PUZZLING HOBBY DOCUMENTARY `WORDPLAY' SHOWS CROSSWORD MANIA NOT JUST FOR SQUARES.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

During a photo shoot held between one of three sold-out screenings at this year's Sundance Film Festival, ``Wordplay'' crossword puzzle phenom Tyler Hinman turned to fellow puzzler Al Sanders and said, incredulous at the attention, ``Dude, we solve crossword puzzles.''

Hinman and Sanders' unexpected celebrity status was perfectly in line for the Cinderella story of ``Wordplay,'' a documentary about crossword puzzles and the extraordinarily ordinary people who solve them. The movie, which opens in theaters Friday, features interviews with several famous crossword fans -- Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart and New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina among them -- and crossword competitors who take part in the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. (Think of the film as a close cousin of ``Spellbound.'')

At the center of ``Wordplay'' is Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, the ``Puzzle Master'' of National Public Radio and founder of the national crossword tournament.

Shortz graduated from Indiana University with a degree in enigmatology (the study of puzzles), the only person in the world to hold such a diploma. He went to law school but never took the bar exam. Puzzles have been his entire life.

``I'm a special case because only a few people make their living off of puzzles,'' the unassuming, well-spoken Shortz says. ``I'm not getting rich, but I'm having a good life. No complaints. I love what I do -- and I'm doing just fine.''

Shortz took over the Times crossword (which runs seven days a week in the Daily News) in 1993 after the death of crossword editor Eugene Maleska. At that time, interest in the crossword was waning. Maleska, a lifelong educator, believed the puzzle should be an exercise in vocabulary building that featured straightforward clues about obscure and classical knowledge.

Shortz, who had been working at Games magazine before moving to the Times, ripped up the rule book when he was hired.

``The puzzle had a reputation for being stodgy -- there was almost no popular culture in it,'' Shortz says. ``If there was anything in the puzzle that referenced culture that came in the last 30 years, it was a shock. And there was very little playfulness or humor in the puzzles.''

``My feeling was, the crossword should embrace everything in the paper, including modern subjects like television, movies, rock 'n' roll and sports,'' Shortz says. ``And, secondly, I wanted it to be not just a test of your knowledge, but a test of your playfulness and mental flexibility. So there's a lot more deceptive clues now, clues that make you think one thing but the answer is something else and you have to figure that out.''

Patrick Creadon and Christine O'Malley had never been big crossword fans, but became converts to Shortz's playful puzzle while on their honeymoon six years ago in Hawaii. A few years later, Creadon and O'Malley, who had worked on documentaries for PBS, began brainstorming for ideas for their own feature documentary. Shortz and his puzzle topped their list.

``On the surface, crossword puzzles are pretty trivial,'' Creadon says.

``But if you do them or know people who do them, it's kind of important to them. It's a daily activity, a nice way to spend a little quiet time. It's challenging. It's mentally stimulating. And it's a great feeling when it's done. It might be the only thing you finish the whole day.''

After meeting and talking with Shortz, Creadon, who directed and shot most of the movie himself, gained entrance into the crossword world, meeting people who make the puzzles (Shortz, as an editor, rewrites clues) and solve them. In one of the movie's most enjoyable sections, we see the droll Merl Reagle construct a special crossword, which is later published in the Times. We then watch Clinton, Stewart, Mussina, the Indigo Girls, Ken Burns and others try to solve the puzzle.

Clinton's appearance is a coup. The former president first met Shortz in 1992 when Shortz interviewed him on the campaign trail.

Shortz, then working for Games, wanted to see how fast Clinton could solve a puzzle specially created for him. Clinton not only solved it, but did it incredibly quickly -- while talking to a campaign aide on the phone. He displays a similar facility for multitasking when seen on camera in ``Wordplay.''

When it's suggested to Shortz that maybe voters should elect candidates based not on whether they'd like to have a beer with them but rather on their ability with crosswords, the 53-year-old puzzle master laughs.

``There's a thought,'' he says. ``I'd be happy to prepare the puzzle for the test.''

