There's considerable uncertainty heading toward Cannes this year. While the global theatrical market is strong, the indie sector is still fragile--and shrinking. With DVDs sinking and piracy on the rise, financeers and foreign sales agents don't know what's safe anymore. Many companies had coasted on funds they had already raised, but now reality is sinking in: new money is hard to find.

The WSJ paints a dire picture of the foreign sales market:

The rise of copyright piracy and increasing competition from local films have held a lid on presales of foreign rights in recent years. But since the credit crunch hit Wall Street and expanded across the globe, producers say they feel lucky if presales cover half of their budgets -- if anything at all.

UPDATE: Screen's Mike Goodridge counters that all is not lost in foreign pre-sales:

Like every other part of the film business, the sales world is going through a sea change. That said, for films that are cost-effectively made and marketable, nothing has changed: presales are still eminently achievable.

Anthony Kaufman in Variety describes a swiftly moving landscape for the indies:

What was once considered enduring in the sector -- the Weinsteins, a mix of active studio specialty divisions, robust DVD sales -- is no longer the case. New players (Summit, Overture) and arthouse upstarts (Oscilloscope, Regent) are making an aggressive go of it in these leaner, meaner times. If this year's Cannes marketplace reflects anything about the state of the business, it's that the industry is constantly shifting.

Whoever would have thought, for instance, that Cablevision's movie unit IFC Films -- one of the weaker distribs after Bob Berney exited in 2002 -- would eventually turn out to be Cannes' most active buyer? It snapped up a whopping 16 films out of Cannes last year for U.S. theatrical and/or VOD distribution. "It's been a gold mine for us," says IFC's Ryan Werner. "It's the most important festival of the year, without question."

Many of the movies in the Cannes market this year are low-budget exploitation titles, but a fair number are filled with recognizable stars like Hilary Swank and established directors such as Peter Weir. A handful of the several dozen movies in Cannes' main showcases also are looking for American distributors, including the late Heath Ledger's “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” Rachel Weisz in “Agora” and director Ken Loach's "Looking for Eric," which features soccer superstar Eric Cantona.

Even though domestic box-office admissions are soaring, the global movie business -- particularly overseas DVD and television sales -- is slumping. International distributors can't get financing to buy movies, piracy is cutting into overseas ticket sales, foreign currencies are falling in value and key international territories have essentially discontinued acquiring American films.

Meanwhile, Focus Features International will be selling Mike Leigh's long-postponed new film in Cannes. It stars Leigh vets Jim Broadbent (Topsy-Turvy) and Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), and since typically none of these ace improvisers know what the film will be in advance, neither do we. So far Leigh has nabbed six career Oscar noms. Focus Int. has more on its Cannes slate, including, reports Screen:

...Cannes competition entries Broken Embraces from Pedro Almodovar and Taking Woodstock by Ang Lee, and Alejandro Amenabar’s out of competition screener Agora. Kevin Macdonald’s The Eagle Of The Ninth is on the market roster, as are Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Invention Of Lying directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, and Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere.

UPDATE: Variety surveys the weak domestic specialty b.o so far this year.

Over at the IFC blog, David Hudson has tagged his ongoing Cannes entries.

Here's a preview of People Mag's Most Beautiful People 2009 list. Channing Tatum's on it.

And marital issues are in the air as Sean and Robin Wright Penn are filing for legal separation--again. On Tuesday night Mel Gibson, who is in the middle of divorce proceedings, stepped out on the town with new girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva on his arm, at the X-Men Origins: Wolverine premiere.

This year, Time asked other "influentials" to write up their top 100 selections of the World's Most Influential People. That way we get filmmaker Peter Jackson profiling his Heavenly Creatures discovery, this year's best actress Oscar winner Kate Winslet; Roger Ebert pays tribute to documentarian Werner Herzog; best supporting actress Oscar-winner Penelope Cruz lands praise from Elegy co-star and fellow Oscar-winner Sir Ben Kingsley; Claire Danes does the honors for Zac Efron; Alec Baldwin does his 30 Rock writer-director-co-star Tina Fey; You've Got Mail's Meg Ryan likes Tom Hanks; and Padma Lakshmi hearts Slumdog Millionaire Oscar-winner A.R. Rahman. Leonardo DiCaprio jumps the entertainment side to write up environmentalist Van Jones; Arnold Schwarzenegger praises Democrat and uncle-in-law Edward Kennedy; and Oprah Winfrey fusses over Michelle Obama. (My fave wrap-up of President Barack Obama's first 100 days is on Slate: his "Facebook page.")

UPDATE: Michael Moore addresses the Bernie Madoff question.

One sure sign that a magazine is in trouble is a constant stream of new publishers. When I was at Premiere, we had three publishers and editors in three years. And the magazine folded not so long after I left. It makes me sick that EW, where I worked before Premiere, is floundering, as evidenced by the departure of its fifth publisher in as many years. Advertising sucks right now, and circulation is dipping too. But the good news is EW's website is thriving and Time Warner says it will keep publishing the mag under new editor Jess Cagle:

Mr. Donaton, previously the editor-turned-publisher of Advertising Age, became EW's fifth publisher in five years when he accepted the vacant job post 17 months ago. He and Rick Tetzeli, then the managing editor, set about a redesign and re-articulation of the mission designed, among other things, to set EW apart from celebrity magazines. He also oversaw an overhaul of EW's website, boosting the number of blogs, videos and the range of community tools. In January, EW named Jess Cagle to succeed Mr. Tetzeli as managing editor.

But, unsurprisingly given a recession that has caused dramatic drop in many consumer magazines' ad revenue, ad-page declines continued after the redesign. EW's first-quarter ad pages this year came in 38% below their mark in the first quarter last year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. They fell 20% in 2008, Mr. Donaton's first year on the job, after falling 13% in 2007 and 8% in 2006. Paid and verified circulation in the second half of 2008 averaged 1.7 million copies, 1% lower than a year earlier, as paid subscriptions dipped almost 3%, EW reported to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

I was disturbed when my USC film students--unlike my 19-year-old daughter Nora, btw, who doesn't read newspapers but loves such mags as EW, The Week and Teen Vogue--said they didn't read EW, either online or in print. I still read both.

The weekly should not be stinting, in my view, on what they have to offer over the competition--great reporters who can report the hell out of stories early. The web can handle the fast-breaking stuff--but there is room for depth and context and consolidation in the mag. Why bother to do a spring preview that has 150-word capsules? EW can distinguish itself with the seasonal movie and tv and music previews and hot lists and insider reports. Why is writing shorter the answer in the print edition? I wish EW was more like Premiere and less like People. And I wish the studios would step up their endemic advertising and support it, because I for one don't want to live in an online only world. Magazine covers and gorgeous photo spreads and smart elegant profiles by the likes of Christine Spines set up a movie star unlike anything else.

