On Super Bowl weekend, Hollywood leaves the boxoffice to the girls. Thus it's a 3D Hannah Montana concert movies vs. Jessica Alba in The Eye this weekend.

From January 30 through February 29th, MySpace Film members who submit their horror shorts via the Diary of the Dead MySpace profile can try to win a spot on George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead DVD. Visitors to the Diary of the Dead MySpace profile can vote for their favorite short films; the top ten will be judged by Romero, who will pick the five best for inclusion on the DVD. (The film, which was reviewed out of Toronto, hits theaters on February 15.)

Here's the Diary of the Dead trailer.

Here's the one-sheet for the upcoming comedy Religulous, which has been described as "the nonfiction film about the greatest fiction ever told." This anti-religious interview doc springs from the fevered brows of producer-star Bill Maher and director Larry Charles. Lionsgate opens it in NYC and LA on June 20 and nationwide on July 2.

Statements from filmmakers Bill Maher and Larry Charles are on the jump:

Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International are partnering for the third year in a row to screen the ten Oscar-nominated short films (live-action and animated) in U.S. theatres on February 15th prior to the 80th Academy Awards ceremony on February 24.

The Oscar Shorts program will open in about 50 cities on February 15 and will expand in the following weeks. This year’s Oscar Shorts program will also be digitally shown by co-sponsor RAIN Network.

The nominated Live Action Shorts are:

AT NIGHT; Denmark, Oscar Nominees: Christian E. Christiansen & Louise Vesth. Three young women share their problems while spending the holidays in a hospital cancer ward.

IL SUPPLENTE (THE SUBSTITUTE); Italy, Oscar Nominee: Andrea Jublin. The arrival of an unusual newcomer galvanizes the students in a high school classroom.

LE MOZART DES PICKPOCKETS (THE MOZART OF PICKPOCKETS); France, Oscar Nominee: Philippe Pollet-Villard. A pair of unlucky thieves find their fortunes have changed when they take in a deaf homeless boy.

TANGHI ARGENTINI; Belgium, Oscar Nominees: Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans. A man who must learn to dance the tango in two weeks asks an office colleague for help.

THE TONTO WOMAN; United Kingdom, Oscar Nominees: Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown. A cattle rustler meets a woman who is living in isolation after being held prisoner for eleven years by the Mojave Indians.

The nominated Animated Shorts are:

I MET THE WALRUS; Canada, Oscar Nominee: Josh Raskin. In 1969, fourteen-year-old Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room with his tape recorder and persuaded him to do an interview.

MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI; Canada, Oscar Nominees: Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. A timid woman boards a mysterious night train and has a series of frightening experiences.

MEME LES PIGEONS VONT AU PARADIS (EVEN PIGEONS GO TO HEAVEN); France, Oscar® Nominees: Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse. A priest tries to sell an old man a machine that he promises will transport him to heaven.

MY LOVE (MOYA LYUBOV); Russia, Oscar Nominee: Alexander Petrov. In nineteenth-century Russia, a teenage boy in search of love is drawn to two very different women.

PETER & THE WOLF; United Kingdom & Poland, Oscar Nominees: Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman. A young boy and his animal friends face a hungry wolf in Prokofiev's classic musical piece.

For a complete list of opening cities and theatres, visit Magpictures.com.

Trusted Opinion, the free online community where users make social recommendations on movies, DVDs, and TV shows, has posted its list of top-ranked 2007 movies, as ranked by its 500,000 members. Trusted Opinion's users range across 150 countries, with top-ranking movies skewing differently than movies ranked by U.S. residents. They tend to be younger; 83 % are under 34.

