Are Tom Clancy movies out of date? Too 80s? Am I the only one who still adores The Hunt for Red October? (It boasts a dreamy cast: Sean Connery, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, Stellan Sarsgaard, and the young Alec Baldwin.) Well, it turns out Paramount and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura are awaiting the first draft of an original screenplay currently called the "Untitled Tom Clancy Project" from screenwriter Hossein Amini (Jude, Killshot). Yes, Clooney has been discussed for Jack Ryan. But he would have to see script, director, etc. And the studio could choose to go with an older, or a younger Ryan.

Still, a robust franchise would buy Clooney plenty of weighty moral dramas like Good Night, and Good Luck and Syriana. Come to think of it, the hawkish Clancy isn't exactly inside Clooney's wheelhouse, politically speaking.

At one point Paramount was developing an alternative Clancy series, starting with the 1993 novel Without Remorse, a Vietnam era thriller that doesn't feature Jack Ryan (he makes a brief appearance, as does his father) but explores the character of the young John Clark/John Kelly played by Willem Dafoe in Clear and Present Danger. (Superman Returns star Brandon Routh was briefly mentioned for the CIA operative, while Clancy told Premiere in 2001 he preferred Matt Damon.) The studio announced John Singleton as director, but the movie never got anywhere. Another Clancy novel featuring Clark/Kelly, Rainbow Six, never got off the ground, even with Zack Snyder attached to write and direct.

Here's the Jack Ryan Special Edition DVD Collection.

What is your fave Tom Clancy movie?

Buried in this Kim Masters story about Sony bringing over George Clooney's production deal is a juicy nugget: Clooney wants to take over playing Jack Ryan in the Tom Clancy franchise. That is, if Paramount ever gets its act together and puts the next movie back on the front burner. It's been years since Ben Affleck took over from Harrison Ford as a younger Ryan, and acquitted himself well in The Sum of All Fears, which grossed $193 million worldwide in 2002.

The studio didn't go ahead and make another one with Affleck because his prime supporter, studio chief Sherry Lansing, was on her way out the door, and the movie did not score in overseas markets. In the past seven years, Affleck has gained some gravitas as a writer-director (Gone Baby Gone), but his star is not on the rise as a leading man (see State of Play, He's Just Not that Into You). When constant management shifts brought the studio a series of production heads, nobody seemed to recognize that the dormant Clancy series could be a valuable tentpole. With Affleck out, Clooney is perfect casting for a more mature Ryan.

In case you missed the ER reunion show on Thursday night: HitFix lays out the details, George Clooney and all.. Here are some clips:

With Cannes, Telluride and Toronto, behind us, New York Film Fest press screenings are now under way. Here’s a wrap-up of what I’ve seen and learned:

Ten Best Movies in Telluride/Toronto
1. Everlasting Moments: Jan Troell’s period masterpiece is likely to be the Swedish Oscar submission (IFC).
2. Slumdog Millionaire: Danny Boyle’s Toronto audience award winner is both a likely hit and awards contender (Warners/Fox Searchlight).
3. The Wrestler: Darren Aronofsky directed has-been actor Mickey Rourke as a down-on-his-luck wrestler to likely awards contention (Fox Searchlight).
4. The Hurt Locker: Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq War thriller breaks out tough-guy Jeremy Renner (Summit, 2009).
5. Flame + Citron: Ole Christian Madsen’s riveting WW II thriller won’t be the Danish Oscar submission (IFC).
6. Every Little Step: Jim Stern’s moving Chorus Line doc plays like a reality TV show full of winners and losers as dancer/actor/singers put their talent on the line to gain a slot in the revival of the Broadway hoofer classic. It’s a likely awards contender for best doc (juggling distrib offers).
7. I’ve Loved You So Long: Philippe Claudel’s two hander about two sisters could earn French-speaking Brit Kristin Scott Thomas best actress kudos (SPC).
8. Burn After Reading: The Coens return to their darkly comic roots with a skilled acting ensemble led by Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Fran McDormand (Focus Features).
9. Happy-Go-Lucky: Mike Leigh and actress Sally Hawkins could follow Vera Drake into the awards derby (Miramax).
10. Kisses: Lance Daly’s Irish runaway movie starring unknowns turns from black-and-white into color (weighing distrib offers).

Next Best:
11. Adam Resurrected: Paul Schrader directs Jeff Goldblum in a bravura performance as a charismatic showman who survives the holocaust but loses his mind (seeking distrib).
12. Zack and Miri Make a Porno: Kevin Smith is back in raunchy, gut-splitting form with two strong actors, Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks (Weinstein Co./MGM).
13. Easy Virtue: Stephen Elliott (Patricia, Queen of the Desert) directs a witty culture-clash comedy well-delivered by Ben Barnes, Jennifer Biel, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Colin Firth (seeking distrib).
14. Is There Anybody There? John Crowley’s family comedy stars Michael Caine in a brilliant performance as a senior fighting senility (seeking distrib).
15. Brothers Bloom: Rian Johnson’s ambitious second feature, a con-man caper comedy, showcases Rachel Weisz’s skills as a charming light comedienne (Summit).
16. Me and Orson Welles: Richard Linklater’s 1937 picture of the Mercury Theatre features uncanny Welles impersonator Christian McKay, a glowing Claire Danes and teen throb Zac Efron (seeking distrib).
17. Public Enemy Number 1, a work in progress from France, hangs on the powerful incarnation of notorious real-life French gangster Jacques Mesrine by Vincent Cassel. Filmed over one year in two parts, this film may be combined with number two into a single movie by distrib Senator for its 2009 U.S. release.
18. Dean Spangler: Peter O’Toole and Sam Neill shine in this strange, slow-burn New Zealand fable about reincarnation (seeking U.S. distrib).

Best Cannes Leftovers at Telluride/Toronto:
1. Il Divo: Paolo Sorrentino’s exhilarating e-ride through 70s and 80s Italian politics, while accessible, is considered too arcane for stateside release (seeking distrib).
2. Hunger: UK director Steve McQueen directs Michael Fassbender in a breakout perf as Irish activist Bobby Sands (IFC).
3. Waltz with Bashir: Iraeli Ari Folman’s animated doc could be nominated in both animation and doc categories (SPC).
4. Wendy and Lucy: Kelly Reichardt directs Michele Williams in a heart-rending performance as vulnerable woman on the road who loses her dog. Williams could be a long shot for year-end kudos consideration (Oscilloscope).
5. The Good, The Bad and the Weird: Kim Jee-woon’s non-stop kimchi western could score with action fans (IFC).
6. Synecdoche, New York: Not surprisingly, first-time director Charlie Kaufman spins a tale you have never seen before, with a sprawling ensemble led by the depressed (natch) Philip Seymour Hoffman (SPC).
7. Che: Steven Soderbergh’s bio-epic wound up as two movies in Spanish instead of one movie in English, but it’s still a must-see for Benicio del Toro’s portrayal of the controversial revolutionary (IFC).
8. Adoration: Atom Egoyan’s explores a tangled web of family history and memory; it's not Canada's Oscar submission (SPC).
9. O’Horten: Bent Hamer paints a precisely rendered, poignant portrait of a retiring train engineer trying to imagine life without trains; it's Norway's Oscar submission (SPC).