What started as a helpful public service announcement about domestic abuse (directed by Atonement director Joe Wright) has morphed into the latest YouTube sensation. Keira Knightley is the latest viral commodity on the web, as global viewers check out the PSA that Brit company Clearcast deemed too brutal for television display.

Meryl Streep + Amy Adams + Nora Ephron + Julia Child + Scott Rudin + French cooking=Julie & Julia. I'm there. Here's latest trailer. Sony releases August 7.

My Twitter-feed is now essential to how I do business every day. I prefer to scroll through my feed as opposed to getting tweets on my BlackBerry. That list is very small, just people who may actually be sharing breaking news. I missed Twitter when my account was suspended for a few days. I apparently gave my Twitter info to the wrong party and was phished: someone added several hundred people to my followers list (which took a while to expunge) and sent my followers spam. It's fixed.

Here's New York Mag's guide to the best tweets. And here's how to start a Twitter hashtag.

Forget the Supreme Court rebuke of Bono; Julia Roberts was no-holds barred this week at the Film Society of Lincoln Center gala tribute to Tom Hanks. After Hanks came through for Roberts when she was feted by the American Cinematheque in 2007, she returned the favor this week, without restraint:

Matthew Broderick is in the news these days, not only for giving blocked director Kenneth Lonergan a reported $1 million to finish his long-stalled movie Margaret (which stars Anna Paquin and Allison Janney), but he and wife Sarah Jessica Parker are expecting twins, via a surrogate mother. UPDATE: Broderick gives a comeback performance in Josh Goldin's Wonderful World, writes Jan Stuart.

Casting is under way on Parker's follow-up to the Sex and the City movie, which is set to start rolling this summer, with Chris Noth, Evan Handler and David Eigenberg set to join Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis and Kim Cattrall as well as writer-director Michael Patrick King. Release date: May 28, 2010.

For those of you who missed this chestnut---it was posted on YouTube in 2006--Kevin Smith spent twenty minutes on one of his lecture tours explaining what really happened back in 1996/1997 when Warner Bros. and producer Jon Peters (always entertaining fodder) hired him to write Superman. As long as the Superman franchise seems to be betwixt and between, why not take a gander at what Smith had in mind? At any rate, Smith is nothing if not an engaging storyteller, and he's got this one down.

[Hat Tip: The Daily Rumpus]

Some Came Running critic Glenn Kenny has been enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame as one of the stars of Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, which just followed its Sundance work-in-progress debut with a proper premiere at Tribeca in advance of its Magnolia release May 22. Kenny posts on other critics who have acted in movies.

While Brit first-timer Oliver Irving's micro-indie How to Be may not be high art, because it stars Twilight star Rob Pattinson, it has a target audience. The flick about a sadsack guitar player who moves back in with his parents after his girlfriend dumps him had been seeking a distrib since its Slamdance debut in January, 2008. I asked Pattinson about How to Be in a Twilight interview back in November (Flip Cam video below), which was seen by IFC Films buyer Arianna Boccho, who tracked down How to Be and bought it one week later for IFC Festival Direct.

Post-Twilight, IFC took the film to fests and one-off screenings in Chicago, Boston, and LA, which were jammed by Pattinson fans, who also lined up around the block in NYC last weekend for two sold-out screenings at the IFC Center.

Pattinson has happily flogged the movie, taking time out of his New Moon shooting schedule to do reads for the various cable systems promoting the film. And he's giving away the clothes that he wore during the How to Be shoot for a contest on Seventeen.com. IFC publicized Pattinson to drive viewers to view the movie on-demand (starting April 29) via Entertainment Tonight, AOL, Life & Style and MTV.com, which has long catered to the Pattinson fan base. UPDATE: He talked to The Guardian.

While there are no reviews on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic, the IMDb user ratings are strong, and the movie boasts over 14,000 Facebook fans. And the filmmakers have been sending out daily newsletters to keep their fans up-to-date on the latest How to Be developments.

Here's a strange behind-the-scenes video of Pattinson's visit to the Austin Film Fest with How to Be, and the official How to Be website. More How to Be photos and a trailer on the jump.

MCN's David Poland, perhaps restive that the pool he's been swimming is getting very crowded, suggests some potential media mergers and acquisitions. Imagine what would happen if Nick Denton Gawkerized The Hollywood Reporter! Someone should be creating smart insider fare along the lines of what Premiere used to do--or at the very least buy Premiere.com and all its untapped celebrity-rich archives.

Roger Friedman wasted no time getting started on his own (primitive) blog, Showbiz411.

The long-negotiated (over a year) and awaited William Morris/Endeavor merger, between a rich and venerable agency and young talent powerhouse, is finally approved, reports Variety:

The combination of the 111-year-old WMA and the 14-year-old Endeavor will create a mega-agency whose combined assets extend into virtually every aspect of the entertainment and media biz. The tie-up, which is still subject to government approvals, also creates the largest competitor to CAA since that agency solidified its position as Hollywood's dominant tenpercentery more than two decades ago.

Leading WME Entertainment will be WMA chief exec Jim Wiatt as chairman, while Endeavor toppers Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell and WMA prexy Dave Wirtschafter will serve as co-CEOs.

The questions going forward: how many agents will be let go, as the new Beverly Hills offices being built for the combined agency will not accommodate all of WMA and Endeavor's agency roster? One day last week, when the phones went down at William Morris, many agents thought for a moment that they had been terminated. How many more agents like Tom Strickler and David Lonner will defect with alpha-clients such as J.J. Abrams in tow? (Agents have been calling potential homes like mad.) The consolidation of the two agencies changes the power mix in Hollywood and puts many things in play. For example, how will the two indie sides of the agencies, currently run by Endeavor's Graham Taylor and WMA's Cassian Elwes and Rena Ronson, merge together? CAA, for example, has some ten people in their indie division. (At this point, no one knows.)

Here's the LAT and The Wrap, written by ex-Variety executive editor Michael Speier. UPDATE: Kim Masters on what this merger reveals about the state of the industry.

The real question of the day: if you had to vote for who would win a game of survivor between WMA's Jim Wiatt and Endeavor's Ari Emanuel, who would you choose?

Online archives are valuable, especially if they involve glam Hollywood celebs, and Life and Movieline have figured this out. Time Warner is loading up the Life photo archives online, and they are fun. Here's 20 Classic Beauties. Movieline is also working on posting its archives to its site. Smart.

