The Bond and the Birds are not really running neck-and-neck, as Nikki Finke reported/suggested earlier today. Happy Feet tracking is very close to Casino Royale‘s but livewire kid flicks aren’t that accurately trackable (phone surveyors don’t talk to the tykes). The semi-informed speculation is that it’s going to out-earn Casino Royale by a pretty fat chunk of change — perhaps as much as $10 or $15 million. And then, as Finke points out, there’s the shows-per-day factor: Feet runs 98 minutes and is showing in 3,804 situations; Casino is 144 minutes and playing in 3,434 theaters.

Bill Desowitz‘s 11.15 USA Today piece on the various Bonds he’s spoken to over the past five years or so didn’t contain some material he got from Daniel Craig about the future of the new Bond (i.e., James Bourne). Here’s his summary of what was left out:

“Craig and the producers definitely want to continue in the spirit of Casino Royale…perhaps as a sequel or even a trilogy, but that hasn’t been formalized. As far as he’s concerned, Bond is not fully formed, so he will still make mistakes. He doesn’t want Bond to have all the answers, because then you’re stuck with the old formula of having to raise the jeopardy with high-tech gadgetry.
“Craig is not adverse to introducing Q and gadgets incrementally, as necessary. But there has to be a purpose. Craig told me that ‘it would be a good idea to pursue the money trail behind the terrorist network and go after the boss. I think if we set it up well, we could have another Blofeld from the early movies. Not mad for the sake of madness, but a psychosis that comes from having that much power.”

“The other intriguing relationship to pursue, Craig feels, is with M: “The opportunity with Judi is that we have a relationship that is genuinely based on love. She’s fully aware of what she’s doing with the price he has to pay emotionally to do his job. But even if he’s alone, she’s always there for him. And she balances his chauvinism. I love it when he breaks into her apartment. They have it out but he respects her entirely.”

“As much as it pains me to say it, I think the rise of the Oscar prognosticators corresponds with the rapid decline of film criticism in the mainstream media. Film critics are being fired left and right these days, and not always replaced, for a variety of reasons: because the old guard costs too much, because bad reviews irritate the show-business folk who spend money on newspaper ads, and because the general readership is often more interested in puff pieces about movie stars than raves for snail-paced Taiwanese films.
“Plus, there’s a sense that the blogger revolution has rendered professional film criticism irrelevant. When everyone has an opinion and a forum to express it, why pay some egg-headed film-studies grad a reporter’s salary to provide content that isn’t exactly unique? At the moment, the OPs are unique, or at least they’ve convinced enough newspaper editors that they are. The big media outlets have been adding Oscar columns and blogs almost at the same rate that they’ve been cutting back on critics. It’s a scary trend — replacing overt opinion-writing with covert opinion-writing, passed off as objective reporting.” — A.V. Club’s Noel Murray in a back-and-forth dialogue piece titled “Are Oscar prognosticators Evil;?”

Trailers either tell you nothing or they tell you too much, or they do both at the same time. Is this just-posted Zodiac trailer an exception? I’ve watched it three times. It gives you just enough of the Downey stuff, the Fincher-tude, the Gyllenhaal-ness, the Ruffalo-isms and the Brian Cox attitude to make you want more.

Casino Royale is tracking very well (90, 44, 36) and will do…oh, $30 million? Happy Feet (82. 44,19) is going to do even more, about $45 million. Nobody cares that much about Let’s Go To Prison (82, 44,19) or Deck the Halls (41, 24,3) but Tony Scott’s Deja Vu (82, 43, 9) is going to do nicely when it opens on 11.22. And Bobby (limited on 11.17) looks pretty good. So far The Nativity Story isn’t tracking (28, 26), although it has two weeks to build that up before the 12.1 opening. Mel Gibson‘s Apocalypto (12.8) isn’t rustling any bushes and has a fairly high negative. Blood Diamond (12.8) could build into something (65, 35, 3). Nancy Meyer’s The Holiday (61, 25 and 2) has some work to do.

Again, David Lynch and his cow sought to promote Laura Dern‘s performance in Inland Empire, this time in front of Tower Records on the Sunset Strip.

The Letters from Iwo Jima-opening-in-December story that The Envelope‘s Tom O’Neil reported Tuesday night (and which I later confirmed through an exhibition source and posted a followup story on around 11 pm Tuesday) has been confirmed in a Pamela McLintock Variety story that will be in the print edition on Thursday morning.
Last night and all day today Warner Bros. publicists dummied up and wouldn’t officially confirm the story. I’ve been told that Hollywood Reporter also called more than once and got no confirmations either. Obviously the fix was in for Variety to deliver the official, exclusive confirmation, a deal presumedly grandfathered by Variety editor Peter Bart‘s friendship with Letters driector Clint Eastwood.
McClintock’s story says Warner Bros. is moving up the release date of Eastwood’s Japanese-language Iwo Jima war flick from 2.9.07 to 12.20.06, which obviously puts it into the running for Best Picture and whatever else. The film will open that day — Wednesday, 12.20 — in L.A. and New York, and possibly also in San Francisco, her story said.
McLintock reports that Eastwood “approached Warners about the date change for Letters after consulting with Steven Spielberg, who brought in Eastwood to direct Flags for DreamWorks.” I heard tonight that DreamWorks marketing stategist Terry Press has been pushing the date change also. The 12.20 date was “locked in early Wednesday evening, as Eastwood was in Japan to promote Letters,” McLintock wrote.
Locked it a few hours ago, they mean? That’s funny considering that I was told Tuesday night that an arthouse exhibition chain had booked Letters into some of their theatres at least a day or two earlier, perhaps as early as last Friday.
Can we cut the crap? If Warner Bros. had had any real respect for Eastwood’s decision to make two Iwo Jima films, they would have decided from the get-go to follow the Japanese release plan and open it in December so people could fully appreciate it as a Flags companion piece. But WB execs pushed it off into a February 9th release anyway, for reasons best not shared.
Warner Bros. sources will never admit it, but the only reason Letters was suddenly advanced into December is because everyone got scared over the last week or two and said to each other, “We’re in trouble! The bandwagon is slowing down! The Oscar plan is falling apart! We need to throw a Hail Mary pass!” The concern kicked in because Flags of Our Fathers is losing theatres and is withering on the box-office vine, as well as in the court of industry opinion, and so they figured, “What the hell, let’s release Letters and see what happens! Can’t hurt at this stage!…why not?”