Toronto Disappointments:
Rachel Getting Married: Jonathan Demme’s movie about a dysfunctional family wedding features great actors and musicians and dizzy camera moves: eventually all three get irritating (SPC).
Blindness: Fernando Meirelles locks the audience up in a nasty prison full of piss and poop and murder and mayhem and madness and doesn’t open the doors until the movie’s almost over (Miramax).
Flash of Genius: producer-turned-director Marc Abraham turns the story of a Detroit inventor (Greg Kinnear) who fights Ford and loses all into a straight, old-fashioned, dull tale (Universal).

There's too much going on here. Lots to see, too little time.

This morning I went to the basement Silver Screening Room at the new ultra-ritzy Hazelton Hotel to catch the Coens' Burn After Reading. It's a wicked, nasty, arch, funny piece of work, very Coens, well-acted by Frances McDormand, who as usual provides warmth to what is a freezing cold view of the world. George Clooney's performance as a womanizer who happily cheats on his wife with Tilda Swinton, McDormand and anyone else who will open their legs is tinged with real sadness. And Richard Jenkins and a host of other supporting players are excellent, as usual. Brad Pitt is hilarious as a bumbling, cheery fitness instructor who tries to extort money out of CIA operative John Malkovich, with unfortunate, messy results.

What's the problem? The movie has chuckles, but people you care about--and others you don't--keep getting bumped off unexpectedly. This is not a light romp. It's fierce.

The Coen brothers have always been nothing if not idiosyncratic, and their trademark humor is not shared by everyone. It's always possible that their Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men was lightning in a bottle, a movie that caught the zeitgeist just the right way at just the right time.

Variety's Todd McCarthy is underwhelmed by their latest, the CIA caper comedy Burn After Reading, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and Frances McDormand, which opened Venice Wednesday night, while Peter Bart clearly enjoyed the movie.

I will catch it in Toronto. Here's the latest trailer.

Meanwhile the Coens are casting their next, the low-budget 60s period A Serious Man, starring stage actor Michael Stuhlbarg (The Pillowman) and TV's Richard Kind (Spin City) as a college professor and his brother, which is set to shoot in the Coens' home state, Minnesota. Unlike their last Scandinavian-inflected pic, Fargo, this one is seriously Jewish. So's their next script assignment: adapting Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

[Venice photos courtesy Awards Daily]

It's taken six years to turn Sue Monk Kidd's 2002 bestseller The Secret Life of Bees into a movie. Producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Joe Pichirallo, who followed the project from Fox Searchlight to Focus Features (where David Gordon Green was attached) to Will Smith's Overbrook production company and back to Fox Searchlight again, doggedly kept the project alive when it seemed like nobody wanted to do it.

Of course The Secret Life of Bees breaks all the conventions of what's deemed commercial these days: it's period (60s South Carolina) and it's about smart, cultured African-American women (not a low-brow urban comedy), although the lead is a white teenager (Dakota Fanning). The film could easily turn into yet another well-intentioned, inspirational heart-tugger (like Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters or Akeelah and the Bee) that earns rave reviews but still fails to build into a crossover hit.

So why did Fox Searchlight finally step up? First, because the book was a huge bestseller, there's a core femme demo to count on. Second, the women at the Fox specialty division loved the project and were willing to roll up their sleeves and push it. When marketing chief Nancy Utley throws her weight behind a pic, it usually gets made.

Gina Prince-Blythewood (Love and Basketball) adapted the book and directed the movie, which stars Fanning as 14-year-old girl who seeks more info about the mystery of her mother's death. She leaves her father (Paul Bettany) and turns up with her babysitter (Jennifer Hudson) at the home of a family of three sisters with a honey business: Queen Latifah. Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) and singer Alicia Keys, who delivers a song for the closing credits. It's 1964, during the Civil Rights movement.

Searchlight will be targeting two under-served audiences: African-Americans and women. One reason movies aimed at women are so risky is that they depend so much on execution. Searchlight is fanning the flames in Toronto, where The Secret Life of Bees will debut on September 5 in advance of its October 17 opening on 1200 or so screens. Here's the new trailer:

One of the high points of the recent Cannes Film Fest was talking to Brad Pitt at the afterparty for Clint Eastwood's Changeling, where we enjoyed some friendly cocktail banter over the appropriate length for The Assassination of Jesse James. Let's just say that we each held our own.

Pitt's antics in the trailer for the Coens' next, the CIA spoof Burn After Reading, made me laugh out loud. (The movie opens the Venice Film Festival this August.) Pitt's a movie star--and can be very funny--look at the Oceans films and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Clooney has mined a rich comedy vein in his films for the Coens, and clearly does so here, along with Tilda Swinton and Fran McDormand:

Happy Birthday, George! Clooney turns 47 today, and Marc Malkin reports on the birthday party attended by girlfriend Sarah Larson, David Beckham and others --complete with two birthday cakes--Monday night.

Having survived the release of Leatherheads--an old-fashioned period screwball comedy that would never have been made if Clooney hadn't thrown himself behind it--he now looks forward to premiering the Coens' CIA satire Burn After Reading, also starring Brad Pitt, at Venice at summer's end. And he's voicing the title role in Wes Anderson's animated pic The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

It annoys me when people use Clooney as an example of the kind of star who doesn't open movies anymore. Look at his filmography: he often purposely picks movies that are obviously not commercial, like Steven Soderbergh's The Good German or Solaris. He cares more about having a worthwhile film legacy than about how much his movies open or how much he gets paid. (He did not pay himself $20-million to make Leatherheads.) More and more, actors are figuring out that diversity is the best policy.

Take Maria Bello. I interviewed her onstage at the Castro at the San Francisco International Film Fest last weekend. Bello doesn't dwell on image or boxoffice. She took over the Rachel Weisz role in Mummy 3 because she's wanted to do an action flick ever since she first saw Raiders of the Los Ark. Bello is one of the rare actresses to navigate the Hollywood system by making intelligent choices while keeping her dignity intact, taking on a range of juicy roles, large and small, studio and indie, all different. This is no blushing ingenue.

She's never afraid to take her clothes off and deal with sex and intimacy in a movie like The Cooler; she's seeking danger in such roles as Downloading Nancy, which creeped people out at Sundance this year. She looked stunned when I asked if she had any rules for what she would or wouldn't do. (The answer was no.) She likes to take a chance on a rising director like Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking). She played the real Donna McLoughlin for Oliver Stone in World Trade Center, a hooker opposite Mel Gibson in Payback, was married to the very kinky Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) in Paul Schrader's Autofocus, cracked up on the set with Viggo Mortenson and David Cronenberg while shooting the intense A History of Violence, was romanced by a younger man in Robin Swicord's Jane Austen Book Club, debuted Alan Ball's Nothing is Private in Toronto and Yellow Handkerchief (with Bill Hurt, below) in Sundance. She is currently filming Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

George Clooney and his father Nick have come to rely on civil rights attorney David Pressman for advice and support on his various political activities, writes the LAT's Tina Daunt:

Then the elder Clooney met one of Pressman's relatives at a party and learned of the extensive connections the young lawyer had made in the region through his work as a special assistant to then-Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and, later, as a Sudan expert for the United Nations. The elder Clooney called Pressman the next day. Both Clooneys quickly came to view Pressman as a member of the family. "I call him 'Cuz,' " Clooney said. "My dad seems to think we're related. I'm not sure how he came up with that."

