`THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE' JULY 30.

Byline: - Glenn Whipp

Jonathan Demme's last movie was ``The Truth About Charlie,'' a remake of ``Charade'' that nobody went to see. So you can understand why he might be a tad sensitive in discussing his latest venture, an update of another 1960s masterpiece - ``The Manchurian Candidate.''

``One of the things that bugged me about 'The Truth About Charlie' is that a lot of writers spent a lot of time comparing the old movie to the (new) movie,'' Demme says. ``And I say, 'Like the picture, don't like the picture, but deal with what it is.' So I've decided I'm not going to get into that.''

And we didn't even ask. OK, so let's deal with what Demme's ``Manchurian Candidate'' is: Denzel Washington plays the Frank Sinatra role, an investigator looking into the vivid nightmares and strange behavior of a Gulf War hero turned vice-presidential candidate (Liev Schreiber). The trail leads to the afflicted man's overly protective mother (Meryl Streep in a role that Angela Lansbury rode to an Oscar nomination).

``The movie is looking at the way things are in the world today, the way big government and big business intersect,'' Demme says. ``It's much more of a full-tilt thriller. It doesn't have the kind of aggressive political agenda that the original had.''

But the film is set against the backdrop of an election, which is why Paramount decided to bump up its release date from the fall. (``You don't want to be conflicting with reality,'' Demme says.) However, if Demme is correct about Streep's virtuosity, ``Manchurian'' may be a candidate in Hollywood's own super balloting contest - next year's Oscars.

``All I can say is that this is very, very far afield from the Meryl Streep we've come to know and love,'' Demme says. ``This is 'whooooa.' This is from another planet.''

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Denzel Washington stars in the remake of the political thriller ``The Manchurian Candidate.''