Race to the Screen?

Two Pollock-Krasner Movies

Barbra Streisand has once again picked up the option to make a film based on "To a Violent Grave," Jeffrey Potter's oral biography of Jackson Pollock, the troubled and posthumously deified Abstract Expressionist painter.

Ms. Streisand's production company, Barwood Films, had held the option some years back in a partnership with Columbia Pictures and Robert DeNiro's Tribeca Productions but let it lapse two years ago. Barwood and Tribeca have now teamed up with Rocking Horse Productions, the independent company that held the option in the interim.

Pollock Research

Mr. DeNiro's father, Robert Sr., was an Abstract Expressionist painter who had a house in Montauk and was part of the New York art community that included Mr. Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner, also a painter. Mr. DeNiro reportedly remains interested in playing Mr. Pollock. Ms. Streisand is said to be eyeing the role of Ms. Krasner for herself.

"We love it. We'll never give up on it but right now nobody seems interested in doing a film about an artist," said Cis Corman, the Barwood president.

Don't tell Ed Harris that. For the last year or so, the star of "Apollo 13" and "Glengarry Glen Ross," who bears a slight resemblance to Mr. Pollock, has been researching the artist's life and work, telling The Star he was bent on playing the lead role in a film based on another biography, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith's "An American Saga."

Backing In Place

Helen A. Harrison, executive director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs, has been helping Mr. Harris track down documentary footage and other research tools.

Meanwhile, Ms. Harrison said the paint-splattered floor of Mr. Pollock's studio has been photographed from the ceiling, using a special camera that can take a single, undistorted shot of the 21-square-foot floor, for an upcoming retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.

While Ms. Corman said the Barwood project is still in the earliest stage, courting potential investors, Mr. Harris already has backing for his film. Peter M. Brant, founder of the Bridgehampton Polo Club and chairman of Interview magazine, agreed to provide the financing. His Brant Allen Films did the same for Julian Schnabel's acclaimed film biography of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

And, Frances McDormand, who won the Oscar for her performance in "Fargo," is said to be interested in starring opposite Mr. Harris.