The idea makes Pressman chuckle. "He's an Irishman, and I'm a Jew. Go figure."

Over lunch recently at a fashionable bistro near his Chelsea law office, Pressman recalls that a female friend reacted in horror when he told her that he was taking George Clooney into Darfur. "She said, 'You realize if anything happens to him, you will be committing the greatest crime against womankind,' " Pressman said.

Since the first trip in 2006, Pressman and Clooney have gone on a number of missions to Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa to lobby for peace in Darfur.

[Photo courtesy of the LA Times]

As expected, the Coens' next film, the CIA comedy Burn After Reading (starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney), which was not going to be ready in time for Cannes, will open the Venice Fest this year.

Here's yet another big fat juicy feature on George Clooney, who's starting to feel a tad overexposed now, because he did a full-on Oscar campaign this year for Michael Clayton. And is the New Yorker going to sell tickets to Leatherheads? Well, that's its target audience if anything is. (It opened in third place last weekend, after holdover 21 and family comedy Nim's Island.)

[New Yorker photo]

At the weekend boxoffice, George Clooney's period screwball comedy Leatherleads (54% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes) dukes it out with family film Nim's Island, starring Jodie Foster (46 %). Here's Variety's boxoffice forecast.

The one to see, especially if you appreciate Martin Scorsese's mise-en-scene and the Rolling Stones in performance, is Shine a Light, which earned 86% fresh on the Tomatometer. (Here's Stephen Schaefer's report of the Stones' NYC press conference.) I will be catching up with Stop-Loss (62%) while it is still in theaters.

Fandango Five – Ticket Sales (as of 4/4/08 10:00 a.m. PT)

Movie Fandango User Rating % Fandango Sales

Nim’s Island “Go” 15%

Leatherheads “Go” 12%

Shine a Light “Go” 12%

21 “Go” 7%

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! “Go” 7%

Fandango Weekly Poll (as of 4/4/08 10:00 a.m. PT)

George Clooney's Leatherheads opens this week. Of the movies below, which one is your favorite Clooney flick?

Ocean's Eleven 43%

O Brother, Where Art Thou? 31%

Michael Clayton 10%

Three Kings 7%

Out of Sight 6%

Syriana 3%

George Clooney is the sort of movie star who gets to do what he wants, especially if he's willing to direct himself. In this case the period football comedy Leatherheads had been languishing on the shelf at Universal for decades, and was going to be directed by Steven Soderbergh at one time. Clooney's version is a sweetly daffy valentine to classic Hollywood screwball comedies, Coen brothers comedies and romantic comedies. Clooney stars as a handsome over-the-hill football player who's pretty smart but gets beat up on the playing field and takes plenty of pratfalls and romances a wise-cracking reporter (Renee Zellweger).

Does Clooney have the directing chops of Howark Hawks (His Girl Friday's Rosalind Russell is a model for Zellweger's tough-girl reporter) or the Coens? That's a tall order, but he does use the Coens' storyboard artist, and the film looks great. It could have been a tad sharper and faster and better, and I suspect it will have more appeal to women over 25 than anyone else. Whether the football marketing will alienate them is anyone's guess, and the critics are bound to be mixed. Here's Variety's review.

Universal has been spending heavily on Leatherheads, even giving it a Superbowl send-off spot, but I can't imagine it will make its P & A money back, much less its budget. Which will make it all the more difficult for execution-dependent, overtly uncommercial movies like this to get made. All power to Clooney for having the moxie to go for it, commerciality be damned.

UPDATE: Here's Clooney's interview with Reuters.

During his Leatherheads PR duties, George Clooney said that he plans to direct, but not star in a screen adaptation of the political Farragut North, reports Cinematical. Well after the election.

While speculation runs rampant on whether or not the Coens will take their next movie, the CIA pic Burn After Reading, starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, to Cannes--obviously Thierry Fremaux will want it, but he hasn't screened it yet; UPDATE: Working Title says it probably won't be finished in time--in the meantime Focus Features has booked the Working Title movie to go wide on September 12. This suggests that after the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men (which soared 67% this weekend) the Coens have jumped out of art-film territory and boast more commercial appeal; this pic's stars are certainly big enough to warrant a wide opening.

BTW, over the weekend I caught up with Time's entertaining Clooney cover story, which involves writer Joel Stein (who has a man-crush on George) inviting the star over to his modest abode for dinner. Stein proceeds to undercook the bloody entree, sets off house alarms and sends Clooney skittering into his dusty attic.

Clooney is more accessible than most stars, and understands and therefore manipulates the press better than anyone. I've met stars who can turn the charm on and off and focus their laser-beams on you in a way that can be unnerving. But no one is a better politician, remembering first names, delivering engaging attention, than Clooney. He's got the gift. He likes journalists because he grew up the son of one. That makes all the difference in the world. Other stars may have the same ability--they just don't choose to expend their energy.

Here are the final Oscar picks from the august selecters at the LAT Buzzmeter and MCN's Gurus o' Gold. I think the latter's more elite collective picks are closer to the mark than Buzzmeter's, for what it's worth.

Swearing that he has never lost an Oscar pool, George Clooney makes his predictions in Time. He's astute, but I don't think supporting actress is Amy Ryan--it's either Tilda Swinton or Cate Blanchett-- and I sticking to may have to drop my cockamamie Ronald Harwood theory in adapted screenplay.

At long last, the Oscar ballots are in and it is the week before the Oscar kudocast! It's time to make your fearless forecasts and plunk your money down in your office pool. (I can tell you one thing--it's not easy to come out on top here at Variety, where everyone is an Oscar expert.)

I'll be filing my final Oscar predicts today at the LA Times Buzzmeter and MCN Gurus O' Gold polls. Oscar expert Pete Hammond lays out what's at stake for the Coen brothers: they could make Oscar history and equal Walt Disney's 1953 win in four categories. I don't think they will, though...Oscar voters are likely to parcel out some wins for other movies too. I'm betting the Coens win picture and director and not adapted screenplay (Ronald Harwood could steal it for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and editing (as Roderick Jaynes). The movie could also pick up Javier Bardem and a sound award or two. I also don't buy into the thesis that No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood will cancel each other out. I suspect No Country will beat There Will be Blood in some categories like picture and director, and TWBB will win some others, like cinematography (because Roger Deakins is competing with himself and Janusz Kaminski will also pull some votes) and art direction.

As always, our own Oscar blogger Kris Tapley links to everything you'd ever want to know about the Oscar race, from Shootout's interviews with the likes of George Clooney to Nathaniel Rogers' latest Oscar symposium.

Here's Salon on the Oscar race, the LAT's Patrick Goldstein on No Country for Old men producer Scott Rudin, Film School Rejects, and Oscar forecasts from Stephen Schaefer and Scott Feinberg. (Send me more, by all means.)

Glenn Kenny is doing the same he said/she said Oscar ritual--albeit in blog form--that I used to love doing at Premiere. (I couldn't do it this year.)

Over at his Vanity Fair Oscar blog, The Reeler has come up with a novel (and morbid) way to liven up your Oscar pool.

