JACKSON HAS NO BONES TO PICK WITH COHEN'S `SKULLS'.

Byline: Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

``Dawson's Creek's'' Josh Jackson is about to graduate into the leagues of multidimensional film actors - if we are to believe director Rob Cohen, who is in the final stages of post-production on ``Skulls,'' the February release in which Josh stars.

``In the process of our story, he goes from kid to man. You really see the transition as he changes from a young, funny guy to a mature, grounded man with a world view very different from when he started,'' Cohen tells us.

``Skulls'' - which has been described as a ``The Firm''-type thriller on an Ivy League campus - has 21-year-old Josh as a scholarship student who joins a secret society to get help making it through law school. Cohen says, ``It's one of the first films that's taking an actor who appeals to a young target audience and treating that audience with a lot of intelligence. Adam Sandler is great, 'American Pie' is great - but there's got to be something else for this audience besides getting-laid movies and going-to-the-prom movies.''

Certainly ``Skulls'' contains much to think about, with its similarities to Yale's real-life Skull and Bones secret society - which has counted among its members numerous figures in the American power elite, including George Bush and George W. Bush.

``Hey, there was a reason George Bush was the head of the CIA,'' notes Cohen (who happens to be a Harvard man). ``When Roosevelt needed a spy team to counteract the Nazi- and Japanese-spy organizations of World War II, he turned to the guys who were already good at keeping secrets. The Yale men in the Skull and Bones were at the top of the list.'' They began the OSS, which became the CIA.''

There are many sinister implications about such secret societies reaching into control of the government, some of which have been detailed in articles and documentaries. Eyebrow-raising hazing practices, life pairings among members, political agendas - all are part of ``Skulls.''

BEND BUT DON'T BREAK

``Unbreakable,'' the Bruce Willis-Samuel L. Jackson starrer that's being created by ``Sixth Sense'' writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, is moving toward an April 2000 production start. They're already casting about for young actors who resemble Jackson to play his Elijah character as a sickly, sensitive child, ages 8 and 13. Subordinate parts in the drama with supernatural overtones will also include Willis and Jackson's mothers - plus, a beautiful athlete's agent who's out to sign a hot football prospect.

`ONE NIGHT' STAND

Reba McEntire got to stretch a bit playing Paul Reiser's psychiatrist in the upcoming ``One Night at McCool's,'' with Liv Tyler, John Goodman andMatt Dillon. ``It's a totally different role for me. This is straight comedy, and I had to go in and read for it,'' says McEntire. She adds, ``I look like a business woman/doctor, not a country singer.'' In the film, produced by Michael Douglas' Furthur Films, Tyler plays a beauty who wreaks havoc on the men who fall in love with her. Douglas has a cameo as a hit man in the film that McEntire says ``is a really funny mob movie.''

PLUS, THERE'S A FINE

William Forsythe is set to start shooting Global Pictures ``The Librarian'' in February. According to the story line, Forsythe and his cohorts collect overdue people just like the library collects overdue books. (Sure, the overdue books problem has reached gargantuan proportions, but are librarians using guns now?) At any rate, while attempting to recover the kidnapped daughter of a wealthy businessman in trendy South Beach, Fla., the librarians encounter their most lethal adversaries - the techno boys. Could it be a cleverly veiled statement about the impact technology and computers has had on this country's literacy?

NO BOREDOM HERE

Kim Delaney, who joined ``NYPD Blue'' at the end of its second season, now has five years under her belt with the show. Is she getting bored? ``Not at all. It's such a great character, so twisted, with so many levels - and (co-creator) David Milch keeps adding more. I'm always surprised.''

- With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

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4 Photos

Photo: (1) JOSH JACKSON (2) SAMUEL L. JACKSON (3) TYLER (4) FORSYTHE