In what has to constitute the shortest retirement in Hollywood history, “New Moon” director Chris Weitz told BFD at a Gotham screening that he has no plans to hang it up at age 40.

Thursday’s New York Post’s Page Six column cited a Moviemaker Magazine interview to report that Weitz was leaving the business after making one more film. He seemed to have rallied since doing that interview. Indeed, he had a vigor comparable to Minnesota Vikings QB Brett Favre, who has made temporary retirement as much a part of his playbook as the forward pass. 

Weitz said he will start production in March or April on “The Gardener,” but was contemplating a future beyond that. His prospects will surely brighten after the expected monstrous opening weekend for “New Moon.”  

Scripted by Argentinian writer/director Eric Eason, “The Gardener” reunites Weitz with “Twilight”-maker Summit Entertainment.

“There are no werewolves or vampires, just a Mexican gardener in Los Angeles,” Weitz said at the cast screening held at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema.

Unlike his last book-based film “The Golden Compass,” Weitz said he was energized by the experience of making “New Moon” because Summit and “Twilight” series author Stephenie Meyer trusted him to honor the books that created a ferocious fan base, while adding his own stylistic imprint. He expected the same on “Golden Compass,” and was crushed when heavy-handed editing by New Line eliminated 30 minutes of footage and neutered any of the edge evident in the Phillip Pullman books

“It was an utter violation of my status as a director, and the worst thing that has happened to me professionally,” Weitz said.

The filmmaker said loyalty to the “Golden Compass” cast and crew kept him from speaking out when the film was released.

Said Weitz: “I practically bit through my tongue, but I would be very happy to see `New Moon’ surpass `The Golden Compass.’ Now, that dish is cold, and I’m ready to eat. I was treated badly, it was almost like they never read the books. They seemed frightened of offending the Right. This was a wonderful experience by comparison. I got to work with terrific young actors at the top of their game, and see Taylor Lautner perform so well.”

While Moviemaker quoted Weitz as focusing on surfing and learning Spanish and kung fu, those apparently will remain hobbies. Depth of Field, the company he runs with brother Paul, has a potential Oscar entry in the Tom Ford-directed “A Single Man,” and Paul is off directing “Little Fockers.”

Weitz said he’s learning to be careful about swearing off movies when he’s drained from finishing one, because it’s like a fully dilated pregnant woman swearing off reproduction.

Weitz and Favre aren’t the only ones who haven’t stuck to retirement proclamations.  In 2002, an Entertainment Weekly cover trumpeted the exclusive that Stephen King would soon stop writing books. Subsequently, he has killed more trees than a lumberjack, cranking out fat thrillers. And King had enough words left over to become a columnist for that magazine.

The awards season is getting off to a tepid start. There’s an absence of dark horse contenders. The majors have sharply cut spending on Oscar campaigns and the star presence has also been reduced.

Among the late entries to the race are “Crazy Heart” about a washed up country singer, and “Brothers,” a new film directed by Jim Sheridan. Jeff Bridges, a smart and congenial veteran of the interview circuit, will be a big plus for “Crazy Heart.” Tobey Maguire, who is famously interview-shy, may not be much of a help to “Brothers.”

All of which points up a behind-the-scenes debate about how stars should work the media circuit. One theory among top agents is that stars have been over-exposed to red carpet-type interview snippets that haven’t helped either their reputations or their pictures.

As an example, it’s no secret that bookers have been asking “Where’s George?” -- Clooney has two new pictures in the marketplace and also is the voice of the key character in “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Richard Corliss, Time Magazine’s critic, coincidentally observed this week that “Film stars are the industry’s supersalesman and no one closes a deal with more assurance or grace than George Clooney.”

Clooney worked the festivals for his idiosyncratic stoner film, “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” Though he’s shooting a film in Italy, there are rumors he may deliver an 11th hour boost to his other film, “Up In The Air,” in which he plays a flippant, surreal character who stays permanently airborne. “Air” has gotten good buzz, but still it’s a Christmas picture about a guy whose job it is to fire people -- not the ideal topic for a nation with 10% unemployment.

