I can’t find it on Amazon, but I’ve been told that Warner Home Video will release Alexander Revisited: The Unrated Final Cut on 2.27.07. I presume this isn’t a put-on. Oliver Stone‘s epic will arrive in its third incarnation with more than 45 minutes of never-before-seen footage restored into the tale of the Macedonian conqueror. The nearly four- hour version will arrive (naturally) with a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Selling for $24.98, it says. This is not, just to be clear, the “Director’s Cut” DVD that came out last August, but a new incarnation.

Universal Pictures chairman Marc Schmuger has said the following to the Wall Street Journal about Evan Almighty, which looks like the most expensive comedy ever made: “You’ve got…a PG-13 movie that men, women, children and audiences of all ages are going to want to see and you’ve got the eye candy of great spectacle and visual effects. That adds up to a movie we’re supporting to an enormous degree.” It’s taken from a WSJ piece, excerpted here by Hollywood Wiretap‘s Nancy Vialatte, about how comedies are the new tentploes…right. Tentpole movies are necessary evils — producers and studio chiefs have no choice in the matter — but to guys on the street like me, they’re instant avoiders unless they have a certain attiudinal spark.

All the implied downward-swirl indications about American Pie and Scary Movie 2 costar Natasha Lyonne are probably valid — the girl needs help. And there’s certainly no excuse or upside in exhibiting unruly behavior or missing four court hearings and all that. But there are very few readers of this item who haven’t momentarily lost it and used a colorfully vicious expression in the midst of a heated argument. Lyonne’s choice of words during an argument with a neighbor was to threaten sexual molestation of the neighbor’s dog. Audiences would laugh if that phrase was used by Samuel L. Jackson in a Quentin Tarantino movie, but because it’s part of a legal complaint and has been the lead in various tawdry news stories about Lyonne’s latest meltdown, “I’m going to schtup your dog” is in her Wikipedia biography from here to eternity.

Two hits, one bomb among the major openers this weekend. The Pursuit of Happyness is #1 with a projected $27,165,000 tally, or roughly $9525 per print, and Eragon, believe it or not, is #2 with an expected Sunday-night cume of $23,929,000, or $7923 a print. Charlotte’s Web is the shortfaller — $13,145,000 projected at $3695 a print spells weak and sputtering.
Happy Feet will be #4 at $8,910,000 for the weekend…off 31%. The Holiday is #5 at $8,143,000, off 36%…decent hold. Mel Gibson‘s Apocalypto is sixth at $7,629,000, off 49%. Blood Diamond, off 39%, will hit $6,045,000 for the #7 slot. Casino Royale will bring in $6,045,000 for an eighth-place finish. The Nativity Story will be #9 with $5,398,000, and Unaccompanied Minors is tenth with $4,781,000.
The limited hard-ticket debut of Dreamgirls is looking at $279,000 for the weekend, or about $93,000 a print. Theyr’e doing pretty well but crowds are not breaking down the doors. They’re doing about 50% of capacity,although business will bump today. The problem is that it’s angled at a mainly-older crowd. — 35 to 40 and up — and the 10:30 pm show is too late for this group. Young people have no problem with late-evening shows, but under 20s wouldn’t be caught dead seeing Dreamgirls. (My 17 year-old son Dylan, in Manhatan for the weekend, said as much.)
Steven Soderbegh‘s The Good German opened in 5 theatres and will do about 79,000, or 15,737 a print. Irwin Winkler‘s Home of the Brave, also playing limited, died. The weekend projection is for about $22,000 or $7000 a print…Winkler strikes again. It was pretty obvious this film was doomed from the get-go short of ecstatic reviews, which haven’t manifested.

Here’s something to go along with Tom O’Neil‘s impressions/ lessons about the Golden Globe noms, and one delivered by one of Dreamgirls‘ most ardent journalist fans: the dirty little secret (suspected or otherwise) about the Hollywood Foreign Press is that their racial attitudes or predispositions are not, to put it gently, fully enlightened. This water-table element, the journo believes, is the reason there’s a good chance they may blow off Dreamgirls for the Best Picture (Comedy or Musical) award. The tipoff, he believes, was in the HFPA’s refusal to give Bill Condon a Best Director nom. This showed their true colors…where they’re basically coming from.