A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : IN THE WORKS : The Plane Crashes. The Spirit Endures. OK, but What Happens in Between?

From Touchstone Pictures, the Disney division that made prostitution wholesome with its 1990 box-office hit “Pretty Woman,” comes word that the studio has another unlikely story--for Disney--in the works. But don’t think that “Alive,” based on the Piers Paul Read book about a 1972 Andes plane crash in which the survivors resorted to cannibalism, will be a downer.

“We’re not stressing this as a movie about cannibalism,” insists producer Robert Watts. “Obviously, the issue is something that has to be addressed. That’s how they survived, but it’s by no means the most important aspect. We’re making a movie that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit.”

“Alive,” a co-production with Paramount, is currently shooting in British Columbia with Frank Marshall (“Arachnophobia”) as director and Ethan Hawke and Vincent Spano as members of the stranded South American rugby team.

Before arriving at Touchstone, “Alive” bounced from various studios. It almost went into production in the early ‘80s when director Tony Scott (“Top Gun”) was going to make the film for Paramount from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian. According to sources, the film, after finding a home at Disney, was rewritten by Monte Merrick (“Memphis Belle”) before it was rewritten once again by John Patrick Shanley, who won an Oscar for his “Moonstruck” script.

The Disney film has the blessing of the survivors, many of whom have visited the film’s location. Survivor Nando Parrado is acting as the film’s technical adviser. “He is there so we can check with him on each scene and how things worked,” says Watts. “He’s filling us in on all the details.”

Watts says that the survivors are pleased that the complete story is finally being told. Although the cannibalism will be played down in “Alive,” it was sensationalized for an earlier film that was also based on the story. In 1976, “Survive!”--a Mexican quickie made on a shoestring budget--was picked up by producer Allan Carr and distributed by Paramount, which, strangely enough, has the foreign distribution rights to “Alive.” Although the film, which was dubbed into English, purportedly told the true story, it was not based on Read’s book and didn’t use any of the real people involved in the story. What it lacked in realism, though, it more than made up for in gruesome, graphic scenes.