1
Freedom Writers
The Bourne Ultimatum

2
American Gangster
Hitman

3
I Am Legend
Live Free or Die Hard

4
Pirates of the Caribbean 3
In the Land of Women

5
High School Musical 2
Pirates of the Caribbean 3

6
Ratatouille
Superbad

7
California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit)
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

8
4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile
The Simpsons Movie

9
Stomp the Yard
I Am Legend

10
88 Minutes
American Gangster

Trusted Opinion's most popular films of 2007 based on the most ratings:

1. Pirates of the Caribbean 3

2. Spider-Man 3

3. Shrek the Third

4. Ghost Rider

5. Bridge to Terabithia

6. Transformers

7. Live Free or Die Hard

8. Ratatouille

9. Next

10. The Bourne Ultimatum

Trusted Opinion’s platform also drives recommendations and interest in movies from back-catalogs:

Here's a documentary interview with Watchmen and V for Vendetta creator Alan Moore. Very cool.

After just eight weeks in release, Juno is the first Fox Searchlight movie to cross the magic $100 million milestone. The previous record, $71.5 million, was set by Sideways in 2004. Juno is also the first platformed Searchlight movie to go into such wide release in 2534 situations. Juno has been among the top ten highest grossing movies for six consecutive weekends.

That this particular movie is doing so well is not a surprise, given its entertainment value ; it plays like a broad family comedy. And obviously, Searchlight mounted a canny marketing campaign; now that the pic has four Oscar noms, it's a must-see. And the Oscar noms clearly fed the Juno soundtrack's climb up the Billboard charts. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart.

What will Warners do to market Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight in the wake of Heath Ledger's death? After all, the studio was already rolling out the first phase of the campaign, focused on Ledger's The Joker. The studio will now have to shift focus to phase two: Aaron Eckhart as district attorney Harvey Dent/Two Face.

This tricky wicket would be daunting for any studio to confront, but it will prove especially challenging for the new WB marketing team under Jeffrey Robinov's leadership. Yes, moviegoers will want to check out Ledger's performance. But Warners has to tread very carefully in how they sell, promote and try not to exploit Ledger's role. Any misstep over the line could be very harmful. Here's Kim Master's story in Slate on this issue.

I've never read Paste magazine, but nonetheless they're already publishing their third Annual Art Powerhouse 100, which "celebrates those who make the independent film industry possible." The list is pretty predictable. It would make more sense to do this a tad earlier, when the list might have some influence on the awards season. It now seems somewhat after the fact.

PASTE Magazine’s 3rd Annual Art House Powerhouse 100
Our Favorite Actors
Viggo Mortensen
Laura Linney
Forest Whitaker
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Naomi Watts
Cate Blanchett
Evan Rachel Wood
Natalie Portman
Don Cheadle
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Juliette Binoche
Daniel Day-Lewis
Josh Brolin
Christian Bale
Cillian Murphy
Parker Posey
Jack Black
Ryan Gosling
Nicole Kidman
Javier Bardem
Jake Gyllenhaal
Johnny Depp
Ellen Page
Casey Affleck
Emile Hirsch
Paul Dano
Jason Schwartzman

More Paste favorites on the jump:

It's not official until the SXSW line-up is announced February 5, but word is, Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss will play the fest. Paramount and producer Scott Rudin must feel that debuting a film in Austin is a good-luck charm: PTA's There Will be Blood drew its first raves after it snuck into the Fantastic Fest in Austin. Last year, Judd Apatow's Knocked Up came out of SXSW (which runs this year from March 7 - 15) with plenty of strong buzz.

In other news, Stop-Loss star Channing Tatum will play Duke in Par's upcoming G.I. Joe.

The Weinstein Co. has acquired another Woody Allen film--despite the meager returns so far on Cassandra's Dreams. (Here's Variety's story.) No Country for Old Men Oscar nominee Javier Bardem talks about his role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona here.

UPDATE: There's much Internet debate on the pic's title, which does seem like a mouthful.

The full release is on the jump.

According to MovieTickets.com, the 3D chick flick concert movie Hannah Montana, starring Miley Cyrus, has broken into their top ten list of advance pre-release ticket sales:

1. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

4. The Matrix Reloaded

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

7. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

8. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour

9. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

UPDATE: The movie ticketing service Fandango reports a similar pattern: Hannah currently accounts for 91% of all ticket sales, with over 1000 sold-out shows during prime-time hours. "It’s the best-selling concert movie in Fandango’s seven-year history," writes spokesman Harry Medved. Exhibitors are adding extra Thursday midnight shows and Friday morning shows (as early as 8:00 a.m.).