It makes me crazy when I think about how Hachette Filipacchi threw away their Premiere brand, first by refusing to invest in the online site that could have saved the print magazine, then ditching the global chain of movie mags in favor of a puny underfunded Premiere.com. Where are those rich Premiere celebrity archives? Nowhere to be found.

UPDATE: As expected, under dismal advertising conditions, two-year-old Conde Nast start-up monthly Portfolio has bitten the dust. Jeff Jarvis writes about the future of magazines and decides it's not that none will thrive; it's that once the weak ones fail--and he's not optimistic about the news weeklies or EW-- there will be no new ones to replace them.

Others write about Portfolio's demise: Portfolio's own Mixed Media blogger Jeff Bercovici and The Daily Beast editor Tina Brown, who knows Si Newhouse better than anyone.

I saw J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek Friday night, sitting in the front row at the Paramount Studio Theatre. The movie grabbed me from the get-go. Because the Star Trek universe is already established, the filmmakers get away with throwing the audience into a classic stand-off between a Starfleet ship and a frightening Romulan vessel commanded by deadly Nero (Eric Bana). Suddenly lives are at stake and key figures are dead. One survivor of the melee: James T. Kirk. By the time the Star Trek title appeared at the end of this sequence, I was in tears.

Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Transformers 1 and 2, Mission: Impossible III, TV's Fringe) understand how to pull in an audience and take them on a ride. They are helped by the familiarity of the Star Trek universe. For the most part, they understand the rules of engagement (SPOILER ALERT), with one notable exception: they shock us by giving young Spock (Heroes' Zachary Quinto) a romantic interest. But it works.

With this origin myth, the writers and director J.J. Abrams manage to redefine characters we already know quite well—without betraying them. For now, Paramount chief Brad Grey, who has had a tumultuous tenure since he took over the studio in 2005, is off the hook. Studios rely on key franchises to carry them across all the other pictures that don't generate huge profits. Grey made the right call on this one: Star Trek will be huge, across all four audience quadrants.

The sequel Orci and Kurtzman are committed to writing will get made, for release in 2011. Chris Pine is launched as a new young star. So, by the way, is Zoe Saldana (Uhura), who also has James Cameron's Avatar opening on December 18. And Paramount and Orci & Kurtzman can count on a second surefire summer hit: Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Here's the NYT's Star Trek feature. A confirmed old Trekkie from Time looks back. While original Spock Leonad Nimoy brings gravitas and grounding to the new Trek, the first Kirk, William Shatner, makes hay of being left out of the picture. And Pine talks about meeting Shatner.

Here's a clip of Kirk meeting Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban):

UPDATE: And Kirk challenging "Acting Captain" Spock:

The irony is that while the latest Star Trek invokes the old promise to take you where no man has gone before, the movie itself, while giving you a very good time, takes you back to a familiar and pleasant sci-fi universe, and does so using existing cinematic technology.

The reason James Cameron's Avatar has so many people hot and bothered is that he really is promising to show us something brand new and never before achieved on film. And given the decade-long wait between feature projects--Titanic being the global blockbuster of all time ($1.8 billion)--we can all be forgiven for harboring high expectations. Besides, word inside Hollywood, the buzz from insiders is good. Not that anyone has seen the thing, it's not finished. Josh Quittner of Time Magazine saw 15 minutes and was blown away.

Cameron started virtual photography on the sci-fi epic in April, 2007, with live-action photography commencing in August, for a scheduled summer 2009 release, which was later pushed back to December 18, 2009. It was filmed with a new digital 3-D format for release in 3-D.

The director spent years in R&D on the multiple processes needed to create a $190 million hybrid of live action and animation, which he vowed would never pass the $200 million mark--which of course it has. Neither Cameron nor Fox want to repeat the budget overruns that plagued the $200 million Titanic, Cameron told me at the start of the picture. Here's the announcement story.

By the time my daughter went to buy a ticket for this weekend's student-run Ivy Film Festival confab with Jack Nicholson, Bob Evans, Brad Grey and Peter Bart at Brown, it was sold out. And she didn't want to pull any strings to get in. So here's Dade Hayes' Variety story.

Magazine editors know that movie fans will buy multiple collectible covers. On that principle, Marvel has added different endings at the end of the credits to Wolverine so that fans will sample all the versions of the film, director Gavin Hood told one L.A. press screening on Friday night, reports Alex Billington of First Showing. UPDATE: Make that two endings.

As the reeling economy puts more pressure on Hollywood's giant conglomerates, and the Internet looms as the ultimate unknown devaluator, The Daily Beast's Kim Masters reports that at some point in time, whether it's sooner or later, General Electric will be forced to unload NBC Universal--no matter how well it's doing--and that Time Warner's Jeffrey Bewkes might not be able to resist buying it:

The main lure for Time Warner meanwhile, would be NBC Universal’s cable channels: USA, Bravo, Sci-Fi, and CNBC. Those would go nicely with Time Warner’s HBO, TNT and TBS. And while no one’s getting rich off news, CNN and NBC News could make a strong combination. Universal Pictures, on the other hand, would likely be folded since Time Warner—which owns Warner Bros.—has no need for another film studio. Yes, that would truly be the end of an era. But industry veterans believe that there’s every reason to expect a number of eras to end in the foreseeable future in the entertainment world, just as big names are vanishing in other industries.

While the Rob Pattinson movies that are set to be released post-Twilight--Little Ashes and How to Be--are unlikely to reignite his passionate Twilight fan base, it's not surprising that Summit Entertainment would squeeze their new matinee idol into another romantic movie between Twilight installments that they could sell in Cannes.

Remember Me, Summit CEO Patrick Wachsberger tells Screen, is a Love Story-style romance written by Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married), directed by Allen Coulter (Hollywoodland), and is still seeking a female lead for a planned summer shoot in New York.

Coppola is one of five American filmmakers in the Fortnight, which this year skews more toward the U.S. than the main festival. (Here's Variety.) The selection includes three edgy Sundance entries: I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as two cons in love, which has yet to find a North American distributor; Seattle writer-director Lynn Shelton's relationship comedy Humpday (Magnolia), about two straights who want to film a gay porno; and American/Palestinian/Jordanian director Cherien Dabis' semi-autobiographical drama Amreeka (National Geographic Films). The other U.S. film is Josh and Benny Safdie's Go Get Some Rosemary (Josh Safdie screened his film The Pleasure of Being Robbed in the 2008 Fortnight).

