It's a new day, and you know what that means -- George Clooney is once again attached to another project in some way, shape or form. Does the guy ever rest? Does he ever just stop and say, "You know what -- today I'm not going to do anything except look in the mirror and make love to my gorgeous reflection." I mean, if I were him, I'd be doing that at least three times a week. In their second deal (in two weeks) with Warner Independent Pictures, Smoke House partners George Clooney and Grant Heslov have picked up the screen rights to John Grisham's (he's back baby!) nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.

Grisham, who took some time off from big-screen adaptations following the horrific 2004 flick Christmas with the Kranks, decided to jump back into the Hollywood game -- but only after having several discussions with Clooney, while watching Good Night, and Good Luck with a copy of People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue between his legs. (I made that last part up, but you never know folks ... ) Book (which was published in October) tells the true story of a man who spent 11 years on Oklahoma's death row for a crime he didn't commit. Oh, and here's the best part: One of the eyewitnesses who helped send this man to prison was eventually discovered to be the real perp. I will never understand how someone can actually take the stand in a court room and help convict an innocent man. And to send him to death row, no less. Man, how would Jiminy Cricket deal with that catastrophe? No word yet on whether Clooney will participate in a role beyond producer, but it is nice to Grisham back in the courtroom and away from crappy holiday schlock.

Considering the negative buzz revolving around Clooney's upcoming role in The Good German, it's probably a good thing that he's already got a few crime-filled films on the horizon for fans to look forward to, joining Burn After Reading and Leatherheads, for 2008. Personally, I think he needs a little more Killer Tomatoes in his life, but I realize that's just me.

First, Clooney's set to produce and star in the previously-reported Joe Carnahan film, White Jazz for Warner Independent. If you're not familiar with the title, it's the fourth in James Ellroy's crime quartet which include the recently released The Black Dahlia, the seems-to-be-going-nowhere The Big Nowhere, and the acclaimed hit, LA Confidential. Starring as the corrupt police lieutenant means Clooney is Lieutenant David Klein, and according to Wikipedia, it was once a role for Nick Nolte in a version that never made it out of development hell.

Second, he's teaming up with Jerry Weintraub again to direct Belmont Boys. The plot: Thirty years after seven thieves failed to pull off their dream job, they get a chance to try again. Hmm. Weintraub swears this won't be an Ocean's rip-off, and that they're planning to have a long list of older stars take the leads. While it may have almost half the numbers of Twelve, it seems like a cut-and-dry cross between The Crew and the Ocean's franchise. The film has set locations through the US and Europe, so I assume that the older thieves have more mobility than their Crew predecessors. And, maybe this is just a warm-up for Ocean's 45, since they're already on their third sequel!

Note: This review originally ran during the Toronto International Film Festival. It is being run again in conjunction with the film's limited release this weekend. For Your Consideration opens in wider release November 22. - ed.

With his films Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, director Christopher Guest took the mockumentary approach he used in This Is Spinal Tap and brought it to a whole new generation. Guest assembled a cast of remarkable talent in Guffman, including Michael McKean (with whom Guest has worked for some 40 years), Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Bob Balaban and Parker Posey, and worked with the same cast (adding some new talent along the way, including the spectacularly funny Jennifer Coolidge and perfectly deadpan Jane Lynch, building an almost unbeatable ensemble of comedy.

Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind all took the mockumentary approach, dealing, respectively, with a play in a small town, an eclectic group of characters taking part in a national dog show, and the reunion of 1960s folk singers for a concert. Guest's previous three films with this ensemble worked, not just because of their mockumentary style, but because of the brilliance and energy of the cast, who worked improvisationally, with very little script. With his latest effort, For Your Consideration, Guest and co-writer Levy break away from the mockumentary mold to take a narrative approach, while still retaining the improvisational freedom that give the cast the room to make their characters their own.

I was just reading this column on Macworld about how it has been two months since Apple debuted movie downloads via iTunes, and how it has been too long and too much a success for other studios besides Disney to not join in. Even though I'm aware of a major reason for the slow migration by Hollywood to iTunes, I decided to do a little search in order to find any other stories on the status. Turns out, I completely missed this news on our own Apple Weblog. Looks like Fox may be the first non-Disney studio to offer its movies through iTunes, though a deal is still only in the negotiation stages. You guys know what that could mean, right? Star Wars available to download. Actually, I have a good feeling that Lucas wouldn't be into that idea.

