At the Produced By conference on the Sony lot last weekend, which was organized by Gale Ann Hurd and the Producers Guild, some of the best and brightest in the profession complained that nobody wants to fund movies for grown-ups these days. At Peter Bart's panel, Who Does What?, while producers Kathleen Kennedy and producing partners Lucy Fisher and Doug Wick talked about massaging tender egos, movies made to fill studio slots, fractious shoots turning out better movies than happy ones, and on-set disasters, they also complained that they can't make the films they'd like to make.

While big-budget high-concept four-quadrant movies get more care and feeding, "you've entered the business of making movies by committee," Kennedy admitted. "It's a challenge, once every department and the studio are weighing in, to protect the creative process." She described embarking on a $100-200 million studio tentpole as building a business from scratch: "You start a company, build it, hire everybody, create a commodity, market and distribute it, and you disband the company, even if it is successful. It's a ludicrous business model."

"It's what we do," sighed Fisher, who encouragingly suggested that with fewer companies making fewer movies these days, the studios are actually more powerful than the agencies, who no longer dictate or ram things down execs' throats.

Wick admitted that everyone is making less money--when movies that once cost $70 now cost $55 million, states like Michigan now look like viable places to shoot. As long as the talent you want is still willing to make the movie, that's okay. The studios are employing indie financing formulas and trying to apply them to talent, he said.

The current climate of fear causes less risk-taking and variation, said Kennedy. "They're all looking for the same thing. Tentpoles costing $150 to 200 million, formula pictures aimed at moviegoers 16 to 24, who are the movie-going demo. That's what's working. It's frustrating as a filmmaker. I've been in the business 20 years. My taste changes, evolves. Yet the baby boom generation is not going to the movies anymore. Few movies work in that demographic. I realize if I'm going to stay active and get movies made, I have to focus on what the studios want. They don't want movies that fall in the mid-range right now. They want big movies." (Here's EW's feature on adult films not working at the b.o.)

And these movies have to score right away, because three to four weeks later, they're gone. "We've entered the business of sports," said Kennedy. "Everybody's keeping track. Nobody talks about whether the movie is about, whether it's good, or the acting. That's changed a lot."

It had gotten too easy to get too many movies made, the producers admitted. And they insisted that as difficult as things are now, it's still possible to make a movie out of a really great script. Fisher holds on to the hope that we're in the midst of a cycle that will eventually give way to creative rebirth, while Kennedy finds that working with foreign partners is a positive thing, as she did with Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Persepolis. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's TinTin will open overseas two months before it comes stateside.

The negative of working with foreign sales companies, said Wick, is "the weird board game you play" of picking actors from column A and column B who may or may not be right for the part, just because they are bankable in certain territories.

Even Clint Eastwood, who participated in his own panel with producing partner Rob Lorenz, was able to push and cajole and raise indie money to get two movies made that no studio wanted: Mystic River and best picture Oscar-winner Million Dollar Baby. "You're always having to sell, it's never easy, you always expect someone up there you're going to have to cross guns with," Eastwood said. "I've gotten to the point where I've made pictures that were successful without catering to the 'core,' teenage kids. I don't want to make pictures for teenage kids, but it's great if kids come to see Gran Torino or Iwo Jima. I like to get the adults to come out. It's a challenge to make subject matter the whole family can see."

The Malpaso way, which is Eastwood's way, is lean, quiet, streamlined, actor-friendly--as long as they're willing to deliver in just a few takes. When Kevin Costner didn't show up on time for a scene during Perfect World, Eastwood just shot over the shoulder of his stunt double and was ready to shoot his face too when Costner turned up, shocked. "I'm paid to shoot film, that's what I'm here for," Eastwood told the star.

Producer-director-actor Eastwood resists taking a proprietary credit on a film. "When I watch production credits go to people who have nothing to do with producing the film, it agitates me," said Eastwood. "I like to see credit go to people who actually do work, not somebody's brother-in-law or agent. I hire smart people who try to make me look good."

Typically, Eastwood's latest, the South African drama Invictus, which Morgan Freeman brought to Eastwood, who in turn brought in Warner Bros., came in under its $50 million budget and four or five days shy of its 55 day schedule. "They bought it right away," said Eastwood. "It was an easy sell. Nelson Mandela is noble subject matter."

At age 79, will Eastwood keep making movies at his current pace? "That's the plan," he said. And westerns? No other script has spoken to him as a wrap-up of the old west as Unforgiven did. "It doesn't seem as if many people are writing them these days," he said.

