Director Finally Lets the Writing Bug Bite : Cable: Stephen Cornwell, son of author John Le Carre, just finished his third film, Showtime’s ‘Block Party,’ and he also co-wrote the script.

Growing up during the Cold War as the son of spy-obsessed novelist John Le Carre had its chancy moments, Stephen Cornwell recalls.

“We were very worried about ‘bugs’ in the house. We were told that people could listen in every room, so don’t talk about what Dad did. So the notion of ‘bugs’ getting in was very vivid.

“On my fourth birthday I got a stuffed ladybug on wheels. That night someone put it in my room, and the next morning, when I woke up, I started screaming. I thought it was the Russian bug.”

Young Stephen survived the bugs but grew up to become spooked about something else: writing. Instead of trying his father’s field, he became a director and just finished his third film, Showtime’s “Block Party,” with Jimmy Smits, Kristy Swanson and James LeGros. Set in an earthquake-ravaged Los Angeles, the action thriller will air early next year.

Cornwell also co-wrote the script. “I never expected to write screenplays,” says the soft-spoken Briton, sitting under a tree in a gated community in Chatsworth, where the production has been filming. “My dad was a real star in the ‘60s, and 30 years later he’s still at the top of his form as a writer. I profoundly believed I couldn’t do it, so I tended to write with a partner as a way to cover it up. It’s taken a long time to develop any confidence in that area and develop a sense of risk.

“In America, I can feel finally I have my youth. I feel more liberated. I can begin to explore emotions. I’ve shaken the shackles of England.”

After completing studies at the London College of Printing, Cornwell came to California nine years ago to study at USC’s Cinema-Television School. He turned down a place in the BBC’s director training program because, he says, “I felt very much in the shadow of England and my dad [born David Cornwell, he adopted the pseudonym Le Carre]. I’d just gotten married and I wanted to be shaken up a little.”

Now at 35, he has carved out his own identity. His first two films, “Killing Streets” and “Philadelphia Experiment 2,” have a cable/video following. With “Block Party” now in post-production, he will next direct his “cyberpunk thriller” script “Crash Out” for Avenue Pictures and Spelling Films. He’s writing a script for producer Arnold Kopelson and Warner Bros., and he has just sold an idea about the French Foreign Legion to Columbia Pictures.

What does Le Carre think of his son’s work? “My dad hates my writing,” Cornwell says cheerfully. “I’m still in his shadow a little, but compared to my brothers I’m the most reconciled with it. I’m going to do a movie with Dad, which should be very interesting. It’ll be the first time we’ve worked together.”

Cornwell will produce the film of Le Carre’s latest novel, “Our Game,” with Francis Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios and England’s Majestic Films.

“ ‘Our Game’ has a very simple premise and is very cinematic, which is partly why I got backwardly involved,” he says. “My father sends me manuscripts more and more, now that he reluctantly acknowledges I have an opinion. I began to counsel him about avoiding his usual mistakes with adaptations. At that point he said, ‘Can you help me out here?’

“The idea is to avoid the pitfalls of his recent movies [“The Russia House,” “The Little Drummer Girl”], which were basically disasters. Most of his books have been very literally turned into movies by people who are almost overly enamored by the material and overly impressed by him. They’ve been very stolid films, often well-meaning but rather dull.

“There’s been lots of good TV [“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” “A Perfect Spy”], but a good movie is one of the few things that’s been eluding him. What I’ve tried to do with this book so far is to strip it back to the ideas and try to build a film from those, rather than adapting the book literally.”

Cornwell will not be directing “Our Game” but would like to direct “The Naive and Sentimental Lover,” Le Carre’s 1971 book based on the end of his marriage. It’s a subject he knows well.

“My parents divorced when I was 11,” he says.

“My dad was a ‘diplomat,’ in quotes,” he continues. “When I was born, we lived in Germany and Austria through the early years of the Cold War. When he wrote ‘The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,’ he was still working. I remember him writing in the evenings and my mom typing it. His central characters always have difficult relationships with women and heartfelt relationships with their kids.”

Even so, young Cornwell was sent to boarding school as a young boy, like many English boys of his class.

The father of five himself, Cornwell adds, “Within the context of difficult marriages, my dad’s been an incredibly good dad. He’s been very supportive.”

Cornwell’s older brother Timothy is involved with British interactive television, and his younger brother Simon is a journalist based in Washington.

“By most show-business standards, we’re not very messed up,” Cornwell says with a laugh. “But it’s taken me a long time to grow up emotionally. I wasn’t ready to make movies when I was 25, although I’d led a very interesting life making documentaries in Cambodia, working in Lebanon and Afghanistan and traveling a lot.”