FILM: SEEING RED BRIAN DE PALMA, CLINT EASTWOOD AND JAMES CAMERON ATTEMPT TO CURE WHAT AILS SCI-FI CINEMA.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Having fashioned a directorial career that's awash in cinematic quotes and insider jokes, it isn't surprising to watch Brian De Palma's latest big-screen forgery, ``Mission to Mars,'' and find that the movie pays homage at every turn to Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi classic ``2001: A Space Odyssey.'' From the camera movements to the set design to the film's very ending, ``Mission to Mars'' plays like a popcorn reproduction of ``2001,'' save for one important differenc: Where Kubrick took pleasure in confounding audiences with a vagueness dressed up as something profound, De Palma's picture spells out every twist and turn with dialogue and exposition that would sound cheesy on a ``Baywatch'' episode.

But then, maybe we shouldn't bust De Palma's chops for being derivative. Judging from this year's lineup of science-fiction movies, new ideas for outer-space films seem to be in short supply. If space is indeed the final frontier, Hollywood at the moment is circling its wagons.

``Supernova,'' the first entry in this year's space race, was a movie that was so bad that director Walter Hill bailed more than a year before its release, refusing to have his name attached to the project. Since Joe Eszterhas' ``An Alan Smithee Film'' permanently ruined that directorial pseudonym, ``Supernova'' was credited to a ``Thomas Lee.'' There is no Thomas Lee in the Directors Guild of America, but anyone named Thomas Lee (including the home video star) should sue for defamation of character. The $65 million movie disappeared from theaters without a trace.

``Pitch Black,'' the year's second space movie, at least had some interesting eye candy to go along with its derivative ideas. But at its core, it was just another ``Alien'' rehash, albeit slightly better than most of its ilk. (And, yes, that is damning with faint praise.)

What's left for outer-space fans after these travesties and ``Mission to Mars''? Not much. Two big-budget entries are slated for the summer. The first, ``Battlefield Earth,'' finds Scientologist John Travolta scoring brownie points with his sect for starring in this adaptation of movement founder L. Ron Hubbard's evil alien novel. The movie's script has drawn a great deal of derision on Internet fan boy sites, and photos showing Travolta in alien makeup have only made things worse. (Typical comment: He looks like a hairy egghead in a Gucci leather coat.)

Clint Eastwood's ``Space Cowboys,'' due in August, has some promise, particularly since many of the best space movies push the same buttons as classic westerns. (George Lucas and Steven Spielberg paid their respects to the John Ford masterpiece ``The Searchers'' with cinematic nods in ``Star Wars'' and ``Close Encounters of the Third Kind.'')

``Space Cowboys'' has Eastwood (who directs), Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner playing a group of old-timers blasting into space on one final mission. Eastwood originally wasn't interested in the project until he saw life imitate art when 77-year-old John Glenn returned to space in 1998. Perhaps we'll hear Sinatra singing ``You Make Me Feel So Young'' on the soundtrack.

The year's final space movie, ``Red Planet,'' has the potential to give ``Supernova'' and ``Battlefield Earth'' a run for sheer camp value. The movie was shot last summer in the Jordanian desert and Australia, spawning numerous headlines for an epic feud between stars Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore. (Both denied the rift in USA Today.) Supposedly, by the end of the shoot, the actors refused to appear in scenes together. (A report that Sizemore took out a restraining order against Kilmer is untrue, however.)

The film, like Kilmer's ``The Island of Dr. Moreau,'' probably won't be as interesting as the behind-the-scenes dispatches. The plot has Kilmer and Sizemore leading a colonizing astronaut team to Mars after Earth suffers several crippling environmental blows. Killer space worms also figure into the mix. ``Red Planet'' is directed by commercial auteur Anthony Hoffman, who was reportedly found curled up in a fetal position (naked, no less) toward the end of the production.

Hollywood's best hope for spurring Mars mania won't come until next year, when the King of the World, James Cameron, releases two Mars projects, a five-hour miniseries for network television and an hourlong 3D IMAX film. Unlike ``Mission to Mars'' and ``Red Planet,'' Cameron's works will be deeply rooted in science, a fact that cheers NASA nuts to no end. Both are schedule for launch next spring.

The two projects will revolve around the same plot line, treating the first manned mission to Mars in a pseudo-documentary fashion, as if it has already happened. Cameron is writing the miniseries with Al Reinert, who was among the writers on ``Apollo 13'' and Tom Hanks' HBO miniseries ``From the Earth to the Moon.'' Martha Coolidge will direct the project, while Cameron will helm the IMAX movie. It will be his first film since ``Titanic.''

``When we sent men to the moon, it changed them forever, but sometimes those changes took years to manifest,'' Cameron recently told an audience at the Mars Society Conference. ``Well, the Mars crew will be away from Earth for years, and we'll get to see those changes take place.''

By fixing his movie and miniseries on science, Cameron may have found the best way around the cliches that have plagued recent space movies. ``What we want to show,'' Cameron says, ``is something that is plausible and defendable.''

Certainly, the public's fascination with Mars clearly remains high, given the media coverage of NASA's attempts to probe the planet. The fact that most of NASA's missions have failed miserably (``lost to the great galactic ghoul,'' engineers joke) only further whets curiosity.

``Every time they fail, it's better for us because it makes Mars even more mysterious,'' says ``Red Planet'' producer Mark Canton. ``Maybe these movies will make us want to take on the challenge of solving the mystery once and for all.''

Cameron is banking on it, both for the sake of his projects and his own questioning mind. At the Mars Society Conference, he vowed to stir up ``Mars fever.'' That might be a daunting task if both ``Mission to Mars'' and ``Red Planet'' tank. But then Cameron has triumphed over long odds before. There are a lot of science-fiction fans hoping he again accomplishes his mission.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) IS THERE LIFE IN SPACE MOVIES?

Hollywood's 'Mission' is to reinvent a stale genre

(Earthrise over moonscape)

(2 -- color) Gary Sinese, left, Connie Nielsen and Jerry O'Connell star in ``Mission to Mars,'' directed by Brian De Palma.

(3 -- color) no caption (Planting Old Glory during 'Mission to Mars')

(4 -- 6) Directors Brian De Palma, left, Clint Eastwood and James Cameron are attempting to bring some life back to the ailing science-fiction genre.