After a video montage in which directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, and Oliver Stone paid tribute to Roger Ebert, Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker presented ShoWest's Career Achievement in Film Journalism Award to the Pulitzer-Prize winning critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. "Roger Ebert is the most popular, most respected, most honored, and most eclectic film critic in American history," Barker said, citing Ebert as "one of the few saviors of independent film--films of all shapes and sizes--American independent features, foreign films, documentaries, and animated films. Ask any independent filmmakers who Roger has championed. Errol Morris will tell you Roger gave him his career. Louis Malle used to tell everyone Roger Ebert saved My Dinner With Andre and Atlantic City from disaster, Robert Altman the same with several of his films. Pan's Labyrinth, Memento, Monster, Hoop Dreams, Roger and Me--we would not know these movies in the way we know them if it were not for Roger Ebert. This is fact."

Most journalists are in awe of Ebert's prolific output. But since he lost the ability to speak due to surgery for throat cancer, he has increased his writing, as if to compensate. And it has never been better. At ShoWest, Ebert's wife Chaz read his acceptance speech as he stood next to her. He mentioned his early and recent discoveries of directors Martin Scorsese, Mike Leigh and Ramin Bahrani. And he begged the exhibitors to please not only pay attention to number one b.o. performers but dedicate a screen or two to the independents as well. "Let's ask ourselves," he said, "how many of us would choose Fast & Furious for a night out at the movies over other indie films? They motivate adults to attend movies." He wound up: "At times like these, we all need to see a good movie."

[Photo: Ethan Miller, Getty Images North America]

Diablo Cody is not only the mother of Juno and the many faces of Tara but she has also spawned Jennifer's Body, starring hottie Megan Fox as a possessed mean-girl cheerleader gone very wrong. Think Carrie meets the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Karyn Kusama directs, Jason Reitman produces. (EW has a preview in their current issue which I can't find online.) It's due in the fall. UPDATE: And Cody is producing a script with Mason Novick called Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, written by ex-reader Geoff LaTulippe.

Never to waste a moment licking his Oscar wounds, Clint Eastwood talks to The Guardian about Gran Torino and his upcoming Mandela, based on the book by John Carlin. Morgan Freeman will star in the title role.

Trekmovie.com tours the new USS Enterprise. I know the J.J. Abrams movie looks commercial. It may charge up another next generation of fans. But this ship doesn't ring "Trek" to me. Isn't that important here?

An Education's Carey Mulligan is the toast not only of Sundance, but Berlin.

Variety owner Reed Elsevier negotiates to extend its loans.

The Oscar nominations are in and The Dark Knight did not make it to best picture. The Reader landed the slot instead, also scoring noms for Stephen Daldry for best director (over The Dark Knight's Chris Nolan), David Hare for adapted screenplay and Kate Winslet (instead of Revolutionary Road). The Dark Knight was in the running though, with eight noms, including a posthumous nom for Heath Ledger, who is the frontrunner for best supporting actor.

Harvey Weinstein is a happy man.

A late-entry in the Oscar race, The Reader was barely finished in time. But Weinstein knew he had a winner and several Oscar-watchers were telling me Golden Globes weekend that their Academy pals weren't saying they voted for The Dark Knight. They were hearing they liked The Reader, which finally landed five noms. (Penelope Cruz also landed a nom for supporting actress for TWC's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but Woody Allen was shut out for original screenplay.)

Media prognosticators who reach a consensus on these things aren't always right--check out The Gurus 'O Gold. Everybody said The Dark Knight--including me--because it was hard to figure anything else for that slot. The Reader was one of several possibilities, including two other films produced by Scott Rudin, Doubt (five noms) and Revolutionary Road (three). Rudin took his name off The Reader when he kept wrangling with Weinstein.

The other news was actors' actors Melissa Leo and Richard Jenkins landing nods. Many Academy voters loved Sony Pictures Classics' Sundance pick-up Frozen River, which also landed an unexpected nom for Courtney Hunt for original screenplay. The nom for Jenkins' quiet performance in The Visitor meant that Clint Eastwood did not get a slot for Gran Torino, nor did Leonardo DiCaprio for Revolutionary Road, which landed three noms, for costume design, art direction and supporting actor Michael Shannon. Eastwood had to console himself with Changeling's three noms (Jolie, cinematography and art direction). Gran Torino was shut out.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are also happy today, as both won noms. Jolie won an Oscar in 2000 for Girl Interrupted, while Pitt hadn't been nominated since his supporting role in Twelve Monkeys in 1996.

