Six and a half years ago I ran an extended version of an Empire piece called “The Top 100 MVP’s — Most Valuable Players.” It was based on a telephone and e-mail poll I conducted in the summer of ’03, and then updated the following November. The central question went as follows: “Which Hollywood folk are due the most credit for making (or otherwise significantly contributing to) those relatively few movies each year that really deserve to be called cool, high-calibre, great, memorable, or some kind of really special?

It was all relative and depended, obviously, on who I was talking to, and what kind of axe they were looking to grind. But I got in touch with several dozen directors, studio execs, screenwriters, publicists, journalists, actors and an assortment of plugged-in fans, and a certain consensus about certain people started to emerge.

I’m reposting this in order to ask (a) what new-to-the-game player deserves to be on the MVP list now? and (b) which ’03 players have dropped off the list, and why?

Da Coolest were listed alphabetically. There were scores of other cool people working in Hollywood (like Albert Brooks) who didn’t make the cut. This was merely how it shook down this one time. [People who’ve since died or gone to jail are so indicated.]

1. Pedro Almodovar (director-writer). Credits: TALK TO HER, the upcoming BAD EDUCATION with Gael Garcia Bernal. Will probably never make a film in Hollywood proper, which is one of the reasons everyone thinks he’s so cool. That and the fact that Spain’s onetime leading farceur and most accomplished filmmaker is so good. When’s that musical he’s been talking about shooting going to happen?

2. Robert Altman (director) — Unrelenting, impudent, perpetually snarly and probing — go Bob! His ballet movie, THE COMPANY, was, okay, underwhelming. His next, the soon-to-shoot PAINT, is being called (per the IMDB) “a look at the treacherous, back-stabbing world of the New York art gallery scene.” [Deceased]

3. Paul Thomas Anderson (director-writer) Credits: PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, MAGNOLIA, BOOGIE NIGHTS.

4. Wes Anderson (director-writer). Credits: THE LIFE AQUATIC, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, RUSHMORE, BOTTLE ROCKET. Probably the most assured, self-aware and most “together” young auteur-level director in the business today. AQUATIC — part parlor comedy, part seafarin’ adventure, complete with pirates and a killer shark of some kind — looks like a growth spurt.

5. Roger Avary (writer-director). Credits: RULES OF ATTRACTION; wrote a good script about Salvador Dali a few years back that Al Pacino was going to make, but bailed from over budget. “Yes, of course…RULES was very ballsy.” — L.A. publicist. “I love the guy. One film every eight years = major coolness.” — Studio-based producer. [In jail, but sure to rebound.]

6. Jacques Audiard (director — READ MY LIPS; co-writer, VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE).

7. Michael Barker, Tom Bernard (co-chiefs of Sony Classics) — One of the genuine good-guy players among “the dependents.” Excellent taste, aggressive (they were on Errol Morris’ superb documentary THE FOG OF WAR as partners before it was made), generally well-liked, etc.

8. Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa (producing partners, Bona Fide Productions). Credits: COLD MOUNTAIN, I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART, ELECTION. Guys with moxie, taste, political skills, etc.

9. Bob Berney (president, Newmarket Films). Brilliant marketer. Sold the bejeezus out of MEMENTO and WHALE RIDER. Currently working for Mel Gibson in distributing THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, but only as part of a “service deal.”

10. Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner (co-owners, Working Title Films). Producers of (mostly) quality-level films since forever, and accepted by Los Angelenos as smart, grounded, astute. They can be forgiven for the revolting LOVE ACTUALLY because they’re behind so many other interesting- sounding projects, including the forthcoming WIMBLEDON, BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON, THE INTERPRETER, EVEREST.

11. Laura Bickford (producer) Credits: TRAFFIC, Jonathan Glazer‘s forthcoming CHAOS. “She’s something…got TRAFFIC made through blood and guts.” — Literary agent.

