Producer Edward Norton considered taking the fall fest route with his By the People: The Election of Barack Obama doc, which has been filming since 2006. But Amy Rice and Alicia Sams' much-anticipated film about Obama's presidential run will quietly bypass the Venice and Toronto fests this year in favor of a short August Oscar-qualifying run in LA and NY and a splashy HBO event launch in September. Norton is repped by the new WME combine run by Ari Emanuel, brother of Obama's chief-of-staff, Ram Emamuel. This should be a big must-see.

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

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

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

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

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

Here's the Grey Gardens trailer:

Writer-director Peter Morgan's follow-up to The Deal and The Queen, The Special Relationship, will star Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton, Julianne Moore as Hillary (too thin!) and Michael Sheen as UK prime minister Tony Blair--for the third time. It will be an HBO movie, oddly enough, and the relationship describes the one between Clinton and Blair, although naturally the plot will delve into the Monica Lewinsky scandal. So who will play the zaftig White House intern who drove Clinton to risk his presidency? Well, most Hollywood actresses are too thin. Anne Hathaway could do it, if she gained a few pounds. So could HBO's own Gennifer Goodwin (Big Love). Who would you cast? Martine McCutcheon, who fell for her prime minister boss Hugh Grant in Love Actually, would be perfect, if she could do an American accent.

Sorry to say, missing an incredible opportunity to add some sizzle to his steak, Morgan insists he will use archive footage.

One of the most unlikely people walking the red carpet to the Oscar show Sunday was Kimberly Rivers Roberts, the 9th Ward New Orleans ex-drug dealing heroine of the Oscar-nominated doc Trouble the Water. There she was, resplendent in a silver gown, accompanied by her husband Scott Roberts and executive producer Danny Glover, who agreed to back Tia Lessen and Carl Deal's New Orleans doc featuring Roberts' homevideo footage of her struggle to help her neighbors survive Hurricane Katrina. The pic was a sleeper hit at Sundance 2008, where Roberts gave birth to her first child.

Since Hurricane Katrina, Roberts and her husband have turned their lives around; Kimberly's first hip-hop CD will come out in April at the same time the movie debuts on HBO. Before flying into L.A., she participated in the New Orleans Mardi Gras in the Muse Parade as the muse of tragedy, Melpomene. A celebratory week indeed.

Here's some red carpet Flipcam footage of Glover and Roberts (with some Dominic Cooper wedged in):
Find more videos like this on AnneCam

[Posted by Liz Shannon Miller]
At the standing-room-only panel for HBO's "True Blood," author Charlaine Harris admitted that she'd always thought her vampire fiction might work as a series for HBO. But Alan Ball had no idea of that when he found the first "True Blood" book while killing time in a Borders. Quickly becoming a fan of Harris's Southern Gothic vampire romance, Ball felt that to condense the books for a film would "do them a disservice," and instead approached Harris about adapting the books for television. "Several people had approached me about working with the material," Harris said, "But Alan's was definitely the most interesting artistically. I've felt very comfortable entrusting my babies to him."[Here's the True Blood website.]

Ball did his best to keep the series as true to the books as possible, with the first season covering the story of "I believe I understand from the books themselves what Charlaine was trying to do," Ball said, "And I'm extremely committed to bringing it out the screen. There's a point when you have to realize that a book and a TV series are two different things. However, I'm not going to change things just to change things. And I wouldn't be saying that if the series didn't already work. Charlaine's done all the heavy lifting."

"We're trying to keep the magic as mundane as possible and focus on the characters and relationships," Ball added. When it came to moving from drama to a genre series, Ball said "it wasn't difficult, and there are two reasons for that. One, Charlaine did such a good job that I was able to put myself inside the characters and [the world] didn't strike me as all that different. The other thing that made it simple was that after five years of 'Six Feet Under,' I was really tired of people talking about their problems. I wanted to do something
fun. And I've had more fun doing this series than I have doing anything else in my career." Ball promised to avoid vampire cliches-- which he cited as "blue light, contact lenses, and opera music."

While the series will feature erotic scenes of a rough nature, Ball specified that "there are some romantic sex scenes too. Just because you're having sex with a vampire doesn't mean it can't be romantic. Everyone knows that, right?"

Anna Paquin raved about getting to play the main character of Sookie, a role she enjoyed because "she's a good person with a strong value system. And I like being blonde." Ball promised that while the
relationship between Suki and her main love interest, a vampire named Bill, would have elements of a "will they or won't they" romance, he also didn't say how long the pair would hold out.

