Rude Awakenings

What are dreams? What is reality?

Those are questions George Orr, the young protagonist of the A&E; movie “Lathe of Heaven,” is constantly asking himself--because his dreams have turned into nightmares. And his nightmares seem to turn into reality.

The movie, which is based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic sci-fi novel of the same name, arrives Sunday. Lukas Haas plays Orr, a young man living in the not-so-distant future, when advances in medicine and technology have not only wiped out disease but also caused a huge surge in the population.

Sent to a psychiatrist, Dr. Haber (James Caan), to sort out his dreams, Orr soon realizes that Haber is using Orr’s power to benefit himself. Lisa Bonet plays Orr’s attorney, who falls in love with the troubled young man, and David Strathairn plays a mysterious friend of Orr’s named Mannie.

PBS originally filmed “Lathe of Heaven” in 1980 with Kevin Conway as Haber and Bruce Davison as Orr. It was Davison and executive producer Craig Bumgarten who brought this Alan Sharp-penned remake to Showtime. The pay cable outlet liked the project but wanted to make some changes. The filmmakers disagreed with some of them and wound up going to A&E; instead.

Bumgarten says this version has tried to remain faithful to the book in spirit and tone, though some of Orr’s dreams have been altered, especially one in which the world is invaded by aliens that resemble turtles.

With only a $5-million budget, he says, it didn’t make sense to try to tackle the sort of sophisticated special effects that would have been necessary. Besides, he says, “Lathe of Heaven” is not about aliens.

“It is really about the notion of reality and perception and which state, waking or dreaming, is real and where we are and who we are,” Bumgarten says. “We felt that by taking some of the sci-fi elements out of the piece, that the philosophical elements we were really attracted to would be more fully explored.”

Director Philip Haas (“Angels & Insects”), who is no relation to Lukas Haas, watched a bit of the original film before starting the project. “I wanted to make sure it wasn’t something so absolutely outstanding that it would be silly to try to have another go at it,” he says. “So I just looked at it a bit and felt that it wasn’t in the ‘Citizen Kane’ league, so I didn’t watch any more. I didn’t want to be influenced by it.”

Le Guin’s novel, the director says, had much more of a social consciousness to it. “It is sort of an anti-social-engineering, anti-utopian piece,” he explains. “I wanted to make something less of a social message and more about how people relate to one another. I think that it is important that Jimmy Caan’s character not be absolutely evil and have a kind of humanity about him.”

The character of Manny is much less defined in the novel than in this film. “He is one of Alan Sharp’s interesting additions,” says the director. “He is George Orr’s guardian angel and the one who guides him through the whole saga.”

“Lathe of Heaven” marks a return to acting for Lukas Haas, the former wide-eyed child star of the 1985 hit movie, “Witness.” For the past several years, he has been concentrating on a singing career and recently was the opening act for Macy Gray in London.

“If you are an artist, acting can be very constricting,” Haas, 26, explains. “You don’t have any control. When a project with a great bunch of people comes along and a role that I feel I can do something with, then it is more of a challenge artistically.”

Haas says Orr’s passivity and inner turmoil intrigued him.

“He obviously doesn’t know the difference between his dreams and reality,” says the actor. “The whole time, he doesn’t know if he’s crazy or if he’s changing the world. It was a very interesting dynamic to get to play.”

Haas drew upon his own dream experiences for the role. “I actually write down my own dreams, whenever I have one that I remember,” says Haas. “Writing down dreams is a really therapeutic thing to do.”

“Lathe of Heaven” can be seen Sunday at 8 p.m. and again at 10 p.m. on A&E.; The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).