12. Cate Blanchett (actress) and Tilda Swinton (actress). There’s some kind of perceptual overlap with these two. Freckles, red heads, quietly intense auras, great talent, well respected. Swinton is a bit older, but after that differences are harder to single out. Blanchett credits: VERONICA GUERIN (uggh!), THE MISSING. Swinton credits: YOUNG ADAM, ADAPTATION, THUMBSUCKER, CONSTANTINE. “Blanchett is [always] looking for the films that will become classics.” — Phillip Noyce.

13. Adrien Brody (actor) Credits: THE PIANIST, THE VILLAGE (now filming), THE JACKET. Turned his life and career around with his Oscar-watching PIANIST performance. And for the encore…?

14. Tim Burton (director, visionary, semi-nutter). Credits: BIG FISH, PLANET OF THE APES, ED WOOD, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. In the doghouse after PLANET OF THE APES, but semi-redeemed after BIG FISH, his most personal and touching film yet.

15. Colin Callender (president, HBO Films). Credits: ELEPHANT, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, the upcoming THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS.

16. George Clooney (actor-director-producer, partner of Steven Soderbergh in Section Eight). Credits: INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (his best performance ever), O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU?, OCEAN’S 12. Clooney and Soderbergh’s respected HBO series K STREET adds to their brief.

17. Joel and Ethan Coen (writer-directors). Credits: THE LADYKILLERS (remake of Ealing Studios classic with Tom Hanks in Alec Guiness role), INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, FARGO; exec producers, polishers of BAD SANTA. Lump SANTA and CRUELTY together, and the inescapable conclusion is that the Coens are the funniest comic duo currently working in Hollywood.

18. Chris Cooper (actor) Credits: SEABISCUIT, ADAPTATION, John Sayles‘ SILVER CITY. Winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar last year cinched his rep. At the top of everyone’s list. Years of doing first-rate work in indie-level features finally paid off.

19. Sofia Coppola (director-writer) Credits: LOST IN TRANSLATION, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES. Awards and nominations for LOST work have obviously upped her rep, as she did find her voice with this fine (if very small) film.

20. Stuart Cornfeld (producer, head of Ben Stiller‘s Red Hour Films). Credits: STARSKY AND HUTCH, ZOOLANDER, MIMIC, THE FLY, THE ELEPHANT MAN. Hip operator, cool guy….been operating as such for 25-plus years. “It is Cornfeld’s enduring wit that makes him both a friend to writers and the front-runner to be the modern Herman Mankiewicz,” wrote L.A. WEEKLY profiler Paul Cullum.

21. Cameron Crowe (writer-director). Credits: VANILLA SKY, ALMOST FAMOUS, soon-to-shoot ELIZABETHTOWN). One of the very few gold-standard directors working today, and one of the best liked. But man, those recent casting problems!

22. Billy Crudup (actor). Latest credit: Tim Burton‘s BIG FISH. Primarily admired for his work in four underrated films: JESUS’ SON, ALMOST FAMOUS, (the bootleg director’s cut version on DVD), WAKING THE DEAD and WITHOUT LIMITS. “Plus the one time I saw him onstage in Tom Stoppard‘s ARCADIA, in which he blew me away” recalls journalist/ screenwriter Josh Mooney. “He’s still young, and I think his best work is ahead of him.”

23. Tom Cruise (actor-producer). Credits: THE LAST SAMURAI, the recently-wrapped Michael Mann action film COLLATERAL, in which he plays a professional assassin. As much a brand as a player. Presumptively in his golden years as an actor, now that he’s in his 40s.

24 & 25. Alfonso Cuaron (director) and his screenwriter brother, Carlos Cuaron, who worked together on Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN. “Yesh, yes, yes.” – L.A.publicist. DISSENT: “Directing a sequel to a Chris fucking Columbus film [i.e., HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN]?…not cool, dude.” — Studio-based producer.

26. John Cusack (actor-producer-screenwriter). Credits: IDENTITY, MAX, RUNAWAY JURY, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, HIGH FIDELITY.