Whenever I think of the great Volver, the story of Penelope Cruz‘s fake prosthetic ass never comes to mind. Maybe it will henceforth, after reading Rebecca Winters Keegan‘s story in the current Time.

On the same day (11.14) N.Y. Times DVD columnist Dave Kehr reviewed a spiffed-up 50th Anniversary version of Henry King‘s Carousel (just released as part of a new Fox Home Video Rodgers & Hammerstein box set), The Fountain star Hugh Jackman told Coming Soon’s Heather Newgen that Fox 2000 is “looking for a writer and director” for a Carousel remake, in which he’ll play the egoistic, self-destructive big-mouth Billy Bigelow.

Gordon Macrae, Shirley Jones

Except something’s wrong here: Variety‘s Michael Fleming announced that Fox 2000 and Jackman’s partner John Palermo were trying to make this happen on August 1 — two and a half months ago. You can bet they were hunting around for a writer for several weeks (if not months) before that. That means that various parties aren’t on the same page — Fox 2000 wants this, Jackman wants that — and they’re going round and round. Otherwise they would have found the right director and writer and begun work. Too bad — Jackman is a talented song-and-dance man, and he’d probably be great in the part.
As long as we’re talking about this musical yet again (mainly because it’s the only Rodgers & Hammerstein musical I can stand, because it’s the only one with a tragic story and dark undercurrents that make for an unusually touching effect), here’s that Frank Sinatra“Soliloquy” track that was recorded but never used because Sinatra bailed on the 1956 film and was replaced by Gordon MacRae.

In the agent community a job that your client lucks into is called “a fly ball” — all you have to do is look up and spot it and put your glove out. Ralph Fiennes caught one when Steven Spielberg happened to see him as Heathcliff in a British TV version of Wuthering Heights and said, “I want that guy to play the evil Nazi in Schindler’s List.” Wolfgang Petersen‘s career was on a low flame when Clint Eastwood decided out of the fucking blue, “I want the guy who directed Das Boot to direct me in In The Line of Fire.” The agents repping Italian director Gabriele Muccino (the original The Last Kiss, called L’Ultimo bacio) had tried and failed to to get him a directing gig for two or three years and nothing, and then Will Smith happened to see L’Ultimo bacio and said, “I want that guy to direct The Pursuit of Happyness.” Serendipity, luck…God’s grace.

All due respect to Brian Wilson biographer and legend-protector David Leaf, but I think he’s too close and too invested to help render a warts-and-all Wilson biopic for producer Mark Gordon. On top of which Wilson’s managers Ronnie Lippin and Jean Sievers are also part of the deal…forget it.

The only way to make a biopic of an eccentric rock genius work is to have the freedom to be absolutely merciless. People invested in your continued well-being are obviously incapable of this; every time there’s a family member or trusted friend involved the biopic turns out to be dreck, or at least overly soft. Leaf and John Scheinfeld ‘s The U.S. vs. John Lennon was made with Yoko Ono‘s involvement, and look what happened — one of the biggest rock doc crocks ever made.
The cool part, if and when the script pans out and they get a green light, will be in the casting. That obviously means they’ll have to find a tallish, pasty-faced actor who not only looks like Wilson, but can put on lots of weight (or stand still for a heavy prosthetic blubber-gut make-up job).
Wilson’s story has already been told, of course — and very movingly — in the 1995 Don Was doc I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.
Gordon told Variety‘s Michael Fleming that “Wilson’s willingness to include the rough spots in his life, and the guidance of Beautiful Dreamer filmmaker Leaf (who’s known Wilson for 30 years), gives the movie its core” — bunk.
“I admire Brian for his willingness to tell his story truthfully,” Gordon told Fleming. “It’s complex and there is a lot to be learned from what he went through. It’s easier to tell that story when you’re in a good place and you have a happy ending. Brian has that now.”

It can’t and won’t work. Not with these guys at the helm. The only chance at success is to hire a director who’s totally un-invested — somewhat respectful but fundamentally indifferent to the Wilson legend. You obviously need someone who gets Wilson and his music and knows Pet Sounds backwards and forwards…but it can’t be an American who was into the surf-and-frolic thing as a teenager. Gordon needs to hire someone from a gray, foggy country like England or Germany to direct it — Perfume helmer Tom Tykwer, say, or The Lives of Others director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck .
In short, it’ll take a strong visionary outsider to stand up against the Leaf-Lippin- Sievers alliance, which will have one goal and one goal only — to keep the finished film from hurting Brian’s feelings.