The best actress category was open for some surprises. Button's Cate Blanchett did not make it, nor did critics' faves Sally Hawkins and Kristin Scott Thomas, who were overlooked mainly because not enough people saw art-house entries Happy-Go-Lucky and I've Loved You So Long. Oscar perennial Mike Leigh did land his sixth Oscar nom, for his Happy-Go-Lucky original screenplay. He has never won.

Animated film Wall-E, from Pixar, didn't make it to best picture but it did earn six noms, including original screenplay, tying with Beauty and the Beast (which had four music noms). Pixar's Ratatouille earned five last year and won best animated feature, as Wall-E is likely to do.

Here's the list of noms, led by David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with 13. Someone asked me to make my Oscar pics before this morning, and I backed out. You have to get a feel for the whole list. Heading toward the Academy Awards night on February 22, Benjamin Button will be slugging it out with Slumdog Millionaire. But Milk also did very well, which is why I'm still picking Sean Penn to beat Mickey Rourke, partly because The Wrestler landed only two acting noms. Milk is going to have to win something.

UPDATE: Tom O'Neil explains why Bruce Springsteen didn't make the cut.

The noms list is on the jump:

The annual AFI awards lunch at the Four Seasons is low-key. Each of the companies behind one of the year's ten top movies or TV shows commandeers a table. Many of the major players, filmmakers and stars show up, because they don't have to do much more than walk a short press line and then hobnob and enjoy lunch with all their pals and rivals.

Emotions are running high because the Globes are Sunday night and the last remaining Oscar ballots are being filled out and each team wants their horse to win. Anxiety is palpable.

Fox Searchlight, the folks behind Slumdog Millionaire, are hoping that passionate supporters will put their little Bollywood hybrid first on the ballot--because they get more points that way.

The Wrestler's Mickey Rourke and Darren Aronofsky both showed up, sporting new facial hair. Smooth-faced Marisa Tomei wore a form-fitting knit gray dress.

Clint Eastwood and Chris Nolan presided over the Warners table. The Dark Knight is picking up steam, everybody agreed--one prognosticator I trust says it could win. Others are betting on Slumdog or Paramount's Curious Case of Benjamin Button. As we watched clips,it suddenly hit me that Brad Pitt--who delivers a performance unlike any he has ever given--might grab a nom after all. It's because he surprises people. He's like the pretty ingenue who turns out to be better than anyone suspected--even though he's still using his iconic looks.

Big-spender Universal is confident about getting a number of noms for Frost/Nixon, including Frank Langella, Peter Morgan and Ron Howard, who gave a benediction exhorting his colleagues to embrace their inner Obama and work together to entertain audiences who are facing troubling times, he said: “go into the next year supporting each other.”

Finding common ground were studio execs Kevin McCormick (WB) and Brad Weston (Par), who commiserated about unfounded exit rumors.

At the Frozen River table, Melissa Leo admitted that she's gotten many offers since this movie came out, and hopes to parlay a Sundance short into a feature. She was glowing.

The last time I cried on the way home from a movie was Million Dollar Baby. As I drove, I thought about the movie's battered girl in the hospital bed, surrounded by heartless relatives, and the coach who who loved her like a father. Down came the tears.

Clint Eastwood knows what he's doing. On my way home from Gran Torino, which made me laugh until the end, I started crying again. I suspect that the range of reactions to this spare movie, which Eastwood is releasing within a year of having first read the script, has to do with how people feel about Eastwood and his characters over the years, from Dirty Harry and The Man with No Name to Pale Rider's Preacher or the angry gunslinger bent on revenge in Unforgiven. Gran Torino's cranky Korean War vet Walt Kowalski consciously calls up an entire career of performances.

It's also generational. How we feel about the 78-year-old actor-director, who represents the values of an entire generation--good values, not just the prejudices he makes fun of in the movie--will also have an impact on our reaction. No matter what you think of Gran Torino--over-the-top though it may be--the Academy will respond well to this performance. This wily old codger could even give Sean Penn a run for his money.

Time's Richard Corliss lays it out here. And the WSJ's Joe Morgenstern likes it too.

Universal, Miramax and Paramount/Warners are heaving huge sighs of relief that the Golden Globes rewarded Frost/Nixon, Doubt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with five nominations apiece. The three films had been virtually overlooked by influential critics' groups in L.A. and N.Y. this week. Only Frost/Nixon and Benjamin Button were nominated in the Globes' best feature drama category, though, which tends to carry more weight than the comedy category. Doubt scored four acting noms, plus screenplay for John Patrick Shanley.