27. Benicio del Toro (actor). Credits: Jonathan Glazer‘s CHAOS, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu‘s 21 GRAMS, Steven Soderbergh‘s TRAFFIC (for which del Toro won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar). Flat-out, hands-down, one of the two or three coolest actors on the planet.

28. Guillermo del Toro (director-writer). HELLBOY, BLADE 2, THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE. The Orson Welles of Prague, Mexico and all points in between. “Rooting for HELLBOY to be great. A $60 million Ron Pearlman movie? That’s ballsy. A great talented guy.” — New Line production exec.

29. Michael DeLuca (production chief, DreamWorks) “The only executive in town who totally and instinctively gets it.” — Don Murphy, producer. “Simply the best.” – New Line production exec. Seen as being obstructed and interfered with by senior DreamWorks production honcho Walter Parkes. However this drama plays out, DeLuca has good instincts, excellent cred with talent.

30. Leonardo DiCaprio (actor) Credits: Martin Scorsese‘s THE AVIATOR, Baz Luhrman’s ALEXANDER THE GREAT (if it ever gets made), CELEBRITY, TITANIC. In career recession for now (GANGS didn’t up his stock, and the party-hound rep still lingers), but one of the most searing talents of his generation.

31. Clint Eastwood (director-actor-sometime composer, legend). Credits: MYSTIC RIVER, UNFORGIVEN, His films have spoken for themselves for last 30 years. (Even the so- so ones have been pretty good.) Venerable, top of the mountain…directing seems cleaner, more commanding each time out.

32. David Fincher (director). Credits: PANIC ROOM, FIGHT CLUB, THE GAME, SE7EN…but what’s he been doing since he walked off the latest MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

33. Mel Gibson (director-actor-producer) Credits: THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, SIGNS, WE WERE SOLDIERS. “[He’ll] be revealed as the truest artist in the whole city state once everyone sees his latest.” — director Phillip Noyce. “His zealousness is a bit freaky,” says an L.A. publicist. “Possibly has lost his mind” — Studio-based producer #1. “Anyone willing to declare the Three Stooges as an influence is beyond hip.” — Joe Corey.

34. Terry Gilliam (director, dreamweaver extraordinaire). Credits: THE BROTHERS GRIMM (recently wrapped in Prague, costarring with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, due in late ’04), FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN.

35. Steve Golin (founder and CEO of Anonymous Content LLP, a development, production and talent management company based in Culver City). Credits: FIFTY FIRST DATES, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. “I think if you really, really want to be a producer, you just have to hang in there,” Golin told the L.A. WEEKLY’s Paul Cullum. “You can never quit. Once you fixate on that, you’re ahead of every other idiot in Hollywood. David Brown is 78 years old, and he’s still doing it. That’s genius. That’s what I want to do. There’s no retirement.”

36. Christopher Guest / Eugene Levy (writers, actors & all-around satirists) Credits: A MIGHTY WIND, BEST IN SHOW, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN. ADDED ELEMENT: Guest-Levy producer Karen Murphy — “The secret weapon,” says a New York marketing vet.

37. John Lee Hancock (director-writer). Credits: THE ALAMO (thought to be holiday Oscar bait, then delayed until March ’04), THE ROOKIE. Good guy, careful writer, assured director. Delivered one of the best G-rated films ever made with THE ROOKIE, and helped Dennis Quaid give one of his best-ever performances.

38. Chris Hanley (producer, head of Muse Productions). Credits: THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS, DIGITAL BABYLON, SPUN, LOVA LIZA, BULLY, THIS GIRL’S LIFE. Coolest, most eccentric indie-level producer in town, and one of the best-connected. “Chris is from outer space,” BULLY director Larry Clark told the L.A. WEEKLY’s Paul Cullum. “He definitely is from another planet. But it’s what makes him interesting, I guess. And somehow he has the knack for raising money for these difficult films.”

