OUR veteran film leads are getting older, so producers have been looking for their replacements, younger but similarly charismatic talents who can "carry" a movie and thus assure its success at the box office.

In drama, our reliable leading men have been Aga Muhlach, Richard Gomez, Christopher de Leon and Albert Martinez. Who can step into their shoes?

Movie studios and the talent centers of leading TV channels have been fielding scores of candidates, usually starting them off in teenybopper productions before letting the "finalists" among them move up to young-adult roles.

The "finalists" include Diether Ocampo, Marvin Agustin, Onemig Bondoc, Piolo Pascual, Michael Flores, Jericho Rosales, Wowie de Guzman, Dingdong Dantes, Mark Anthony Fernandez and Leandro Muñoz.

Wowie and Marvin have been in some popular films, but they haven't been visible on the movie screen of late, more's the pity-partly because their "love teams" with young female stars like Judy Ann Santos and Jolina Magdangal haven't been offered new projects.

Ditto for Dingdong Dantes, whose team-up with Antoinette Taus has been placed on the back burner. For his part, Leandro Muñoz was given a good showcase in Fernando Poe Jr.'s movie with Judy Ann last year, but has had no follow-up film.

Mark Anthony Fernandez has just rejoined show biz but is being built up as a young action star. Michael Flores and Jericho Rosales are good dramatic actors but have yet to be given their big break.

That leaves Diether Ocampo, Piolo Pascual and Onemig Bondoc as the "final finalists." But Onemig hasn't found favor with movie producers of late, so the field has narrowed down to just Diether and Piolo as the movie industry's new dramatic leading men.

Piolo hasn't made waves in the movies just yet, but his long-completed launching film, "Lagarista," could be shown soon, so he's expected to establish himself as a young dramatic lead this year.

The young actor plays the title role in the movie, a "bicycler" of movie reels from theater to theater. He's an innocent who becomes more aware of life's bittersweet realities when he falls for a young "student" who turns out to be a prostitute.

Piolo has some bed scenes in the film, revealing a willingness to strip and scorch up the screen that some producers find "reassuring."

If "Lagarista" is a hit, Piolo will be "made" as a young-adult star. If it's less than that, he should have a follow-up movie ready to keep producers and viewers interested in him as a film star.

Piolo's best suit is his acting ability, which has been showcased in any number of TV productions. But movies are more challenging to act in than most dramatic episodes on TV, so the hope is that Piolo has it in him to meet the heightened thespic demands of the film medium.

For his part, Diether first made waves when he was picked to co-star with veteran dramatic star Maricel Soriano in a "May-October" romantic drama. Diether scored points when he was able to match Maricel's level of performance.

Only last month, Diether followed up with a smaller film about yuppie love. His co-star, Angelu de Leon, was less of a name than Maricel, but the film did well partly because the two young leads had good chemistry together.

Diether's one-two punch in the movies has impressed some people and has led them to conclude that he is the young male leading man of the moment.

This appears to be confirmed by news that Diether is already shooting a new movie, this time with no less than the comebacking Rosanna Roces as his co-star. One-two-three-that's a knockout punch that leaves the competition far behind!

So, the tale of the movie offers these days indicates that Diether is the young male talent to beat, with Piolo waiting for his launching movie to be shown so that he can provide some hopefully strong competition.

As for the other male "finalists," exposure on TV is fine, but they have to do something, anything, to convince movie producers to give them their break in the movies this year.