This year's Cannes Critics' Week has selected just ten features, all but one from first-time filmmakers, deciding to highlight more shorts. The video explains it:

I admit I was amused by this Forbes Q and A with Sony heads Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton. When they say that they're going to have to get tough on deals due to the declining DVD market and pay their talent less, and then Forbes asks if they'll cut their fees for Will Smith and Adam Sandler, they backpedal madly, saying, "No, they're worth every nickel!" But were they, in Seven Pounds and Spanglish? That's the problem...Sony has been one of the biggest spending studios. I'll be curious to see if they act on what they say.

Forbes: How is Hollywood holding up in the recession? Amy Pascal: The theatrical is doing very well. People are going to the movies like crazy and that's a good thing. The problem is the DVD market is down from where it was before. Since we are very dependent on that as a studio, that is a problem for us. We have to rethink how we put deals together. In what way? Pascal: We are starting to rethink how we pay people. It isn't just that the movies are expensive. The talent we work with is expensive. We're going to see a world where the talent share in the profits at the same time as the studios. How do you square that with the recent strong box office? Michael Lynton: The economics that you depend on, advertising on the television side and DVD sales on the movie side, are hurt right now. Our sense is that people are becoming more discriminating about how they spend money in tough times. When we pay out gross it comes in anticipation of the DVD going to a certain model number. When it doesn't perform you can be in a loss position when your partners are getting money. You work with two of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, Will Smith and Adam Sandler. Will they be asked to cut their salaries? Pascal: No. I'll take them any time. They pay their way. They're worth every nickel they get. Lynton: Adam is growing internationally, and Will is the biggest movie star in the world.

While Guillermo del Toro is busy in New Zealand shooting The Hobbit, he keeps lining up future projects like The Strain Trilogy, co-written with Chuck Hogan (The Standoff). William Morrow will publish Book One on June 2. Del Toro won't be featuring any "romantic, languid young men sucking on necks of beautiful people" in his these vampire procedurals, he says in this video interview. Unlike Twilight or True Blood, this virus-infected plague of monsters invading New York City will be inhuman, menacing, disgusting, alien and full of dread, he promises.

A new series of movies won't be far behind.

Much like Michael Moore, Kirby Dick (Twist of Faith, This Film is Not Yet Rated) has a talent for putting himself front and center in his documentaries, as well as making them controversial and entertaining. Clearly his latest, Outrage, which is debuting at the Tribeca Film Fest, is no exception. Magnolia will release the agitprop doc on May 8.

Here's early reaction from Wilshire and Washington, Movieline and IndieWire.

Let's be honest. It was not good news for filmmaker Rian Johnson (Brick) and backer Endgame when Summit pushed back the opening of the European caper comedy Brothers Bloom from October to May 15 (broadening on May 22 and 29). While they were initially elated when Summit took the movie off the market in December 2007, before Sundance, and gave them time to finish the picture for Toronto the next fall, this push-back brought further loss of momentum and a slight taint of failure.

Admittedly, the movie is a slight, old-fashioned funny valentine to classic caper movies, shot on a shoestring in several European and American cities. It has earned decent reviews to date: last fall my (grown-up) Sneak Previews group enjoyed the picture, which showcases the comedic talents of Rachel Weisz with able support from mssrs. Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo as the titular con-men. Next up for Johnson: the time-travel flick Looper, which sends a group of present-day hit men into the past.

On The Brothers Bloom official website, Johnson posted his favorite version of the Brothers Bloom poster and list of favorite con man films. What are yours?

Here's the first seven minutes of The Brothers Bloom, on Hulu:

Confirming prognostications, Cannes Official Selection looks relatively light on U.S. fare this year. At a packed press conference in Paris' Grand Hotel, fest program director Thierry Fremaux, flanked by Cannes president Gilles Jacob, told journos Thursday that Hollywood WGA strike could have been responsible for the lighter U.S. presence.

Out-of-competition, Disney/Pixar's Up will open the fest, a first for either an animated or 3-D film. Terry Gilliam will unveil Heath Ledger's last film, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, also starring fill-ins Johnny Depp and Jude Law. As expected, Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell grabs a midnight berth. Lee Daniel's Precious (which debuted at Sundance under the title Push) also secured a non-competition slot. UPDATE: While Lionsgate acquired North American rights, legal disputes with The Weinstein Co. are not yet resolved.

The feature film jury will be headed by French actress Isabelle Huppert. Other members are: Italian actress/filmmaker Asia Argento, Turkish actor-writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, South Korean writer-director Lee Chang-dong,American writer-director James Gray, British writer Hanif Kureishi, Taiwanese actress Shu Qi and American actress Robin Wright Penn (whose husband Sean Penn headed last year's jury).

Director's Fortnight and Critics' Week selections will be announced separately, on Friday. UPDATE: Here's the LAT.

Michael Moore posted this heartbreaking 60 Minutes piece on Facebook. It's an extension of the material he explored in Sicko. The recession is making vulnerable Americans even more so. Wall Street crashes, the recession hits state budgets, and needy cancer patients lose the care they need to live.

In a Time Q & A, Roger Ebert writes that he and fellow Chicago Sun-Times writer Richard Roeper, The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips and A.P.'s Christy Lemire are hatching a new movie review show, to be announced shortly.

Read this U.K. story about Susan Boyle's story being made into movie and you wade through a lot of vagueness.

Marc Malkin tries to find out if a makeover and eyebrow reduction are in the works (see photos). UPDATE: Looks like she's gone and done her own makeover, reports the Daily Mail.

Boyle is a great makeover candidate, says Hollywood costume designer Jane Ruhm: "I would pluck her eyebrows, give her a really cute haircut and color, and make her up. She basically has an okay figure: she's slender through the hips, she has decent legs and a nice bustline. I'd get her some good foundation garments, and dress her in something hipper and younger with a more defined waist and a flowy skirt, a sexier neckline and high heels."

Wasting no time, Summit Entertainment is driving forward on the third installment of the Twilight franchise, Eclipse, by hiring director David Slade. Melissa Rosenberg, who penned the first two Twilight films based on Stephenie Meyer's vampire bestsellers is currently writing The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which Summit plans to open on June 30, 2010, according to Summit production head Erik Feig.

Slade is a far cry from Catherine Hardwicke, whose romantic Twilight so far has grossed $380 million worldwide. Slade directed tough indie drama Hard Candy, starring Ellen Page, and the grisly vampire horror adaptation 30 Days of Night, starring Josh Hartnett.

In Meyer's third vampire tale, Bella (Kristen Stewart) is about to graduate from high school. As she tries to choose between vampire Edward (Rob Pattinson) and werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner), she is in danger again when a malicious vampire goes on a vengeful killing spree. The second installment, New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz, will open November 20, 2009.

Renowned UK cinematographer Jack Cardiff, BSC, passed away earlier today. He was 94. Here's The Guardian's obit. And the BBC.

