HAGMAN TO RIDE AGAIN AS J.R. FOR 'DALLAS' TV MOVIE.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

If all goes as anticipated, Larry Hagman will be donning his J.R. Ewing cowboy hat again next month for a return to the granddaddy of prime-time soaps, "Dallas." Hagman, recuperated from the liver transplant he received last August, is expected to spend a month in the title city for the telepic that could be just the beginning of a new "Dallas" reign.

The as-yet-untitled CBS movie will bring back not only diabolical J.R., but his long-suffering ex-wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) and brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy).

There'll be much attention focused on the younger members of the Ewing oil clan, too - so much, in fact, you might call the TV movie a sort of "Dallas, 90210." Key to the scenario, according to sources who've read one of the latest versions of the script, will be J.R. Ewing III, who's described as flirtatious and handsome, with (uh-oh) a lot of his daddy's personality traits. There'll also be Bobby's son, Christopher, a nice guy, like his old man. And Pamela Cooper, daughter of J.R.'s old adversary, Cliff Barnes. Don't be surprised to learn the telepic is serving as a "Dallas II" series spinoff.

And do not fear that J.R. the elder has turned tame with the passage of time. Unless there's a change of plans, the "Dallas" return movie will have him teamed romantically with the niece of his former attorney, a young gal who shares J.R.'s Machiavellian mind-set and is sexually ravenous.

For the '90s: Alfred Hitchcock's classic suspenser, "Strangers on a Train," is on the track as a remake - with a decided twist. This time, the traveler who meets up with a psychopath who wants to "swap murders" is a woman. And so is the psycho. "Don't Talk to Strangers" is the title of the telepic CBS is planning as an event movie - with non-TV names Jacqueline Bisset and Teresa Russell in the roles originally played by Farley Granger and Robert Walker. Production is set to commence next month.

The big-screen scene: "Mr. Wrong," the Ellen DeGeneres-Bill Pullman big-screen comedy that opens Friday, is "the nightmare version of 'Sleepless in Seattle,' " as director Nick Castle sees it. "Both stories deal with fate bringing two people together. 'Mr. Wrong' shows you what happens when fate doesn't bring you Tom Hanks. Pullman plays a very strange person in our picture," said the filmmaker.

Fate put Castle this close to making the hit "Sleepless in Seattle." He was hired to direct the picture, but left the project over "disagreements during the writing stage."

Now he's "going back in the trenches," preparing a big-screen musical about "a very crazy, very rich man who sets up shop in a fictitious area of Brooklyn, where, determined to live his life as a musical, he pays off the neighbors so that when he goes outdoors, they break into song and dance." He has Steve Martin or Kevin Kline in mind for the lead.

The inside track: Sizzlin' country act Diamond Rio's new "IV" album is a "more aggressive" disc than the band's first three albums, which sold a cumulative 3.5 million units. That's the opinion of Diamond Rio lead singer Marty Roe, who noted that, with "IV," he and his band mates produced it themselves for the first time. "We discovered we're more bold, more in-your-face with songs than Marty Powell was," said Roe, referring to their past producer. "We've always been fairly involved in the creative process in the studio - as far as song selection and the overall view of the album. But this time we've been completely involved in it, beginning to end. And what an eye-opening experience it's been for us," he said. For one thing, said Roe, the band members never knew before just how many songs they were being pitched. This time, they went over every offering themselves.

That's a laugh: The slew of "women in bonnets" movies - such as "Restoration" and Emma Thompson's "Carrington" and "Sense and Sensibility" - is spawning a spoof. Going before the camerasT next month is "Period," with Peter Ustinov starring, which reportedly will poke fun at the Merchant-Ivory type of flick.