Things That Go Splat! in the Night (...and so forth)

If you think James Cameron pulled off movie magic by restoring the sunken Titanic to its maiden glory, prepare yourself for another ambitious illusion in 1998. With “Godzilla,” director Roland Emmerich will try to turn cheese into gold.

Yes, Japan’s infamous B-movie monster, a lumbering dino-lizard who was awakened by atomic tests in the 1954 “Gojira” and trained his radioactive morning breath on Tokyo, has been adopted by Hollywood and turned into the star of a $100-million-plus summer movie extravaganza. Let the hype begin.

With an early blast of prime-time TV commercials, Sony Pictures has positioned “Godzilla” as the “event movie” of the summer of 1998, and given the success of Emmerich’s last sci-fi trifle, “Independence Day,” who’s to argue? If it doesn’t have the social weight, the romantic tug, the historical resonance or the earnest humanism of “Titanic,” well, it figures to be just as big.

We’re at a full gallop in the latest sci-fi cycle. “Godzilla” is one of two dozen movies that will be toying with our imaginations, and most of them feature creatures from beyond. In “Deep Rising,” this year’s cruise ship disaster, passengers will be terrorized by an alien rather than an iceberg. In “Species II,” model Natasha Henstridge returns as the sex-starved space slut Sil. In Martin Brest’s “Meet Joe Black,” Brad Pitt is an alien in human form who succumbs to human passion. And in “Phantoms,” a whole force of slumbering, subterranean monsters is awakened, though apparently none of them has seen Godzilla.

Elsewhere . . . Earth will be threatened by not one but two humongous extraterrestrial objects, an asteroid in “Deep Impact” and a meteor in the more ominously titled “Armageddon”; Dustin Hoffman and Sharon Stone are among the crew of a science submarine that discovers a sunken alien spaceship with a lingering pulse in Barry Levinson’s “Sphere”; and in “Blade,” Wesley Snipes is a new kind of Jekyll and Hyde, a man who’s half-human and half-vampire (but is more in touch with his human side).

The apparent public hunger for sci-fi, supernatural and horror fantasy has inspired screen incarnations of TV’s “Lost in Space” and “The X-Files,” remakes of film classics “The Mummy” and “Mighty Joe Young” and, besides “Species II,” another “Star Trek” filmand--some 22 years after Brian De Palma’s classic--”Carrie II.” The annual crop of sequels also includes new episodes of “Major League,” “Blues Brothers,” “Babe” and “The Fugitive,” featuring Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard.

The overriding impression left by the tentative 1998 release schedule is how few sure-fire hits, or at least high-concept movies and star vehicles, there are. Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson each have a couple of action movies, Sean Connery plays what sounds a lot like Cary Grant’s John Robie in “Entrapment,” and Kevin Costner will hope that the love story “Message in a Bottle” rescues him from the embarrassment of “The Postman.”

Jim Carrey is also back in a pair of unconventional comedies--”The Truman Show,” in which he is the only person among his family and friends who doesn’t know he’s the star of an ongoing television series, and “Fool on the Hill,” about an amateur deejay who broadcasts from a mental institution.

But most of the big-name stars in action this year aren’t in conventional action films. They’re required to do more . . . acting. In “6 Days, 7 Nights,” for instance, Harrison Ford is an airplane pilot stranded on a tropical island with Anne Heche. How’s that for luck?

Other leading men from the seniors circuit are Robert Redford, who directed as well as stars in “The Horse Whisperer”; Paul Newman, reunited with “Nobody’s Fool” director Robert Benton; and Warren Beatty, writer, director and star of the political comedy “Bulworth.”

Tom Hanks, who’s on a roll few stars have ever enjoyed, shows off his career management skills in two movies: the Steven Spielberg drama “Saving Private Ryan,” which co-stars “Good Will Hunting’s” Matt Damon, and the Nora Ephron comedy “You Have Mail,” with Meg Ryan completing the “Sleepless in Seattle” reunion.

Julia Roberts, her career revived by the success of “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” returns in Chris Columbus’ still-untitled dramatic comedy, co-starring Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris. Sandra Bullock, humbled by the sinking of “Speed 2,” stars in a smaller, more intimate drama pertinently titled “Hope Floats.” And besides “Sphere,” Sharon Stone will be seen as a rebellious moll in Sidney Lumet’s remake of John Cassavetes’ “Gloria.”

Budgets will continue to dominate the business news in film ‘98, but the box-office performance of “Titanic” will blunt some of the voices of doom. In retrospect, the real foolhardiness behind last year’s headlines was the ridiculous amounts of money committed to “Speed 2” (talk about an expensive boat trip!) and “The Postman” (talk about an expensive ego trip!).

A couple of the most interesting film stories to follow this year will surround the arrivals and receptions of “The Thin Red Line,” a World War II drama directed by Terrence Malick, who’s been missing in action since 1978’s “Days of Heaven,” and “Eyes Wide Shut,” a thriller that will be Stanley Kubrick’s first picture since the 1987 “Full Metal Jacket.”

Another notable return, after a five-year absence, is Jonathan Demme, whose adaptation of novelist Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” will be his first feature since “Philadelphia.”

