'RIDERS' FINDS A PLACE IN THEIR HEARTS.

Byline: Eirik Knutzen Special to the Daily News

Purely by chance, Ed Harris picked up a copy of Zane Grey's 1912 horse opera "Riders of the Purple Sage" in 1980. No fan, he had never read anything by the famed novelist before.

Only looking for "something different" to read, Harris fell in love with the timeless parable of individual freedom in which a strong-willed woman is forced to seek the aid of a mysterious stranger in order to save her inherited ranch after trusted friends and community leaders betray her.

The classic story was glued to Harris' brain when he met his future wife, Amy Madigan, while filming "Places in the Heart" three years later. He showed her the book, stating he would like to make it into a film someday. A week or so later, she loved "Purple Sage" almost as much as he did.

All fired up, Harris spent a couple of years doing legwork and eventually found Los Angeles-based Dr. Lorne Grey, the author's son and holder of the book's copyright. They optioned the book and worked closely with a friend, Gil Dennis, to turn the project into a screenplay by 1987. The script was finished just in time for all parties to put it on the backburner due to other commitments.

In 1994, after Harris and Madigan had tried rather haphazardly to market the script for nearly a decade, it landed somehow on a development person's desk at Ted Turner's TNT network. The couple was encouraged to raise some money for production costs, teamed up with The Rosemont Company as executive producers and got the project under way in August-September, 1995, for a 29-day shoot directed by former "Hill Street Blues" star Charles Haid.

A mere 15 years after laying siege to the "Purple Sage" material, Harris found himself in Moab, Utah (John Wayne/John Ford territory), starring in the adult oater opposite his wife. Working in 110-degree heat, surrounded by poisonous snakes and scorpions, the western quickly took shape.

The elapsed time turned out to be a blessing in disguise, according to Harris, 45, an intense, stocky man exuding raw power with wispy blond hair and totally focused blue eyes. "Amy and I benefitted from being older and having more experience as actors and people. I think it made the picture much better," he said. "We played our characters more fully than we might have ten years ago."

Madigan, also 45, agrees with her husband's observation. The outgoing redhead, who sometimes hides her eyes behind tinted glasses, feels that the film got a smooth ride because of the years spent writing, rewriting and polishing the script. "We had some vehement disagreements about parts of the script 'over the years," she admits, "but Gil (Dennis) became an arbiter and eventually wore us down. All the rough spots were taken out prior to going into production."

She portrays Jane Withersteen, a stubborn, gutsy and self-reliant rancher who runs 7,000 head of cattle on her own spread with just a handful of devoted ranch hands, including Bern Venters (Henry Thomas), a hot-headed teen-ager. Unfortunately, two pious local churchmen - a deacon and a pastor - conspire to take over her land and wealth with subterfuge and hired guns.

Harris plays Lassiter, a tight-lipped, straight-shooting drifter with a secret past who comes to Jane's aid during her darkest hour. A single-minded man dedicated to tracking down the person responsible for the abduction of his younger sister 13 years ago, Lassiter is an outsider cut off from his own emotions. And he has a propensity for violence.

"They are both very isolated people without friends, closeness or physicality in their lives," Madigan said. "They're kind of a good match for each other because they aren't in touch with their emotions. He slowly reveals himself to Jane, a nervous woman wound a little too tightly. She is a strange, repressed woman who I find infinitely fascinating. This is not your standard cowboy-cowgirl story."

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Photo (1--Cover--Color) 'Riders of the Purple Sage' Trust, freedom in the Old West (Ed Harris and Amy Madigan) (2) Ed Harris stars in Zane Grey's "Riders of the Purple Sage."