`GRAVESEND' STAR DIGS HIS NEW CAREER; FROM FAMILY RESTAURANT TO MODELING, MOVIES, PHILADELPHIA'S TONY TUCCI ENJOYING THE RIDE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Writer

Young director Salvatore Stabile is getting lots of attention for his debut film ``Gravesend,'' a darkly funny tale of four doomed, young Brooklynites' harrowing night with an inconvenient corpse.

But the micro-budgeted production - which impressed Oliver Stone and Steven Spielberg enough to make both legendary filmmakers go into business with Stabile - wouldn't be half as impressive without its strong central performance by Tony Tucci.

A 28-year-old Philadelphian who also makes his feature film bow with ``Gravesend,'' Tucci plays the alarming Zane. The most charismatic, manipulative and (at least initially) dangerous of the wayward teens (the others are played by Michael Parducci, Tom Malloy and Tom Brandise), Zane sets the wild night's events in motion by accidentally shooting one of his buddy's brothers.

Terrified of the police getting involved, he cajoles, browbeats and fast-talks his friends into driving around trying to cadge money for an illegal body disposal. It's a marvelously multilayered performance, full of bluster and menace but also underscored by a gnawing loneliness and fear.

``Zane was me growing up,'' says Tucci, whose speech is as measured and thoughtful as the character's is volatile and coarse. ``His mouth was his sword. He was a coward and a great manipulator, but his friends were his family. His point of view is that even if he's wrong, he's right. It's all out of fear.''

`Grave' beginnings

Tucci met Stabile through an ad the novice filmmaker placed in the actor's publication Backstage. A New York University Film School dropout, Stabile, now 22, shot ``Gravesend'' with virtually no clue about what he was doing and almost no money - initial budget was $5,000.

Then he shot it again. And again.

``Going into it, not having any film experience, I thought it was fine the first day,'' Tucci recalls. ``We had sound people, we had everyone. By the third day, they'd all quit on us. I was doing sound, Sal's girlfriend was making food and working the boom.''

That first cut, shot on 16mm film and Hi-8 video, was pretty awful, but a handful of scenes exhibited distinct power. Somehow, Stabile scraped together enough money to reshoot the film, working closely with Tucci and the other actors to flesh out their roles and relationships.

``Actually, I had thrown away all the clothes I'd worn, I was so depressed,'' Tucci says. ``So we had to go find the same kind of jacket.''

Stabile's second cut caught the attention of Toni and Mark Ross, children of the late Warner Bros. chief Steve Ross, at the Hamptons Film Festival. The Rosses ponied up $60,000 for a third pass and professional post-production. Soon after that, Stabile and Tucci found themselves driving around Hollywood with footage of ``Gravesend'' in a plastic trash bag, taking meetings with some of the most powerful players in the movie business.

``We gained 10 pounds from going out to lunches,'' Tucci admits. ``From the first screening, CAA signed Sal on the spot. I didn't believe none of this.''

Apparently, neither did Tucci's restaurateur father.

``My dad saw a rough cut, and after the screening I told him that Oliver Stone was going to present it,'' he recalls. ``So he said to me, `What do they do now? Recast it and shoot it over?' All right, Dad, thanks for believing in me, man. Frankly, I don't think any of my relatives thought this was for real until they could buy the soundtrack CD at Tower Records.''

The road to Hollywood

Though he dropped out of high school and cops to committing the pettiest of petty crimes as a teen, Tucci admits that he was pretty much a shy mama's boy who, being the youngest, was spoiled with whatever he wanted.

Tucci's romanticized delinquent tendencies were shocked out of his system when his mother died. It was while he was working in the family restaurant that a makeup artist girlfriend suggested he try modeling. Moving to New York, where an older brother was trying to break into acting, he soon hooked up with the Storm modeling agency.

An actor's agent who saw Tucci doing a runway show offered him an audition. He worked out a scene from ``Midnight Express,'' his favorite movie, and his brother suggested doing the reading with rocks in his shoes to help keep him focused.

``I went in there, did the monologue - it was this one note, anger - and she went `Great!' '' Tucci laughs. ``She got me in some acting classes and started grooming me.''

Now living in L.A. and loving it - good as he is at portraying East Coast urban angst, Tucci goes for a mellowed-out, yoga and organic foods lifestyle - the actor is preparing to star in Stabile's first DreamWorks picture, ``Dances With Angels.''

And, of course, he's enjoying his good fortune.

``My life's just been - boom! - blowing up in front of me,'' he says. ``I don't know how it happened. Modeling, acting, this movie - it's all just kind of happened to me.

``It's kind of like fate, I didn't plan this. I thought I'd be back in Philadelphia, cutting roast beef.''

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Photo: `Going into it, not having any film experience, I thought it was fine the first day. We had sound people, we had everyone. By the third day, they'd all quit on us.'

Tony Tucci

on an earlier version of ``Gravesend''