STORY OF LATE REGGAE MUSICIAN BECOMES NEWEST CASUALTY.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Looks like things are getting even tougher than usual for movies with black heroes.

Now the much-talked-about film biography of reggae master Bob Marley is beached indefinitely - in the wake of writer-director Ron Shelton and Warner Bros. coming to a parting of the ways over the film's budget. That's just four months after the studio abruptly shelved the movie adaptation of ``Dreamgirls'' that was to have starred Lauryn Hill with Joel Schumacher directing.

Roger Steffens, a key figure in Marley's life who has been working as script adviser and music consultant on the bio-pic for more than a year, notes, ``I've heard people equate this film with `Beloved' and the Frankie Lymon story'' - both of which fared disappointingly at the box office. ``To compare a 19th-century slave drama and a poorly made 1950s doo-wop movie with a film about the legendary Bob Marley, and lump them together as `colored movies,' is horse manure.''

True. Still, the industry in general has been growing increasingly wary about investing large budgets in movies with uncertain crossover prospects - with fare such as Spike Lee's ``He Got Game,'' starring Denzel Washington, and ``How Stella Got Her Groove Back,'' with Angela Bassett and Whoopi Goldberg, pulling in meager box-office returns.

Warners, which took a loss on that Frankie Lymon movie, ``Why Do Fools Fall in Love,'' reportedly wanted to go forward on ``Dreamgirls'' as a shared-risk financial proposition - but could not find another studio willing to co-finance the musical because of the belief that films with mostly minority casts don't perform overseas. Given Marley's global following, his bio-pic might have proven different.

It's a sorry situation. We're all missing out on some good entertainment.

Two for the `Vue'

Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman, who co-starred in Clint Eastwood's 1992 western, ``Unforgiven,'' are aiming to reteam this year in ``Under Suspicion,'' an adaptation of the French film ``Gare de Vue.''

Hackman acquired the rights to the drama some eight years ago, and he and Freeman are developing it together. At the moment they're waiting for the latest draft of the tale about an inspector (Freeman) who goes after a doctor (Hackman) he suspects of criminal activity. If all goes as planned, they'll film in the Caribbean.

What's in a name?

So, Charlie Sheen has decided he'll be taken more seriously if he changes his moniker to Charles Sheen. Oh, come on, Charlie. It doesn't make any difference what you call yourself if you start acting like a man - and keep out of the headlines because of problems with the law. At age 33, it's high time.

You don't say

The beautiful Kristin Scott Thomas isn't a fan of Hollywood - to say the least. The ``English Patient'' actress - who has ``Up at the Villa,'' the steamy saga from a Somerset Maugham novella upcoming - says of the film capital, ``All those businessmen play power games. They go to fancy restaurants, date younger chicks and leave their wives - and then one day, bang, they're fired! ... It's such a shallow business. ... No humanity. ... Just an industry without any passion.'' Thomas lives in Paris with her husband, a French gynecologist. And in case you were wondering, she says, ``I'll never settle in Hollywood. ... Never, ever, ever!''

Going through channels

Gregory Hoblit, TV writing-producing gun of ``NYPD Blue'' and several other series fame, is producing and directing a feature called ``Frequency.'' Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel will star as a father and son who, through a strange scientific anomaly, are able to communicate by ham radio - 30 years apart in time!

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) Bob Marley

Had worldwide following

(2) Gene Hackman

``Under Suspicion''