Fandango Five – Ticket Sales (as of 1/30/08 10:00 a.m. PT)

Movie Fandango User Rating % Fandango Sales

Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert “Go” 91%

U2 3D “Must Go” 2%

Rambo "Go" >1%

Cloverfield “Go” >1%

27 Dresses “Go” >1%

Here are some more Sundance wrap-ups:

Critic B. Ruby Rich in The Guardian.

John Clark on docs at Premiere.com.

Kim Voynar on Sundance women at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

It's not a good time to be the editor of a newspaper trying to ride the winds of change in the print media business. My daughter, 18, doesn't read newspapers at all. Neither do any of the students in my USC film criticism course. They read, of course--whether it's Rolling Stone or Rotten Tomatoes-- online.

For those folks who were hoping the Oscar song category might open up by one, the song Falling Slowly from Once is officially eligible.

The Academy release is on the jump:

Director Terry Gilliam was close to Heath Ledger, who starred in his Brothers Grimm. But now he has to figure out how to finish The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus without Ledger. Has anyone been more plagued by bad-luck movie gods than Gilliam? There was the Don Quixote movie that never got made; the ill-fated Adventures of Baron Munchausen; Brothers Grimm; and Brazil (which inspired an entire book, The Battle of Brazil).

According to People, Gilliam is trying to figure out a way to keep Dr. Parnassus going, but reports of Johnny Depp (who starred in Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) stepping in appear to be premature, as he is committed to filming a Michael Mann movie, Public Enemies.

Sundance juror Quentin Tarantino, looking a bit the worse for wear, was none too pleased when a paparazzi video camera started shooting him without asking. Tarantino got a bit rough with the guy, then realized the thing would inevitably wind up on YouTube. My sympathies are with Tarantino, who had probably been up late the night before, and was putting in a grueling schedule watching not only the competition films but other stuff he wanted to see, like George Romero's Diary of the Dead. And he was just getting his first sip of morning coffee.

On the other hand: Men!

[Hat tip:Hollywood Elsewhere]

Roger Ebert is "reportedly doing very well indeed," writes RogerEbert.com webmaster Jim Emerson, who spoke to Ebert's wife Chaz: "He came out of surgery smiling. He's cancer-free, so this last one was some kind of reconstructive work with the goal of restoring his voice at last!"

Liberty chief John Malone is trying to oust long time business partner Barry Diller from the IAC Board, reports Jill Goldsmith, Marketwatch, and Businessweek.

We hung out at many film fests and ShoWest confabs in Vegas. He's one of the good ones who spent time in L.A. as a beat reporter before becoming a critic, so he gets it. His book about Terry Gilliam, The Battle of Brazil, proves that. So I look forward to his next. Have fun writing books, Jack.

Jonathan Dana, who has run indie companies (Atlantic Releasing and Triton) and produced movies as well as repping and selling and consulting, emailed me a smart theory about the surfeit of Sundance acquisition titles this year, many of which remain unsold at fest's end. Here it is:

The so-called "dumb-money" has started to hit the screens.

The indie market now is split into three basic sections. At the top are the studio specialty divisions and their functional equivalents. They have done pretty well for the most part, it turns out, driven in most cases by experienced hands, sophisticated in co-production, and with enough checks and balances to keep themselves on track, yet with enough independence to take some chances (with distribution assured) and deep enough pockets to shrug off the misses.

At the "bottom" are the "out-of-left-field" indies, always ready to surprise with new talent and enough passion to deliver 1000 newbies a year into the festival vortex. These are always longshots, and I think the batting average for these films has remained steady...occasionally one breaks through, like grass through concrete. No one expects more, and everyone relishes the surprise success of a "Once" or similar classic Sundance miracle. Kind of like the old days. And in the middle are the bigger indies made on spec, without distribution in advance.

