When Worlds Collide...It'll Be At The Multiplex

By RICHARD CORLISS

Can art outguess science? Movie moguls hope so, for there are two pricey epics hurtling toward theaters, both about huge chunks of astral matter on a collision course with Earth. There hasn't been such potentially profitable synergy between Hollywood and scare headlines since--well, since Primary Colors.

Paramount/DreamWorks' Deep Impact (due May 8) and Disney's Armageddon (July 1) both depict space missions that try to use nukes to knock incoming rocks off their fatal trajectories. Armageddon is about tough guys doing a tough job in space, while Deep Impact (inspired by the '50s films When Worlds Collide and On the Beach) emphasizes the human drama on Earth. This is Hollywood, remember: the real-life asteroid is a mile wide; in Armageddon it's the size of Texas. Says producer Jerry Bruckheimer: "We always do things bigger." And faster; you needn't wait till 2028 for these big bangs.

--By Richard Corliss. Reported by Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles

With reporting by Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles