Movies

Giamatti plays Cleveland Heep, a janitor of an apartment complex, "I'm sort of hiding in this place," he says of his part, "I've taken on this mindless job, sort of shut myself off and this is what I do and become a hermit in this little house that I live in on the premises."

Of course, being a Shyamalan film, there are sure to be a few twists and turns and this movie is no different. When Heep finds a mysterious woman, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, in the pool outside his home, the creep factor starts to rise. "She at first seems like this strange young girl but something seems odd about her, but fairly quickly I start to figure out she's not quite human."

JP Morgan Chase is committing $175 million in financing for the project, with an additional $25 million coming from an unspecified source (Johnson?).

Today, of course, no announcements, but definitely the hint of one: A flirtation between 18 month old free video site YouTube and Big Media. CEO Chad Hurley and CBS supreme commander, Les Moonves were seen chatting for quite some time, reports the NY Times DealBook. The two CEOs' animated conversation might well produce a deal similar to YouTube's recent deal with NBC to allow promotion of its new season on the upstart website.

No more do we need wonder what Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin were doing with those wire-cutters over by Chad's rental car. As the AP notes, "The leaders of Google Inc. weren't invited to the annual event hosted by investment banker Herb Allen until the online search engine leader was nearly five years old."

EXCLUSIVE: We just heard that not only is Mark Ruffalo set and Jennifer Garner in talks to join the cast of "Reservation Road" (the Oscar-bait indie that recently landed Joaquin Phoenix as a male lead), Focus Features is in talks to acquire the distribution rights to the film.

Under the direction of "Hotel Rwanda" director Terry George, "Reservation Road" is being produced by Nick Wechsler, who most recently produced "North Country" - a film that received Best Actress Oscar nominations for its stars, Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand. The film, like the novel, explores the emotional aftermath following the hit-and-run killing of a university instructor's 10-year-old son, and his subsequent dogged hunt for the killer.

While its gratifying to see that a film based on Jonathan Burnham Schwartz's challenging, multi-character perspective novel is being made at all, it is alarming to note that studios just don't seem to care making the kinds of films that win Oscars. That is, just as studios slash first-look development deals with producers, and drastically reducing the number of pictures they're making, the focus is switching to all-popcorn, all the time blockbusters. Which is great, if your a fourteen year old boy, and not so great if you care about serious film.

As one talent agent put it to me, "TV networks don't care about winning Emmys. They care about money. We may be headed for a time when studios truly don't care about winning Oscars."

With four out of five of last year's Best Picture nominees as indies, including the winner, I'd say we're already there.

The reason for this, of course, is Wall Street. With the studios owned by corporate parents who care about making this quarter's numbers, there's little room to for scatter-shot development and greater emphasis on howitzer-sized blockbusters, the returns on which are easier to prognosticate. Problem is, blockbusters don't always work. (Take a ganders at the $100 million in losses from at "Poseidon" at Warner Bros. for proof.)

While film junkets can sometimes be a boring affair, Moviefone's Unscripted series offers up something unique: The stars of the movies they're promoting interview each other.

When Kate Hudson, Owen Wilson and Matt Dillon sat down for the interview for their film, which opens today, it was no surprise that the trio couldn't stop laughing. When Hudson revealed her most embarassing moment on set with Lance Armstrong it was definitely hard for them to keep a straight face.

"The only thing uncomfortable for me that day was having my butt in Lance Armstrong's face," said Hudson, "so it's like I was straddling you [Owen], licking your face face and being like 'hi Lance, it's really nice to meet you.'"

"You stole his thunder that day,' said Wilson of Armstrong's day on set, "you came out in the bathing suit, it's like Lance, Michael Douglas and I got reduced to Beavis and Butthead."

The Wayans Brothers, who switched races for 2004's "White Chicks," are back at it again, this time making Marlon a three-foot-tall jewel thief disguised as a baby through somewhat creepy movie magic in "Little Man."

The film also stars Kerry Washington, who hit it big after appearing in the Oscar winner "Ray," as Vanessa Edwards, husband to Shawn's character Darryl. "I really don't ever want to be put in a box, and I found myself, after 'Ray' doing a few more really very serious dramatic films...I don't want to be pigeonholed." At least she knows the film isn't going to garner the same kind of attention as the biopic but could care less, "I was in an Oscar nominated film and I'm really proud of it so who is anybody else to judge."