There are several subcategories of these middle-ground pictures, and many are made by careful professionals looking to make their films with a minimum of interference and yet with a careful eye on the various sectors of the market that can lead to success, both critically and commercially. But into this arena has recently poured the oft-mentioned deluge of new money, generated from a variety of sources in amounts sufficient to slosh around loosely, connecting itself often to legitimately hungry agencies or producers, often well-meaning, but with a bias towards "getting the deal done" with fewer check and balances than the traditional route, and with standards different, perhaps lesser, than for the others playing in this pricier end of the pool.

Chris Nolan tributes his Dark Knight star Heath Ledger in Newsweek.

One night, as I'm standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for "The Dark Knight," a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I'd fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you'd asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn't know. That's real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That's what Heath had.

Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren't many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.

The LAT's Reed Johnson did a nice job on Ledger as well, placing him in the context of vulnerable male actors. He's right: Ledger will inevitably be compared to James Dean. UPDATE: Here's a photo gallery in VF.

And here's Daniel Day Lewis from the SAG Awards, which made me cry:

The Bagger is reporting that yet another music nominee, the Once song Falling Slowly, may get the Academy hatchet for ineligibility. (It would follow Jonny Greenwood and Eddie Vedder's music for There Will be Blood and Into the Wild, respectively.) I was pegging Once for the best song Oscar. It looks to me like the song should be eligible, even if it came out on CD and appeared in a short movie before Once. It was still written for the film (other songs in the film were not). There are plenty of folks vested in hoping the song gets cut, among them producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who are crossing their fingers that their Hairspray song is next on the list.

I know, we're well into 2008 here, but during this season of Academy craziness, I got a kick out of reading NYT DVD critic Dave Kehr's year-end wrap story.

The picture of a beautiful pregnant woman, Cate Blanchett graciously submitted to the Santa Barbara red carpet treatment Saturday night, answering Leonard Maltin's gentle questions and accepting the Fest's Modern Master Award from I'm Not There director Todd Haynes. She thanked her fellow Aussies Judy Davis, Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths and Russell Crowe. And she offered a "special tribute to Heath Ledger, who was well on his way to being a master."

"I get to be a jack of all trades and master of none," she told Maltin.

After a thorough grounding in Sydney and London theater, where Blanchett has played Ophelia in Hamlet and starred in David Mamet's Oleanna, among other roles, Blanchett took on her first film part at age 26. It's hard to believe she's only been working in film for 11 years. She is now working on her third child with theater and film writer-director Andrew Upton; her others are age three and six. "There's no time to hang on to anything," she said. "Making a baby is quite fun."

The difference between shooting the first Elizabeth and the second was "age," she said. "I'm more mature." She remembered watching Ralph Fiennes on Oscar and Lucinda just "switch it on and off." Now she can do that too. She defends her right to do small roles in many movies, which she enjoys, as well as taking advantage of all the chances for travel that her work offers her. If Peter Jackson was asking her to star in a movie, that was all she needed to know.

When Maltin said it was hard to believe she was a woman as Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, she responded, "It was the sock in my pants."

In Steven Spielberg's Indy 4, she enjoyed playing agent Irina Spalko, a Russian "baddie," she says. Walking onto the set of the familiar Indy universe with Spielberg setting up a shot was like "a Zelig moment for me," she said. "He's one of the most energized people I've ever met in my life," she said. "He has a childlike fascination with storytelling. He's still bewitched by actors." It's easy to see why.

I went to Santa Barbara--rainy again, like last year--to recover from Sundance. At Patrick Goldstein's thoughtful producers' panel, Jim Brooks admitted that The Simpsons Movie was his first time being part of "an event movie where the studio is supporting you," he said. "On my other films I was always going against the wind. It made me depressed about all my past experiences. All the producers were also working on the script, the way we do the TV show as well. The big deal is to believe that in order to do the picture, if you're directing and writing it, you have to have some true temporary insanity that makes you believe that it's the most important thing in the world, you'll die if it isn't going to work. As close as a producer gets to that mindset is how valuable you can be to the person making the film."