Cardiff photographed The African Queen, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, The Vikings, Under Capricorn and The Barefoot Contessa. As it happens, perhaps his greatest achievement, The Red Shoes, will play at Cannes in the Classics section. It's a new restoration (backed by The Film Foundation, the UCLA Film Archive and Bob Gitt) of one of the most splendid examples of Technicolor film--on a par with such American classics as Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and The Adventures of Robin Hood.

It may be possible for a small online outfit to survive on trade ads. The question is, how does a bigger concern pay their overhead when the print edition goes away? This Observer piece undermines these serious queries in favor of more entertaining catfights between Nikki Finke, Sharon Waxman and Anita Busch. Oy. UPDATE: Movieline and Vulture respond, with yummy artwork.

As for giving Joe Flint the LAT Company Town blog (what about their own Claudia Eller, who comes from the trades and can duke it out with the competition better than anyone?), I still don't understand why any self-respecting newspaper wants to compete with Finke's Deadline Hollywood. (BTW, she's compelling to read and gets traffic but not much advertising.) There's good journalism and there's good blogging and she does the latter: put it up and see if it sticks and if it does, take credit for breaking news (if it doesn't, alter and bury it).

Variety and The Hollywood Reporter still provide a valuable service for the entertainment community. The trades confirm or deny what many folks have heard to be true. They remove rumor status. They tell working people who's going where, what the deals are, what performance numbers mean. They review content. First.

A new model for their future can be found. The question is, will the execs who make good money at the top of the company pyramid be able to think outside the box and imagine the trade of the future and then figure out what it takes to get there, knowing that it must be smaller and leaner? Cutting content is not going to work, nor will the old "if they advertise, we will cover" approach.

Preserving past glories? Not an option.

[Photo montage courtesy Vulture]

I'm out of my element in Vegas for my first-ever National Association of Broadcasters convention. Monday I did a Q & A with stop-motion auteur Henry Selick, who ran some nifty clips from Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and the surprise $74-million hit Coraline, which is starting to open in Europe. View this photo.

Coraline's peformance was hurt by too many 3-D movies fighting for not enough 3-D screens, Selick admits. (He's hoping for a rerelease this summer with the DVD, which will be in 2-D, he hopes, as 3-D DVDs are still cheesy). But he also thinks that Coraline's careful crafting of a story enhanced by the combination of lovingly hand-crafted stop-motion, CG effects and 3-D made the movie more of an event for moviegoers. He'll return to Laika in Portland, Oregon for his next stop-motion film, he said, and looks forward to building on what he learned on this film, as he has all along.

Selick is always wowed by Pixar films (he studied with many of the Pixar gang, and old collaborator Tim Burton, at Cal Arts), including what he's has seen of the upcoming Cannes opener Up. But he is not a fan of performance capture--which doesn't mean that James Cameron's Avatar won't be spectacular, he said. 3-D, even holograms, are the wave of the future.

Members at a later NAB panel, while admitting that 3-D cinemas are well ahead of 3-D in the home, touted the imminent future of alternative 3-D. A rep from BSkyB screened some impressive 3-D footage of soccer, boxing, gladiator-style Rocketball contests, ballet and a Keane concert broadcast via satellite with existing HD technology: they used two side-by-side HD cameras, a 3-D processor and HD encoder and transmitted up to satellite and down to the set top box.

Shooting in 3-D, several panelists agreed, requires less cutting and more lingering so that the audience can find their own focus. At a basketball game, said NBA Entertainment's Steve Hellmuth, you could watch the play as if you were sitting in Jack Nicholson's courtside seat, in an immersive experience.

The most impressive footage came from Brazil's TV Globo Network, which shot, edited and broadcast almost instantly live 3-D footage of the Carnivale in Rio. It was stunning--but what made advertisers sit up and take notice, not surprisingly, was the spinning 3-D can of beer popping out in the foreground. The sponsors wanted that on air the next day, said Jose Dias Vasconcellos de Assis, who points out that there are already 3-D-ready sets available from Mitsubishi, Samsung and Hyundai, which has a set that can turn 2-D HD into 3-D.

For now, said BSkyB's Gerry O'Sullivan, the trick is to shoot in 2-D and 3-D formats at the same time. NYT moderator Eric Taub wound up saying, "We're not just creating a new technology, but a new aesthetic."

I can't wait to see what they do here with the Thanksgiving Day Parade and The Rose Bowl.

Here's Variety's David Cohen on another 3-D in the home panel.

Early word on the J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman's reinvention of Star Trek--beyond the early peak Paramount gave Fantastic Fest earlier this month and the footage screened for journos last November--has been strong. One exhib emailed me after an exhibitor's screening:

Fast, funny and very entertaining. One doesn't need to know too much about the original but it will help make things even more fun. I was never a fan and saw very few of the shows. But we all know who Spock and Kirk and the others were, so seeing their 17-22 year-old selves is very interesting and the way Nimoy is integrated works nicely.

Much is set in San Francisco of the future with the GG Bridge in the background and what might be an impossible angle showing the Transamerica pyramid being overshadowed by future skyscrapers. And most of the effects were done at ILM.

Now the London reviews are in (see below). UPDATE: Here's Todd McCarthy's Variety review:

Blasting onto the screen at warp speed and remaining there for two hours, the new and improved "Star Trek" will transport fans to sci-fi nirvana. Faithful enough to the spirit and key particulars of Gene Roddenberry's original conception to keep its torchbearers happy but, more crucially, exciting on its own terms in a way that makes familiarity with the franchise irrelevant, J.J. Abrams' smart and breathless space adventure feels like a summer blockbuster that just couldn't stay in the box another month. Paramount won't need any economic stimulus package with all the money it'll rake in with this one globally, and a follow-up won't arrive soon enough.

Star Trek, released in Britain on May 8 and given its premiere last night, is perfectly pitched to satisfy Trekker nerds and a more general action-flick audience. Abrams, who directed Mission Impossible III, brings his blockbuster flair to bear on a story that starts with a massacre and rarely draws breath for the next two hours as it unravels a deadly battle between the Federation and a rogue Romulan from the future who is bent on destroying Earth

And The London Daily Mail goes all out:

The result is not only by far the best of the 11 Star Trek movies, it must rank as the outstanding prequel of all time.

For those too young to remember the original TV series and its spin-off movies, or (like me) unconvinced that they were in all respects works of untrammelled genius, the movie ticks all the boxes as regards big set pieces.

We see space battles, planets sucked into black holes, chases, space aliens. Stupendous special effects and a magnificent score by Michael Giacchino make it a treat for the eyes and ears.

The picture moves at a terrific pace, and is a satisfying tale of good versus evil, with Eric Bana a highly hissable villain.

Slashfilm's Brendon Connelly shares some spoilers:

The big device that drives this Star Trek forwards is a time travel loop. The backstory would begin in what we are apparently to accept as standard, canonical Trek continuity. From there, the vengeful Romulan Nero passes through a black hole and arrives in this new movie’s universe - or, as we are specifically told, into the past of the same universe. And it is at this moment that, as Doc Brown would have it, time skews off at a tangent. A new timeline is formed, and this timeline is the one on which this particular movie, and the inevitable sequels, will be hung.

HitFix's Gregory Ellwood tells Star Trek fans to stop worrying about the boxoffice.

The new metric in journalism is online traffic. While the movie stars may not pull them in at the boxoffice like they used to, write a story about a star, and the traffic will come.

It didn't matter if Lions for Lambs sucked: Time still ran a story about Cruise, Redford and Streep. And this week the august New York Times ran a feature about overweight movie stars pegged to Russell Crowe's State of Play weight gain. New York's Vulture and the LAT's The Big Picture swiftly blogged back--adding a photo of Crowe's streamlined new look for Robin Hood.

The Daily Beast editrix Tina Brown cannily harnessed the traffic spike potential of Michelle Obama (is she "the new Oprah?" trumpeted her headline) and Susan Boyle in her weekly column. More than 30 million YouTube views later, why did the beetle-browed Britain's Got Talent singer hit the zeitgeist with such force? Because of Google Trends.

That's right. The new journalist m.o.: check out the most-searched item of the day. One new website is devoted to that very purpose. Every morning, EPK (not "electronic press kit" but, "Everything Pop Kulture") assigns its (low-paid) writers to report on the searches of the day, insuring heavy traffic. This methodology is widespread across the Web, insuring that what has already been written about today will be repeated, commented upon and enlarged tomorrow. Expect more on the following topics in days to come:

1. megan mcallister 2. philip markoff wedding 3. five dollar dinners 4. julie chen 5. daniel andreas san diego 6. baby mammoth 7. philip markoff megan mcallister 8. ben and jerry s locations 9. william parente 10. craigslist killer

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out a way for today's beleaguered journalists to stay employed. Forget about that Pulitzer. Don't pass Go. Find that celebrity hook or hot trend. Fast.

We've all seen our share of Harry Potter movies but this trailer for the Half-Blood Prince really creeped me out.

Empire looks ahead to The Deathly Hallows.

I grew up on this director's warm, accessible movies in a range of genres, from 40 Pounds of Trouble, his first feature (thanks to Tony Curtis), to Doris Day in Send Me No Flowers, Fiddler on the Roof, In the Heat of the Night, A Soldier's Story, and The Thomas Crown Affair, which Jewison thought was wrong for Steve McQueen, who just happened to want to mold his tough peyote-smoking biker anti-hero persona into a classy urbane hero, for once. "Steve was an actor who you could dress differently," said Jewison. "But he really played himself. When he walked across a room you believed it. He wasn't acting. He could drive you crazy. If he found a weak spot he would bore in."

McQueen was just one movie star Jewison had to handle. Another was Cher, who did not want to star in John Patrick Shanley's Moonstruck, but turned up at the LACMA tribute on Friday night to honor the man who insisted that she do the part that wound up winning her an Oscar. "Snap out of it!" she cries to Nic Cage, slapping him silly. She talked Jewison into insisting on casting Cage because he was the only actor she could think of who would believably pick up a cleaver and mean the threat. "I'm his bad girl," said Cher of Jewison. "He seemed to really want me and I wasn't sure why." Responded Jewison, "There was no one else in the world who could play the part like you."

Moderator Leonard Maltin indulged a roster of guests, from D.P. Haskell Wexler and songwriters Marilyn and Alan Bergman ("The Windmills of Your Mind") and The Russians Are Coming stars Carl Reiner and Eva Marie Saint, who remembered a horrifying story of Jewison prone on the floor of a prop plane trying to close an open hatch, to Thomas Crown's Faye Dunaway, who coordinated her black-and-white outfit with Saint and Cher. She remembered her infamous chess scene with McQueen. "She looks at him, he looks at her, they look at the chess set," recalled Jewison. "What follows is chess with sex."

Jewison's first drama, after doing musical television and comedies, arrived when he replaced Sam Peckinpah at the last minute on The Cincinnati Kid. Vet Edward G. Robinson challenged Jewison's decision to trim much of his role, but the young director told him: "You're the king, the best poker player in the world. You enter the picture like Mestophiles in a cloud of steam with a long close-up."

"That's good, kid," the actor said, appeased. Adds Jewison, "It was youth against age, old star vs. young star, trying to get each other with a card. All actors are frightened."

The best actor he ever worked with? Michael Caine, who could turn on a dime, Jewison said: "He'd sit in his trailer watching CNN every day, he was incredible."

One thing revealed that night: Jewison's generation didn't always believe in selling things. He never shot a commercial. "I always felt there was something tacky about it."

These days, many of the people who aren't interested in what's playing at the multiplex are checking out the new movie opening on HBO instead. Hollywood only has itself to blame. Ignore the adult audience and they'll get out of the moviegoing habit, rent DVDs and subscribe to HBO. This weekend many folks watched the opening of Grey Gardens, starring movie stars Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore (both strong Emmy contenders for Big and Little Edie) instead of going out to see new movie State of Play (which earned a barely respectable 63% on Metacritic to Grey Garden's 77). There was a time when Grey Gardens would have been a theatrical release. Now it's an HBO film--reviewed by the Two Bens on At the Movies:

State of Play, which opened soft to about $14 million, and the upcoming The Soloist, which is unlikely to drop 'em dead at the b.o. next week either, share the same weakness. (Here's Variety's Soloist review.) They're 'tweeners. You can see the problem. Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner want to make studio-level smart-audience movies with decent budgets and movie stars. With State of Play, they started out with Brad Pitt and a high-quality supporting cast and wound up with no Pitt on the eve of the Writers Strike, hastily replaced by Russell Crowe. He's wonderful as a stocky long-haired Saab-driving muckraker of the old school, pitted against his old college chum, an ambitious Congressman (Ben Affleck), his editor (Helen Mirren), contending with the forces fighting against the survival of newspapers, and a young blogger (Rachel McAdams).

