Script Check

Image credit: The Last Castle: Elliott Marks

DreamWorks' ''The Last Castle,'' in which Redford plays a court-martialed general serving time in a military prison, isn't budging from its Oct. 12 opening, either -- although the studio did recall the poster, which features an American flag flying upside down as a signal of distress. ''If there's one movie that's not going to move off its date, this should be it,'' insists the film's director, Rod Lurie. ''This is a movie that honors soldiers and honors people who are victims of terrorism. It's a deeply patriotic movie that's deeply in love with the military.''

Even films that didn't necessarily start out as flag-wavers may end up being sold that way. Like ''Collateral Damage,'' which some insiders believe could be just the sort of cathartic release moviegoers will soon be craving. ''Arnold's character witnesses the murder of his wife and children and then does what every American wants to do right now,'' says Schwarzenegger publicist Jill Eisenstadt. ''At the right time, I could almost see audiences standing up in the theater and cheering.''

So, action movies may just get a red, white, and blue makeover. It happened before, when Hollywood went to war in the 1940s, but with mixed results. ''I hope we skip the racist and jingoistic pictures...like 'First Yank in Tokyo,''' says Steven E. de Souza, who penned the first two ''Die Hard'' films. ''I hope we get the more thoughtful works that came at the end of the war, like 'They Were Expendable' or 'A Walk in the Sun.'''

Of course, the one film nobody in Hollywood wants to even think about making is the incredible-but-true story of what happened in New York and Washington, D.C. Still, even that most horrific tale may eventually find its way to the screen. ''Pearl Harbor, which was a day that shall live in infamy, became a Michael Bay movie,'' points out Edward Zwick, the director of ''The Siege,'' which posited the seemingly preposterous notion that martial law could be declared in New York after a series of terrorist bombings. '''Titanic' was the greatest tragedy ever to hit the country and that became a movie. It's all about time and distance. Never say never.''

Stu Zicherman, the ''Nosebleed'' screenwriter, isn't entirely convinced. ''When we met with MGM a month ago about rewrites, we actually talked about changing the plot,'' he says. ''Incredibly, some of the executives thought a re-bombing of the World Trade Center was implausible. If I pitched what really happened as a movie -- four airplanes hijacked and rammed into the World Trade buildings and Pentagon -- no studio exec would buy it. Not in a million years.''