Tuesday, April 28, 1998 | 10:13 a.m.
HOLLYWOOD - Tom Cruise thought the ordeal was over. So did Warner Brothers. So did everyone else in Hollywood.
But Stanley Kubrick had other ideas.
The director of a still incomplete film, "Eyes Wide Shut," has called Cruise back to London once again and recast an important role after shooting the movie for an unusually long 15 months under conditions so secret that even top executives at Warner Brothers, the studio making it, have little idea what the film is about.
Privately, one Warners executive called the agonizingly long production a "nightmare." Executives had assumed the film had finally wrapped and were tentatively planning to release it in December.
Pat Kingsley, Cruise's spokeswoman, said the star was planning to return to London in May for "pickup" shots and would probably stay there one week. But studio executives say Cruise may stay longer in view of the departure of Jennifer Jason Leigh, who apparently played a small but significant role in the movie.
By some accounts, the movie, written by Kubrick and Frederic Raphael, is a psychosexual thriller about two psychiatrists, played by Cruise and his real-life wife, Nicole Kidman. One studio executive said he believed the film involved a menage-a-trois.
Beyond that, very little is known. Harvey Keitel was in the film, reportedly playing a patient of one of the psychiatrists, and dropped out, apparently because of another film commitment. He was replaced by Sydney Pollack, the director and actor, who may also return to London next month to reshoot his scenes.
Ms. Leigh will be replaced by Marie Richardson, who was listed in a Warner Brothers statement late last week as one of Ingmar Bergman's leading actresses. The statement in London said that "because of schedule conflicts, Jennifer Jason Leigh, currently filming in Canada with David Cronenberg, will be unable to do some additional shooting on a cameo scene she played with Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut."'
It is believed that Ms. Leigh may have been playing Pollack's wife.
Although there were rumors that Ms. Leigh, a highly respected actress, had been dismissed by Kubrick, this was strongly denied by the actress's manager, Elaine Rich. "There were no disagreements," Ms. Rich said. "It was a tremendous working experience for her. He requested her; he knew everything she had done. There were no problems."
By all accounts, Ms. Leigh spent about a week at Pinewood Studios outside London last fall. Then Ms. Leigh was sent home. Ms. Rich said that by the time Ms. Leigh had been asked to return, she was committed to the Cronenberg film, called "Existenz," a drama in which she stars with Jude Law.
Kubrick, who is notoriously reclusive, is one of Hollywood's most acclaimed filmmakers. His previous movies include "Dr. Strangelove," "A Clockwork Orange," "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "The Shining." "Eyes Wide Shut" is Kubrick's first movie since "Full Metal Jacket" was released 10 years ago.
Kubrick's secretive style is matched by his propensity to make dozens and dozens of takes of the same scenes, even the most trivial ones. As a result the shooting schedule dragged on. All the actors in "Eyes Wide Shut" have been sworn to secrecy, and Cruise and Ms. Kidman had apparently been ordered not to remove the script from the set.
Ms. Rich, Ms. Leigh's manager, said she had no idea what the film was about. "Jennifer was honor bound not to discuss it," she said. Cruise and Ms. Kidman have spoken only vaguely of the film, but Ms. Kidman told one friend recently that her husband was awed by Kubrick.
"He's the one director that actually intimidates Tom," said Ms. Kidman.
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