The Globes are voted on by a relatively small and insular group, the 80-member Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who are often wined and dined by studios eager to get the extra boost of attention from Globe noms at the height of the pre-Oscar nomination season when Academy voters are deciding which DVDs to watch. The noms are not predictive, but do help build momentum.

Thus although the Globes saw fit to only recognize Sean Penn's performance in Gus Van Sant's very American and very political Milk (which won best film from the NYFCC), that should not hurt its overall awards chances. Nor would this group be particularly drawn to a fable beloved by both American moviegoers and critics, The Dark Knight. And Gran Torino's masterful, reflexive performance by actor/director Clint Eastwood is more likely to play to the Academy than the HFPA. (Oddly, they rewarded Eastwood for score for the Changeling and best song for Gran Torino.)

For example, Harvey Weinstein has always done well with The Globes and won their support for Stephen Daldry's The Reader, set in post-World War II Germany and starring Kate Winslet, who also stars in her husband Sam Mendes' nominated drama Revolutionary Road, for which she grabbed a best actress nom. Both films grabbed four noms. And Winslet was given a supporting actress nom for The Reader, to prevent her from competing with herself. Both films needed a boost, as they were also neglected by the critics groups.

Well on their way to awards season glory are Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) and Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Weinstein Co.). which nabbed four noms apiece. And Searchlight's The Wrestler is solidifying more acting noms for Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei.

Ben Stiller's Paramount comedy Tropic Thunder scored two noms for Tom Cruise and Robert Downey, Jr., which isn't so surprising when you consider that the HFPA is often voting for who will attend the Golden Globes Awards party. Thus both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie gained noms for Button and Changeling, a feat that won't necessarily be repeated come Oscar nominations morning January 22.

The noms in the comedy categories are unlikely to have much impact on the Academy voters, who tend to reward gravitas, although Sally Hawkins, who was won best actress from the NYFCC, could score a best actress slot on January 22. Meryl Streep is more likely to land an Oscar nom for Doubt than for the raucous musical Mamma Mia!

Kristin Scott Thomas finally got some recognition for her role in the French film I've Loved You So Long, which was also nommed in the foreign film category, along with Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments, the Swedish Oscar entry, which is picking up support.

I've been taking a wait-and-see approach on the Oscar race. You really don't know until you screen all the pictures. But enough other people are seeing them, now, for me to take a stab at where the race is right now. And nobody I know of has seen Australia, Seven Pounds, The Reader or Gran Torino.

The movies are falling into five categories.

Best Picture frontrunners with likely deep support:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight (but Warners has to delicately calibrate this campaign)
Doubt
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Likely acting nods, but the pics need critical support and awards recognition:
Changeling (Angelina Jolie)
Defiance (Liev Schreiber)
Frost/Nixon (Frank Langella)
I've Loved You So Long (Kristin Scott Thomas)
Milk (Sean Penn)
Seven Pounds (Will Smith)
W. (Josh Brolin)
The Wrestler (Mickey Rourke)

Little Indies that Could:
Frozen River (Melissa Leo)
Happy-Go-Lucky (Sally Hawkins)
Rachel Getting Married (Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie Dewitt)
The Visitor (Richard Jenkins)
Wendy and Lucy (Michelle Williams)

Best Animated Feature:
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E (could go all the way if it lands enough noms)
Waltz with Bashir

Best Foreign Film
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Everlasting Moments
Waltz with Bashir

I love this headline at Filmdrunk.com: "Clint Eastwood is really pissed and old." That about describes this Gran Torino trailer:

I saw Changeling for the second time Thursday night. It's as good as I remember it from last May at Cannes. And it's just the kind of movie that Academy members will appreciate--it played well at the Academy premiere.

Clint Eastwood beautifully evokes Los Angeles in 1928, when women were passive creatures bossed around by men, when the LAPD was corrupt and lawless, and when the real Christine Collins made news headlines when the police tried to return to her a son who wasn't hers. When she refuses to submit to their version of the truth, they clap her in an insane asylum.

Angelina Jolie is more than fine as Collins. She says she modeled the role on her mother; she seems dead-on for the period. She's sympathetic; we care about her and root for her, and get very angry on her behalf. That may be what the movie has going for it the most, given our lack of trust in authority right now. The movie will play strictly for adults, who may come out in droves, starved for material as they are. And Jolie should easily grab an Oscar nom.

John Malkovich and Jeffrey Donovan are both strong, as her advocate and nemesis, respectively. And Michael Kelly, one of Variety's ten actors to watch, also pops.