Besides those well-rested artists, directors’ names that will give knowledgeable movie buffs quivers of hope are Scott Hicks, following his celebrated 1996 hit “Shine” with an adaptation of David Guterson’s novel “Snow Falling on Cedars”; the Coen brothers, who follow “Fargo” with another kidnap caper, called “The Big Lebowski”; Brian De Palma, an up-and-down stylist who takes on the assassination thriller “Snake Eyes”; Michael Radford, following his Oscar-nominated “Il Postino” with the romantic drama “B. Monkey”; Terry Gilliam, directing Johnny Depp in an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”; and Stanley Tucci, the actor-turned-director who scored big with his co-directed (with Campbell Scott) rookie film, “Big Night”--he returns with “The Impostors,” made with many of the same cast and crew from “Big Night.”

There are also films from such reliably interesting directors as Peter Weir (“The Truman Show”), Volker Schlondorff (“Palmetto”), Mike Newell (a still-untitled film), Stephen Frears (“Hi-Lo Country”), Pat O’Connor (“Dancing at Lughnasa”), James Ivory (“A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries”) and Barbet Schroeder (“Desperate Measures”).

Comedy doesn’t get much respect in 1998.

There are fewer than half as many comedies on the schedule as there were a year ago, and one of them stars Adam Sandler. In fact, nearly a third of the comedies are either rooted in television or feature people who built their fame on TV.

“A Night at the Roxbury” is a feature-length extension of a popular “Saturday Night Live” sketch. “Dirty Work” was written by and stars Norm MacDonald, recently fired as anchor of “SNL’s” Weekend Update segment, and is directed by Bob Saget, who might have peaked as the host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” “The Deedles” comes to us by way of Nickelodeon. And then there’s “Super Dave: The Movie,” in which whimsical Bob Einstein puts his accident-prone stuntman Dave Osborne through some high-risk adventures on the big screen.

There’s also a trio of “Airplane!”-style sendups on the list. Jim Abrahams, one of the originators of “Airplane!,” spoofs mobster movies with “Jane Austen’s Mafia!” David Zucker, another “Airplane!” originator, broadly parodies a couple of professional sports with “BASEketball.” And Leslie Nielsen, who became the poster boy of self-parody in “Airplane!” (surely, you remember), will try to get the “Mr. Magoo” off his shoes with “Wrongfully Accused,” a sendup of “The Fugitive.”

Unless the studios rush to fill the void, it’s not looking like a banner year for family or children’s movies. There are barely a dozen titles targeted for kids, and since those are disproportionately released during the summer and holiday seasons, your baby-sitting bills are going to be enormous.

It is, however, a relatively good year for animated features. The Disney Challenge, begun with Fox’s “Anastasia” late last year, continues with Warner Bros.’ “Quest for Camelot” and DreamWorks’ “The Prince of Egypt.”

And Disney unveils its 36th animated feature, “Mulan.”

The film industry, which enjoys its blood sports as much as any hockey fan, will be particularly attentive to the grosses on “The Prince of Egypt.” The film was made under the supervision of former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, who just wrested millions away from his old studio and his vanquished rival Michael Eisner in an out-of-court settlement of a bitter lawsuit, and would like nothing better than to kick a little mouse butt for good measure.

Besides the classically animated trio, there is “A Bug’s Life,” an epic adventure story pitting ants against invading grasshoppers, done by the computer animation house responsible for “Toy Story,” and “Small Soldiers,” another combat film, featuring live-action characters and computer-generated midget commandos and monsters.

If they’re not animated, this year’s children’s movies are about animals. There’s a sea lion for kids to rescue in “Slappy and the Stinkers,” a talking, thinking, proactive parrot in “Paulie,” the world’s most lovable swine in “Babe: Pig in the City,” a cuddly dinosaur in “Barney’s Great Adventure” and everything from an aardvark to a zebra in the remake of “Doctor Dolittle.”

If your tastes run toward more adult, literary fare, you’re in luck. Tasteful filmmakers continued to raid the library for material and have come up with a pageant of well-bred dramas, both costume and contemporary, most of them directed by foreign filmmakers with international, English-speaking casts.

* British director Beeban Kidron (“To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar”) expands Joseph Conrad’s faintly autobiographical short story “Amy Foster” into the feature romantic melodrama “Swept From the Sea.”

* Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron (“The Little Princess”) updates Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations,” relocating the tale of a poor man elevated by a mysterious benefactor to the Florida Gulf Coast and modern Manhattan.

* Dutch director Marleen Gorris--whose last film, “Antonia’s Line,” won the Oscar for best foreign-language film--puts Vanessa Redgrave through the emotional ringer in her adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.”

* Danish director Bille August brings to the screen Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables,” with Liam Neeson as Jean Valjean.

Also coming are adaptations of Honore de Balzac’s “Cousin Bette,” directed by the theater’s Des McAnuff, with Jessica Lange in the title role; and Alexandre Dumas’ “The Man in the Iron Mask,” with Leonardo DiCaprio as both the title character and Louis XIV.

Among more recent novels showing up in big-screen format this year are “Primary Colors,” journalist Joe Klein’s anonymously written tale about Bill Clinton’s run for the 1992 presidency, directed by Mike Nichols and starring John Travolta as Big Bubba; Patrick McCabe’s psychological mystery “Butcher Boy,” directed by Neil Jordan; and Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen’s “One True Thing,” with “Jerry Maguire’s” Renee Zellweger in the Quindlen alter-ego role of a journalist going home to attend to a family crisis.

Remember, as you scan through the accompanying sneaks, making furious notes about the films that sound terrific, can’t miss, must-see, you felt the same way last year, and look where it got you.