The Shilts Legacy Lives On : Movies: Two of his books are being made into films by HBO and Warner Bros. And NBC will replay his ‘And the Band Played On.’

Randy Shilts, one of the brightest literary lights in the gay community, died of AIDS last week at age 42. The filming of two projects based on his books--and the rebroadcast of another--however, ensures that his spirit will live on.

NBC, which once had the rights to “And the Band Played On”--Shilts’ best-selling account of the rise of the AIDS epidemic--plans to air the movie in the wake of its original success on HBO last September. Warner Bros. will move ahead on Shilts’ 1982 “The Mayor of Castro Street”--the biography of the slain gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk--as soon as a director, a star and a finished script are in tow. And HBO is banking that “Conduct Unbecoming,” the 1993 examination of gays in the military, will prove to be yet another of the channel’s trademark “event” movies.

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“Randy had a great reservoir of information and a remarkable way of interweaving fact and entertainment,” says Janet Yang, president of Oliver Stone’s Ixtlan, which is executive producing both “Mayor” and “Conduct.” “He tells a really good story. (After his death) I suspect, he’ll be appreciated even more.”

Good stories or not, Shilts’ work has never been an easy sell. ABC passed on “And the Band Played On” before NBC picked it up and then passed it along. And “Mayor” producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron were turned down by every major studio and a handful of production companies before enlisting the support of Stone four years ago.

“Oliver was originally going to direct as well, but decided he didn’t want to do another assassination movie after ‘JFK,’ ” says Zadan. “Still, (“Mayor”) wouldn’t have been made without him. When he single-handedly championed the project, people suddenly took note. Warners wasn’t the only one interested--just the most passionate.”

Writers David Franzoni (HBO’s “Citizen Cohn”) and Becky Johnston (“Prince of Tides”) were assigned to write Milk’s tale and, at one time, Robin Williams had been slated for the lead. At Stone’s suggestion, Gus Van Sant (“My Own Private Idaho”) was brought in to direct. When his vision failed to correspond to that of the producers, however, both parties decided to part ways last year.

“Gus wanted a strange, quirky, art-house film,” says Zadan. “If we had only one shot at the subject, we wanted it to reach as wide an audience as possible.”

Scripts have been sent to some possible replacements with whom the producers will meet in the next few weeks. Casting “Mayor,” which is reportedly budgeted at just under $20 million, will kick in after that.

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“If we do a halfway decent job, there’s a market for this film,” Yang maintains. “There’s a real hunger for gay-themed and cross-dressing stories these days. Look at ‘The Crying Game,’ ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ and ‘Philadelphia,’ of course. ‘Philadelphia’ could have been more ‘gay’ and still gotten an audience. They played it pretty safe.”

Based on the mega-success of “And the Band Played On” and the front-page controversy surrounding gays in the military, 1993’s “Conduct Unbecoming” managed to sidestep some of the hurdles thrown in the path of Shilts’ earlier works. Ron Bernstein, who represented Shilts at the Gersh Agency, contacted the Stone contingent, which in turn approached HBO Pictures. They ultimately agreed to co-produce the project, along with Propaganda Films. Ixtlan brought in Zadan and Meron to co-executive produce. Hugh Whitemore (“Pack of Lies”) is now writing the script.

“We think this picture has the potential to be another ‘Barbarians at the Gate,’ ” says Bill Bence, director of HBO Pictures Publicity. “And even if it’s not, ‘Conduct’ fits into our overall objective: offering timely, cutting-edge films you won’t see on the networks that people are willing to pay money for.” That was the case with “And the Band Played On,” which NBC sold to HBO after repeated efforts to develop the project failed. Sources say questions about whether mainstream audiences would buy the subject matter, and concerns about advertiser pullout played a key role in the decision--a contention the network, which may air the show in the spring, denies.

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“It was a massive undertaking,” says Flody Suarez, NBC’s senior director of entertainment press. “We felt that we couldn’t do it justice or attract the right kind of talent on a TV-movie budget. Fear of controversy wasn’t an overriding concern. TV has to address issues such as these, or the medium will become very bland. After seeing the program on HBO, we felt it deserved a mass audience.”

The network could also be said to have a ratings incentive: HBO, which reaches less than 20% of U.S. households, drew a 25% share with the Sept. 11 show.

Despite his illness, Shilts remained active on the film versions of “Mayor” and “Conduct.” Every draft of the scripts was sent to him for notes. No matter that he was so emotionally invested in the material, say his colleagues; he was less proprietary and more trusting in the system than most.

“Randy pushed that much harder at the end,” recalls Yang. “I think he had a time-line in his head.”

Zadan says that Shilts, who will be memorialized at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco this afternoon, was so intent on finishing “Conduct Unbecoming” that he never took time out to deal with his illness.

“Randy was completely driven, a man on a mission. He wrote three landmark books. He was a brilliant--and controversial--spokesperson for the gay community. His untimely death gives us even greater incentive not only to make the films, but to do them in a way that would make him proud.”