Here's one clip from the Shootout Clooney interview:

And an ode to the Oscar nominees (hat tip Awards Daily):

There were some welcome surprises this nominations morning. (Here's Variety's story.) Atonement made it to best picture. While Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Joe Wright did not win noms, Saorise Ronin did. Christopher Hampton earned a screenplay nod. The Guilds don't always reflect the Academy, clearly; this means the battle for the fifth slot was fierce. But Atonement got seven noms altogether; Michael Clayton seven, Juno four, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, four, and Sweeney Todd got only three (Johnny Depp, art direction and costume); Juno's Jason Reitman, not Tim Burton, landed a director's slot. A surprise, but well-deserved. (I was talking to him here in Park City last night at the WMA party; he was nervous because he didn't get a writing nom last time for Thank You for Smoking.)

Atonement took the fifth best picture slot away from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Julian Schnabel got director, and Harwood screenplay, but Diving Bell, which is foreign language, didn't make it all the way.

Into the Wild must not have been that strong because Sean Penn and Emile Hirsch did not get nominated. It was shut out earned expected supporting actor nom for Hal Holbrook and editing. Eddie Vedder's music might have gotten in if it hadn't been disqualified. I never thought Into The Wild would score with the Academy, but Paramount Vantage gave it the full court push.

If Jonny Greenwood's score hadn't been disqualified, There Will be Blood might have nine noms to No Country for Old Men's eight. Vantage, Miramax and producer Scott Rudin, who partnered on those two films, are having a very good day.

The Academy loves Cate Blanchett, nominating her twice, for Elizabeth and I'm Not There, movies she dominated. She can do no wrong. Laura Linney beat Angelina Jolie, which is an upset but proves that the Golden Globes and SAG do not necessarily match up with the Academy. The Savages is well respected; so is Linney; so is screenwriter Tamara Jenkins. When in doubt, the Academy goes with the class act. Four solo women screenwriters got nominated, my USA Today pal Susan Wloszczyna pointed out on the phone this morning.

I had a flash that Tommy Lee Jones could be nominated for not only In the Valley of Elah, but also on some level No Country for Old Men. I wish I had listened to that instinct. And Viggo Mortensen got a deserved first Oscar nomination for David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.

Casey Affleck took the fifth supporting actor slot. And Jennifer Garner didn't make it; Ruby Dee got the older vet slot, for American Gangster.

The full list of noms are on the jump.

The Screen Actors Guild nominees took some surprising directions. (Here's Variety's story.) They reflect a few things about SAG, and may not predict Academy voting behavior. The two groups often share noms but also go their separate ways.

Actors LOVE Sean Penn, whose Into the Wild grabbed four noms. Hal Holbrook is still the most likely Oscar nom for this film, but Emile Hirsch and Catherine Keener get a leg up. Remember, actors adore Penn, but the rest of the Academy voters may not.

I hope the attention SAG voters gave Lars and the Real Girl's Ryan Gosling, Eastern Promises' Viggo Mortensen and A Mighty Heart's Angelina Jolie will inspire Academy voters to watch those three films.

Actors love Cate Blanchett. Like the Golden Globes, she grabbed two noms, for best actress for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and supporting actress for I'm Not There. I doubt the Oscar actors will go for Elizabeth.

SAG voters are somewhat more mainstream than the Academy actors. They steered away from such late-breaking high-brow Academy contenders as Sweeney Todd and Atonement. No Johnny Depp, James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saorise Ronan. They went for There Will be Blood's Daniel Day Lewis, but not Paul Dano. Michael Clayton's George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson continue to gain traction for Academy Oscar slots. SAG voters skipped such foreign-language fare as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Kite Runner, but came through for Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose, which was a hit here. It makes sense that they embraced the great ensemble acting in the hugely entertaining 3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster, Hairspray and No Country for Old Men (both Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem got supporting actor noms).

American Gangster won a best ensemble nod and Ruby Dee is a supporting actress nominee, but Denzel Washington got nothing, not for American Gangster nor The Great Debaters, which some SAG voters may not have had a chance to see. While American Gangster seems to be losing momentum (it has fallen out of the LAT's Buzzmeter poll's top five for best picture) my sense is that many Academy voters like it a lot. Charlie Wilson's War, on the other hand, which opens this weekend, hasn't got a pulse.

The full SAG nominations list is on the jump:

With seven nominations, Joe Wright's Atonement led the field of Golden Globe nominations Thursday morning. It was a good day for Denzel Washington, who stars in two films out of seven in the motion picture drama category: American Gangster, in which he stars as a Harlem kingpin, and The Great Debaters, a heart-tugging period drama about an upstart debate team at a black college who take on Harvard, which he also directed. He was also nominated for best actor for American Gangster.

The 80 or so Hollywood Foreign press voters wound up with three ties for fifth place, they say; hence the seven drama slots.

Michael Clayton earned five noms, including George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson. Cate Blanchett landed two noms, for dramatic actress in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and for her supporting role as one of six Bob Dylans in I'm Not There. And Philip Seymour Hoffman won two comedy side noms, as best actor in The Savages and supporting actor in Charlie Wilson's War.

While considered a bellwether for the Oscars, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association generously breaks its best picture and actor candidates into two categories: drama and musical/comedy, while the Motion Picture Academy does not. Thus, on January 22 the Academy may not find room to reward all the musical/comedy Globe entries: Across the Universe, Hairspray, Juno, Sweeney Todd and Charlie Wilson's War, which landed five noms.

The director category reveals the strongest five Globe candidates: Sweeney Todd, No Country for Old Men, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, American Gangster and Atonement. I would not be surprised if those five also wound up as Oscar's best on January 22. While its youthful director Jason Reitman did not land a director Globe mention, Juno, which got nods for comedy, actress (Ellen Page) and screenplay (Diablo Cody) is gaining momentum in the Oscar race.

There's no question that Hairspray got a significant boost from the Globe nominations, especially John Travolta in the supporting actor category, who had been overlooked by critics' groups. Also getting much-needed recognition was Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Among the Globe surprises that may not be mirrored on the Oscar side of the ledger:

David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises and star Viggo Mortenson earned drama nods.

Angelina Jolie landed a dramatic actress nom for A Mighty Heart.

Jodie Foster was recognized for her role as a Manhattan vigilante in The Brave One.

On the musical/comedy side:

Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky and Sweeney Todd's Helena Bonham Carter landed noms.

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts won noms for Charlie Wilson's War.

John C. Reilly landed a nod for the musical comedy Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

Ryan Gosling got a much-needed boost for the indie flick Lars and the Real Girl.

Of the musical/comedy actor nods, the likeliest one to score with the Academy voters is Sweeney Todd's Johnny Depp.

Because the Globes have less stringent criteria for inclusion in its foreign film category, several films that are not eligible for the Oscars made the cut: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Lust, Caution and The Kite Runner. Nominees 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Romania) and Persepolis (France) are considered strong contenders in the foreign Oscar race.

While many would-be awards-season contenders are crying in their beer today, all is not lost. It is possible to forge ahead without Globe noms, as Half-Nelson star Gosling did last year.

The full list of movie nominations is on the jump.

The National Board of Review, which is not necessarily predictive but does add early momentum to movies in the award season derby, has named the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men as best film. It's a happy day in the Affleck family, as both Ben and his brother Casey grabbed nods for best new director (Gone Baby Gone) and best supporting actor, respectively. Amy Ryan also nabbed a supporting actress win for Gone Baby Gone. Oscar blog And the Winner Is goes through the nominees exhaustively.

