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THE FIFTH ELEMENT

[Starring] Bruce WILLIS, Gary OLDMAN, Ian HOLM, Milla JOVOVICH [Director] Luc BESSON

Even after French director Besson (The Professional) cut his 400-page science-fiction script in half, the on-screen result cost $90 million -- part of which went for costumes by Jean-Paul Gaultier, Madonna's bra designer. Playing a New York cabbie, Willis wages a cataclysmic battle with Oldman, who describes his role as ''Hitler meets Jerry Lewis.'' And the fifth element? It's a mysterious, life-giving force beyond the four basic elements. Besson refuses to say more until after the film's May 7 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. ''I just want audiences to sit down and go for a ride,'' he says.

[WHAT'S AT STAKE] Its visuals promise to be as dazzling as Blade Runner, but Besson's obsessive secrecy could backfire; opening May 9 in the U.S., Element will have only two weeks to win over moviegoers before facing The Lost World's dino stampede.

THE FLOOD

[Starring] Morgan FREEMAN, Christian SLATER, Randy QUAID, Minnie DRIVER [Director] Mikael SALOMON

It's small-town Indiana. There's a heist. There are good guys and bad guys (though don't be too sure about who's who). And the water -- 5 million gallons of it -- is rising. What separates The Flood from your basic disaster picture? ''It's not like Morgan and I are running around trying to plug up a dam,'' says Slater, an armored-car driver who's the victim of the heist. Adds rookie director Salomon (who got his feet wet as cinematographer on The Abyss): ''The flood is the backdrop for a character-driven thriller.'' The Flood's producers, who also brought scriptwriter Graham Yost's Speed and Broken Arrow to the screen, insist this Yost script has always been their favorite but, because of all that water, the most difficult. They constructed an elaborate 680-foot by 250-foot tank (think four football fields), then lowered a replica of Huntingburg, Ind., into it. The result? ''It's like old-fashioned moviemaking,'' says a happy-to-be-dry Slater. ''There aren't a lot of special effects. It's all pretty much there -- we were in it.'' (May 2)

[WHAT'S AT STAKE] Premature summer movie money: Paramount hopes to soak audiences early, or as Salomon puts it, ''Before we get run over by a dinosaur.''

VOLCANO

[Starring] Tommy Lee JONES, Anne HECHE, Gaby HOFFMANN, Jacqueline kim, Don CHEADLE, Stanley TUCCI [Director] Mick JACKSON

Lava is like love -- it's more wonderful the second time around. At least that's the tune at Twentieth Century Fox. (They had hoped to open this $90 million volcano-in-L.A. epic before Universal's big eruption flick, Dante's Peak.) Still, studio suits insist, just because they've moved their film back doesn't mean they've blinked. ''Do I wish there weren't two volcano movies out there?'' asks Laura Ziskin, head of Fox 2000, the division behind the film. ''Of course I do. I'm not an idiot. But we've got a really good movie here. It's not just about a volcano, it's got a social message.'' Forget that -- the film's real asset is the tons of molten rock that spew out of a volcano in downtown L.A. ''Our movie has many more special effects,'' promises producer Lauren Shuler-Donner. ''Dante's Peak's effects don't start [well] into the movie.''

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