A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : ON LOCATION : Look Who’s Back on the Big Screen

Burt Reynolds, who once reigned as a macho box-office superstar with such movies as “Smokey and the Bandit,” “The Longest Yard” and “Deliverance,” is back before the cameras hoping that his newfound success in television will reignite his film career.

Reynolds, whose popularity soared in recent years with his hit TV series “Evening Shade,” is filming an action comedy in Tampa, Fla., called “Cop and a Half.”

“No question that ‘Evening Shade’ put Burt back in the public eye in tremendous fashion,” said Paul Maslansky, who is producing the Universal Pictures/Imagine Films Entertainment film. “I see television as creating this opportunity of getting Burt back into feature films.”

The movie, which is being directed by another TV veteran, Henry Winkler, tells the story of an unsentimental police detective (Reynolds) who is given charge of an 8-year-old boy who has witnessed a crime in progress. In return for his cooperation, however, the boy demands a badge and a chance to work the streets as a cop.

Co-starring with Reynolds is Norman Golden II, an 8-year-old who won a nationwide casting search for the part.

Maslansky said the part was written for a white child--specifically Macaulay Culkin, but he couldn’t make the film because of a scheduling conflict.

“We just couldn’t find the right one,” Maslansky said. “What was interesting was, along the way black kids would come in to audition. This kid (Golden) turned up in our back yard. We had an open call at the United Methodist Church in Hollywood. That day, if I’m not mistaken, well over 1,500 kids arrived.”

Golden was chosen to compete with four finalists from other regions of the country, and they were then given screen tests with Reynolds on the set of “Evening Shade.”

“As soon as Norman sat next to Burt and began conversing with him, Burt looked into the camera and said, ‘This is the one,’ ” said Maslansky, who also has produced “The Russia House” and all six “Police Academy” movies.

For Reynolds, 56, “Cop and a Half” is being shot virtually in his back yard. He lives in Florida with his wife, actress Loni Anderson, and their 3-year-old son, Quinton, and he has a theater in Jupiter.

“He’s still very macho,” Winkler said of Reynolds, “but . . . he’s a dad now. That opened up a side of him that is just incredible.”