I admire Eastwood's ethic of working fast and hard on multiple projects. I also applaud each film's organic shape and size, and the director's resistance to formulaic three-act structures. But there's something wrong with the trajectory of Changeling's last half hour. As long as the film hangs on Jolie, it works, but it takes a detour in its last third to focus on a serial killer mystery before returning to Collins' search for closure. Some Eastwood movies such as Flags of Our Fathers and Changeling seem to be missing that last final polish.

Peter Bart reflects on how Clint Eastwood has changed over the decades: for the better.

It sccored a not-so-great 51% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes (1979's The Changeling scored 77%). Here are reviews from Michael Wilmington and Todd McCarthy.

Read Steve Gaydos's report on his October 22 Q & A with Changeling screenwriter J. Michael "Joe" Straczynski on the jump.

Here's the trailer:

USA Today has a first look at Clint Eastwood's upcoming Gran Torino, his second film for 2008 (it opens December 17) and possibly his last performance as an actor. (They talk to him, too.)

Look at him! No, it's not a Dirty Harry sequel--nor will there ever be one, Eastwood has said. But I have to say he's still dangerous and sexy at 78. Here's John Horn on why Eastwood can still make studio/indie movies that defy industry "wisdom," like this and Changeling. They don't HAVE to open wide.

[Hat Tip: Slashfilm]

When it comes to this year's Oscar race, don't believe everything you read. So many movies haven't been seen yet, from Revolutionary Road and The Reader to Doubt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I hear Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett are all strong Best Actress contenders, but until we see the films...everyone's talking through their hat.

And the actress race is not as strong a field as people would have you think. I'm not clear on whether the Academy likes Rachel Getting Married and Anne Hathaway, for example. She gives a great, surprising performance, but Academy voters are not necessarily the target for this movie, which is playing younger. I wonder if Mad Men vet Rosemary DeWitt isn't a stronger candidate in the weak supporting category. (Debra Winger just doesn't have a juicy money scene.)

I'll check out how Clint Eastwood's Changeling plays at the Academy premiere Thursday night. Cannes is one thing, the reality of a fall release is another. I think that Changeling is a stronger shot than A Mighty Heart for Angelina Jolie, but nothing is certain with period dramas.

Speaking of which, I also need to see all of Australia before I make up my mind on Nicole Kidman. She's an accomplished and versatile member of the Oscar-winner club--but the Baz Luhrmann movie may not be a slam dunk Academy picture. The footage is looking broad and entertaining and romantic-- like King Solomon's Mines, say-- rather than epic and grand and Out of Africa. Which may be good news for its boxoffice potential. It all depends.

The one thing I'm sure of is that I've Loved You So Long's Kristin Scott Thomas will get nominated. Yes, she gives a great performance in a good movie that should play with Academy members. (UPDATE: it's opening day reviews are at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.) But here's why she'll gain a slot:

1) She wears no makeup, looks awful and moves from shut-down depression to life.

2) She's a Brit who speaks French. (She's lived in France for 25 years.) This is huge.

3) She's done good work for a long time and is overdue (she was nominated once, for The English Patient).

4) Scott Thomas is also earning raves on Broadway for The Seagull. This does not hurt one little bit.

Tom Tapp and Stephen Schaefer agree. (Unlike Schaefer, I do not think that this is Keira Knightley's year for The Duchess, rated 61 % on Rotten Tomatoes, nor do I believe that Queen Latifah will get anywhere this awards season. The Secret Life of Bees is a hit, but did not score strong reviews--58% on Rotten Tomatoes.)

UPDATE: Yes, I left off indie upstarts Sally Hawkins, who creates from scratch the astonishing character of Poppy in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, which is holding its own at the b.o., and Frozen River's equally deserving Melissa Leo, a movie that many will never see. Both have earned rave reviews and have a shot IF the critics groups, Golden Globes, and SAG nominating committees reward them. The Academy actors need to watch their films.

Leo has the advantage of being a well-known veteran character actress, while Brit Hawkins has no following here. That didn't hurt another Leigh performer, Vera Drake's Imelda Staunton, who grabbed an Oscar nom. But there are some who find Hawkins' Poppy irritating. I also left off Michelle Williams in Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy, despite the fact that the crafty Cynthia Swartz is working on her campaign. Look for Williams to score with the Indie Spirit awards. Mini-distrib Oscilloscope simply doesn't have the scratch to mount a competitive campaign. I wish annual merit awards didn't depend on money. But they do.

Meanwhile, word from the foreign film voters is that it is another strong year. The full list of 67 foreign entries is up at indieWIRE.com , where Anthony Kaufman looks at the foreign Oscar race. And check out the exhaustive database at The Film Experience.