Clearly with Daniel Lupi, Paul Thomas Anderson is always calling the shots. He said his job was mostly about keeping PTA on budget. "Studios have very little to say if you stay financially on track," Lupi said. If they got into arguments, his wife JoAnne Sellar was there too. "There's three of us. If Paul doesn't talk to me he talks to her." He also plans Anderson's penchant for reshooting scenes into the budget.

Lianne Halfon praised Juno director Ivan Reitman for being "well-trained" after 30 shorts. He still works with the same crew he's had since high school and college, she said. If anything he's so used to shooting on the fly, she had to slow him down and tell him to take more time. The opening titles were done by some pals of Reitman's he knew from short fests. They had two ideas, one to shoot Juno in the chair in different locales, and the animated sequence they did shoot, which went on longer and was cut.

Neil Meron and Craig Zadan were in a long line of producers pitching New Line Cinema on why they should produce Hairspray. (Meron was just back from a happy debut of TV movie Raisin in the Sun at Sundance, while Zadan had been touring Europe with 70-year-old rake Jack Nicholson for Bucket List.) They pitched John Travolta for the mom role. And got the job because they were so passionate about it. Then they didn't land him for 14 months. He was afraid he'd not look like a woman. But he came around.

Similarly, PTA wrote TWWB for Daniel Day-Lewis, but through 9 months of raising financing, kept sending him old photos and articles and tapes to keep him interested; the long courtship process was eventually successful. "The film came out exactly as he wanted it," said Lupi. "He didn't shift it." He admitted though that the last scene in the bowling alley was different in execution to the way it read on the page. And that Jonny Greenwood's score was a radical departure for the film.

The NYT and Variety posted the SAG winners as they came in.

A list of film winners of the 14th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards:
Movies:
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood."
Actress: Julie Christie, "Away From Her."
Supporting actor: Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men."
Supporting actress: Ruby Dee, "American Gangster."
Cast: "No Country for Old Men."
Stunt ensemble: "The Bourne Ultimatum."

Here are the Gurus 'O Gold's latest Oscar picks.

The Coen brothers won the DGA's top prize Saturday night. I suspect No Country for Old Men will also win the SAG ensemble award tonight on its way to a Best Picture Oscar win. Yes, There Will Be Blood will be formidable competition.

There Will Be Blood cinematographer Robert Elswit won the top prize from the ASC this weekend, but even he admitted that Roger Deakins being nommed for two pics probably split the vote.

Here's an MP3 of the Coens winning their prize Saturday, via The Envelope's Tom O'Neill.

The spoof Meet the Spartans and Sly Stallone's reworking of Rambo led the weekend boxoffice. Chick flick 27 Dresses beat Cloverfield, which took a second weekend dip.

Sony Pictures Classics closed a deal Saturday to buy North American rights to Jonathan Levine's The Wackness for less than $2 million. The coming-of-age story about a teenage drug dealer (Josh Peck) who sells dope to his shrink (Ben Kingsley) in exchange for psychological advice was in the Sundance dramatic competition. CAA sold the film, which as expected won the dramatic audience award at Sundance Saturday night. SPE has already acquired fest pics Frozen River and the Duplass brothers' Baghead. SPC won over the filmmakers and nabbed the pic for less than others, including Weinstein Co, Netflix and Samuel Goldwyn Co., had offered.

Some folks seem to have an issue with SPC distributing Wackness:
Film School Rejects
Slashfilm
First Showing

Todd McCarthy reports on the Sundance Awards. Here's the LAT's Ken Turan. Mike Jones lists the Winners on the jump:

The Onion's AV Club reveals the lousy track record of quite a few major stars.

I love Michael Moore's emails. The guy can write. And he's an old Hollywood Democrat like me.

