A TIGHTER FOCUS OPENED THIS `DOOR' TO THE SCREEN.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

More than a few John Irving novels have made their way to the screen, very few of which were in any way under the author's supervision. But Irving has called the recently released ``The Door in the Floor'' - an adaptation of his ``A Widow for One Year'' - the most faithful of the bunch.

More than ``The World According to Garp'' (which had a screenplay by Steve Tesich) or ``The Hotel New Hampshire'' (Tony Richardson). Heck, the author thinks ``Door in the Floor'' writer/director Tod Williams hewed closer to Irving's words than Irving did himself in adapting his own ``The Cider House Rules'' into a screenplay. Which is a little ironic given that Irving's screenplay won an Oscar.

Until Williams came along, however, Irving was convinced that his novel ``A Widow for One Year'' was all but unfilmable.

``Most people's suggestions didn't interest me, and I passed on them,'' says the 62-year-old author. ``They asked me to (adapt) it first, (but) I didn't see it.''

That can happen when you write lengthy, involved novels that Hollywood wants to reduce to two hours of screen time.

``The hardest part about adapting 'Cider House' was the loss of the passage of time,'' Irving continues. ``I had more difficulty with that than with any other thing, and it was a long time before (director) Lasse Halstrom and I found a solution for it.''

``A Widow for One Year'' is structured, according to Irving, like a three-act play. Act 1 chronicles the memorable summer of 4-year-old Ruth Cole's life when her parents' marriage dissolves and her mother has an affair with Eddie O'Hare, her father's 16-year-old writer's assistant. In the second two parts, Ruth grows up and we find out what happens to her parents, Ted and Marion, and to Eddie. The action even shifts, at one point, to Amsterdam.

Other would-be adapters proposed going straight to the adult Ruth's story. Not Williams, whose only previous film was as writer/director of ``The Adventures of Sebastian Cole.'' Williams proposed filming only the first third, concluding when Ruth Cole - the novel's heroine - is only 4.

Done, said Irving, who quickly signed over the rights.

``I just liked his idea so much from the beginning,'' says Irving. ``I had in my mind as a precedent 'The Tin Drum.' Once the character starts to grow, the movie's over. It's totally flattering as a novelist to have something so faithful to the beginning of your novel which leaves the rest of your novel untampered with.''

For his part, Williams found himself confronting several interesting issues of his own when he first read Irving's novel. The mysteries of human behavior and the death of a love affair were some of the topics that Williams - who had recently lost his grandparents - was examining.

``I was feeling like, 'What happens when all these things go away? How do you move on?' '' he says. ``I thought John had created some characters that were worth spending a lot of time with. You wouldn't get to know them or be able to decide about them. I still haven't really.''

Since Ruth (played by Elle Fanning) grows up to be the novel's title character, the film would need a new title. The emphasis would end up switching to Ted and Marion Cole, played by Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger.

There figure to be more Irving novels that make it screenward. Versions of ``The Fourth Hand'' and ``A Son of the Circus'' are both in development, with ``Circus'' potentially reuniting the author with Jeff Bridges.

A cinematic version of ``Widow's'' second two parts seems unlikely, Irving admits, but ``Door in the Floor'' devotees can easily find out what happens to the Coles.

``The rest of the novel hasn't been picked over. It's untouched,'' Irving says. ``People can go and read the rest of the book and find out what happens.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

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The film adaptation of John Irving's ``A Widow for One Year'' concentrates on only the first third of the novel.