For its part, The Soloist boasts Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx—-who are not guaranteed marquee draws. (Nobody is, anymore.) Both movies remind us of why we need to pay for good journalism. State of Play works as a Washington corporate intrigue thriller, while The Soloist was designed as a high-minded topical headline drama, its Oscar hopes dashed by Paramount when it was pushed back to spring release. But this movie is creakier, less steady on its feet, through no fault of the actors. It might have worked better on HBO, where it could have had the courage of its convictions. It's simultaneously too dark and too light. It's overwrought to such a degree that even though it's based on a true story, the homeless man is too disturbing, and the drama, too uplifting.

Finally, both films are based on old models that just don’t work anymore. But it’s not the adult drama that should be blamed here. It’s studio execs willing to lavish spending on movies--State of Play's $60 million budget was partly funded by Relativity Media--that are unlikely to recoup.

Instead of trying to inflate these movies by pumping them up with mainstream commerciality, the studios should hand them over to indie subsidiaries able to produce them on more a modest scale. At which point, Crowe and Affleck and Downey and Foxx would get paid a lot less. And their movies might make their money back.

Here's the Grey Gardens trailer:

The Screen Actors Guild national board narrowly approved a tentative new two-year feature-primetime contract with the AMPTP Sunday. Still to come: the 120,000 Guild members will vote whether or not to ratify a deal that is uncomfortably close to the one they have been rejecting since it expired ten months ago. They'll get the ballots in the mail in early May. If they approve the deal, as expected, the long wait will be over. Hollywood can pick up the pace of feature production, which has slowed to a trickle.

Variety has details:

SAG's deal includes a 3.5% annual hike in minimums --- a 3% salary hike in the first year plus a 0.5% gain in pension and health contributions in the first year and a 3.5% salary increase in the second. And it spells out the pay structure for shows streamed on and made for the Internet. That's the same deal the companies offered on June 30 but was spurned by the hardliners who advocated holding out for sweeter terms.

The official release is on the jump:

In the movie business, the mix of art and commerce is always tricky. Some people have taste and talent smarts, but no business acumen. Developing a good script is one thing, but getting it produced is another. The ability to smell a hit is a weapon that only some producers have in their arsenal. Others easily churn out "product" but wouldn't know a good movie if it hit them on the head. When one person combines taste, quality control, and business moxy, then you get the rarest thing of all in Hollywood: a consistent track record.

Jim Stern of Endgame Entertainment is on a roll. While he varies his level of investment and responsibility in three to four projects a year, he had the sense to nail down significant pieces of several upcoming quality movies. At the recent Toronto Film Festival, during a time when self-distribution is the best option available to many indies, Stern went in with one film already sold: The Brothers Bloom, a caper comedy starring Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo, which was pre-bought by Summit Entertainment (now set for release May 29). Two Endgame films also sold to Sony Pictures Classics: BBC Film's Noel Coward period comedy Easy Virtue, starring Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes and Colin Firth, and Every Little Step , a doc about the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line, featuring Broadway's first-ever filmed auditions, which Stern financed and co-directed with frequent collaborator Adam Del Deo. And at Sundance in January, Sony Pictures Classics also acquired Lone Scherfig and Nick Hornby's BBC film An Education, which Stern partly funded.

Not bad, having your own production funding. But the question is, how do you use it? In the case of Every Little Step, which opened April 17 to strong reviews, Stern was in a position to know what to do. The Chicago-born theater major from the University of Michigan had produced sixteen Broadway shows, including Stomp, The Producers, and Hairspray. He had produced such films as Proof and Stage Beauty. Stern had directed three films with Del Deo, on basketball, politics and theater. And he had financed a number of films, plays and TV shows since he founded Endgame in 2003. "It really helps being a director," Stern says, "even when I'm producing. It makes things easier and smoother when it's easy to understand what people are trying to do. All you ask is that the director makes the film they say they're going to make."

All Stern's experience came together with the doc Every Little Step when an old theater acquaintance, attorney John Breglio, gave him the Michael Bennett tapes from the snowy night in 1974 when he first conceived of A Chorus Line at a 12-hour marathon session with 19 dancers. When Stern heard the tapes, he felt chills and thought, "This is a movie."

Stern and Del Deo shot some 500 hours of video, and waded through tons of archived footage. With first-time ever permission from Actors' Equity to shoot auditions for the new show, the filmmakers began following 50 to 60 singer/dancers, often using four cameras to capture key moments. "Fortunately in this world, people were used to cameras," says Stern, who knew he had "doc gold" when director Bob Avian wept as Jason Tam nailed his audition as Paul. "We were like flies on the wall. You shoot first and ask questions later."

The Screen Actors Guild and the AMPTP have reached a tentative agreement. It is subject to review by the SAG national board of directors at an already-scheduled meeting/video conference in LA and NY this Sunday. The official release is on the jump.

Cannes is a no-go for Francis Ford Coppola's Argentinian film Tetro, which he is taking to San Francisco and Seattle fests instead. Coppola released a statement to The Circuit:

“While I very much appreciate the invitation, this is an independent film, self-financed and self released, and I felt that being invited for a non-competition gala screening wasn’t true to the personal and independent nature of this film. More important than Cannes, our team can focus all our time, energy and resources into the U.S. release this June 11th.”

Sony Pictures Classics paid handsomely to acquire Coppola's last indie film, the $10-million Youth Without Youth, which Coppola refused to take on the fest circuit. The film earned $239,495 at the domestic boxoffice. This time Coppola will self-distribute through his own American Zoetrope.

New Yorker executive editor Dorothy Wickenden dug into her own personal family history to share the fabulous 1916 tale of two 29-year-old spinster Smith grads (one of whom was Wickenden's grandmother) who were lured West to teach school in remote Hayden, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains, which didn't have enough marriageable females. Within a year or so both women had found a husband. The New Yorker placed this hugely entertaining feature behind a firewall. It would make a great movie. Here's a New Yorker slideshow.

YouTube has gone live with long-form feature content. One of the charter partners on the new deal is SnagFilms, which now has a YouTube channel featuring full-length feature documentary films selected from SnagFilms' online library. Their long-form feature collaboration launches April 17.

Now, YouTube users can view free ad-supported, full-length feature documentary films via YouTube's search feature as well as library listings on the SnagFilms channel. The initial film slate will come from the 650 docs available on SnagFilms, and will grow over time. SnagFilms splits the revenue it receives from the accompanying commercials with its filmmakers.

Exposure for docs from this co-venture "will help grow the reach and impact of non-fiction films," says SnagFilms CEO Rick Allen.