The other winners are:

Director: Tim Burton, "Sweeney Todd"

Actor: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"

Actress: Julie Christie, "Away From Her"

Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"

Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"

Foreign Film: "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly"

Documentary: "Body Of War"

Animated Feature: "Ratatouille"

Ensemble Cast: "No Country For Old Men"

Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Emile Hirsch, "Into The Wild"

Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Ellen Page, "Juno"

Best Directorial Debut: Ben Affleck, "Gone Baby Gone"

Best Original Screenplay (tie):Diablo Cody, "Juno" and Nancy Oliver, "Lars and the Real Girl"

Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, "No Country For Old Men"

Besides "No Country," here's NBR's top ten, in alphabetical order:

While I admire Kris Tapley's attempt to make some sense out of the blizzard of Oscar predictions out there, I remain convinced that until the prognosticators see Charlie Wilson's War and Sweeney Todd, the two films that many of us got invited to see Monday, none of these lists make much sense. Richard Corliss in Time suggests that "audiences will have a great time watching" Charlie Wilson's War, which seemed to play for Oprah Winfrey's Chicago audience. Oprah raved about Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance, as guests Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (who tried to get out of shooting a bikini scene while four weeks pregnant) nodded politely. My hunch is that Hoffman won't get nommed for best actor for The Savages or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, but will get a supporting nom for Charlie Wilson's War.

Clearly, the non-pro fans on Movie City News and Awards Daily are voting with their youthful hearts and not thinking much about the Academy's tastes. Into the Wild is a popular movie that has a chance at some noms, especially for Hal Holbrook, but because of the way the movie was written, shot and performed, the different branches of the Academy may not take it seriously enough. It's shot doc-style on location, it looks like it was performed on the fly. I suspect the editor has a better shot than Penn as director or writer, Emile Hirsch as actor, or the cinematography. The Academy admires fakery, sets, costumes and literature. As an organic whole, Into the Wild is an entertaining, thought-provoking emotionally rewarding movie. But it's a long-shot as an Academy contender.

David Fincher's Zodiac is another movie that isn't gaining Oscar momentum. It was well-reviewed last summer March, and many critics will include it on their ten-bests. But its time has come and gone. It was an expensive big-budget studio failure. It's indulgently long, and Fincher's insistence on verisimilitude meant not giving viewers a satisfying narrative arc. The movie has its merits--hell, it will be on my ten best list---but an Oscar contender needs to have enthusiastic supporters, few detractors and a passionate push behind it. It needs confidence. Zodiac has too many deficits. Paramount is already gearing up to make a major Oscar push for Fincher's next, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett as star-crossed lovers twisted by time, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

I got into a heated debate with someone in the office yesterday about Enchanted, the animated/live action comedy that brilliantly spoofs Disney's classic animated musicals. This movie is just what the doctor ordered: entertaining, witty, engaging, delirious fun. It's a three-quadrant accessible family musical that will grow and grow and grow through the holidays. Whatever it opens at Wednesday, it will keep building: the movie could wind up one of the year's biggest grossers. Men will initially resist the chick flick's charms, but they should eventually get pulled into Enchanted's vortex. Amy Adams gives a full-blown star breakout performance (on Oprah, a clip of her from Charlie Wilson's War caused both Hanks and Roberts to chime, "Amy Adams," naming her the It Girl of the moment). Adams could land, Julie Andrews-style, a nomination for best actress. (Why Disney isn't thumping the movie harder, I don't know. Most of us media folks didn't see it until last week. UPDATE: And yet again, the Academy screening committee in its wisdom has scheduled Alvin and the Chipmunks during its prime December viewing season, and not Enchanted.)

But Enchanted is not your standard-issue Oscar movie. Director Kevin Lima (Tarzan, 102 Dalmations) has made a successful crossover from animation. Bill Kelly's script is witty and smart and should land a nomination. But will it? Let's be honest about the Academy. They are SNOBS! They are high-minded, nose-in-the-air, classists. The more literary, historic, and pretentious the better. (EW's Mark Harris explains the Oscar predicting game.) The last animated film to make it to Best Picture was Beauty and the Beast (for which Lima did character animation), before there was an animation category. Sure, I'd also like to see the best-reviewed movie of the year, Pixar's fabulous Ratatouille, score screenplay, director and picture. It deserves it. But it won't necessarily happen.

The trick with Oscar predicting is feeling where the momentum is going and looking into the future, down the line. The best prognosticators have seen the movies, one. And two, they're not rooting for their favorites. They're staying ruthlessly objective. Do I have some pics I'm rooting for? Sure. But I have to take that into account and remain clear-eyed. The year I let emotions get the better of me and predicted that Beauty and the Beast would win, I was so wrong.

As for the Academy docs short list of 15, they are the the best-known and best-reviewed: the full list is on the jump.

Predictably, Clooney's busy sked and the pushing back of the opening of Leatherheads to 2008 has taken him out of White Jazz. Joe Carnahan is scrambling to find someone else.

Horror flick 30 Days of Night handily won the weekend. (Here's Variety's weekend wrap. Of all the "serious" Hollywood contenders clogging theaters this weekend, Michael Clayton held the best (only dropping 33%) while We Own the Night dropped a steep 49%.

Of the newbies, Ben Affleck's well-reviewed Gone Baby Gone (92% on rottentomatoes!) came in sixth, performing better than the disappointing Rendition, Things We Lost the Fire and Reservation Road--all grim adult-minded dramas.

What a bloodbath. Of the family pics, The Game Plan only dropped 26%, while Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? dropped 43%. Game Plan has already grossed almost $70 million. What that tells us more than anything is that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a bonafide movie star. Doesn't matter if he can act. Folks love the guy.

Reading this thread on Hollywood Elsewhere responding to Kim Masters' Slate story on George Clooney and the boxoffice fate of Michael Clayton depressed me.

George Clooney is the model of a modern movie star. His accountant told him one day he never had to work another day in his life and he decided to use that "fuck you" money to make good movies. (Solaris and The Good German were both noble Steven Soderbergh failures.) I understand that Clooney signed off on Warner Bros.' stupid distribution decision to go wide with Michael Clayton on the second weekend.

What makes me crazy is that the studio had a well-reviewed, smart-house, classy movie that played well for the Academy and cost only $22 million. That's peanuts to a studio like Warners and there was no earthly reason to go wide! They could have let those per-screen averages play out slowly over time, kept the movie simmering in a successful mode, and widened gradually, keeping the Oscar race in mind. This is the kind of movie that builds and finds an audience. As long as it's successful, all well and good. But taint it with a 4th-place weekend and you've got the perception of damaged goods.

As to whether George Clooney is a star: if he gets paid $20 million, does he open the movie? Well, the guy doesn't get paid that much. He'd rather get his money in back-end gross. If he chooses to topline big commercial ensembles like the Oceans series or star opposite a giant wave, that's fine. If he makes overtly uncommercial movies that still do business, because they're Oscar-worthy, like Syriana and Good Night and Good Luck, that few other actors would have risked, that's fine too.

Look at someone like Harrison Ford, who's too scared to star in Traffic or Syriana. Is that who we want Clooney to be? There is value in a movie star like Jodie Foster (The Brave One aside, a violent action movie nobody wanted to see her in) or Clooney who represents quality. When the adult audience believes that their movies will be good, they will come--but not necessarily all at once on one weekend.

