting ready to stalk through a make-believe town where everyone pays attention to her--and runs the other way.

This afternoon, director Christopher Guest (“The Big Picture”) turns the camera on “The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman’s” jealous rampage through the town. Hannah stalks around the miniature town, clutching a tiny car as she walks toward the camera in this HBO remake of the original science-fiction flick.

In between takes, an attentive Hannah snaps photos of her little nieces and nephews who are visiting the set.

Hannah, who had never seen the original “50 Foot Woman,” had no desire to star in a remake of a bad movie. “I had the T-shirt,” she says, laughing, but that was as far as it went.

“Originally, when it was first brought up I was like, ‘No way. I would rather take up underwater basket weaving.’ But then I read the script, I was surprised. Not only was it funny, it’s camp and tongue-in-cheek. But it also has something to say. There’s a metaphor and it does have a good story.”

Unlike the original, this “50 Foot Woman” written by “thirtysomething’s” Joseph Dougherty is more of a feminist statement masquerading as a comedy than a ‘50s drive-in movie. At the film’s outset, the title character, Nancy, is passive and obedient, and lets her two-timing husband (Daniel Baldwin) and her overbearing father (William Windom) run her life. But when Nancy becomes a giant after an encounter with aliens, Hannah says, “she gets assertive. She sticks up for herself at last.”

Dougherty wrote “50 Foot Woman” on spec six years ago. A rabid fan of “Mystery Science Theatre 3000,” Comedy Central’s paean to bad films, Dougherty recalls seeing the “50 Foot Woman” at the Westbury Theatre in Long Island when he was about 6.

“I was so small it actually scared me,” Dougherty says with a chuckle. “It was a pathetic statement in the light of what the picture actually looks like. It scared me, this woman screaming as the big thing comes down from the sky. So I didn’t see it all the way through until it was on TV. I was astonished that I was frightened by it.”

When he began the script, he didn’t know why he was writing it. “Now

Those creature features, Dougherty says, were his folk stories. “They were the folk tales that shaped me. Also, if you are a writer of a certain age, your first influences usually are ‘The Outer Limits’ and ‘The Twilight Zone.’ It’s the first place to learn what writing was like and what you could do.”

Producer Debra Hill (“The Fisher King”) also grew up on those kinds of movies. She says because of time and budget constraints, “50 Foot Woman” had to be precisely planned before production. “The effects were done during production rather than in post-production,” she says. “It’s one of those movies where every single scene was discussed and storyboarded into a particular schedule.”

Though “50 Foot Woman” is a comedy, the film is played entirely straight. “Actually, the way to make this work, to make it seem funny, is to play it with complete integrity,” Hannah says.

“It’s one of the great blessings to be working with Christopher Guest, whose humor is very deadpan,” Dougherty adds. “We knew the picture had to be played completely straight. It’s funny, but it’s not funny if the people in the movie think it’s funny.

“On the second day of dailies, Christopher and I were looking at them, and we realized we committed ourselves to a kind of picture and we were starting to get it,” Dougherty continues. “We were wondering if anybody would understand what we were doing. I’ve gotten some blank stares before in my career. I expect a few now.”

HBO was “appalled” when the completed film came in under 90 minutes, Dougherty says. (The original was only 65 minutes). So, Dougherty wrote two new scenes, one of which he’s incredibly proud.”

It appears early in the movie where the sheriff and his deputy are out in the desert looking for traces of the UFO when they meet up with a grizzled old prospector. “I looked at this scene and it’s an absolute, completely, perfect counterfeit 1955 scene,” Dougherty says, enthusiastically. “You could stick this scene in a ’55 movie and nobody would know the difference.”

“Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” airs Saturday at 8 p.m. on HBO; the original “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” airs Dec. 17 at 10:20 p.m. on TNT.