Jim Jarmusch's movie music tends to be as arty as his visuals, and his new movie The Limits of Control, which Focus Features will release May 1, is no exception. Shot on multiple exotic Spain locations with DP Chris Doyle, The Limits of Control follows the same m.o. as Jarmusch's recent movies Broken Flowers and Coffee and Cigarettes: lure a sprawling ensemble happy to work for peanuts. The movie stars frequent Jarmusch collaborator Isaach de Bankole; Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal, John Hurt and Paz de la Huerta deliver bite-sized roles. In this WSJ interview, Jarmusch seems aware that the film's commercial potential is limited.

Lakeshore's two soundtrack CDs, which include selections from the Japanese rock band Boris, Sunn O )) and Jarmusch's own psychedelic rock-n-roll Bad Rabbit band, will be sold on iTunes and other online retailers on April 28 and in stores on May 12. “When I’ve finished a film and it’s released into the world, the most important thing to me, besides the film itself, is the soundtrack record," the filmmaker writes in his intro to the soundtrack CD. "It collects the musical gifts that both inspired the film and, like passing clouds, shaped and shaded its sonic atmosphere.”

Here's the trailer:

Variety has unrolled its long-planned site redesign, signaling the change with a new, red logo (I always thought The Hollywood Reporter was red to Variety's green), more charts, and a fancy "Big Daddy" widget with more windows. Variety is trying to make easier navigating and finding pieces to read on the site--the more people find individual stories, the better.

Kim Masters revisits her old Hit and Run subject, ex-Columbia co-head Jon Peters, as he publishes a dishy new memoir.

Todd McCarthy lays out the likely Cannes lineup. Already confirmed is Pete Docter's Up as the fest opener May 13 and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Also expected are Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock and Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell:

Other English-language fare will include Campion's U.K. production "Bright Star," a drama about the romance of 19th-century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, starring Ben Wishaw and Abbie Cornish; Cannes regular von Trier's "Antichrist," a horror drama with Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple who retreat to a secluded forest cabin after the death of their son; Loach's "Looking for Eric," about a troubled adolescent soccer fan who's counseled by former star Eric Cantona; prolific helmer To's French-financed "Vengeance," starring Johnny Hallyday as a hitman-turned-chef who heads to Hong Kong to avenge his daughter's death; and possibly English director Andrea Arnold's "Fish Tank," toplining Michael Fassbender in a tale of a 15-year-old whose life is turned upside down by her mother's new boyfriend. Pic looks to be in the Official Selection, although in which category remains uncertain.

Director Michael Bay says he is totally committed to messing up his next project, Thundercats.

Inevitably, in advance of Warner Bros.' May 21 release of the tentpole sequel Terminator Salvation, the two neophyte financeers at Halcyon, Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek (above) reached an "amicable" settlement with producer Moritz Borman, who sued to get the remaining $2.5 million payment of his fee. The suit was dismissed. Meanwhile, McG is already talking about a follow-up.

IAC mogul Barry Diller is rubbing his hands in gleeful anticipation of going on a low-ball acquisition spree:

Thomas Haden Church is one of those great actors who never caught the right break. I met him on the set of Tombstone in 1993 when he was at the height of his masculine, youthful glory. Everyone on that set knew Church was good. A decade later, Sideways showed what he could do. And in Walter Hill's Emmy-winning western Broken Trail, Church held his own against Robert Duvall. Next up: the dark relationship drama Don McKay, which world premieres April 24 at Tribeca, where Hunting Lane is seeking a buyer.

In rookie director Jake Goldberger's twisty thriller, Church stars as a janitor who returns to his hometown at the behest of his old girlfriend (Elisabeth Shue), who says she is dying, and finds that everything is not as it seems. Melissa Leo co-stars. Church talks about the movie; here's an early peek:

After more than 30 years of not making it as Anvil, aging heavy metal rockers Robb Reiner and Steve Kudlow finally scored the career boost they needed from an unlikely source: a Brit who was once their roadie in 1983. In 2005, Hollywood screenwriter Sacha Gervasi (The Terminal) checked out the band online and realized they were still plugging away, trying to break through. He contacted lead singer and guitarist Lips and “within five minutes it was like I was 15 again,” he recalled during a Q & A after Anvil! The Story of Anvil at the Nuart Tuesday night. “He was exactly the same, so fully crazy, I started to believe him again. He believed so hard. They weren’t bitter. They truly believe that if they just hold on long enough that some kind of miracle is going to happen. In the end I realized it was an incredible story.”

So Gervasi pitched the doc to producer Rebecca Yeldham (The Kite Runner), who didn't care for heavy metal but loved the story. At Tuesday night’s Q & A after Anvil!, which finally opened Easter weekend after debuting at Sundance a year ago, Gervasi apologized for the absence of his stars. "They're playing in Seattle tonight," he said. "They'd love to see every screening of this film."

The band is on a seven-city tour backed by VH1, which will air the movie this summer, after a long struggle to find a distributor. Abramorama is handling the theatrical release of Anvil! which opened this past weekend at number one among specialty films, and performed best at LA’s Nuart Theatre with a per screen of $16,472. Landmark CEO Ted Mundorff believes so strongly in Anvil! that’s he’s moving it to the Westside Pavilion and adding screens around the country. Additionally, the Landmark chain is promoting the film via a sneaks program and plan to expand the tour dates for “The Anvil Experience,” which adds a performance by the band to the movie. They aim to peak in June.

Anvil! was all over my Facebook feed Easter weekend, fueled by good reviews (here are the NYT and New Yorker reviews), a Facebook page and Twitter-- John Mayer posted a twitpic of himself with Anvil. The domestic trailer went up on YouTube March 12 and hovered at about 300 views until two weeks ago when it shot up: it’s now at 21,658, while the U.K. trailer is at 86,470 views.

The movie has been good for the band. Their self-released 13th album has been selling well, and EMI Canada even approached Gervasi to help them sign the band—after turning them down in the movie. “They’re funny and human,” says Gervasi, who clearly loves these guys. “It’s about perseverance, friendship and family. It never stops. Last week Anvil recorded songs for Rock Band. They recorded ‘Thumb Hang.’ For guys like Lars Ullrich, who we interviewed for an hour, ‘it could have been me.’ These guys did get overlooked and they shouldn’t have. I had an opportunity to give them the support they needed.”

As for the inevitable comparisons to This is Spinal Tap, Gervasi responds: “Spinal Tap is the fake Anvil.”

Tuesday night, American Idol mentor Quentin Tarantino returned to the show sporting a Nazi haircut. Needless to say he didn't miss a chance to hype his World War II action epic set to debut at Cannes, Inglourious Basterds, with new footage. Here's the clip featuring Brad Pitt and Mike Myers as a British military mastermind who plots to wipe out Nazi leaders. The Weinstein Co. opens the movie stateside August 21.

Here's the trailer:

Here's the Inglourious Basterds Facebook page.