39. Curtis Hanson (director, writer, sometime actor) Credits: 8 MILE, WONDER BOYS, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL). “In my opinion, the most versatile director working in the biz. Can’t believe he’s the same guy who directed LOSIN’ IT.” — Production exec. SLIGHT DISSENT: “Bright, good, and just plain unpleasant.” — Publicity company owner.

40. Todd Haynes (writer-director). Credits: FAR FROM HEAVEN, POISON, his upcoming Bob Dylan movie that’s being called I?M NOT THERE: SUPPOSITIONS ON A FILM CONCERNING DYLAN.

41. Philip Seymour Hoffman (actor). Credits: COLD MOUNTAIN, OWNING MAHONY, HAPPINESS, LOVE LIZA. One of the best of his generation. “Always classy” — L.A. publicist. “It’s a damn shame Miramax passed on his playing Ignatius C. Reilly in A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES,” opines one observer. “It might have been his MARTY.”

42. Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (director-writer) Credits: 21 GRAMS, AMORES PERROS. Only two features under his belt, and already widely regarded as one of the most talented and vital helmers working today.

43. Peter Jackson (director-writer). Credits: LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, HEAVENLY CREATURES, the upcoming KING KONG.

44. Nina Jacobson (senior Disney production vp). “Has a good eye for the Wes Anderson’s and John Lee Hancock’s.” — L.A industry analyst.

45. Spike Jonze (director) Credits: ADAPTATION, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.

46. Charlie Kaufman (screenwriter) ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, ADAPTATION, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, HUMAN NATURE. “Genius… period.” — Studio-based producer.

47. Nicole Kidman (actress). Credits: THE STEPFORD WIVES, COLD MOUNTAIN, BIRTH, ALEXANDER THE GREAT, THE HUMAN STAIN. “Uses her power to kick start movies that otherwise would never see the light of a projector” — director Philip Noyce. Could have easily fallen into a Julia Roberts career path after BATMAN FOREVER, but has taken major risks with a majority of her roles.

48. Sherry Lansing (Paramount Pictures production chief) – “Longest-running chair in town. What boys have beaten that act?” – Literary agent.

49. John Lasseter of Pixar (FINDING NEMO, THE INCREDIBLES) — “First among all imaginations and creative genius… blend of art and commerce and originality and technical virtuosity.” — L.A.-based industry analyst. Probably the best marriage of business and creativity in the business today . Also presides over the most gutsy development process anywhere.

50. Ang Lee (director, writer – THE HULK, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON). Obviously, despite the misfire of THE HULK. “Yes — a natural cinema stylist.” – producer Don Murphy (LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN). Deserves points by showing that the intelligencia can embrace popcorn movies too. DISSENT: “THE HULK is perhaps the worst movie adaptation of a comic book ever. Pretentious, portentous, endless, clueless …ZABRISKIE POINTLESS.” — Movie writer for major daily.

51. John Lesher (Endeavor talent agent). Reps the coolest directors — directors Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu (21 GRAMS, AMORES PERROS)., Paul Thomas Anderson, David O. Russell, etc. Shrewd, hard-working, eccentric — this last attribute said to be one reason why talent relaxes around him.

52. Baz Luhrman (director). Credits: MOULIN ROUGE, ROMEO + JULIET, the apparently defunct ALEXANDER THE GREAT (what’s the latest on this puppy?…Dino still running into snags with financing?…is it toast?). Baz’s intensity factor overrides.

53. David Lynch (director). Credits: MULHOLLAND DRIVE, LOST HIGHWAY, BLUE VELVET, THE SHORT STORY. L.A. people don’t bow down to Lynch the way New Yorkers and Londoners do (the GUARDIAN named him “the most important filmmaker of the current era”), but the hipper types all mention him as one of the Good Guys. Helping to raise $1 billion to build a network of Transcendental Meditation “peace palaces”….strangely cool.