With all due respect to my colleague Brian Lowry, who correctly called Michael Clayton a tricky sell because the movie lacked car chases and the usual formulaic thrills and chills--that's exactly why the movie is so good, and why it's ranked at 82 on Metacritic.

Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? handily trounced the competition this weekend. Here's Variety's Saturday boxoffice report. Fantasy Moguls. A NYT feature on Perry. And Variety's review. UPDATE: Here's Variety's Sunday boxoffice report.

Boxoffice prognosticators expected George Clooney's Michael Clayton to do better. But I worried that Warners was broadening the picture too early. The art of platforming is a delicate one. Sony and Paramount Vantage bet correctly that Across the Universe and Into the Wild would slowly build audiences. But for WB to leap from 15 to 2511 locations after just one week was too far, too fast. The risk for Clayton, which has long-term Oscar prospects, is that a critical winner could be tainted by failure. Clayton is not a thrill-packed action ride. It's an old-fashioned character-driven talk fest. It needs careful handling, not a sledgehammer.

The LAT examines Clooney's hits and misses.

As for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Universal seemed blissfully sanguine that because they could sell action and spectacle in their TV spots, that they could magically switch this big-budget epic sequel from the smart-house specialty track to the mainstream. Big mistake.

[Perry photo by NYT]

Clooney fans: Charlie Rose interviewed Clooney Wednesday night. You can download the interview on the Charlie Rose website.

[Toronto Film Fest 2007 photo by Jeff Vespa, WireImage]

Things are looking up for Michael Clayton, which opened to rave reviews (a terrific 88% fresh on rotten tomatoes) and boffo initial box office in limited release.

Michael Clayton will be an interesting test of George Clooney's star power, as unlike the FX-heavy Perfect Storm or the Oceans flicks, the movie rests on his shoulders. Syriana and Good Night and Good Luck were both boosted by Oscar campaigns, a fate that may also meet this film. I've seen the movie twice; it's a smart-movie pleasure which sprang full-blown from the head of Tony Gilroy, who wrote all three of the Bourne pictures. He waited some five years to be able to direct Clayton himself, and managed to land Clooney, who initially resisted meeting him. "When asking someone to direct, your level of trust has to be so high," Gilroy told me over coffee at the Four Seasons bar.

Typically, it was only when CAA's Rick Hess raised some indie equity coin for the picture (from Steve Samuels) that Gilroy was able to say to one of Michael Clayton's director godfathers, Steven Soderbergh, "OK, I'm making this, may I please meet George to see if we get along?" They did, and talked for eight hours straight. (The other mentor was Sydney Pollack, who also stars in the film.) Clooney agreed to star for back-end gross only: the movie cost just $20 million upfront. Even so, Gilroy was able to shoot in New York City, with Clooney on hand to press the flesh whenever he needed help. "He'd put Vernon Jordan on hold to talk to the cops," says Gilroy.

Gilroy always wrote Clayton with the opening monologue from the mad lawyer, which is nailed so well by actor Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom). Gilroy actually shot it on the first day of filming, in a freezing Queens jail cell with Clooney. "I had Tom do it in front of him. George knew he was doing that, he wanted it. He went home and got a good night's sleep," Gilroy jokes.

Wilkinson is getting serious Oscar buzz. So are Gilroy and Clooney. Like Soderbergh's similar Erin Brockovich, Michael Clayton could win up as one of the last films standing in the Oscar fray.

Perhaps remembering how hard he had to work to equally promote his two Oscar contenders in 2005/2006, Clooney has decided, following his recent motorcycle spill which painfully broke one rib, to back off trying to finish his third film as director, Leatherheads, this year. Reshoots were always planned for the last weekend in September, when Clooney had grown a beard for the Coens' Burn After Reading.

Now Leatherheads will open in April, giving Clooney more time to promote Clayton, finish Burn After Reading, and edit Leatherheads. Sounds like a sane move. I hear there's a character in Leatherheads who smokes a lot, which may be another potential thorn in Clooney's side. Universal marketing is buying a Superbowl promo spot, so the studio stands behind the period football pic.

Here's one Gilroy interview. And here's David Poland's video sit-down:

As someone who is still recovering from a broken foot, I am in awe of Clooney pal Sarah Larson's plucky decision to attend the New York premiere of Michael Clayton on crutches and one very high heel. While she broke her foot in their motorcycle crash last Friday, Clooney's broken rib bandage is hidden under his suit.

[Photo by Jeff Spellman, WireImage]

George Clooney was out on the highway in New Jersey on a motorcycle with pal Sarah Larson when he tried to pass a car on the right; the car chose that moment to make a turn. Clooney broke a rib and his girlfriend broke her foot in the collision. Ouch. Poor George! He was just getting over all those nasty back problems. He's been shooting the Coens' movie Burn After Reading, while the movie he directed, Leatherheads, is in post. And he's promoting Michael Clayton (which I liked a lot), which opens October 5.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Willis, Michael Moore, Joss Whedon, Peter Jackson, Kevin Smith, Zach Braff, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have all figured out that talking directly to the fans sells movie tickets.

Here's Michael Moore's infamous rant against CNN's Wolf Blitzer and medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta. In case you missed any of his many recent media appearances, he has helpfully posted them all on YouTube.

UPDATE: MichaelMoore.com">Moore's 7/14 Letter to CNN is on the jump:

Eight new films have been added to the Toronto Fest selection, including a number of potential Oscar contenders: Julian Schanbel's Cannes hit the Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney; Gavin Hood's Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal and Meryl Streep; Neil Jordan's The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard; Terry George's Reservation Road, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Connelly, and Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching, starring Martin Freeman as Rembrandt and Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball's Nothing is Private, starring Toni Collette, which are seeking distribution.

The 32nd Toronto International Film Festival runs September 6 – 15, 2007:

GALA PRESENTATIONS
MICHAEL CLAYTON Tony Gilroy, USA

Tony Gilroy (screenwriter, THE BOURNE IDENTITY, THE BOURNE SUPREMACY) wrote and makes his feature directorial debut with this gripping legal drama about an in-house "fixer" at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen's dirtiest work at the behest of the firm's co-founder Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack). Though burned out and hardly content with his job, Michael Clayton faces a divorce, a failed business venture and mounting debt, all of which have left him inextricably tied to the firm. At U/North, meanwhile, the career of litigator Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) rests on the multi-million dollar settlement that Clayton's firm is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. But when Kenner Bach's brilliant and guilt-ridden attorney Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) sabotages the U/North case, Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career and his life. Produced by Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox, Steven Samuels and Kerry Orent, MICHAEL CLAYTON is a Mirage Enterprises/Section Eight production. The film is a presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Samuels Media and Castle Rock Entertainment.

RENDITION Gavin Hood, USA

Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin head an all-star ensemble cast in RENDITION, a compelling thriller from Gavin Hood, director of the Academy Award-winning TSOTSI (winner of the TIFF 2005 People's Choice Award). Witherspoon plays Isabella El-Ibrahimi, the American wife of Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) who disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington. Isabella desperately tries to track her husband down, while a CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal) at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his assignment as he becomes party to the man’s unorthodox interrogation. A New Line Cinema production, RENDITION is produced by Steve Golin and Marcus Viscidi from a screenplay by Kelly Sane. The film is distributed by New Line Cinema in the United States and by Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution in Canada.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
BEFORE THE RAINS Santosh Sivan, USA/India
The English language debut of acclaimed Indian director Santosh Sivan (THE TERRORIST, ASOKA), set in 1930s India. When a married British colonialist (Linus Roache) is caught having an affair with his beautiful housemaid (Nandita Das), he convinces his trusted farmhand (Rahul Bose) - a member of the housemaid's tribe - to help find a solution to the potentially deadly situation.