So will Clooney, Time’s “supersalesman,” hit the interview circuit? Will his brethren follow suit?

Stay tuned.

The first annual Governors' Awards dinner, which I attended on Sunday, was a great success. The Oscar folks don't usually like change, but they're committed to change things at this year's Oscar show in that some of the honorary awards, like the Thalberg, were presented at the dinner, not on TV. It was a good decision and there was a solid representation of star talent at the dinner -- Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Beatty, Hanks. Even Lauren Bacall got a special Oscar. (Her response upon being handed the gold statuette: "At last: A man in my life.")

But here's what was odd about the Academy ceremony: Hardly anyone was talking about potential Oscar contenders. Usually by this time of year some favorites start to emerge, but not this year. Katharine Bigelow attended the Academy event and folks clearly think very well of her movie, "The Hurt Locker." The producers of "Precious” were working the room, but other than that there seem to be slim pickings thus far this year. And there are 10 spots to fill.

  This Best Picture race is just beginning to take shape. The overnight emergence of the Jeff Bridges film Crazy Heart as a contender is an example. Suddenly it’s everywhere, in articles and blog ads. I haven’t seen it yet, so I can only wonder: Is it The Wrestler, or did Fox Searchlight saddle up this Paramount reject as an Oscar horse, needing a mount in this year’s race and hoping they can ride into the winner’s circle on a long-shot the way they did last year on Warner Bros.' castoff Slumdog Millionaire? Elsewhere, we’ll know momentarily how Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones will factor in the race, whether Rob Marshall’s Nine and Clint Eastwood’s Invictus will be factors. And we’ll know soon whether Avatar will be remembered for more than the $500 million pricetag placed on it by the New York Times.

How could it be that expensive? I’ve heard rumors (denied by Fox) that Cameron delivered a long cut for visual effects work, which swelled costs. If the DVD arrives with a lengthy director’s cut, we’ll know there was truth to that rumor. Avatar’s marketing budget is also big, but that is understandable. How many movies need 90-second spots to explain a plotline? Still, the game-changing element of 3-D won’t come across until we see the film. As an avowed Cameron fan, I hope I walk away feeling immersed in a world like never before, much like I walked away from Terminator 2 blown away by the liquid metal Terminator, and feeling the way I felt watching that hovering jet in True Lies, or seeing the Titanic sink. We’ll know shortly whether this Oscar race will be a runaway or whether distributors will see a chance to make some money by campaigning for some Oscar hardware. 

Given the sad state of newspapers, this is clearly not a great time to go into journalism, but is the movie business much better? The Hollywood studios seem to be caught up in a moment of turbulence. There have been changes at the top at both Disney and Universal, and now MGM looks like it may be broken up and its pieces auctioned off. But box office is running about 7% ahead of last year and the major conglomerates are announcing respectable earnings.

Ask any agent, studio exec or dealmaker and they’ll say the business is worse then they’ve ever seen it. It’s going to be hard for a while; deals are smaller and pictures implode easily. When I’m pitched a story about a film project that has unspecified funding, it’s difficult to know how real the project is, even with stars. Just this week, BFD revealed that Disney had dry-docked 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a fully developed picture that only recently seemed to be steaming full speed ahead with McG at the helm. He walked away to do something else. They hadn’t locked a star, but the big sea change was Disney installed a new topper in Rich Ross. Word around town was the new chief wasn’t as crazy about the project as was his predecessor, Dick Cook (though Disney denied that). Don’t be surprised to see more of this. MGM will remain a conundrum until it gets acquired by Fox, WB, Sony, Lionsgate or an outside financier. Mary Parent had put together all kinds of interesting pictures. Will they happen?

The biggest “downer” obviously is the steep decline in DVDs, but here’s the question: Are the congloms overreacting to this downturn? In generations past, the studios -- then single-product companies -- expected these ups and downs. Now that the studios are owned by congloms, maybe we’re seeing a case of over-reaction to temporary phenomena.