Though maybe not Oscar worthy, Marlon believes they've made a movie that has appeal for everybody. "This one has good boy humor, good girl humor, some heart and good physical slapstick humor for the kids, and so I think a mom could take her kid and they could enjoy the movie together, " he then added, "Dad could bring his mistress and then everybody can go see the movie together."

Despite co-starring with Oscar winners Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman, it looks like Justin's crime drama "Edison Force" isn't up to par. It's being released to video stores on Tuesday, July 18.

The movie, filmed in 2004, hit the film festival circuit last year, but early reviews were not kind. Variety said "The movie is a parade of cliches," and the Hollywood Reporter called it "a star-studded dud of a B-picture."

While Justin's new single "SexyBack" is burning up the charts, it seems his acting career is following in the cinematically doomed footsteps of fellow music icons Madonna, Mariah and his ex-girlfriend Britney Spears.

Thurman showed off her fighting skills in the "Kill Bill" films and vocals in "The Producers" but her latest film displays her greatest talent yet: shark chucking. In "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" Thurman plays G-Girl, a superhero who uses her powers to throw a shark through her ex-boyfriend's window.

"It was such fun. It was incredible fun," said the actress of the fishy scene at the film's premiere, "I think I throw the shark for every girl in America. It's my by-line. Shark chucking at someone who breaks your heart seems like just-desserts."

Thurman was joined on the red carpet by the man who revived her career, Quentin Tarantino, and he had only glowing things to say about the former Beatrix Kiddo.

"She has a presence to go behind her talent. She's like an old movie star, like from the old days. Uma Thurman would have been a movie star in thirties in the forties. She'd be having tea with Garbo. They would be trying to do the Uma Thurman story. We don't have that many people like that anymore so she really fills up the screen."

Owen Wilson, star of the wildly successful "Wedding Crashers," was seen in NY waving and shaking hands as he went into MTV's TRL studios in Times Square.

Shortly after, two more funny-men arrived: "Little Man" stars Marlon and Shawn Wayans. The two members of the talented Wayans family posed for pictures and greet fans on their way into the studio.

Rumors are flying that Natalie Portman plans to take it all off in her new film, "Goya's Ghost."

The record companies are not the only ones getting their litigation fix. The Motion Picture A ssociation of America has been filing its fair share of suits as well. Over the years, movie companies have filed various lawsuits to stop various technologies, including now nearly outdated VCR. Reports have the MPAA mulling over the possibility of adopting the RIAA strategy of going after individual consumers who download or otherwise purchase illegally made movie copies.

While promoting their film in Europe, Brandon Routh and the cast of "Superman Returns" have been bombarded with questions about another summer blockbuster, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

With "Pirates" breaking records it's opening weekend and "Superman" fighting to break even, the comparisons came as no surprise and the cast was certainly prepared for the line of questions.

Kate Bosworth, who plays Lois Lane in the flick, laughed off rumors of competition with boyfriend (and "Pirates" star) Orlando Bloom. "It's like the only thing that we talk about. Come home everyday, come home from work and talk about the box office," she joked, "It's so not a part of our consciousness, we are equally supportive of each other."

Where the heck is Suri Cruise? My cynical opinion -- Tom wants to out do Brad.

So here's my theory. Brad and Angelina got around $4 mil for the first pics of Shiloh, which they donated to charity. The word on the street is that Tom and Katie couldn't get more than $3 million for Suri pics. When you're as big as Tom Cruise, the only place to go is down. He was the biggest star in the world for a long time, loved by all. Now he's neither the biggest nor loved that much.

So forget about the conspiracy theories. People just weren't as into Suri pics as Shiloh pics, and it probably drove Tom nuts. But wait -- there's a solution. Create a mystery and the world will go crazy. That's exactly what I think is going on. If people start questioning if this baby really exists, the pictures automatically become more valuable. If he gets more than $4 mil, he beats Brad. I'm guessing if that happens, the money goes to Scientology, which could make the whole plan backfire.

First Batman returned with "Batman Begins" then Superman flys into the action with, well, "Superman Returns." Now it's time for the original tormented man in a cape to rise from the grave as Universal Pictures has decided to resurrect Dracula from his slumber.

