FALL SNEAKS : In autumn, the studios’ fancy turns to big-name stars, heavyweight drama and high Oscar hopes. No doubt, . . . : They Have Some Scores to Settle

Ready for Kevin Costner as an aging fastballer trying to pitch a perfect game? Brad Pitt as a crazed anarchist whose top-secret fight clubs escalate into bloody terrorism? Nicolas Cage as a tormented New York City ambulance medic? Al Pacino as a TV news hound on the trail of a tobacco company whistle-blower? Harrison Ford as an internal affairs detective who discovers his wife’s cheating on him when she dies in a plane crash? Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer as a married couple on the skids? Meryl Streep as a feisty East Harlem violin instructor? Milla Jovovich as an even feistier Joan of Arc? Denzel Washington as a quadriplegic ex-cop tracking a serial killer? Robin Williams as a pancake vendor who invents fake news broadcasts to boost morale among Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland?

After a summer of scare fests, raunchy comedies and digital-effects fantasies, we’ve finally made it to fall, the season when theaters are filled with a rising tide of Oscar vehicles and star-powered dramas. This year, with many films pushed back to avoid competing with “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,” the fall season is more congested and competitive than ever. For the next two months, the spotlight is on the A-team, quarterbacked by an impressive scrum of megawatt actors: Cage and Costner, Willis and Williams, Sarandon and Streep, Pacino and Pitt, Pfeiffer and Ford, not to mention Washington, Cameron Diaz and George Clooney.

In the summer, kids rule the megaplexes, so movies reflect the energy and interests of young moviegoers. When fall arrives, with kids back in school and Oscars just around the corner, it’s time for adults to have their day.

“The colder it gets, the more serious the movies get,” says 20th Century Fox Domestic Film Group Chairman Tom Sherak, whose studio is releasing “Fight Club,” an edgy, ultra-violent drama from the “Seven” team of Pitt and director David Fincher.

“In the summer, people have a fluffy, fun-in-the-sun attitude. They’d rather see ‘Something About Mary’ than ‘Kundun.’ In the fall, you can aim a little higher. It’s that rare time of year when adults often have more free time than kids, who are supposedly home, doing homework. So a lot of the midweek business is carried by films that appeal to an older audience.”

Fall films also get a big boost from the fall TV season. Though network ratings have fallen off in recent years, the hoopla accompanying the debut of new shows offers an enticing environment for advertising new films. “It’s the best shot you have to go after 30 million people or target a particular audience,” says Disney Films Chairman Joe Roth. “My feeling is that the people who seek out what’s hot in one part of the culture are the same people who seek out what’s hot in another part of the culture. So if there’s a hot TV show, like ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,’ it’s a great place to advertise your film, because you’re more likely to reach people who’d want to see a movie that has the same kind of heat.”

So what movies (due out by our Nov. 5 cutoff date) have the most heat this fall? An informal sampling of industry insiders produced several consensus choices.

For box-office potential: “For Love of the Game,” “The Bone Collector” and “Story of Us.”

For critical plaudits: “The Insider,” “Bringing Out the Dead,” “The Straight Story,” “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc” and “American Beauty.”

For surprise hits: “Blue Streak,” “Three Kings” and perhaps one of the latest entries in the ghost story derby, “Stir of Echoes” or “Stigmata.”

Among the independents, films of note include “Happy Texas,” “Boys Don’t Cry” and “The Limey.”

Of course, with so many star-studded films on tap, there is growing concern among studio executives that many high-profile films will have trouble finding an audience. It’s too early to predict hits and misses, but it’s not too early to ask a few probing questions:

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Is “Fight Club” too incendiary for post-Columbine America?

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Hollywood responded to the Columbine massacre by pointing the finger at gun control opponents--while quietly shelving a few teen horror projects, taking guns out of movie ads and toning down the gore in upcoming films like “Scream 3.”

Consumers say they’re squeamish about movie violence, but many industry leaders believe “The Matrix” would do just as well at the box office if it came out today. Using that logic, if “Fight Club” co-star Brad Pitt and director David Fincher could hit pay dirt with “Seven,” a grim serial-killer thriller, lightning could strike twice with “Fight Club,” an angry-at-the-world screed tailor-made for the kind of rude boys who toss trash barrels at Limp Bizkit concerts.

But even those who saw a message in the film’s gruesome pyrotechnics are skeptical that the $70-million movie will find a broader adult audience, especially among female moviegoers. Twentieth Century Fox has been treading carefully, quietly screening the film early for media taste makers to gauge press reaction. Newsweek has already weighed in with a story calling the film “raw and exhilarating” but warning of potential controversy.

Don’t expect any complaints from Fox: In Hollywood, controversy is often the most reliable marketing tool of all.

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After “Six Days, Seven Nights,” are moviegoers ready to watch Harrison Ford in another plane-crash romance?

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Even at 57, Ford remains one of Hollywood’s most potent box-office icons--as long as he’s in an action thriller. When he opts for romance, as he did in “Six Days” and “Sabrina,” he has largely left audiences cold. “Random Hearts” focuses on a relationship between Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas, who bond after their spouses are killed in a plane crash.