Anyway, Fox has been in talks with Apple before, so we can't get our hopes up just yet. One thing I wonder is why Paramount and Warner Bros. haven't shown interest. Is it because they are going exclusive with XBox? However, nobody knows what that service will be like or how successful it will be. But, we do know that Disney has so far sold over half a million movies through iTunes (and earned $1 million in the first week alone), so I would think all the studios would be more interested in Apple's service.

What I also want to know is, what happened to Lionsgate in all of this?

In our first TIFF Roundtable, we discussed an array of dark and depressing films. There's never any shortage of serious films at festivals, but every now and then you need a lighter film or two to balance things out. In our second Roundtable, we talk about some lighter fare, including the new Christopher Guest film, For Your Consideration and Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat flick, which was a highlight of the fest for pretty much everyone who saw it. You can download the video here (67.1MB, 10:31 minutes) or watch it over on Netscape.

With his films Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, director Christopher Guest took the mockumentary approach he used in This Is Spinal Tap and brought it to a whole new generation. Guest assembled a cast of remarkable talent in Guffman, including Michael McKean (with whom Guest has worked for some 40 years), Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Bob Balaban and Parker Posey, and worked with the same cast (adding some new talent along the way, including the spectacularly funny Jennifer Coolidge and perfectly deadpan Jane Lynch, building an almost unbeatable ensemble of comedy.

Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind all took the mockumentary approach, dealing, respectively, with a play in a small town, an eclectic group of characters taking part in a national dog show, and the reunion of 1960s folk singers for a concert. Guest's previous three films with this ensemble worked, not just because of their mockumentary style, but because of the brilliance and energy of the cast, who worked improvisationally, with very little script. With his latest effort, For Your Consideration, Guest and co-writer Levy break away from the mockumentary mold to take a narrative approach, while still retaining the improvisational freedom that give the cast the room to make their characters their own.

As if being an indie-film lover in NYC wasn't already a dream come true, much of the city is going to be discounting the ticket price for independent films, too. Well, for a few days, anyway. In collaboration with the Independent Feature Project (IFP) -- which holds its annual market in September -- and its "Independent Film Week", 10 New York theaters will be reducing their admission on ALL shows (I am assuming this means non-indies, as well) from Monday, September 18 through Thursday, September 21. Many of the city's favorite art-house locations are included, although some are noticeably, and disappointingly, absent, such as Film Forum (I'll excuse them for being non-profit, and an otherwise wonderful establishment), the IFC Center, the Quad Cinemas and the Angelika Film Center. The fact that the Angelika isn't participating just goes to show that it no longer has any redeeming qualities left (and I'm not biased just because I used to work there). I mean, considering that it has been host to the IFP Market for most of its existence, one would think it should be included.

Anyway, if you don't mind seeing a movie for only $6 in a theater where you can't hear the subway roaring beneath your seat, you might want to hold off on seeing one of NYC's large selection of films until that special week. The places offering this deal are: Anthology Film Archives; Cinema Village; Landmark's Sunshine; Cobble Hill Cinemas; BAM Rose Cinemas; ImaginAsian; Museum of Modern Art; Walter Reade Theater; Brooklyn Heights Cinemas and Kew Gardens Cinemas.

Like everyone else at about this time, the folks in the Warner Bros. release department are doing a bit of re-jiggering of their fall and winter schedule, moving several big-ish films back and picking up a Warner Independent Pictures release for a wide open in early 2007. The details are as follows:

• We Are Marshall, the based-on-a-true-story flick about a tragic plane crash and the recovery of a devastated team and community (Nice, huh? I should write tag lines!) has been pushed back a month, from late November to December 22. Mmm ... Christmas audiences.
• Lucky You, which I hope is a whole lot better than the trailer (there it looks like Tilt, except with Eric Bana instead of Michael Madsen), has been moved from September 8 to the end of the November. While that IS closer to Oscar time, I would be stunned if the move was actually to increase the film's profile. That said, though, it was directed by Curtis Hanson, so maybe it's a stunning work being screwed by a terrible trailer. Yeah, you're right -- probably not.
  
• The best bit of news is that the AWFUL-looking The Reaping (aka lesson #349 that signing an Oscar-winning star does not mean your movie be good) has been pulled from its November 8 release date and ... not rescheduled. I'm guessing someone at WB actually saw the final edit for the first time, and has buried the only print in his back yard.
• The Astronaut Farmer, originally scheduled to be released by the studio's independent arm, has been stolen by Warner's proper because of its star-filled cast (Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen and Bruce Willis), and will be given a wide release on January 12, 2007.
  