"Sicko" Gets the Oscar High-Five ...a note from Michael Moore

January 25, 2008

Friends,

I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know (if you didn't already) the good news that "Sicko" has been nominated for this year's Academy Award for Best Documentary. It was a pleasant surprise when we got the news on Tuesday.

Of course, every reporter who's called me in the past few days wanted to know if I plan on giving an "anti-war" or "anti-Bush" speech, should "Sicko" win, as I did when we won the Oscar for "Bowling for Columbine" in 2003. (As you may recall, it was the 5th day of the war when those Oscars were held, and I said from the stage that, while I enjoy making nonfiction films, we live in fictitious times with a man of fiction in the White House. A ruckus ensued with a loud roar of cheers and boos, then someone cued the band to get me off the stage. As host Steve Martin said a few moments later, Teamsters were out back loading me into the trunk of a car.)

Well it's five years later and we are still at war. But there's no booing these days. 65% of the public is now opposed to the war and to Mr. Bush. The Academy, instead of cutting off the microphone, now nominates anti-war films for Best Documentary. That's right, three of the five nominees this year are Iraq War films!

I am very honored to be in this group of documentaries, three of which I brought last summer to our film festival in northern Michigan. "Taxi to the Dark Side" is a brutal examination of U.S. torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Operation Homecoming" has actors reading letters from soldiers in Iraq. "No End in Sight" has ex-Bush administration officials admitting how they messed up the occupation, lamenting how things would have been so much better if only Bush had put people in Baghdad who knew what they were doing (and wouldn't we all have loved to see THAT? Hahaha). And "War/Dance" tells the moving story of kids in a dance competition in war-torn Africa. A diverse group of films, and proof that nonfiction movies are stronger than ever.

[Wireimage photo of Moore on the Cannes red carpet]

Variety's Todd McCarthy saw a lot of films at Sundance about people using drugs.

Ten days after Hurricane Katrina, documentary filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal were all set to shoot a film about National Guard troops being redeployed more than 7000 miles from Iraq to New Orleans to cope with the storm’s aftermath. Then the duo got shut down—thanks to their credits on Fahrenheit 9/11.

But thanks to years of training with Michael Moore, Lessin and Deal weren’t going to take no for an answer. “We didn’t set out to make any particular doc,” says Deal. “We wanted to find a different story of Katrina that wasn’t the one filtering through news media and newsrooms.”

They found a doozy. (UPDATE: Trouble the Water won the doc jury prize at Sundance.)

When the duo wandered across the street to a Red Cross shelter with their cameras to interview some of the refugees from the storm, Kimberly Rivers Roberts walked into the frame and told them that they really needed to see the video she had shot during Katrina. “Kimberly and Scott wanted to get the word out there, and didn’t know how to do it,” says Deal. “They were thinking bigger than local TV crews.”

Skeptical, Deal and Lessin checked out Roberts’ footage on the little Sony Hi-8 camcorder that she had bought on the street for $20 the week before the storm, planning to use it for birthday parties and reunions. Stuck in town as the storm approached, Roberts chronicled her Lower 9th Ward neighborhood in the hours before the hurricane hit. Other poor folks with no way to leave town were also left behind. The city of New Orleans had ordered an evacuation, but sent no buses to ferry the neediest residents out of the area.

Roberts stocked up on supplies, sold a bit of weed, and continued shooting and narrating throughout the ordeal of the storm: the rising floodwaters, the 12 neighbors who joined them in their attic crawlspace, and the daring rescue from a neighbor across the street, who used a punching bag as a flotation device to ferry people over to a bigger house with a second story, one by one. These people knew they were in danger of losing their lives.

Days after the storm was over and the flood had receded, the Scotts were feeding their neighbors from their dwindling stockpile and there was still no sign of rescue. So Kimberly and husband Scott commandeered a truck, piled their neighbors into it and drove out of town. They saved 25 people. As they were on their way out of New Orleans, the National Guard was coming in.