They might be using it as a way to reinforce frugality, but the DVD downturn is real and has completely changed negotiations. Your observation about temporary phenomena is astute. We’re in a transition phase and once things get sorted, some semblance of reality will return.  

 

The parents of the balloon boy were so avid for publicity that they may face jail time. Some 77-year-old guy named John Scott has been arrested in Los Angeles for scrawling “Who is John Scott?” on walls, graffiti-style, all over town because he’s so desperate for recognition. A neophyte actress-bimbette like Megan Fox is so eager to feed the blogs that she details her fling with a stripper named Nikita and compares her director to Hitler. There are more and more signs of an absurd hunger for celebrity. People crave recognition. They want to join the new cult of trash celebrities who manage somehow to cash in on their name recognition. They want to be paid to appear at mall openings and maybe even have their names on a brand of some kind. Yet we’re witnessing cases where the Lindsay Lohans of the world are being destroyed by their own faux celebrity. They get what they crave and then they can’t handle it.

 

Part of the problem is the saturation of the blog and twitter coverage, and reality TV. My youngest is a big fan of John and Kate Plus Eight, and has learned way more about divorce and philandering spouses than she needed to know. The young stars who crave validation from the press are playing a dangerous game. I thought Lynn Hirschberg’s recent New York Times Magazine profile on Megan Fox was an interesting study in a young woman who tried to get a handle on her sudden stardom by crafting a provocative caricature to hide behind. Fox admitted she invented that lesbian stripper fling story for a men’s magazine profile. That is a shortcut to being considered flaky because the public doesn’t like being lied to, nor do magazines. Fox isn’t the same as pseudo-celebs like Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton, whose celebrity isn’t a byproduct of talent, but who still turned themselves into brands. You are right about Lindsay Lohan becoming a cautionary tale. Once a promising talent who, I recall, had a quote around $8 million a picture after Mean Girls, Lohan now makes headlines when her creep of a father leaks tape of personal conversations to the media. There is a dynamic of dysfunction there that is shockingly sad, the true downside of celebrity culture.

He plays majestic screen figures like God ("Bruce Almighty") and Nelson Mandela (the upcoming Clint Eastwood-directed "Invictus"). Can Morgan Freeman's backing help launch a company trying to infiltrate the digital DVD download business? 

Freeman and Revelations Entertainment partner Lori McCreary have thrown their financial resources and technical expertise behind Digiboo LLC, a new venture that will allow consumers to rent films by plugging in a small, portable USB 3.0 flash drive into kiosks that will be set up at retail outlets beginning in January.

Run by CEO Richard Cohen--former MGM Home Entertainment and Consumer Products president--the L.A.-based Digiboo launches a pilot program in January with Oregon-based Movie Gallery Inc. that will see 100 digital movie kiosks operate in Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery retail stores, with plans to expand into airports, coffeehouses and college campuses.

While Revelations partners Freeman and McCreary are best known for feature film pursuits--she and Revelations are producers of “Invictus"--they have long experimented in hi-tech ventures.

Samuel Edge, the CEO of Digital Revelations, will become Digiboo’s Chief Technology Officer and will be involved day to day in the new venture. Revelations’ last tech venture was the digital movie-store ClickStar, a joint venture between chipmaker Intel and Relevations that launched at a time when consumers might not have been ready for digital downloading.

McCreary and Edge said things are changing. Downloads are speedy and easily played on home entertainment devices. Their involvement in the venture came from continuing dialogue with Intel.

“We were invited by Intel a year ago to help put together a technical strategy to distribute digitally, using USB as the medium,” Edge said. “USB 3.0 is remarkable for its portability, and the ability to walk to a kiosk, and walk away in eight to 15 seconds with a movie in your pocket.”

Digiboo joins Blockbuster on the battleground of this fledgling film rental technology, which eliminates DVDs in favor of downloads that can be played on computers, mobile phones, netbooks, televisions and other home devices.

While Blockbuster reportedly will launch its program using SD cards, Digiboo chose USB 3.0 technology, which the company says are already compatible to computers and can be adapted to other devices with an installed base device. An 8 GB unit holds up to four movies, with rental periods expiring at the end of 3-day windows, and copyright protected by digital rights management technology.