54. Ewan MacGregor (actor). Credits: BIG FISH, “the mustard & ketchup man” in YOUNG ADAM; DOWN WITH LOVE, MOULIN ROUGE. “Normally I would say yes, but his performance in DOWN WITH LOVE was …I don’t know, pasty. And this is coming from a girl who was completely enamored of him in MOULIN ROUGE.” — L.A.-based publicist. The new Albert Finney — he’ll work until he’s 90. It’s not a genuine indie film until Ewan drops trou.

55. John Malkovich (actor). Credits: RIPLEY’S GAME . Terry Zwigoff’s ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, COLOR ME KUBRICK (actor) and THE DANCER UPSTAIRS), plus his Mr. Mudd producing partners, Russell Smith and Lianne Halfon.

56. Anthony Minghella (writer-director). Credits: COLD MOUNTAIN, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, THE ENGLISH PATIENT. Creating the poetic, large-canvas soulfulness of COLD MOUNTAIN was a formidable feat, and deserving of serious respect. Producing with Mirage partner Sydney Pollack since ’00. Wrote that sublime narration heard at very beginning of THE QUIET AMERICAN. A gentleman.

57. Hayao Miyazaki (director-animator). Credits: SPIRITED AWAY. A lot of people admire him and want to be in bed with him on his next animated film, if for nothing else than the prestige factor. In the end, coolness doesn’t know from geography.

58. Julianne Moore (actress). Credits: LAWS OF ATTRACTION, WITHOUT APPARENT MOTIVE, MARIE AND BRUCE, FAR FROM HEAVEN, THE HOURS.

59. Jonathan Mostow (director, writer — TERMINATOR 3: THE RISE OF THE MACHINES). Craftsman extraordinaire, temperate fellow, top-notch.

60. Dennis Muren and the other “geniuses” at Industrial Light and Magic who regularly churn out some of the best visual effects in movies today. “The secret hero of the STAR WARS movies.” — Youngish production exec. Secret? In ’99 Muren became the first special-effects whiz to be honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

61. Don Murphy (producer). Credits: THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, PERMANENT MIDNIGHT, the forthcoming BIBLIONAUTS (about two kids who stumble upon a device invented by an eccentric scientist that enables them to be transported into great works of fiction). Not exactly a mellow, serene, cosmic-flow type of guy…but mellow is over-rated. Was buying and adapting comic book properties way before they were cool. “The industry’s point man for the geek Zeitgeist,” says L.A. WEEKLY’s Paul Cullum.

62. Sandra Nettlebeck (director-writer — MOSTLY MARTHA). Crafted one of the best personal-growth female dramas in recent years, and in so doing inspired two U.S. remakes. Larry Kasdan was reportedly planning to direct the U.S. remake of MARTHA in ’04 sometime. Gary Marshall’s RAISING HELEN (Disney – due in September ’04) is also MARTHA-inspired.

63. Robert Newman (ICM agent for indie-style writers, directors — Baz Luhrman, Danny Boyle, Jonathan Glazer, Joanthan Demme, etc). “Of the hundreds of agent jokes, not one applies to [Newman],” wrote Amy Wallace in a profile that ran in LOS ANGELES magazine early last year. “In a town of people who fake being interesting,” says Newman’s client Greg Berlanti, a writer-director, “he’s the genuine article. He’s like a fan. A fan that somebody let into the club.”

64. Jack Nicholson (actor) Credits: SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE, ANGER MANAGEMENT, ABOUT SCHMIDT, THE PLEDGE. Legend has it that Nicholson buttonholed Academy members at parties last year and asked them to vote for Adrien Brody‘s performance in THE PIANIST over his own in ABOUT SCHMIDT…as a favor to his old homie Roman Polanski. Nothin’ but class.

65. Chris Nolan (director-writer). Credits: INSOMNIA, MEMENTO. Now working on (God save us) a new BATMAN film. After this comes THE EXEC, a futuristic chiller he co-penned with brother Jonathan, who wrote the short story that became the basis for MEMENTO.

66. Philip Noyce (director). Credits: THE QUIET AMERICAN, RABBIT PROOF FENCE, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER; presently working on an adaptation of Phillip Roth’s AMERICAN PASTORAL. Respected for bailing out of highly-paid, big-studio rut and returning to indie roots, and making excellent films in the process.