One emerging trend at Sundance 2008 was the burgeoning number of media outlets supplying online video interviews from the fest, from EW and the LAT to UCLA and AMC. We did it too. Here's a sampling: AMC has Peter Guber and Peter Bart talking to Barry Levinson, director of What Just Happened, and UCLA interviews Sundance vets and Little Miss Sunshine producers Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger, executive producers of yet another $10-million sale, the backstage comedy Hamlet 2.

Still in Park City, Winter Miller, Variety's new New York-based indie reporter, has broken the following Sundance news:

In a deal negotiated very early this morning, the film "Baghead," directed and produced by brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, sold North American rights for mid to high six figures to Sony Pictures Classics. The sales rep was Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment. "Baghead" is a comedy about four actor-writers desperate to launch their careers who spend a weekend brainstorming a script, a process derailed by their mutual attraction--or lack thereof. The Duplass brothers' 2006 "The Puffy Chair" (Sundance 2005) was distribbed by Red Envelope Entertainment and Roadside Attractions.

Upcoming on NPR's All Things Considered this afternoon, Kim Masters' interview with SPC's Tom Bernard on what's wrong with Sundance. And here's a story about SPC recruiting a college class to scout movies for them at Sundance. UPDATE: Here's Manohla Dargis's upbeat NYT Sundance wrap; she raves about Sugar, Ballast and Momma's Man.

Tatiana Siegel reports on all the Sundance deals that aren't happening.

And here's my weekly column on same.

[Photo of Sundance Fest director Geoff Gilmore from NYT]

Here's Variety's weekend boxoffice preview. Here's Variety's Rambo review.

Gawker's reposted that Tom Cruise Scientology indoctrination video that was taken off the Internet some time back. It's fascinating to see how strongly Cruise feels about his mission in life. He's a Good Samaritan on one hand, but on the other he knows better than everyone else.

Tom O'Neill analyzes the LAT Buzzmeter pollsters' picks for the Oscar noms. it depresses me that I abandoned my early picks for Atonement and Laura Linney, although I did predict that she had a shot in other publications. I came in third in my Oscar noms predicts poll at work.

I confess to being fond of The Bagger (who has returned to his native habitat) because he writes so beautifully. It's ok if he doesn't accurately nail the Sundance sales zeitgeist. Leave that to the trades. Observing things so well is just fine.

UPDATE: Also doing a terrific job of covering Sundance are Andrew O'Hehir of Salon, Cinematical's Kim Voynar, Spout, GreenCine, the NY Post's Lou Lumenick, The Oregonian's Shawn Levy, EW, the LAT, Filmmaker, and Premiere's Glenn Kenny.

Over the past week at Sundance I neither got enough sleep nor saw nearly enough movies, as I kept track of the fitful rounds of fest buys and denials of buys--believe me, it takes just as much time. And I'm jealous that The Bagger got to see Patti Smith. (I'll have to hang on to my youthful memories of CBGB.) And I left before a dinner for the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young doc. Wonder who will show?

I too am back home, utterly fried, arms aching from ergonomically-incorrect computer-shackled overuse, but feeling grateful that I am not ill, like the hacking coughers on my late-night Southwest flight, as well as Sundance bloggers Jeff Wells and Mike Jones.

Of the dozen films I did see, here are the top five:

1. Trouble the Water-doc
2. Sunshine Cleaning-feature dramedy
3. Young@Heart-doc (at LAFF)
4. Gonzo: the Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson-doc
5. U2 3D- music doc

Enjoyable, but not great:
6. In Bruges-feature comedy
7. What Just Happened? -feature comedy
8. Savage Grace (Cannes)- feature drama
9. The Guitar (a guilty pleasure)-feature drama
10. CSNY Deja Vu -music doc

Not my cup of tea:
11. The Great Buck Howard-feature comedy
12. Nerakhoon-doc
13. The Wackness - feature dramedy
14. Smart People - feature dramedy

Ones I wish I'd seen that had great fest buzz: The Polanski doc; big buy Hamlet 2, which looked like fun; Ballast, a breakthrough for director Lance Hammer; the German-language The Wave; Sugar, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s portrait of a Dominican baseball player; Birds of America, which one buyer compared to Junebug; the prison thriller The Escapist; Daniel Barnz's drama Phoebe in Wonderland; the Russian-language Mermaid; the erotic Spanish-language art film Mancora; the psychological thriller The Broken; the Iraq home-front drama American Son; the experimental Spanish-language sci-fi flick Sleep Dealer; the digital domestic drama Frozen River (which Sony Pictures Classics acquired Wednesday); and the docs Anvil and Stranded.