It is inevitable to compare any new video venture to Redbox and its $1.09 per day DVDs that have shaken up Hollywood. 

Digiboo won’t beat that price—Cohen said that price point will vary during the pilot program, but will likely be comparable to the $3.50 to $5.50 that Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery charges for rentals. But Digiboo kiosks will offer more than 1000 movies and TV shows for rental and sale, he said, and the download system eliminates the need for a trip to return a DVD.

“We don’t have any fantasy of knocking Redbox out of the box, because DVDs will remain a successful business for a good long time,” Cohen told Daily Variety. “The marketplace is very big, and there’s room for Redbox, Netflix, Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and us. Each serves a portion of a market that sometimes overlaps. For people who want a $1 a day rental, we’re not the better alternative, but we believe we offer sufficient benefits, including portability, to achieve a meaningful marketshare. Newer televisions are being built with USB ports, and we’re working with a manufacturer on a relatively inexpensive unit that will adapt other televisions. The netbooks that have become so popular won’t ever be able to play DVDs, but they are equipped to handle USB.”  

Aside from his MGM stint, Cohen was CEO of DVD kiosk company TNR Entertainment and also former exec veep in home video for Disney. He formed the company last year with Jeff Karbowiak, Blake Thomas and Eric Villette, who were also senior MGM Home Entertainment executives. Funding, he said, comes from a variety of investors in the U.S. and Europe, and he said that Revelations has become its most prominent investor, with McCreary joining the Digiboo board and Edge playing a key day to day role in the company.

He declined to say if Freeman will use his iconic industry status to help win studios over into supplying their titles to the new venture.

“They bring enormous credibility and intelligence to the company and validate the approach,” said Cohen, who said he’s in ongoing negotiations with studios to supply product, but was confident that the kiosks would be well represented with a wide selection.

“The Mentalist” star Simon Baker and producer Mark Johnson have teamed up to acquire feature rights to the Tim Winton novel “Breath.”

Baker and Johnson will produce together, and Baker plans to play one of the lead roles. They will set a director before setting up funding.

Published in 2008, the novel is set in a small town in Western Australia, where two 16-year old boys take up surfing under the tutelage of an enigmatic surfer named Sando (Baker) and his mysterious wife. Spurred on by their mentor, the boys test the limits of courage and recklessness both on the water and off as they try to escape their mundane lives.

Winton, one of Australia’s top authors, won the Miles Franklin Award for the book, the fourth time he’s won the honor. His 2001 novel “Dirt Music,” is being turned into a film by Phillip Noyce, and “Cloudstreet” is being turned into a miniseries by Screentime.

Johnson and Baker first teamed on the CBS legal drama “The Guardian.” Baker, who has been surfing the waters off Australia since childhood, was last seen on the big screen in “The Devil Wears Prada” and next stars in “The Killer Inside Me,” the Michael Winterbottom-directed adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel.

“Winton’s book beautifully captures the excitement and brutality of growing up in a way I’ve only experienced but have never been able to articulate,” Baker said.

Johnson is no stranger to Australia, as he has been camped there while producing the third installment of “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the third installment of the Chronicles of Narnia series for Fox 2000 and Walden Media. He also wrapped the remake of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” in Melbourne for Miramax, with Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes starring. Johnson produced the latter with Guillermo del Toro.

“While `Breath’ is at its heart a coming of age story, I see it primarily as a celebration of teenage anarchy and a youthful rejection of anything that smacks of the ordinary,” Johnson said. “It reminds me of a uniquely Australian version of `Y Tu Mama Tambien,’ one of my favorite films of the past dozen years.”

IPG and Jenny Darling & Associates repped Winton.

Veteran UTA talent agents Billy Lazarus and Shani Rosenzweig have been promoted to partner status. 

The elevation of Rosenzweig and Lazarus pushes the number of partners to 23 at UTA. Other partners from the talent department are Jim Berkus, Tracey Jacobs, Theresa Peters and David Guillod.

