HANKS, THOMPSON MAY TEAM UP FOR `PRIMARY COLORS'.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

He may have turned down the title role of ``Nixon,'' but Tom Hanks doesn't seem averse to playing another president, or at least a candidate for the job - especially if he is teamed with Emma Thompson as his would-be first lady.

Hanks and Thompson have given a tentative yes to playing the thinly disguised Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton in Mike Nichols' adaptation of the runaway best seller ``Primary Colors,'' sources said. A final answer will depend on contract negotiations and approval of the script that Nichols' longtime colleague Elaine May is now writing.

Readers will recall that Nichols bought the book for $1.5 million and plans to make it his next film. ``Primary Colors,'' written by an anonymous author whose true identity has yet to be revealed, centers on a young, George Stephanopoulos-like figure who becomes involved in a presidential campaign and has a fling with the candidate's wife.

Meanwhile, Thompson is still eyeing the Robert Redford-Rachel Pfeffer project ``The Horse Whisperer'' as a future film, with a final decision likely to take place when rewrites are in at the end of the summer. Reps for Thompson and Hanks declined comment.

`Darkness' rising: In the wake of directing Warner Bros.' ``Eraser,'' Chuck Russell is beginning to home in on his next project. Sources said Russell, whose other movies include ``The Mask,'' is now adapting ``This Present Darkness,'' based on the novel by Frank Peretti. ``It's about angels and demons fighting over a small American town,'' said one source, who declined to give further details. While the picture has yet to be set up at a studio, sources said Russell, who owns the rights to the book, is keen to make it his next film. Reps for Russell declined comment.

Being Burns: Just as Ed Burns is putting the finishing touches on his second film, ``She's the One,'' the young writer-director has committed to his third feature vehicle.

Burns told the Hollywood Reporter he will start shooting his next, untitled project in Long Island, N.Y., in March. ``It's a drama-comedy about a working-class community on Long Island,'' said Burns, who came to fame with another working class comedy-drama, ``The Brothers McMullen.'' That film emerged as the biggest hit from the Sundance Film Festival since 1989's ``sex, lies, and videotape,'' and went on to take in more than $11 million at the box office when it was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

While the new film will share some of the comedic aspects of ``Brothers McMullen,'' Burns said: ``This is more of a serious drama. It's an ensemble piece about a bunch of working-class (people). This is the first time I have had a female protagonist.''