Promotion for "True Blood" is already in full force, and Alan Ball dropped mention of a few lesser-known campaigns. The beverage "True Blood" (not the show) will be sponsoring this Satuday's Masquerade
Ball, and websites for in-show elements such as the Church of the Fellowship of the Sun, a human/vampiredating site, and a vampire-friendly motel are currently online.

In response to a question about whether vampires in the series will represent the gay and lesbian community, Alan Ball admitted that while he sees vampires as having potential as symbols for gay/lesbians, he prefers to work with their larger potential as metaphors for disenfranchisement of any kind. Meanwhile, though, gay human and vampire characters do exist in the series -- an announcement that was met with scattered, but sincere, applause.

Series premieres September 9 on HBO.

Comic-Con Photo Galleries: True Blood

The dispute over the HBO doc, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, continues as director Marina Zenovich, who was asked by HB0 to rewrite the film's final "card" on the eve of its first broadcast June 9, tweaked the card again for its Saturday, June 14 airing. The question remains what the final card will read for its theatrical release by ThinkFilm on July 11th.

Finally, after all these years, it's still a case of he said, she said, as Zenovich makes tweaks and tries to keep her film's dramatic punch. And Polanski himself stays in limbo. (He finally saw the film in Paris just before he arrived in Cannes, where he lunched with Zenovich before the fest's closing night ceremony.)

The problem Monday was that the person talking was a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. HBO decided to back off the film's assertion that Judge Larry Paul Flider in 1997 demanded that any court hearing with Polanski be televised, should the exiled director return to the U.S. That's because right before the doc was due to air, L.A. court officials called the assertion "a complete fabrication." So Zenovich reworded the ending to say that the judge demanded an open court hearing.

Now the card refers to a dispute over what happened, stating: "the judge insisted the hearing be held on the record in superior court."

On Wednesday, in response to Monday's L.A. Superior Court statement and an L.A. Times story, former deputy district attorney Roger Gunson and Polanski's attorney Douglas Dalton, who are interviewed in Wanted and Desired, made a statement in support of the film's version of events--and talked to each other for the first time in a decade. "It is our shared view that Monday's false and reprehensible statement by the Los Angeles Superior Court continues their inappropriate handling of the Polanski case," they said.

(The full statement is on the jump; here's my prior story, Polanski Doc Wanted and Desired Changed for HBO. )

In the wake of the Sex and the City boxoffice juggernaut, a lot of people are going to be speculating about which upcoming chick flicks are going to ride a new wave of interest in women's pics.

Truth is, most romantic comedies are not Big Event pics like Sex and the City--which is an escapist sexy entertaining movie that celebrates what it is to be a woman. How often does that come our way?

In fact, the movie version of the HBO series (which still draws decent numbers in reruns, years later) serves as an unwelcome reminder of how little the formula pablum served up by the studios satisfies the demanding femme demo. In other words, Sex and the City got made because it was a hit HBO show, not because it fit into any of the usual Hollywood notions of what women want. And thus it is an anomaly.

Which is not to say that I'm bitching about the trailer below, for He's Just Not That Into You, which at least boasts a strong ensemble cast led by Jennifer Anniston, Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson. So you tell me: will this one be boffo at the b.o.?

It's the HBO way. The fuss is all about the HBO launch--and getting an Oscar nom, natch--not building a successful theatrical release. Marina Zenovich knew this when she made her rich HBO deal for Polanski: Wanted and Desired. The movie quietly slipped into New York for an Oscar-qualifying run, reports Spout and Defamer.

UPDATE: Manohla Dargis' review is in Monday's NYT, for a movie that opened without press screenings--although it was launched to great fanfare at January's Sundance-- last Friday in one theater each in Manhattan and Pasadena. Here are the review's opening graphs.

The Judge, the Director and the Vagaries of Justice By MANOHLA DARGIS

The sharply argued documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" isn't about the innocence or guilt of its title subject, who after pleading guilty in 1977 to having "unlawful sexual intercourse" with a minor flew from Los Angeles to London, never again to return to America. Neither is it about Mr. Polanski's likability, his tragic past, morals, short stature, brilliant and bad films, the sleaze factor or your personal feelings on whether there's anything wrong with a 43-year-old man's having sex with a 13-year-old girl. All these elements come teasingly into view here, but really this is a movie about a very different kind of perversion.