Lazarus, who started in casting and later ran the Gotham office for Huvane Baum Halls PR firm, joined UTA in 1999.

His client list includes Elizabeth Banks, Patrick Dempsey, Sigourney Weaver, Joseph Fiennes, Michael Pitt, Kyra Sedgwick, Hope Davis, Anna Friel, Sandra Oh, Nicholas Hoult, Alice Eve and Emily Watson.

Rosenzweig joined the agent in 2000 and got her start at Abrams Artists, where she began her career in 1994.

Her client list includes Paul Rudd, Jason Bateman, Tim Robbins, Vincent D’Onofrio, Josh Peck, Michelle Rodriguez, William Petersen, Taylor Momsen, Wilmer Valderrama, Danielle Panabaker, Jesse Bradford, Josh Lawson, Nathan Fillion, Michael Keaton, Alicia Silverstone, Geoff Stults, Chi McBride and Michael Angarano.

“Billy and Shani have all the exceptional qualities that have made them great agents and great colleagues,” said UTA’s Head of Talent Tracey Jacobs. “Individually, they have played major roles in helping the agency to flourish, and we value the passion, integrity and commitment that they have brought to UTA over the past 10 years and will continue to bring as partners.”

Aside from the six partners from talent, UTA’s other partners are Peter Benedek, David Kramer, Jay Sures, Jeremy Zimmer, Jeremy Barber, Michael Camacho, Andrew Cannava, Dan Erlij, Wayne Fitterman, Lisa Jacobson, Rich Klubeck, Blair Kohan, Steve Rabineau, Matt Rice, Larry Salz, Howard Sanders and Julien Thuan.

By Peter Bart and Michael Fleming

CBS Films has made a three-year deal with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group for offshore marketing and theatrical distribution, and worldwide video distribution.  Deal comes as the label prepares to launch its inaugural slate. 

The company was launched by CBS Corp. in 2007 with former Colpix senior exec Amy Baer at the helm and a plan to generate four to six films per year. The label kicks off with the Jan. 22 release of the Tom Vaughan-directed “Extraordinary Measures,” an inspirational fact-based story that stars Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell.

Next up is “The Back-Up Plan,” the Alan Poul-directed romantic comedy that stars Jennifer Lopez and Alex O’Loughlin and will be released next spring, followed by the Vanessa Hudgens-Alex Pettyfer-starrer “Beastly,” which bows July 30. The label is teamed with Sony on “Faster,” the George Tillman Jr.-directed action thriller that will star Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton. Production begins January, and the film will be released fall, 2010. CBS Films will distribute its own films domestically. 

The distribution deal--brokered by Peter Schlessel, president of Worldwide Affairs for Sony and Worldwide Marketing and Distribution chief Jeff Blake—keeps the Sony overseas pipeline primed with even more fresh product. 

Deal comes after Sony announced that the opening of the Roland Emmerich-directed “2012” put it over the top for its best ever international box office year, with offshore ticket sales now north of $1.63 billion. That broke the studio's 2006 record.

The expectation might have been for CBS Films to pact with Paramount, but those companies were split by Sumner Redstone into Viacom and CBS Corp. five years ago, and sources said that Sony offered a better deal to CBS Films.

Pact becomes another coup for Sony’s WW Acquisitions Group, which has scored several of them recently. That includes the output deal with Graham King’s GK Films, which begins with the Angelina Jolie-Johnny Depp-starrer “The Tourist.” Sony’s Worldwide Acquisitions Group--overseen by prexy Steven Bersch and Schlessel--also was integral in bringing in the Neill Blomkamp-directed sleeper hit “District 9” and the Michael Jackson docu-concert film “This Is It,” which just passed the $200 million mark in global gross. Before that, the division sealed rights to certain offshore territories on “Terminator Salvation.” The film has grossed $247 million overseas, $220 million of which came from Sony-distributed territories.

Jennifer Hudson, the former American Idol contestant who won the oscar in her first screen role in "Dreamgirls," is ready for her next challenge. Hudson will star in “Winnie,” a drama that casts her as the former wife of South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela.