Next stop tomorrow: Santa Barbara, where I will report on my annual screenwriters' panel Saturday. Diablo Cody is expected.

Having not acquired American Teen, Sony Pictures Classics swiftly picked up another fest fave rave, the tiny emotion-packed Frozen River, which some compare to the work of the Dardennes brothers.

Critic Pete Hammond is leaving Maxim, reports Hollywood Wiretap.

Here's an update on the Heath Ledger autopsy report. Warner Bros. is still trying to come to grips not only with his death, but how to proceed on finishing and marketing The Dark Knight (below). He was in the midst of filming Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (right). Ledger had starred in Gilliam's Brothers Grimm. UPDATE: Glenn Kenny's eulogy.

Finally, the long-in-the-works American Teen deal went down late Tuesday night, marking the fourth movie to sell in two days. Paramount Vantage acquired all world rights (excluding the U.K.) for $2.5 $1 million to Nanette Burstein's Indiana high school cinema verite doc. After the A & E Indie Films documentary screened Friday night, Fox Searchlight made a bid which later expired; Sony Pictures Classics also pursued but pulled out Tuesday afternoon, leaving the pic to Vantage, which is promising a significant P & A commitment. Sellers were Cinetic and CAA. Here's the American Teen website.

Other films to sell Monday and Tuesday include Hamlet 2 (Focus Features), Choke (Searchlight) and Henry Poole is Here (Overture). Here's our deal-round-up.

Heath Ledger was found dead in his SoHo apartment, Tuesday, surrounded by pills. It may not be a suicide. He was 28.

NEW YORK (AP) — Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence in a possible drug-related death, police said. He was 28.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment believed to be his home. The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there found him dead at 3:26 p.m.

The Australian-born actor was an Oscar nominee for his role in "Brokeback Mountain" and has numerous other screen credits.

How horrible. Sad. Regrettable. Ledger was just moving into the height of his powers. His work in the trailer to Dark Knight looks creepy and good. His Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain revealed a deep sadness that must have been inside him. It's a terrible waste of a major talent who should have had a long career ahead of him. He had broken up with Michelle Williams, with whom he had a daughter. I've always been fond of this paparazzi shot from happier days.

Sony Pictures Classics has bought is closing in on a withdrew from negotiations Tuesday for the controversial Indiana high school cinema verite doc American Teen, as Fox Searchlight did two nights ago. Paramount Vantage may wind up with in the running for the pic. Deal is was expected to close today. CAA and Cinetic are selling.

[with reporting from Sharon Swart]

Sundance's Buyer's Block has broken, as Focus Features has confirmed the acquisition the wee hours Tuesday morning of all world rights to the Steve Coogan comedy Hamlet 2 for $10 million after an intense bidding war. Among the companies vying for the rights were Summit Entertainment, Weinstein Co., Lionsgate, and Warner Independent.

Hamlet 2, a late edition to the Sundance lineup, premiered to raucous laughter at the Library Monday at 5:30 PM. The filmmakers and Coogan repaired to a party at Jean Louis off Main Street, while the buyers converged on the CAA condo, where the agency closed the deal around 3 AM. $10 million is a high figure for Sundance; other sales at that level include Spitfire Grill and Little Miss Sunshine.

Coogan stars as a high school drama teacher who writes a sequel to the Shakespeare tragedy in order to save his drama department. The film also stars Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler and David Arquette.

It was a good day for Focus: they not only nabbed the hottest title at Sundance but scored seven Oscar noms for Atonement, including best picture.