THE BRAVE ONE Neil Jordan, USA/Australia
Two-time Academy Award™ winner Jodie Foster stars in a bracing thriller from filmmaker Neil Jordan (BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, THE CRYING GAME). New York radio host Erica Bain (Foster) has a life that she loves and a fiancé she adores – and it all is taken away when a brutal attack leaves Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead. Unable to move past the tragedy, Erica begins prowling the city streets at night to track down the men she holds responsible. Her dark pursuit of justice catches the public’s attention, and New York is riveted by her anonymous exploits. But with the NYPD desperate to find the culprit and a dogged police detective (Terrence Howard) hot on her trail, she must decide whether her quest for revenge is truly the right path, or if she is indeed becoming the very thing she is trying to stop. Also starring Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt and Mary Steenburgen.

NIGHTWATCHING Peter Greenaway, UK/Poland/Canada/The Netherlands
The year 1642 marks the turning point in the life of the famous Dutch painter, Rembrandt, transforming him from a wealthy respected celebrity into a discredited pauper. At the insistence of his pregnant wife Saskia, Rembrandt (Martin Freeman, BREAKING AND ENTERING) has reluctantly agreed to paint the Amsterdam Musketeer Militia in a group portrait, a portrait that would become his most celebrated painting – The Nightwatch. Going about his work, Rembrandt discovers that there is conspiracy afoot after a man is shot dead during routine musket practice. Determined to bring these conspiracies to light, the artist builds his accusation meticulously in the form of the commissioned painting itself, simultaneously uncovering a seamy and hypocritical side to Dutch Society in the Golden Age.

NOTHING IS PRIVATE Alan Ball, USA

Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello and Academy Award nominee Toni Collette star in the feature directorial debut from Alan Ball (Writer, AMERICAN BEAUTY; Creator, TV's "Six Feet Under"). Based on the acclaimed book Towelhead, Ball’s NOTHING IS PRIVATE deals with the powerful issues of female sexuality, politics and racial bigotry, challenging preconceived notions of what is political and what is personal. America prepares for the first Gulf War. Thirteen-year-old Jasira (newcomer Summer Bishil) unwittingly enters into a dangerous flirtation with her mother's boyfriend, and is sent to live with her father Rifat (Peter Macdissi of "Six Feet Under") in the suburbs of Houston. An over-bearing and traditional man, Rifat is ill-equipped to deal with the rapid sexual awakening of his teenage daughter. Jasira's interactions with Rifat, her classmates and the neighbours on either side of her new home – liberal newlyweds and a conservative Army reservist – yield startling consequences, as Jasira comes to realize that she and only she should be in control of her body and her life.

RESERVATION ROAD Terry George, USA

A compelling tale about the lure of revenge and the power of redemption, the drama revolves around two fathers whose families and lives tragically converge with the death of a child. In the aftermath, Ethan (two-time Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix) and Dwight (Mark Ruffalo) each react in unexpected ways as their families struggle to cope and an emotional reckoning looms. Directed by Terry George (HOTEL RWANDA), the film also stars Academy Award winners Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino.

LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY) Julian Schnabel, France

The remarkable true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric),a successful and charismatic editor-in-chief of French Elle, who believes he is living his life to its absolute fullest when a sudden stroke leaves him in a life-altered state. While the physical challenges of Bauby's fate first leave him with little hope for the future, he begins to discover how his life's passions, his rich memories and his newfound imagination can help him achieve a life without boundaries. Winner of Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival and based on Bauby's internationally acclaimed memoir, the film also stars Marie-Josée Croze (ARARAT, LES INVASIONS BARBARES) and Max Von Sydow.

George Clooney was raised to be a good Liberal by his father Nick, he tells the LAT.

And Newsweek profiles A Mighty Heart star Angelina Jolie, who also pursues Good Works.

Here's Variety's Sunday B.O. Report:

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE ESTIMATE June 8 - June 10, 2007
Title Engagements Estimated
1. Ocean's Thirteen (WB) 3,565 $37.1
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (BV) 4,002 $21.3
3. Knocked Up (UNIVERSAL) 2,876 $20.0
4. Surf's Up (SONY) 3,528 $18.0
5. Shrek the Third (PAR) 3,925 $15.8
6. Hostel: Part II (LIONSGATE) 2,350 $8.8
7. Mr. Brooks (MGM) 2,453 $5.0
8. Spider-Man 3 (SONY) 2,570 $4.4
9. Waitress (FOX) 708 $1.7
10. Disturbia (PAR) 568 $0.6
in millions of dollars Full list available Monday afternoon at www.Variety.com/boxoffice

'Ocean's Thirteen' wins weekend
Heist film knocks down 'Pirates'

By Ian Mohr

Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow's "Ocean's Thirteen" won the weekend at the B.O. with $37 million and a per theater average of $10,401 off 3,565.

Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" sailed to No. 2 in it third frame, with $21.3 million, raising its cume to $253.6 million domestically.

Universal's "Knocked Up" landed in third in its second sesh, with $20 million.

Among new openers, Sony's animated "Surf's Up" crested at $18 million and bowed in the No. 4 slot on the charts.

Lionsgate's "Hostel II" was sliced and diced, taking in $8.7 million off 2,350, and debuting in sixth place.

At the Oceans Thirteen premiere in Cannes, the movie's arch-villain, Al Pacino, was noticeably absent. The actor was back in L.A., producer Jerry Weintraub told the Cannes press corps, because he was prepping for his AFI Life Achievement Award. On the beach in Cannes, the Oceans gang taped a video tribute (in Cantonese) which played at the AFI ceremony on June 7, because most of them went to Vegas to promote the film. Andy Garcia did show up, however, and gave the best and most revealing tribute to his The Godfather: Part III costar of the long night at Hollywood & Highland's Kodak Theatre. (The show will air June 19th on USA Network.)

After having dinner with Pacino almost every night for 17 weeks, Garcia realized that he was socking away tiny details to use in his performance: "You were Van Gogh, Modigliani, that's your gift. Simultanously at any moment you are a great poet, and a clown. You should be institutionalized immediately," Garcia said. "What greater institution than the AFI, every time you try to get out, you're pulled back in." Then Garcia did a priceless and lengthy imitation of Pacino shrugging, shaking his head, and getting ready for a take, which was to be repeated many times, for a scene in which he had no dialogue! "You have to stop Al from acting," said Garcia. "He could be there all night long."

Indeed, the 67-year-old Pacino's improvised speech, after accepting the 35th AFI award from Sean Penn, did go on. "I don't have a character tonight," he said. "I see my life in movies. I have one question. Why aren't I in rehab?"

He thanked his acting mentors Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg and producer Marty Bregman, who literally staked his trip to L.A. to audition for The Godfather. And he thanked Francis Ford Coppola (who sent a perfunctory videotape). "I hardly ever see him anymore," he said. "Francis didn't just put me in the Godfather. He fought for me. Even when I no longer wanted to be in it. I wouldn't be here without him." As he rambled on, Pacino thanked one more thing that mattered in his career, one that should always be remembered when thinking of every movie star: "Luck."