Of the four out of 67 that I've seen, France's The Class is innovative improvisational filmmaking, but not super-emotional; Sweden's Everlasting Moments from The Emigrants' Oscar-winning Jan Troell is a career-capping, moving masterpiece; Israel's animated documentary Waltz with Bashir could have a devastating impact on the Academy; and The Netherlands' Norway's O'Horten is a small jewel. I look forward to seeing more.

Let the Oscar campaign begin. Here's the NYT's profile of Changeling star Angelina Jolie.

As the awards season gets under way, the Gurus 'o Gold have made their first stabs at weighing the upcoming Oscar race. It's early days yet. Many of these films have not been seen. For example, the gurus know more about Frost/Nixon, based on Peter Morgan's play, than anything else, which may account for its front-runner status--which is not necessarily a good place to be at this stage.

Frost/Nixon also features two head-to-head male leads who can't be relegated to supporting status: Frank Langella and Michael Sheen. That's also true of Jamie Foxx (who won Best Actor for Ray) vs. Robert Downey, Jr. in The Soloist. Actors will bend over backwards to give Downey something this year, even if it's a supporting nod for the comedy Tropic Thunder, because Iron Man is not an Academy movie (except perhaps for technical categories like FX).

It's back to the norm this year with the actors--the best actor field looks much stronger and more competitive than the best actress list.

Meanwhile fan site IGN has launched some counter-programming, their first annual IGN Summer Movie Awards, honoring the high-octane films that their readers care about most. Winners include Best Summer Movie: The Dark Knight, Best Director: Iron Man's Jon Favreau, Best Animated Movie: Wall-E, directed by Andrew Stanton, and less predictably, Babe of the Summer: Natalie Martinez, star of Death Race.

The latest Changeling trailer has gone up. The Clint Eastwood drama stars Angelina Jolie in a true story about a woman in the 1920s who fought L.A. City Hall. Changeling debuted to solid reviews at Cannes in May, didn't show at Toronto and will screen at the upcoming New York Film Festival.

Clint has another movie coming up in December, Gran Torino, in which he plays a curmudgeonly Korean War veteran who attempts to reform a Korean kid who tries to steal his vintage car. It continues to amaze me that when most directors are hard-pressed to deliver one movie a year, this guy keeps coming up with two. The question is, which movie will be the one that goes all the way to the Oscars?

Check out this list of top 100 westerns of all time from the Western Writers of America. They should be ashamed of themselves for these woeful rankings.

Here's the Top Ten:
1. Shane
2. High Noon
3. The Searchers
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
5. Dances with Wolves
6. The Wild Bunch
7. Red River
8. Tombstone
9. The Magnificent Seven
10. Open Range

Where are Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone, to name a few? (Farther down the list.)

Shane and High Noon are middle-of-the-road westerns that many people seem to love and I have never found interesting. I don't hate them. They're just not as resonant and well-made as so many others. John Ford's The Searchers is great (although I have to admit that the comedy sections aren't aging well). Howard Hawks' intense father-son drama Red River, which is devoid of sentimentality, holds up better. Many other Ford westerns are stronger than The Searchers, from Stagecoach to My Darling Clementine.

Butch Cassidy and Dances with Wolves were both entertaining, commercial products of their time. But not among the top ten best westerns! Unforgiven is down at number 16. Once Upon a Time in the West is at 37.

I'd be fine if Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch was number one. This movie changed the face of cinema. It's one of the best movies ever made, period.

1993's Tombstone is an underrated western, and was far superior to Lawrence Kasdan's competing Silverado Wyatt Earp. But it does not belong in the top ten. Is it that much better than Gunfight at the OK Corral, which is way down on the list? The Magnificent Seven is fine. But there are so many others that are even better. Same with Open Range.

Follow the rest of the list on the jump and you will find scattered throughout great movies like the Eastwood and Leone westerns, other Fords, other Peckinpahs and Hawks, and the wonderful films of Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher. Lonely Are the Brave is a great movie. So is the silent film The Wind. But Bend in the River and McCabe and Mrs. Miller are relegated to the 90s? Give me a break.

