ACTOR SAYS NO MORE MR. NICE GUY : `ER'S' EDWARDS SHOWS UNEXPECTED EVIL SIDE AS COLD-HEARTED KILLER.

Byline: Jay Bobbin Tribune Media Services 

Anthony Edwards wants to change his image.

Moonlighting from the NBC mega-hit ``ER,'' he teams with Eric Roberts (brother of Julia, and a star of ``Runaway Train'' and ``It's My Party'') in the CBS miniseries ``In Cold Blood,'' airing Nov. 24 and 26, based on the fact-inspired best seller by Truman Capote that also fueled an acclaimed and still-haunting 1967 movie.

The actors respectively play Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, the ex-convicts who shocked the Kansas town of Holcomb - and, consequently, the entire nation - by brutally killing all the members of the respected, well-liked Clutter family during a 1959 robbery attempt. The investigation was led by Kansas Bureau of Investigations agent Alvin Dewey (portrayed by ``Jurassic Park's'' Sam Neill), a friend of the Clutters who pursued the murderers relentlessly.

``It was kind of a big challenge,'' Edwards said of making the new ``In Cold Blood'' after the classic feature-film version, ``but there was no intention to re-create the movie. This was really about bringing the book to life. And I think Jonathan (Kaplan, the miniseries' director) avoided that pressure by always going back to the book.''

Edwards wasn't all that familiar with writer and director Richard Brooks' earlier screen version until he landed the part of Hickock. ``I feel that any information you can get is helpful, but I just knew from ryeading the (newer) script that what we did was going to be different,'' he said.

``Structurally, this is set up very differently,'' Edwards continued. ``The Clutters' story balances out the project much more, which I think brings a lot of power to it. (Back in 1967,) you probably couldn't even have done the Hitchcock kind of (psychological) thriller on television, but I think TV audiences are more in tune than ever. It's what all the network executives talk about: You're competing with movies, because you can almost always get a (theatrical film) on another channel. Audiences don't think, `Oh, this is made by a network. I expect a different visual style than I would from something on cable.' ''

For that reason, Edwards applauded the choice of director Kaplan - whose films include ``The Accused'' and ``Unlawful Entry'' - to oversee the new ``In Cold Blood.'' ``He just tells a story as visually and filmically as he knows how,'' Edwards explained. ``He choreographed this entire miniseries in his mind, probably not unlike Richard Brooks did. Everything you need is in that book, and I just can't say enough for the brilliance of Capote's writing, though I wish he had (been as concerned with) Dick as he was with Perry. He really got into Perry's head.''

That left Edwards to find what he terms ``Dick's voice'' largely by himself. ``There's so much dialogue in this that in getting into the rhythms of his speech, a lot of who (Dick was) came out of that. He's an interesting character to play, because he has no morality. He really doesn't have that thing most healthy people have, where they connect their emotions to their actions.

``Dick can talk about killing people and getting away with it, because in his mind, that's what the American dream is. Stealing and cheating are the best things you can do in a society, he thinks, because he sees businessmen as people who do that.''

In Cold Blood

When: 9 p.m. Nov. 24 and 26

Network: CBS

Starring: Anthony Edwards, Eric Roberts, Sam Neill

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Photo

Photo: (Cover--Color) Eric Roberts, left, and Anthony Edwards play ruthless killers in the remake of `In Cold Blood.'