"Wanted and Desired," which opened on Friday without advance press screenings, was bought by HBO at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Its one-week theatrical run will make it eligible for Academy Award consideration, though given that organization's often pitiful record when it comes to nonfiction film, it seems unlikely that a movie this subtly intelligent would make its short list. That's especially true because the director, Marina Zenovich, refuses to wag her finger at Mr. Polanski, even when presenting the sordid and grimly pathetic details of his crime, like the Champagne and partial Quaalude he furnished the 13-year-old girl and her repeated nos.

While In Treatment's half-hour sessions have been messing up HBO's numbers, the series is compelling to watch because of compassionate and sexy shrink Gabriel Byrne, profiled in today's LAT. His patients mess him up so much (especially seductive Melissa George) that he runs to his own shrink, Dianne Wiest.

Here's Byrne on Charlie Rose:

[photo courtesy LA Times]

So this weekend I will be catching up with new openers The Grand (on screener DVD) and Drillbit Taylor (at a screening).

Otherwise, I will be watching my cache of DVDs and saved TiVo stuff, including HBO's John Adams. (I love it, the marriage especially; it's too dark, but it feels real to me.)

If I were going to a theater I would also see Horton Hears a Who! which actually scored good reviews. Here's the Variety weekend forecast. Tyler Perry anyone? Well, I have yet to check him out, something I hate to admit. It's about time I did.

This NYT posting on what real thugs think of The Wire is choice.

As of tomorrow, my Sunday nights are going to be devoted to the best TV series out there: The Wire. (Here's Brian Lowry's review.) Time Magazine lays out the series' many virtues. Nora is still catching up with Season 3 on DVD, while David and I have kept current. Obviously, the WGA strike is going to boost The Wire. There's not a whole lot else to watch!

Ex-HBO chief Chris Albrecht, who was first raked over the coals and then ardently wooed, is respected as a creative entrepreneur. He's returning to his roots as an agent, reports the NYT, and joining agency IMG in a deal brokered by Endeavor's Ari Emanuel, who inspired Emmy-winning Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold on Entourage.

Nora's a huge Flight of the Conchords fan, both of the music and the cult HBO show. But ever since my friend Jane showed me their Barry White-influenced "I'm so sexy" song, "It's Business Time," I can't get it out of my head. I keep hearing it on KCRW, and it makes me laugh. This concert version was posted on YouTube a year ago. OK, so I'm late to the party! Enjoy.

Here's Brian Lowry on this morning's Emmy noms. Today's a good a day to check out Cynthia Littleton on the Air for pithy analysis. Her new TV blog is taking off!

It's been a long time since pop culture has shared a national watershed moment like the finale of HBO's The Sopranos. People are still deconstructing that episode. Hillary Clinton's people have wasted no time in concocting a viral video that is sure to travel far and wide. But do they know that the current wisdom holds that the blackout ending was the moment of Tony Soprano's death?

Oddly enough, I didn't make it to the Entourage premiere Thursday night because I was honoring my commitment to manager Joan Hyler (who reps Diane Lane and Alfred Molina, and coaxed Peter O'Toole to come west for the Oscars) to help her teach her graduate USC film class in the super-moderne orange on white conference room at Endeavor (whose chief, Ari Emanuel, inspired Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold, and whose offices remind me of the airport in 2001: A Space Odyssey). She told them about mold-breaking ICM agent Sue Mengers; I talked about the subject of this week's column about the demise of Premiere Magazine and how movie coverage is migrating from print onto the web. This much Joan's proteges, the next generation of industry execs, agents and producers, already knew. UPDATE: Jeff Wells, Glenn Kenny and Kim Voynar respond.

Meanwhile, my colleague Cynthia Littleton, who will launch her new blog, Littleton On Air, next week, reports from the premiere:

"We may be whores...but we're not pimps." So says Ari Gold in a declaration of principle that is genuinely stirring, and laugh out loud funny, as only Jeremy Piven in his tenpercenter alter-ego can deliver in the second of the fresh batch of "Entourage" episodes set to bow Sunday on HBO. The first two episodes of the new season played very, very well for the receptive home town crowd that gathered Thursday night at the ArcLight for a screening followed by a premiere party down the block afterward at the Ivar. The life-imitates-art-imitates-TV tone was set by all the corporate branding on display at HBO's party, as skillfully mocked in the first of the new "Entourage" installments. (Vodka was the pour of the night, and this non-vodka lover warmed up to the concoction dubbed the Turtle, featuring a blend of orange and pomegranate juice.) The Ivar's many rooms were sprinkled with items from the show, including the life-size golf practice screen and practice putt set-up, a pool table and, of course, a few go-go dancers in itty-bitty metallic bikinis. Boys will be boys....

[Photo by Wireimage]