Early b.o. info

According to Nikki Finke, toon creatures rule at the megaplexes this weekend -- and "[Kevin] Costner's career is definitely toast." Yikes.

'The Guardian'

Cliches and conventions from several generations of basic-training scenarios are proficiently recycled in The Guardian, Andrew Davis' shrewdly updated version of classic (and not-so-classic) military-themed movies about grizzled, blunt-spoken vets who transform cocksure hotheads into coolly efficient professionals. With Kevin Costner well cast as a demanding mentor haunted by past failures, and Ashton Kutcher surprisingly effective as a brash recruit dealing with his own demons, the overlong but involving drama about U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers could very well turn out to be the sort of mass-appealing, four-quadrant hit that is razzed by cynical hipsters but embraced by mainstream moviegoers.

Did I enjoy it? For the most part: Yes. But, then again, I was more amused than annoyed by the film's shameless sampling of plot details and character quirks from dozens of similar dramas. As Kutcher divides his time between romancing a sexy schoolteacher (Melissa Sagemiller) during off-duty hours, and trying to prove his prowess to a cynically incredulous Costner, The Guardian is more than a little reminiscent of An Officer and a Gentleman. Indeed, the audience is practically invited to make the comparison when director Davis (still best known for The Fugitive) visually quotes the earlier film by having Costner spray Kutcher with a water hose during an especially grueling training regimen. The big difference here is, the romantic elements are scarcely more than window dressing. (Sagemiller has relatively little to do, and Sela Ward, as Costner's estranged wife, even less.) Bookended with thrilling rescue sequences enhanced with persuasive special effects, The Guardian focuses primarily, if not exclusively, on the edgy conflict between stern instructor and callow trainee. A conflict, of course, that eventually, inevitably, gives way to mutual respect.

Stuff I wouldn't dare make up

Faced with the choice of showing jackass number two or a blank screen to his customers, the owner of two moviehouses in small-town Illinois decided blank is better.


Meanwhile, over in Kazakhstan, the owner of that country's biggest theater chain has opted to pass on a movie that may be "offensive" to his countrymen. Evidently, he's not the only person in that part of the world who can't take a joke.

And on the mean streets of New York, Liza Minnelli is set for a guest spot on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. But unlike Chevy Chase -- who's guesting next month on the original Law & Order series as a celeb who has a Mel Gibsonesque meltdown while raving anti-Semitic rant -- Minnelli isn't doing a thinly-disguised riff on a real-life person. Presumably, that means she won't portray a fading superstar who's accused of smacking around her estranged husband.

Olbermann on fire

If Frank Capra were around right now, he might make a movie that would climax with a hero giving a speech like this.

'Nixon/Frost'

Remember when, just a few weeks ago, I wrote about Peter Morgan's Nixon/Frost, the drama based on the fateful face-off between the disgraced U.S. president and the career-stalled Brit TV talk-show host? Well, it now looks like the play -- currently a smash hit in London -- will be brought to the screen by Ron Howard. No word yet, however, as to whether Frank Langella will get to repeat his acclaimed performance as Tricky Dick for the movie version.

Fade to black

Another single-screen art-house bites the dust. Such is life.

Die even harder

More than a decade after Die Hard with a Vengeance, Bruce Willis once again will do derring-do as the reluctantly heroic John McClane in yet another sequel to 1988's Die Hard. In Live Free or Die Hard -- slated to start shooting this month with director Len Wiseman (Underworld) at the helm -- McClane matches wits with a villain who tries to undermine the United States' computer infrastructure. Who's he gonna call for help? Well, how about a dude who's most famous for playing a computer on TV?

Weekend viewing tip

The Manchurian Candidate -- the classic original, not the inferior remake -- can be seen at 7 pm CST Saturday and 5 pm CST Sunday on Turner Classic Movies. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Anyone who charts the development of thrillers throughout the history of American cinema must reserve a place of honor for John Frankenheimer’s masterwork, the not-so-missing link between grimly paranoid, seriously noirish melodramas of the Cold War-fixated ’50s, and darkly ironic, brazenly fantastical superspy escapades of the swinging ’60s.

'You’re talking to a person who knows his drugs'

Insert joke about Capt. Jack Sparrow here.

Right place, wrong time

Filmmakers Danny and Oxide Pang were lucky enough to get Nicolas Cage to star in Bangkok Dangerous, a remake of the slam-bang thriller that the Hong Kong-born, Thailand-based brothers co-directed in 2000. Unfortunately, while they were filming on location in Bangkok this week...

R.I.P. Sven Nykvist (1922-2006)

The cinematographer known as "The Master of Light" died Wednesday after a long illness. Sven Nykvist memorably collaborated with filmmakers as diverse as Woody Allen (Crimes and Misdemeanors), Bob Fosse (Star 80), Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle), Alan J. Pakula (Starting Over) and Lasse Hallstrom (What's Eating Gilbert Grape), and earned Academy Awards for two of his many films with Ingmar Bergman (Cries and Whispers and Fanny and Alexander). A melancholy note: His final film, a featherweight comedy titled Curtain Call (1999), barely received theatrical release -- despite the presence of such notables as Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, James Spader, Marcia Gay Harden and Sam Shepard in the cast -- and wound up going the direct-to-DVD route in the United States. According to Internet Movie Data Base, Nykvist already was enduring the early stages of Alzheimer's disease while working on this ill-starred project. But he didn't stop working until he had to.