My alternative top ten westerns list? More like this:

1. The Wild Bunch
2. My Darling Clementine
3. Red River
4. Once Upon a Time in the West
5. Unforgiven
6. Bend in the River
7. Stagecoach
8. Ride the High Country
9. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
10. The Tall T

The rest of the Western Writers Top 100 follows, on the jump:

[Posted by Peter Debruge]
When critics inevitably say Dirty Harry looks better than ever on Blu-ray, they won’t be kidding (I wasn’t). Warner’s new hi-def edition is stunning in its clarity, to the degree that the word “gritty” (so much a staple of the Dirty Harry conversation in the past) no longer applies. These new hi-def transfers are so sharp, virtually no sign of film grain remains, a decision that surely reflects what the market currently demands, but also suggests a certain amount of very sophisticated tampering on the part of Warner Home Video.

Watching these films, I’m reminded of an interview with Eastwood’s longtime editor Joel Cox, who oversaw how the star’s films were being handled during the early days of homevid. Referring back to 1983, he told me, “We had just finished the film ‘Sudden Impact,’ and they put it through the process. They put the film out and changed the color and widened it and changed the sound around a bit. Clint had me go in and check it out, and we realized the people who did it took it upon themselves to make ‘corrections,’ figuring that we didn’t know how to time the picture or make the sound correct.”

Why Clint likes it gritty after the jump...

1. Paolo Sorrentino's Il divo (Italy): concise, focused, accessible, fascinating and entertaining despite arcane Italian political setting, this portrait of Giulio Andreotti won the jury prize. I can't wait to see Sorrentino's next. (Il divo has no stateside distributor.)

2. Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York (USA): utterly disciplined, Kaufman did what he set out to do, brilliantly, with humor. (Still for sale in North America; Sidney Kimmel may not make back his $20 million.)

3. Steve McQueen's Hunger (UK): this masterful directorial debut deservedly won the Camera d'Or and pushes Michael Fassbender toward stardom. (IFC will distribute.)

4. Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir (Israel): authentic and emotional, this hybrid docu-drama shows that there's a future beyond Persepolis for stylized animation in service of powerful story-telling. (SPC will release.)

5. James Gray's Two Lovers (USA): this director-on-the-rise is back on track and elicits one of Joaquin Phoenix's best perfs. (If 2929 Entertainment doesn't get the deal it's seeking, its own distrib Magnolia will release.)

6. Clint Eastwood's Changeling (USA): the only potential best picture Oscar contender at Cannes this year (among many likely foreign film candidates); Angelina Jolie should land a nom. (Universal will likely take it on the fall fest circuit.)

7. Kim Jee-Woon's The Good, The Bad and the Weird (Korea): this stunning Oriental Western homage to Eastwood and Leone boasts high-speed action like you've never seen before: think Stagecoach meets Jackie Chan meets The Road Warrior. This broad action comedy could be hugely commercial.

8. Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (USA): thanks to Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz's entertaining hijinks, this is Allen's best film since 1997's Deconstructing Harry. With Harvey at her back, Cruz is on her way to a supporting Oscar nod.

9. James Toback's Tyson (USA): this psychologically intimate interview with an iconic figure who is not all that he seems is not just for fight fans. (SPC will release.)

10. Atom Egoyan's Adoration (Canada): yet again, brainy auteur Egoyan explores the faulty fiction of family, history and memory. (SPC picked it up before Cannes.)

11. Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? (USA): as expected, this edgy Hollywood comedy showcasing Robert DeNiro's best role in ages (channeling writer-producer Art Linson) played better in Cannes, where it should have debuted all along. (2929's own Magnolia will most likely distribute.)

Mainstream commercial triumphs:
Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (USA): Spielberg and Co. took the gamble that the movie would score at Cannes and sure enough, it did.
John Stevenson and Mark Osborne's Kung Fu Panda (USA): DreamWorks and Paramount launched yet another global animation juggernaut out of the Cannes fest, which loves Jolie and Jack Black.

Noble Failure?
Steven Soderbergh's Che (Spain): there's a potential masterpiece buried within this sprawling, unfinished bio-epic (in which Benicio del Toro delivers a subtle, non-showy performance which was rightly rewarded with the best actor Prix). Whether Soderbergh will try to find it is another question. At this point HBO would be best suited to handle the film at its current four-hour, 18-minute length.

Clint Eastwood's Changeling screened well Tuesday, although the press conference was slightly muted, partly because so many of the world press had already interviewed Angelina Jolie for Kung Fu Panda. Here's Todd McCarthy's review, which hit the web within minutes of the end of the press screening, because Todd saw the film in L.A. and prepared the review in advance. And here's Kenneth Turan's LAT feature. Here's a collection of reviews.