Hudson will play Winnie Mandela in a film that begins production May 30 in the South African locations of Johannesburg, Capt Town, and the Transkei and Robben Island where the future president spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.

“Winnie” will be directed by Darrell J. Roodt, the veteran South African filmmaker whose 2006 film “Yesterday” was Africa’s Best Foreign Film nominee, and who also directed “Cry, The Beloved Country,” and “Sarafina!”

Andre Pieterse, Roodt and Paul L. Johnson wrote a script based on the Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob biography “Winnie Mandela:A Life.”

Picture is being made with South African and Canadian money, with Pieterse producing with Michael Mosca of Canada’s Equinoxe Films.

While Nelson Mandela—who’ll be played by Morgan Freeman in the Clint Eastwood-directed “Invictus”-- is a universally sympathetic figure for his struggle against apartheid, his former wife is a far more complicated figure. She has been depicted as the mother and wife who was a steadfast supporter of her activist husband and who was jailed herself for campaigning for his release and fighting against apartheid. Her image was subsequently tarnished by association with a bodyguard who murdered a 14-year old alleged informer, and she was later convicted of fraud.  

The filmmakers will tell the whole story, good and bad.

“I was compelled and moved when I read the script,” Hudson said. “Winnie Mandela is a complex and extraordinary woman and I’m honored to be the actress asked to portray her. This is a powerful part of history that should be told.”

Hudson, who is expected to sing the film’s theme song, followed her screen debut with “The Secret Life of Bees” and “Sex in the City.” After releasing a Grammy-winning self-titled debut album earlier this year, Hudson is in the studio recording a follow-up, and then will begin preparing for the role. She also stars in “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” an ABC holiday special to be broadcast  December 14  

Hudson is repped by WME and Azoff Management.

Universal Pictures is near a deal with Carl Eric Rinsch to make his feature directing debut on “47 Ronin,” the epic period samurai swordsmen tale that will star Keanu Reeves.

Scott Stuber is producing through his Stuber Pictures banner, with Pam Abdy also aboard in a producing capacity. 

Pic is a priority project for Universal, and it is unusual to see a first timer entrusted to helm a film with a large budget and tent pole aspirations.

Rinsch, who shoots commercials for RSA, has been on Hollywood’s radar. RSA-owners Ridley and Tony Scott previously had discussions with Rinsch to direct a prequel to “Aliens,” until Ridley Scott decided to return to the franchise he launched. 

Rinsch is known for shooting visual and stylish blurbs for Mercedes, Sprite, BMW, Heineken and others.

In the Chris Morgan-scripted actioner, “47 Ronin” tells the famous fact-based story of a band of samurai swordsmen who avenge the death of their master in 18th Century Japan. The script was tailored by Morgan (“Wanted”) so that the half-Asian Reeves can play one of the swordsmen. The picture mixes the fantastical elements of films like “The Lord of the Rings” with battle scenes on the order of “Gladiator” and “300.”

Walter Hamada and Chris Fenton are exec producers, along with Erwin Stoff.

Rinsch is repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

“Thor” helmer Kenneth Branagh has locked Stuart Townsend, Ray Stevenson, and Tadanobu Asano to play Warrior’s Three, a trio of Asgardian adventurers who fight alongside the Norse god in the Marvel Entertainment drama.

Townsend, who last wrote and directed “Battle in Seattle,” plays Fandral, a character which was drawn in the comic book series based on Errol Flynn and his movies. Stevenson, the “Rome” star, plays Volstagg the Valiant, a hard-living brawler, a character inspired by Falstaff. Asano, best known for starring in “Mongol,” plays Hogun the Grim, the third warrior and traveling companion of the hammer-swinging Thor, who is played by Chris Hemsworth.

Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston and Natalie Portman also star in a pic scripted by Mark Protosevich and Zack Stentz. Paramount Pictures releases the film May 20, 2011.

Stevenson, who’ll next be seen starring with Denzel Washington in “Book of Eli,” is currently shooting the Adam McKay-directed “The Other Guys” with Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell. He’s repped by WME, Townsend by UTA and Asano by CAA.