Show Biz.

IN Hollywood, obsession can be a wonderful thing. It helps get movies made.

One of them is Miramax Films' "The Cider House Rules," which took novelist John Irving 13 years to bring to the screen and producer Richard N. Gladstein five years to make. It's now being pushed for nominations for best picture, best screenplay (by Irving) and acting awards for Tobey Maguire and Michael Caine. But "Cider House" almost didn't get made.

Irving's novel of the same name was published 15 years ago, and he subsequently wrote a screenplay and began working with director Phillip Borsos. But when Borsos died, the project went dormant.

Enter Gladstein. His wife read the book and suggested he make the coming-of-age tale set in a New England orphanage into a movie. Gladstein discovered that Irving still owned the rights to his novel and brought director Lasse Hallstrom aboard.

"My fear was that John would be tired of the rewriting," Gladstein said.

Irving wasn't. "He said, 'Forget the book, let's make a movie,"' Gladstein recalled.

To date, the $20 million film has earned more than $11 million.

"The roughest part was getting a director to collaborate with John," said Gladstein, whose other films include "Hurlyburly," "54," and "Jackie Brown." "Lasse solved that issue. The two wound up with the same vision."

Gladstein's next project is another collaboration with Irving on the author's 1996 novel, "A Son of the Circus," which is set in India. So far, he's lined up Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange and director Martin Bell.

If John Irving had his headaches adapting his own novel to the screen, Louis Colick had different issues adapting Homer M. Hickam Jr.'s memoir, "Rocket Boys," into Universal Pictures' "October Sky." Hickam' s story was based on fact, not fiction.

"Homer was still alive, but when you are writing a screenplay, you need to use you imagination," Colick said. "All of sudden, he is on the phone, and I am saying to myself, 'Homer, I thought I made you up."'

Indeed, much of "October Sky" is made up for dramatic impact.

Universal just re-released "October Sky," and Colick is being pushed for an Oscar nomination for best adaptation, which will put him up against Irving. Colick adapted Hickam's autobiographical tale of a West Virginia high schooler who was destined to become a coal miner like his father, but who escaped by building a model rocket and winning a scholarship competition.

Colick doesn't always play fast and loose with the facts. In "The Ghosts of Mississippi," he was ruthlessly accurate in his screenplay because of the historical importance of the film. It's the story of the murder of Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers.

"There, you have a responsibility to be as accurate as possible," he said. "There are a lot of people who only get their history from films and television."