REINER SAYS `I DO' TO NEW COMEDY.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

There are, of course, movies about people falling in love. And there are movies about spectacular breakups. The question Rob Reiner decided to confront was whether an engaging and funny movie could be made about all the quotidian details that fall in between.

Reiner is back. In fact, he never went away. But for several years, he has concentrated in his directing on serious dramas like ``Ghosts of Mississippi'' rather than on the sort of comedies on which he built his reputation, like ``When Harry Met Sally ...''

But now he is making a movie that is, by his own admission, something of a throwback to that earlier work. It is called ``The Story of Us,'' and it stars Bruce Willis, making his own return to comedy after many years in other sorts of films, mainly action. He plays opposite Michelle Pfeiffer.

``The Story of Us,'' which is scheduled for fall release by Universal, will cost roughly $50 million. It explores the story of a married couple as they try to decide whether to stay together after 15 years. In addition to directing the movie, which he also helped write and produce, Reiner plays one of the couple's best friends. Rita Wilson is cast as his wife.

``This is about the daily ins and outs of a marriage,'' Reiner said in a telephone interview from one of the sets. ``I don't want to give away the ending, but they are trying either to make the marriage work or make the separation work. Our job is to make that interesting. It explores some of the things I explored in `When Harry Met Sally ...' ''

In the new movie, Willis plays a writer (Paul Reiser is his agent); Pfeiffer's character designs crossword puzzles. Willis goes from skepticism that anyone can make a living at such an activity to examining, later in his marriage, his wife's puzzles for insights into their relationship and its decidedly murky prospects.

``At one point he says to a friend, `Did you see Sunday's seven down?' '' Reiner said. ``He starts to see her crosswords as secret messages.''

Reiner said there was much of himself in the movie. He was married for roughly 10 years, then divorced, and he has been remarried for about 10 years. He said he was fascinated by the issue of how a marriage does or does not work.

But he insisted he wanted to treat the subject in an amusing way, even if he had not made that sort of film in a while, and do it with an actor who had played very different parts.

Reiner said: ``Why Bruce Willis? When he did his first action picture, everyone said, `Why Bruce Willis?' This movie goes back to what he does best, I think, and what he started with. We all want to do lots of different things.''

Steiger making directing debut: Rod Steiger will star in and direct ``Thanksgiving,'' marking the first time the Oscar-winning actor has directed a feature. Filming is slated to get under way this summer in Los Angeles and Palm Springs. The film is being adapted from Bob Randall's play ``Thanksgiving Day,'' about three older men, friends for years, who come together to celebrate Thanksgiving. No actors have yet been attached to the film.

Cheers for ``Smoke Signals'': Miramax's ``Smoke Signals'' is the most honored film at the First Americans in the Arts' seventh annual award ceremony. The awards show, which honors outstanding achievements by American Indians and native Alaskans in the performing arts, will be Feb. 13 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City. Winners in 25 categories were announced Tuesday. Chris Eyre, who directed ``Smoke Signals,'' will receive the award for outstanding achievement in directing. Honoring an American Indian film director will be a first for First Americans in the Arts. According to the organization's chairman, filmmaker and historian Bob Hicks, Eyre is the first American Indian to direct a major motion picture since Pathe Western hired James Young Deer to write and direct ``Indian films'' in 1912.