On the strength of an 11-minute trailer that earned a standing ovation at Cannes, as well as the chaotic story of its distribution here -- rights were snatched up by The Weinstein Company, only to be dropped after a re-edit and re-naming; Warner Independent Pictures ended up with the film -- Chen Kaige's The Promise had developed considerable buzz in the US. Set to open here early next month, it’s now one of the handful of jarringly commercial, big-budget films showing at the Tribeca Film Festival. Unfortunately, however, the movie fails to live up to either its buzz or the visual potential hinted at in that Cannes trailer.

The Promise is set in a fantastic land, in which gods and men live side-by-side, and giant, color-coded armies battle for dominance. The film is dominated by set-piece combat scenes, none of which adhere to normal rules of physics; each features reams and reams of billowing fabric, movements of impossible grace, and long chases across whatever lovely obstacles present themselves, from trees and rooftops to human-sized birdcages and craggy landscapes. The plot, as you might expect, is of little consequence, serving primarily as an excuse for those battles and other CGI-enhanced scenes of dramatic beauty. Such as it is, however, the plot revolves are Quingcheng (Cecilia Cheung), a woman who, as a young girl, made an unfortunate promise to a goddess, accepting endless devotion and wealth in exchange for the inability to find and keep a true love. Inevitably, she falls in love with a man who kills for her, but because of circumstances and the man’s hidden face, she believes her rescuer to be the fabled Master of the Crimson Armor (Hiroyuki Sanada), when in fact it is his slave (Jang Dong-Kun). Needless to say, great dramatic sacrifices are made, loves are lost, and lives are changed, all in gorgeous ways.

Jon Heder, the man everyone in Hollywood apparently wants to work with, is in yet another movie. He actually signed on to star in Mama's Boy last fall, but the movie sort of fell through the cracks after that, and there was some concern/hope (depending on your feelings about Mr. Heder and his talents) that it had made its way to the pile of titles that never get past the "announced" stage. Never fear, though, because he's now got a couple of costars and a director; it's safe to move on to the next crisis on your list [insert tired old Tom Cruise joke here].

The magnificent Diane Keaton will, rather inexplicably, play Heder's mother in the film. When she starts dating a "self-help guru" (he'll be played by Jeff Daniels, which is easily the most perfect bit of casting news I've heard all week), the man stars trying to get sad loser Heder to move out of her house, thus "prompting a mano-a-mano confrontation." I'm assuming this is a comedy, but it does sound like it might have a bit of an edge to it and, just possibly, some depth. Dare we hope?

Tim Hamilton is directing the film for Warner Independent Pictures; the IMDb indicates that it's filming, but since no start date is listed in Variety, I'm taking that with a grain of salt.

Fernando Eimbcke's Duck Season is on the surface such a simple film that I keep forgetting how much of it I enjoyed. There are some personally relative morsels that remain vividly in my consciousness, but above all it plays out with such a soothing, leisurely calm, its resonating effects easily go unnoticed. Though filled with ideas, it hardly sparks reflection let alone discussion. Instead it affects a negligibly warm sensation, not like a feel-good movie does, but like an afternoon with friends or a piece of candy taken for granted in their accessibility.

Yet it appears to be significant to some, enough to sweep Mexico's Ariel Awards (their equivalent to our Oscars), win the Grand Jury Prize at The AFI Fest, contend for the best foreign film at this year's Independent Spirit Awards, and find a gracious fan in director Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), who secured its American distribution by presenting it under his new Esperanto Filmoj banner. Not bad for a glorified student film, black and white and all, about two pals in an apartment with nothing to do. With its inordinately stylish direction Duck Season would work best as a calling card, but surprisingly it has served Eimbcke as an all-out initiation into the club.

Over at Winona Ryder News Channel, they have a great interview up with Mike Stovall, one of the 50 or so animators who made A Scanner Darkly, well, animated. Ever wondered what it would have been like to be a part of the animation team for A Scanner Darkly? Shorts and t-shirts, dogs lying around the office, and frequent steak nights, plus a weekly quota of frames to get done. Sounds kinda like my first internet project management gig many moons ago, except we ordered in lots of Chinese take-out (mmm, New York City Chinese food) and Mountain Dew by the case. Ah, the good old days, when working 18-hour-days felt exhilarating and cool.