AFI in Big D

The American Film Institute -- working in concert with, among other heavy hitters, Todd Wagner (co-owner of HDNet, 2929 Entertainment and Landmark Theatres) -- has announced plans for a new film festival in the Lone Star State. The AFI Dallas International Film Festival, slated to kick off March 22, 2007, will present an estimated 150 features and shorts over 10 days in various Big D venues. AFI grad Michael Cain, founder of Dallas' Deep Ellum Festival, is on board as artistic director. In a prepared statement, he says he views his new posting as "an opportunity to work with the Dallas film and film festival community to bring the international cinema spotlight on Dallas."

It should be noted, however, that some members of that community -- including folks associated with the 36-year-old USA Film Festival in Dallas, and the 19-year-old Dallas Video Festival -- are not exactly embracing the AFI event. Chris Vognar of the Dallas Morning News writes:

"Bart Weiss, director of the more avant-garde Dallas Video Festival, worries that the city's film reputation will be hurt if AFI Dallas can't cut it. And he wonders about the new festival's curatorial vision.

"'I would be fully supportive if there was a top-notch programmer in there who could draw some really wonderful things,' he said. 'I don't think the artistic director in place has the skill set, the reputation and the chops to pull off a big international event like this.'"

So there.

In any event, it remains to be seen just how the AFI Dallas Festival may or may not affect programming at the long-established SXSW Festival in not-so-faraway Austin. The 2007 edition of SXSW is set for March 9-17, meaning it will wrap just a few days before the inaugural AFI Dallas Festival. It's hard to believe there won't be some extremely intense power-playing and backroom-dealing when the two festivals start competing for world premieres of major indie and mainstream movies.

Jesus saves, Fox films

From Fox, the same company that gave us Temptation Island, Married... With Children, Fight Club and Freddy Got Fingered, we'll soon get... well, would you believe Christian movies?

UK Linkage

Speaking as someone who never really "got" the cult-fave Withnail & I, I must concede that Liz Hoggard's thoughtful re-evaluation of the 1987 film (and, perhaps more important, her account of its troubled production history) in The Independent is sufficiently fascinating to make me suspect that, hey, maybe it's worth a second look. And even a third.

In The Telegraph, Kate Beckinsale speaks candidly -- and movingly -- about how reaching age 32 has rekindled memories of her father, British TV sitcom star Richard Beckinsale (Porridge, Rising Damp), who died at the ridiculously young age of 31 (when his daughter was just 5).

And in The Guardian, an obit for French screenwriter Gerard Brach, who memorably collaborated with the likes of Roman Polanski (The Tenant, Cul-De-Sac) and Claude Berri (The Two of Us, Jean de Florette).

Shedding light on noir

"Noir is not a time period or wide neckties or a way of talking or specific plots or characters. Noir is a tone, a state of mind, an atmosphere." Louis B. Parks illuminates dark cinema in a perceptive Sunday Houston Chronicle feature (complete with clever A-to-Z sidebar). If you want to know more, check out the film noir primer at GreenCine Daily.

Life imitates art?

Is it just me, or is this real-life crime story more than a little reminiscent of Dial M for Murder?

Thong you very much, thong you very much

It's always nice to see a local official doing his best to encourage filmmaking in his community. But a Tennessee mayor may be in hot water for allowing scenes for something called Thong Girl 3: Revenge of the Dark Widow to be shot in his City Hall ofice. All I can say is: Geez, how did I manage to miss Thong Girl AND Thong Girl 2?

Reeling in Louisiana

A $200-million deal designed to encourage filmmaking in Louisiana -- and, not incidentally, boost the state's Katrina-ravaged economy -- has been struck by Los Angeles-based Element Films and New Orleans-based LIFT Films. But wait, there's more: Major players involved are taking great pains to emphasize that movies made under this arrangement will not be direct-to-DVD fare (like Road House 2: Last Call -- no, I'm not making that up -- which was shot in Sherveport earlier this year). Rather, the goal is to produce as many as 15 theatrical features -- each with "a production budget in the $10 million to $20 million range" -- over a three-year period.

Scriptland

The Los Angeles Times has launched Scriptland, a Calendar section column hyped as "a new weekly feature on the work and professional lives of screenwriters." Unfortunately, the debut piece by free-lancer Jay A. Fernandez reads more like... well, like a gushy, gossipy attempt to mimic those film-geek websites where would-be experts "review" screenplays in various stages of production.

Nikki Finke is not amused: "Simply put: You can't review screenplays. If you want to get all artsy about it, you're reviewing a work-in-progress akin to the sheet music for a Sinatra song, or the first draft for an Updike book. If you wanna get all Hollywood about it, then you need to know which draft you are reading. The first draft turned in by the writer? The second draft after the studio gave its notes and the mid-level exec who shepherded something awful like Alien vs Predator now actually rewrites scripts from top to bottom because he thinks he's some kind of boy genius? The third draft after being worked over by the actor's private screenwriter and the director's therapist now being arbitrated by the Writers Guild?"

And David Poland is positively apoplectic: "Why is the Los Angeles Times starting a gossip column about scripts? What is the news value in this? What is the morality of this?"

And then again, maybe He did...

Representatives for Air America are denying that the Left-skewing, financially challenged radio network will declare bankruptcy this week. So who knows? Maybe Al Franken might eventually get paid after all. Meanwhile, Al Franken: God Spoke -- which details, among other things, the founding of Air America -- gets nice play as indieWire.com interviews Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus, co-directors of the documentary. Unfortunately, when you read the piece, it's not always clear just who said what. It would be nice to know which filmmaker described their m.o. thusly: "For the first months the budget consisted of buying a few DV tapes and an occasional Au Bon Pain sticky bun for Al, which he adores."