WAIT, THERE’S MORE : Didn’t Get Your Fill of Oaters Last Week? Read On

If proof was needed that the Western is back big time in Hollywood, one would only have to have been near the Four Corners area of the Southwest this summer when director Simon Wincer said his production of “Lightning Jack” was “rubbing shoulders” with “Wyatt Earp,” two “Geronimos” (one a Columbia feature, the other a TNT movie) while the cast and crew of “City Slickers II,” a Western of sorts, rode in close behind.

Just this month, as “Wyatt Earp,” one of two current movies about the legendary lawman, wrapped outside another location near Santa Fe, N.M., cameras started to roll a few miles away on “The Quick and the Dead” starring Sharon Stone (fully clothed) and Gene Hackman (his third Western in two years).

One more indication: Because the makers of “Return to Lonesome Dove” couldn’t rope enough saddles or holsters from Hollywood’s prop houses with so many other horse operas shooting at the same time, the miniseries propmaster had to buy dozens of new ones and rough them up with sandpaper and blowtorches to make them look distressed.

“Tombstone” director George Cosmatos, who is half-Greek/half-Italian and grew up in Italy with an image of America as a nation awash in Coca-Cola and cowboys, says the appeal for him was to film a story of the Old West when “women were women, men were men and love was love.”

Whatever the cachet of spending long dusty days ropin’ actors and fussin’ with the hassles of moviemaking out in the middle of nowhere U.S.A., the proof of audiences’ thirst for Old West adventure will be how many of them are hits when they come ‘round to the local theater beginning with . . . .

* Geronimo: From a director of Westerns, Walter Hill (“The Long Riders”), this film features Wes Studi, a Cherokee, as the legendary Apache leader--perhaps the most feared of all Native American warriors. The film follows the attempts of two sympathetic Army officers (Hackman, Jason Patric) to track down Geronimo’s elusive band and save them from certain annihilation. Native American advisers say that while “Geronimo” may not be historically accurate in every detail, it is the most honest look yet at the man whose name is synonymous with daring. The movie opened Friday.

* Tombstone: With Kurt Russell as Earp, Bill Paxton and Sam Elliott as his brothers and Val Kilmer in the role of the unpredictable Doc Holliday who fight it out at the O.K. Corral, this feature was filmed on the exact location of the bloody shootout that took place about 100 years ago. In this Hollywood Pictures release due Dec. 17, veterans of the genre including Charlton Heston (“Big Country”), Robert Mitchum (“River of No Return”) and Harry Carey Jr. (dozens of credits) are seen in small roles.

* Lightning Jack: This independent release, whose entire $30-million budget was raised via stock issue on the Australian securities exchange, stars popular Aussie comedian-actor Paul Hogan as a kind of Crocodile Dundee on horseback. Hogan’s character believes himself to be underappreciated as “the fastest gun in the West” and takes a mute outlaw, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. (“Boyz N the Hood,” “Judgment Night”), as his sidekick to help further his reputation. An out-and-out comedy, says “Lonesome Dove” director Wincer. The film, from Savoy Pictures in the U.S. and Disney’s Buena Vista International, opens in March.

* Bad Girls: Madeleine Stowe, Andie MacDowell, Drew Barrymore and Mary Stuart Masterson star as former prostitutes who leave Colorado with their savings for new lives in Texas. A cross between a “traditional Western loaded with action” and “Thelma & Louise,” said director Jonathan Kaplan, who calls “Bad Girls” “contemporary but not cutesy . . . feminist without being strident or preachy.” Due next spring from 20th Century Fox.

* Maverick: Based on the popular television series, this film features Mel Gibson in the title role as the cardsharp and gambler who charms his way through the West. James Garner is his nemesis who, along with Gibson, vies for the affections of the high-spirited Annabelle (Jodie Foster). Director Richard Donner calls his three stars the “Crosby, Hope and Lamour” of today. Due out Memorial Day from Warner Bros.

* Wyatt Earp: Kevin Costner is Earp this time, and not just at the O.K. Corral, but 35 years of him, from age 15 to 50. Producer Jim Wilson promises “some of the myths and legends” of the lawman will be “debunked” in “Big Chill” director’s Lawrence Kasdan’s treatment, without revealing which ones. A July 1 release from Warner Bros.

* The Quick and the Dead: Sharon Stone is in “tight pants, leather boots, kicking butt with twin six-guns barking flame,” says director Sam Raimi, describing her role as an avenging woman in pursuit of Hackman on the Arizona/Mexico border circa 1872. Leonardo DiCaprio (“This Boy’s Life”) plays Hackman’s son; Russell Crowe (“Romper Stomper”) is Stone’s love interest. A TriStar Pictures production to open in August.