Stovall also spills on some cool stuff about the animation process itself (it sounds like lots of tedious work, to be honest, but I'm sure it sounds way more exciting to any graphic artists out there) and the film itself, which Stovall says is very true to the book (this, as he also points out, could limit its appeal to audiences used to being spoon-fed). He also let's drop some Winona-related tidbits: she (and the rest of the cast) shot wearing no makeup, and she still looked pretty; and - better sit down now, Winona fans - she's topless in the movie,  but what you're seeing are animated boobies, not the real thing. Ryder wore an exercise top to cover herself during filming. Maybe Sharon Stone will take a lesson from Ryder's playbook on that score. Nah, probably not.

Go read the whole interview, it's good stuff. Cool animation, Winona Ryder, and an intelligent storyline that actually stays true to the book? Wow. Now I'm at least 12% more interested in seeing it. Besides, I kinda want to see which Keanu Reeves we have in this film: Cool, sexy Matrix Keanu? Earnestly serious, I'm-really-trying-to-be-a-good-actor indie film Keanu? Or, heaven forfend, absurdly wooden Johnny Mnemonic Keanu? By the way, in case you missed it the first time, Jette Kernion caught the special-super-top-secret screening of A Scanner Darkly at SXSW, but she unfortunately didn't give us any info on either Keanu's acting or Winona's animated boobies, so you'll just have to wait until July (July? That long?) to see the film yourself.

Friday's odds and ends:

• The Weinstein Company has picked up the American distribution rights to Emilio Estevez's sprawling RFK assassination drama, Bobby. Starring the pretty much all of Hollywood, the movie is due out this fall and, according to the most recent reports, is actually ahead of schedule.

• Well, that was quick. Mr. Brooks' good and evil pair of Kevin Costner and William Hurt now have their lady: according to this morning's Hollywood Reporter, Demi Moore has joined the film's cast. Refreshingly, Moore isn't playing a love interest who is threatened and made to scream (in a bad way) a lot by the bad guy. Instead, she'll be a "a tough detective whose devotion to her craft catches the attention and respect of the serial killer she is hunting." Ah, hell. The summary alone is creeping me out, so there's no way I have the nerves to see this movie. Dammit.

• When we reported late last year about the rumors that Radiohead was going to do the score for A Scanner Darkly, people came out of the woodwork to tell us it was all a huge, idiotic lie. But now the "rumor" is back again, and this time it's from the proverbial Mainstream Media: EW's Popwatch is reporting the story as a studio-confirmed fact - odd, since the version Jette saw the other day featured music by Graham Reynolds. So, basically, no one knows what's going on, not even the people at Warner independent Pictures. [Edit: Popwatch has has been updated based on new information from WIP. Radiohead isn't doing the score; instead, the movie will feature unspecified Radiohead songs, in addition to a Thom Yorke solo track.]
  

Partizan, the production company behind Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep, is offering a short clip from the film on their website. After watching it, my primary reaction was "Uh, what?" The White Stripes are blaring, and some crazy animated crap is happening in what looks like a window. Plus, there's a tape player that looks just like the one I used to have in my room. Gael García Bernal is waving his arms around and apparently causing some destruction in the window-world. Meanwhile, three people dressed in 70s clothing bow behind him, and then laugh. Sometimes. And boy, do they like it when the animation turns in a little construction scene! Needless to say, taken on its own, this clip would NOT send me running to the theater. After reading Karina's review of the film from Sundance, however, I watch it again and loved it - when viewed with what little context the film can be bothered to provide, the scene suddenly makes a charming kind of sense. So, if you're not familiar with the film? Read the review, THEN download the clip.

Since the clip is in the form of a podcast, one hopes that this is just the first in a series of sneak looks at the film, which will be released in the US in August.

[via Filmmaker Blog]

According to a great piece by the LA Weekly's Nikki Finke this morning, the makers of The March of the Penguins are considering suing Warner independent Pictures, the film's American distributor. Why? They want more goddamn money, that's why! The movie has made nearly $80 million at the box office so far and, apart from the $1 million for distribution rights and some back end money, the film's production team has seen precious little of it. The problem, of course, is that they SIGNED A CONTRACT that set up current payment situation so, unless pouting has suddenly become a valid legal argument, a lawsuit seems unlikely to stand much of a chance.

Interestingly, Finke points out that the Penguins team had multiple chances to expand their profits by agreeing to a licensing deal but that they repeatedly refused, quite reasonably fearing that such a thing would "cheapen" their film. So what happens? They show up at the Oscars with stuffed penguins. Nice.