HOLLYWOOD -- Gen-X no longer marks the spotlight.

True enough, Nike still probably wants Air Jordans on every soul under 30 - but Hollywood is saying, oh-oh.

Oh-oh as in the record number of North Americans who will be teenagers (more than 30 million) in the double-zero dates of the next century.

The marketing people are already calling them oh-oh teens, or Generation Y. And the film business is beginning to wonder what to do about them.

Just this week, there was talk that Warren Beatty's new satire, Bulworth, was going to be postponed until the early winter when, traditionally, more brainy films are released. But the film is facing a new hurdle: the fact that movie-intense teenagers don't know who the sixtysomething Beatty is ... and don't care even if Beatty has brought in monster rap artists for the soundtrack. (The film is now set for a May 22 release).

The studio pushed back the film's opening a week to get away from Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer (which will be vying for the same audience and opens Friday) and try new marketing ploys, like placing the film up against Godzilla (opens May 20) to get the adult audience that probably isn't into monsters any more.

But the Beatty experience is probably just an early sign in a changing world for the studios, which may seem progressive and liberal to parents, but which are a hallmark of an old world for the new teens.

Last year, the town was set on its ear when the little sequel to Scream became a box-office smash with teenagers - and would have been the runaway hit of the season if it weren't for Titanic.

Amy Pascal, the president of Columbia Pictures, said at the time of Scream 2's incredible $30-million-plus debut, "Every studio is now trying to make movies for teenagers. There will be a million clones of Scream."

A VP at Paramount said this week that the thinking about teens is changing the industry, since teens want to see real teens in real situations.

"They don't want to see 90210 or big effects or the traditional movie stars. They want their own stars, which is why Leonardo DiCaprio is the hottest thing on the planet right now. And these teens are so savvy - they know when they're being sold a load of prepackaged goods designed to be a blockbuster rather than just a good movie. They know the difference."

The trends would clearly indicate that in the years to come, single-parent families will dominate and white teenagers will be the minority in American classrooms for the first time.

The teens of Generation Y are expected to be racially tolerant and far more content than the classic slacker model of a Gen-X member: They'll believe in God - and maybe even believe in their parents. But not in brand names - whether it's clothing, rock stars or movie and television stars.

As more music and even Web TV shows are being home-grown and sold independently over the Internet, a culture of non-celebrity is one that may be embraced by the oh-oh teens. They're going to want to see themselves in films, not be force-fed movie stars old enough to be their grandparents. Already, this seems to be a problem with Warren Beatty.

A recent survey by the Illinois-based Teen Research Unlimited indicated that for the next generation of teens, movies will be more important than dating or shopping.

A press release from the marketing firm, which does research for movie, record and clothing companies, says simply that, "Movies are really, really hot for teens ... rating higher than having a boyfriend or girlfriend, dating, participating in sports, shopping, going to the beach - even sleeping late."

But the brand-name-indifferent Generation Y isn't going to care if those movies comes from traditional filmmakers.

For the baby boomers running Hollywood, oh-oh indeed.


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