Ford realizes it’s not the most enticing commercial premise, especially for a film that cost nearly $60 million. As he put it recently: “I’m concerned that people might feel this doesn’t sound like a date movie.” Judging from the early buzz, “Random Hearts” doesn’t sound like a good movie either. Ford and director Sydney Pollack, who did “Sabrina” together, are obviously hoping that the second time together will be the charm.

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Can “The Insider” end Disney’s long Oscar dry spell?

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Outside the animation realm, Disney has consistently come up short at academy time. In recent years, the studio has pulled out all the stops for a series of weighty dramas, most notably “Evita,” “A Civil Action,” “Nixon” and “Kundun,” only to see them fall short with critics and audiences alike.

This year’s Oscar hopeful is a provocative Michael Mann-directed drama about the complicated relationship between a conscience-ridden tobacco firm whistle-blower, played by Russell Crowe, and an ambitious “60 Minutes” producer, played by Al Pacino. Early screenings have created some Oscar fizz for Pacino and Crowe, although the studio is still debating which actor to push for best actor versus the best supporting category.

It’s a sure bet the film’s inside peek at “60 Minutes” will produce a wealth of media buzz. An equally sure bet: Don’t expect any coverage from “60 Minutes” (Disney already has a piece in the works with “20/20,” the Disney-owned ABC-TV newsmagazine.) Exhibitors who saw “The Insider” gave it a chorus of thumbs up, but it’s still unclear how well the film will play outside the New York, L.A. and Washington media beltways.

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Do 50-plus directors like Martin Scorsese, Rob Reiner and Sydney Pollack still have a commercial touch?

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All three have earned best picture Oscar nominations (though only Pollack has won a best director statue, for “Out of Africa”). But in Hollywood, once you pass the half-century mark, you’re treated like an aging slugger who’s only as good as his last 35-home-run season. Pollack has made two costly underachievers since “The Firm.” Since “A Few Good Men,” Reiner has had one modest success (“An American President”) and two outright flops. Scorsese remains a critics’ darling, but since “GoodFellas” his films have been more prestigious than profitable.

All three have top stars in their new films--Scorsese’s “Bringing Out the Dead” has Nicolas Cage; Reiner’s “Story of Us” has Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer; and Pollack’s “Random Hearts” has Harrison Ford.

But with only the Scorsese film getting good early buzz, it could be last-hurrah time. As one studio veteran put it: “At a time when everyone’s tightening their belts, the A-list director list is getting a lot shorter. They attract top actors, but they also add to the expense of making movies, because they get a big salary and a big chunk of the back end [grosses]. So if the hits stop coming, you start looking for young directors who don’t bring as much baggage and might appeal more to the ‘Blair Witch’ crowd.”

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Can a new sorority of female writer-directors crash the male-dominated movie fraternity?

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It’s still a rarity to see a woman at the helm of a big-budget studio vehicle, but the fall season is packed with a tantalizing array of low-budget pictures made by female writer-directors. One highlight:

Writer Audrey Wells (“The Truth About Cats & Dogs”) makes her directorial debut with “Guinevere,” which features Sarah Polley as a young woman who falls for a disreputable charmer, played by Stephen Rea. Sexual awakening is also at the center of Patricia Rozema’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park,” while first-time director Kimberly Peirce offers an unsettling portrait of sexual identity in “Boys Don’t Cry,” which chronicles the tragic real-life story of Teena Brandon, a young Nebraska woman who passed for a man.

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Can stereotyped genre directors create a new identity for themselves?

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When horror-meister Wes Craven agreed to remain at the helm of Miramax’s “Scream” franchise, he wangled a commitment to do something very different--”Music of the Heart,” a heart-tugging drama based on “Small Wonders,” a 1995 documentary about a suburban mom who becomes a violin teacher in East Harlem. When Madonna dropped out, Craven recruited Meryl Streep, who stars with Angela Bassett and Gloria Estefan. The only thing scary about the movie, Craven says, was working with the formidable Streep.

Meanwhile, Sam Raimi, best known for his “Evil Dead” films, lobbied long and hard to get the job directing “For Love of the Game,” a baseball romance starring Kevin Costner, who as a big star and sometime director wasn’t shy about offering his advice in editing the film.

And David O. Russell, a specialist in dysfunctional family comedies (“Flirting With Disaster”), switches gears with “Three Kings,” which stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube in a Gulf War-era crime caper. Despite reports of turbulence between Clooney and Russell, the $50-million movie has generated enthusiastic early buzz, perhaps proving that it’s not always a bad idea to give directors a fresh start every once in a while.

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And can films with state names in their titles be a box-office lucky charm?

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Perhaps not, at least judging from experience, which shows that for every gem like “Raising Arizona” or “Paris, Texas,” there’s a glut of best-forgotten duds, including “Feeling Minnesota,” “Missouri Breaks” and “My Own Private Idaho.” This fall the state-name question gets a big test, with a trio of contenders: “Happy Texas,” a quirky comedy about escaped prisoners who pose as beauty pageant consultants; “Crazy in Alabama,” featuring Melanie Griffith as a wacko housewife on the road to Hollywood; and “Mystery, Alaska,” an ensemble film (with Russell Crowe and Burt Reynolds) about a small-town hockey team’s brief brush with fame.