The studio has optioned a script entitled "Dracula Year Zero." It turns out everyone gets a fresh start-- including Vlad the Impaler who returns in a tragic dark love story.

While no production date has been slated, TMZ is curious who will fill Bela Lugosi's shoes in the title role.

Sure, it 2006, and it's a branded entertainment universe. We get it.

But some deals just plain turn our stomach.

Take today's LA Times coverage of Team Baby, a company that until very recently only made "sports booster videos for newborns and toddlers to watch alongside their cheering parents."

For now, we'll leave aside whether or not the state should come and take the child of any parent that makes their pre-verbal pupae absorb team sports propaganda before they can even walk, let alone express a preference for Pampers over Huggies. Instead, we'll focus on the most recent abomination in parenting: The recent arrival of Michael Eisner and today's just-announced Team Baby deal-making that really makes us feel queasy. You see, now, Team Baby is linking up with NASCAR, amongst other franchise team sports, presumably so your not-yet-motile moppet can can mourn alongside you when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or some-such plows into the wall at turn two at Talledega.

Sure, per the Times, "... the NASCAR educational videos will focus on the primary colors of the cars, the shapes of the wheels to teach the concept of a circle and on the pit crews to demonstrate team work." But CEO Greg Scheinman also admits, "The cars do crash; we can't sugar coat that. [But]...we won't have beer ads. There is an M&M car, but we are not selling the candy. It's just a really, really nice, fun, painted car."

Uh, well in that case, sure. The fact that our kid's first words might be "Winston Lights" or "Mopar" is just fine with us - just as long as it's not "Peanut M&M."

Ick.

We just got off the phone with one of our Deep Throats, and said Throat shared with us some juicy gossip about Deep River, the production company based at Paramount Pictures and responsible for flicks like "The Honeymooners" and "Laws of Attraction." Namely, it's coming to a fork, and will split in two this fall.

Deep River was, of course, created by some very Deep Pockets: Those of the founder of sub-prime lending company The Money Store, Marc Turtletaub, who wanted to become (and did) a highbrow movie producer, and the purse-strings of long-time movie maker David Friendly, the guiding force behind popcorn movies like "Dr. Doolittle" and "Big Momma's House," and this year's sequel.

The issue, our insider tells TMZ, is that Turtletaub wants to continue financing cheapie indie movies, like this year's $8 million Sundance Film Festival favorite, "Little Miss Sunshine," and last year's adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything is Illuminated," while Friendly wants to keep making bigger, broader studio films.

Indeed, Turtletaub may well be onto something: "Sunshine" sold to Fox Searchlight this year for $10.5 million, and is widely expected to mop up Oscar nominations for a hefty cast of pros like Alan Arkin, Toni Collete, Greg Kinnear and the red-hot Steve Carell. You can expect more of these kinds of movies from Turtletaub: We hear his new company, yet to make a deal with a studio, is to be called "Big Beach." No word yet on whether either Friendly or Turtletaub will be staying put at Paramount via a first-look deal, but clearly, all studios are looking to for any excuse to trim their rolls - even if your name is Tom Cruise.

Variety today says as much - but something we reported weeks ago: It's what-have-you-done-for-me-lately time at Sony, Paramount - anywhere, really.

A Hollywood screenwriter is suing pretty much everyone involved with "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl," the first installment of the now record-breaking "Pirates" series.

Royce Mathew claims in the 80s and 90s, he "created and wrote a number of original works including drawings, screenplays, outlines, blueprints, storyboards and other original materials...which he generally entitled "SNPM," standing for 'Super Natural Pirate Movie.'"

According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ and filed in United States District Court, Central District of California, Royce alleges he created "various drawings depicting his pirate ship, which he named the Black Pearl, and an original design for a 'medallion,' both of which are are central elements of his screenplay." Royce says he registered the drawings and his screenplay with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Royce says the screenplay contained a blacksmith/swordsman named Will Turner, an eccentric pirate captain and a unique cursed crew whose curse was revealed only in the moonlight. Royce claims the daughter of a British governor named Elizabeth falls in love with Will Turner. In "Pirates of the Caribbean," Orlando Bloom plays Will Turner and Keira Knightley plays Elizabeth Swann, who falls in love with Will Turner.