DEATH OF FARLEY PUTS ZUCKER'S `TODDLERS' IN TURMOIL.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Filmmaker Jerry Zucker meets this week with Paramount brass about the future of ``Toddlers.'' That's the movie Eddie Murphy was supposed to make with Chris Farley, who died last month of a drug overdose. ``Toddlers'' is a fantasy about a business executive and a charter-plane pilot who crash in a remote region of the Himalayas where giants reside and end up pretending to be children to survive. It wasn't easy casting before.

As Jerry has explained, ``Because of the unusual concept of the story - grown-ups being treated like children - the relationship between the two guys almost makes it like a Hope and Crosby road picture.'' And he doesn't expect it to be easy casting now.

There are also loose ends as far as financing. Paramount is picking up half the cost, but outside monies still have to be solidified. Says Zucker, ``It's been a nightmare, there have been so many ups and downs. But we have a good script and hope things straighten out so that we can go into pre-production by summer.''

Tele visions

Wesley Snipes will soon begin a starring stint with Dean Cain in a two-hour movie for ABC - that Wesley's producing. Called ``Let the Games Begin,'' it's being considered a back-door series pilot. It's set in the year 2025 and features a brutal competition called Futuresport. Cain's character is a star of this vicious game - until called upon to use his talents against a terrorist organization, specifically (we kid you not) the Hawaiian Liberation Organization, or HLO. ``Let the Games Begin'' starts filming Feb. 9 in Toronto.

Taking the reins

Christine Lahti, who won an Academy Award last year for the short film ``Lieberman in Love,'' directs her first ``Chicago Hope'' episode this week. Jason Beghe returns in his recurring role as Lahti's love interest on the CBS medical drama. Things may get a little rocky for the couple. ``There might be a little chink in my character's armor,'' Beghe hints. `` ... Maybe I've got a little temper.''

A ``Blue'' milestone

Tonight's ``NYPD Blue'' marks the 100th episode of the ABC police drama. But it'll be business as usual, says James McDaniel, who plays Lt. Arthur Fancy on the show. ``There's no big kind of thing where the station house blows apart or anything like that. It's a good, old-fashioned `NYPD Blue.' '' McDaniel, who's the only ``Blue'' regular besides Dennis Franz to have done all 100 episodes, is happy that his Lt. Fancy ``has gone through a lot of personal twists and turns this season.''

He's also happy about his work in Sunday's Showtime ``The Defenders'' with Beau Bridges, Martha Plimpton and E.G. Marshall. His character is the antithesis of the soft-spoken Lt. Fancy. ``I play a star reporter who's in and out of jail. This guy's got a lot of fire in his belly. I get to kind of blow the roof off. ... I was just eating it up.''

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Eddie Murphy

Needs a co-star

(2) Dean Cain

Hawaiian eye