But as we learn from watching the crossword tournament in ``Wordplay,'' puzzle people aren't necessarily brainiacs, but rather individuals who are witty and enjoy a challenge.

Says Hinman, a perennial championship contender who just graduated from college: ``It's the ability to assimilate information and make sense of it. It takes a certain elasticity of mind.''

``You will know every answer in the grid,'' Shortz says of the Times puzzles. ``If you don't solve it, you can look at the answers, look back at the clue and say, `Oh yeah, I know that.' That's my goal. I want you to figure it out.''

And if you do solve the puzzle, whether it's one of the easier Monday crosswords or the tough weekend mind-benders, Shortz says you're in for a rare moment of true, blissful satisfaction.

``One of the great reasons people solve crosswords is to find perfection in solutions,'' Shortz says. ``We're faced with problems every day in life. And almost none of them have perfect solutions. We just muddle through and move on to the next thing.

``What's great about a crossword is, when you fill in that last square, you've got a unique and perfect solution. It's a nice feeling.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

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Serving as ringer for the Riddler

Without Will Shortz's help, Jim Carrey's Riddler wouldn't have had anyone guessing in ``Batman Forever.''

Long after filming began on the critically drubbed 1995 sequel, Shortz got an emergency phone call from screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.

The film had spots for four riddles, and none of the high-paid Hollywood writers could compose a riddle. Could Shortz help?

``I thought it would be very cool to be in a movie,'' Shortz says. ``Of course, I was naive. They offered me $2,000, which is nothing. But I didn't care. Two thousand dollars for four riddles seemed pretty good at the time. What I should have required was to have my name in the credits. That would have been nice.''

Shortz diligently wrote four number-related riddles for the movie. He says he was OK with the way the riddles were used but was less enamored of Val Kilmer's reaction to them.

``If someone gives you a puzzle or riddle to solve of any sort, it takes at least a second for the puzzle to click in and the answer to come out,'' Shortz says. ``And the hardest of the four riddles is given to Batman, and almost before the last words are out of the mouth, he gives the answer. There was no sense of mental effort on Val Kilmer's part. So I wasn't impressed.''

-- G.W.

Across (and down): The crossword universe

The most common answer in American crosswords is ERA. Most common four-letter answer: AREA. Five-letter answer: ERASE.

The New York Times pays $135 for a daily crossword puzzle, $700 for a Sunday.

``It's pathetic,'' Times crossword editor Will Shortz says.

``Considering the amount of skill and effort and time it takes to make a Times-quality puzzle, the payment should be much more than that.''

``And, besides,'' Shortz adds, ``the newspaper makes buckets of money from the puzzles -- they sell subscriptions to the crossword online, which costs $34.95 and has something like 35,000 to 40,000 subscribers. There's the 1-900 clue line. They sell the reprint rights for books. And the daily puzzle is syndicated to 150 papers, the Sunday puzzle to 300. So they should be paying a lot more money.

``I keep pressing for that to happen.''

More than 50 million Americans work on crosswords regularly.

Most common celebrity names in crossword puzzles: ELLA Fitzgerald, ESTEE Lauder, ERLE Stanley Gardner, ELI Whitney, Leon URIS, ERMA Bombeck and Clifford ODETS.

When a specific fact comes up in the Times crossword, Google reports that queries about that fact will spike on the day it appears in The New York Times, then taper down and then spike again when the puzzle appears in syndication.

When asked if that's how he learns the difficulty of a particular clue, Shortz says, ``I already knew when I wrote it.''

-G.W.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) WORDPLAY

What's an eight-letter word for fun?

(2) WILL SHORTZ

Mark Mainz/Getty Images

(3 -- 4) ``Daily Show'' host Jon Stewart, above, takes pen to paper to solve a crossword puzzle in ``Wordplay''; at right, former President Bill Clinton pores over a puzzle.

(5) The New York Times' Will Shortz was called upon by ``Batman Forever's'' writers to craft clever riddles for Jim Carrey's villain.

(6) Crossword fans pack a conference room from top to bottom at the annual competition in Stamford, Conn.

Box:

(1) Serving as ringer for the Riddler (see text)

(2) Across (and down): The crossword universe