UPDATE: And my red carpet commentary with IFC's Matt Singer:

It was wall-to-wall critics at the official black tie dinner at the Palme d'Or, with round tables and name cards; each table was named after one of Eastwood's movies. Rebounding from his last Cannes experience with the nastily reviewed The Da Vinci Code, producer Brian Grazer, who had the sense to send the Changeling script based on a real 1928 story to Eastwood, admitted that there were several points-of-view on the film's title. Basically, when Changeling was translated into French as "L'Echange," many folks liked The Exchange better. Eastwood was noncommital at the press conference. But Grazer thinks it will stay Changeling in the U.S.

Universal brass Ron Meyer, David Linde, James Schamus and Donna Langley joined a bevy of les meilleurs critiques du monde. Eastwood sat with wife Dina Ruiz, fest topper Thierry Fremaux, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who feels strongly that movies should be allowed to run at whatever their best length, whether it's Changeling or The Assassination of Jesse James, which he insists made no sense when it was cut down.

Eastwood's long-time editor Joel Cox said Eastwood has one of his great roles in his next, Gran Torino, as a curmudgeonly Korean War veteran who gets to know his neighbors. "One last time," added Eastwood, who says he's easing out of acting roles, and certainly won't play Dirty Harry again, despite rumors to the contrary. "Dirty Harry would not be in the police department at my age," he said at the press conference earlier in the day. Eastwood admitted that "The Man with No Name" was a marketing ploy when he was a no name himself, he said. "It all worked out."

Mystic River stars Tim Robbins and Sean Penn showed their support, while Zhang Ziyi was pushing a charity effort on behalf of China’s earthquake victims. Also on hand were Eastwood's kids Kyle and Alison, who's waiting on a script for a new movie. A chip off the old block.

The official schedule for the Cannes Film Festival will be available online as of May 10. Here's the sked for Indy 4:

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL Out of Competition (USA)

Press screening: Sunday 18 May / 1.00pm / Grand Théâtre Lumière

Photo-call: Sunday 18 May / 3.00pm / Palais des Festivals

Press conference: Sunday 18 May / 3.30pm / Palais des Festivals

Official screening: Sunday 18 May / 7.30pm / Grand Théâtre Lumière

Film-team:
Steven Spielberg / director
Harrison Ford / actor
Shia LeBeouf / actor
Karen Allen / actor
Cate Blanchett / actor
Ray Winstone / actor
John Hurt / actor
Jim Broadbent / actor
George Lucas / producer
Frank Marshall / producer
Kathleen Kennedy / producer

Running time: 125 minutes

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL will be released worldwide by Paramount Pictures.

Cannes has announced its classics program, including Richard Schickel's tribute to Warner Bros., narrated by in-house star/director/producer Clint Eastwood. Early buzz on Cannes competition entry Changeling (Universal), a mystery Eastwood directed from TV writer-turned-screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski's script based on real events unfolding in the 20s, is quite good.

The Cannes Film Fest announced its lineup Wednesday, and lo and behold, Steven Soderbergh's two Che films were included in the competition after all, as one four-hour entry. There had been some question if Soderbergh could finish the pics in time. Clint Eastwood's The Changeling and Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York are the three American films in the competition. Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda will show out of competition. Spielberg will return to the Croisette for the first time since The Color Purple in 1986. New films from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Walter Salles, Wim Wenders and Atom Egoyan will also be in competition. The opening and closing films have not been announced--Fernando Meirelles' Blindness, an Agnes Varda doc and Barry Levison's What Just Happened? were expected to be in the line-up.

Sean Penn will lead the main jury, comprised of Sergio Castellitto, Natalie Portman, Alfonso Cuaron, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Rachid Bouchareb. UPDATE: Penn has programmed a U.S. film by Alison Thompson, The Third Wave, as a special jury president presentation. Interestingly, Penn won an Oscar for Mystic River under the direction of competition director Eastwood, so that complicates the jury/competition dynamic just a tad.

Americans Abel Ferrara, Kelly Reichert and James Toback have films in the official Un Certain Regard selection, while David Lynch sprig Jennifer Lynch of Boxing Helena fame is in the midnight category.

The full line-up is on the jump:

Stateside, the Tribeca Film Fest kicked off Wednesday night in New York with Tina Fey's comedy Baby Mama. Still to unspool are David Mamet's jujitsu drama Redbelt, Errol Morris's Abu Ghraib doc Standard Operating Procedure and the Wachowski's family FX adventure Speed Racer.

Warners has booked a new Clint Eastwood pic for release at year's end, which would make 2008 another year with two Eastwood pics in it.

The guy is tireless. He also has Universal/Imagine's Changeling in the can. Gran Torino is the second (top-secret) film, reports Variety, and Eastwood would star-- for the first time since Million Dollar Baby.