Pacino's Angels in America costar Meryl Streep delivered a sincere video tribute to how exciting it was to watch Pacino's attention to small detail. He makes acting "count, like it's something important," she said.

Streep and Pacino's co-star Jeffrey Wright added that what happened in front of the camera was less important to Pacino than the off-camera journey getting there.

Jamie Foxx told the crowd that a little of Pacino's spit flew into his mouth during a close-up scene in Any Given Sunday: "I tasted it. I took that DNA and the next thing you know I won an Oscar. Thank you for your juiciness."

Any Given Sunday's writer-director Oliver Stone, who also wrote Brian DePalma's Scarface, a movie that has grown in stature as a DVD classic over the years, told Pacino: "You have a great and misunderstood heart, as did Tony Montana. We like to see you acting out the complexity and intensity of your characters."

Michael Mann, who paired Pacino with Robert DeNiro in Heat and also coaxed a brilliant performance from Pacino in The Insider, said the actor "doesn't fear. He's willing to go out on a live wire without a net."

Kirk Douglas, age 90, recalled going backstage to meet this young actor in The Indian Wants the Bronx: "He was magic. I said, 'Mr. Pacino, you're going to be a star.' That was 45 years ago. What took you so long, Al?"

Ed Harris, who co-starred with Pacino in the film version of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, said, "He prods you, asks questions...He pays attention. There's nothing like it. It's a marvel to watch."

While the incredible clips reminded us all of what a great actor Pacino is--The Panic in Needle Park, Donnie Brasco, Carlito's Way, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, The Godfather trilogy, Dick Tracy, Carlito's Way, Sea of Love, ...And Justice for All, Insomnia--on the set of Oceans Thirteen, according to the screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien, Pacino wasn’t so formidable at playing poker. Pacino lost a few hundred when he joined the screenwriters’ game (once) with the movie’s gambling advisors. “He was upright and paid right away,” said Koppelman.

As illusionist Criss Angel was escaping from a cement block suspended above Times Square, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and producer Jerry Weintraub --promoting the "Oceans Thirteen" Friday opening, natch--stuck their hands and feet in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre Tuesday. "If I had to be on my hands and knees with three other men I couldn't think of three better guys to do it with," Clooney said. Damon noted that "this isn't the first time somebody tried to put Jerry Weintraub's feet in cement."

As soon as they signed their wet cement, their shoes and styluses were bagged and delivered to the Hollywood Museum around the corner.

Meanwhile, demonstrators wearing yellow Save the Boom T-shirts were holding up signs in front of the Chinese Theater yelling "save the Boom!". They were trying to get the attention of Clooney and Pitt as part of their ongoing campaign to get the two stars to buy the landmark Boom Boom Room in Laguna Beach, CA., according to the organization's email press release:

"The campaign kicked off Monday with a ¼ page ad in Daily Variety asking Clooney and Pitt to help SAVE the BOOM!!! The Boom has been a fixture of gay life in Southern California for 60 years, and was sold 21 months ago to Beverly Hills billionaire Steven Udvar-Hazy. Pitt and Clooney were reported to have purchased the Boom with Udvar-Hazy back then, but their representatives denied that. Hazy’s plans were to close the historic Boom Boom Room and turn it into a boutique hotel and restaurant. Now the billionaire airplane leasing mogul has put the property up for sale and SAVE the BOOM!!! is in hot pursuit of a buyer who will keep the bar the way it has been for the past 6 decades."

Raucous laughter hit the Palais during the morning screening of Oceans Thirteen, which was followed by an equally entertaining press conference as Steven Soderbergh and his Oceans Thirteen gang goofed on themselves and the assembled press corps.

When asked about the quality of scripts today, master quipster George Clooney replied that Oceans Thirteen is one for the history books. "This film is a cry for peace," he said with a straight face. "We thought we were in competition."

While the fate of a fourth Oceans is in the air, the ensemble seemed good to go. But Damon won't do a fourth Bourne, he said: "We have ridden that horse as far as we can." He admitted to feeling like "a bit of a prostitute for putting out two number threes in one year."

"That's better than three number twos," added Clooney.

When asked about one of the film's running gags involving Oprah Winfrey, Andy Garcia confessed, "I had to sleep with Oprah in order to do the show."

"That's the headline," sighed Clooney.

Brad Pitt, while insisting that The Assassination of Jesse James missed its first fall deadline but will make its second, noted that the absent Al Pacino, who stayed in Los Angeles to attend his American Film Institute tribute. "took notes from each of us, and settled in after a few weeks. He raised our respectability and we brought his down."

"We try to bring the classy guys down," added Clooney.

On a more serious note, continuing one of the themes of this year's globally-conscious festival, Clooney admitted that he used Cannes as "an international platform to raise awareness of something that's important to all of us," the crisis in Darfur, he said. The Oceans gang also turned up at Wednesday night's AMFAR event, which raised a record $7.5 million and sold a Clooney kiss for $350,000.

Soderbergh, who won the Palme d'Or for sex, lies and videotape 18 years ago, insisted that making a romp like Oceans 13 is nonetheless hard to do. "There's an assumption that if we're making an entertaining film we're not as engaged, interested or passionate about it," he said. "I don't think any of the people here feel that way. The Oceans films are more difficult, more tricky than the films I've gotten attention for."

UPDATE: I showed up at the Baoli Oceans Thirteen party Thursday night too late to see the gang, who had already fled the glassed-in VIP room for something more private. By the time I got in they were gone. Offering $1000 chips for roulette and black jack was a nice touch, but the lines were too long.

EW.com talks to George Clooney about the Huckabees videos that have been circulating the web. While there's no love lost between Clooney and his Three Kings director David O. Russell, Clooney doesn't think people should put up material that can damage careers, he says:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You've denied leaking the Huckabees footage. But is it possible we will ever see any similar material from Three Kings? GEORGE CLOONEY: The funny thing is that that tape has been going around for about two and a half years. And everybody's seen it. I saw it when we were shooting Ocean's Twelve. I felt bad for Lily but I also felt a little vindicated for anyone that thought that that had anything to do with me on [Three Kings]. But, you know, the last thing in the world I would have done is stick it on the Internet. I don't even know how to get onto YouTube. So there's not going to be any Three Kings things. There are pranks I like to play [but] that [posting this kind of footage online] falls into the world of screwing with people's careers. I'm up for a good fight, but not sneaky. I like 'em face-to-face.''

Do you think this kind of thing is going to happen more and more?
Sure. I just think the Internet is a free-for-all now. Ultimately a lot of crap comes out. There's going to be tons of things. You're going to have someone filming in somebody's hotel and get them when they have Spanktro-vision on and put that on the Internet and that will be a career-ender for somebody. There's gonna be plenty of that going on. Until someone figures out how to tame the wild wild west then I don't really know you can put the genie back in the bottle. Maybe it's good. Maybe it'll make people behave themselves on sets.

While George Clooney stepped up and issued a public denial that he had any role in circulating the I Heart Huckabee videos that have been running around the web, he is taking a quieter approach to boosting the Barack Obama for president campaign, writes the LAT. Clooney's friendship with Obama is well-known. When Clooney accepted the American Cinematheque's 2006 tribute, Obama sent in an hilarious video dissing Clooney's issues with dating and commitment.