67. Alexander Payne (director-writer). Credits: ABOUT SCHMIDT, ELECTION, the currently-in-production SIDEWAYS (dramedy about oddball guy couple taking a tour of California’s wine country, with AMERICAN SPLENDOR’s Paul Giamatti, Thomas Hayden Church, Sandra Oh, Virginia Madsen).

68. Sean Penn (actor-director) Credits: MYSTIC RIVER, I AM SAM, DEAD MAN WALKING. Lock to win Best Actor Oscar in Feburary, and perhaps Hollywood’s greatest contemporary actor. “In visiting Iraq he showed he cared more about the truth than what’s quoted on Fox News.” — Joe Corey. Okay, but when Penn directs does everybody always have to suffer and die?

69. PDI — the guys who did that wonderful digital animation work on SHREK. Upcoming credits: SHREK 2, MADAGASCAR, SHARK TALE, OVER THE HEDGE.

70. Brad Pitt (actor, 40ish-but-still-potent young girl magnet). Credits: TROY, soon-to-shoot OCEAN’S 12, SPY GAME, THE MEXICAN, FIGHT CLUB. He’s only moderately cool, you’re thinking? Not quite rock ‘n’ roll? Listen to Pitt’s voice-over commentary on the Criterion DVD of SE7EN.

71. Roman Polanski (director). Credits: THE PIANIST, CHINATOWN, REPULSION. For obvious reasons. “Has celluloid in his bloodstream.” — Don Murphy, producer. After napping for two decades, Polanski delivered a film [in THE PIANIST] that exposed as much of himself as his actors, and hit the jackpot in the bargain.

72. Sydney Pollack (director-producer). Credits: (as director) TOOTSIE, RANDOM HEARTS, OUT OF AFRICA, THE FIRM, the upcoming THE INTERPRETER; (as producer) COLD MOUNTAIN, THE ASSUMPTION, LEATHERNECKS. Shrewd, seasoned pro who knows the game and the system cold. Anthony Mingella’s producing partner, and about to get back into directing after a long hiatus. A straight shooter.

73. Parker Posey (actor) – “[She’s] old hat, but Parker still has an extremely good batting average for the films she’s in, regardless of whether she was the go factor behind them,” a screenwriter comments.

74. Keri Putnam (HBO production exec under Colin Callender) — “The one behind AMERICAN SPLENDOR and ELEPHANT, which won the big prize at two of the three most important film festivals in the world, Sundance and Cannes.” — Literary agent.

75. Dennis Quaid (actor – THE ALAMO, THE ROOKIE, FAR FROM HEAVEN) – “I’ve always loved him as both a leading man and a great actor, and felt that the studios have short-changed him for far too long. I’m pleased he’s having more visibility now. He’s one of those few actors people root for.” — director of a big Hollywood action flick who requested anonymity.

76. Bingham Ray (just-resigned president of United Artists – co-founded of October Films) Despite the dirty looks he passes out at film festivals and despite having once referred to yours truly as “the devil himself,” Ray is one of the most committed and impassioned indie distribution execs anywhere. One of the stars of Peter Biskind’s “Down and Dirty Pictures.” Producer of CODE 46. Played “bartender” in a 1987 flick called SHOCKER (a.k.a., NO MORE MR. NICE GUY).

77. Peter Rice (president, Fox Searchlight). Credits: IN AMERICA, 28 DAY LATER. Cool exec, go-getter, hot career. Exudes an appropriately conservative manner befitting hot-shot studio exec…but behind-these-scenes passionate about films he wants to make and/or distribute.

78. Gary Ross (director-writer) Credits: SEABISCUIT, PLEASANTVILLE. Seen as being perhaps a bit too pandering in his instincts, even if SEABISCUIT is enjoying heat as a possible Best Picture contender. Give him credit for pulling those great supporting perfs from William H. Macy and Chris Cooper, and a sturdy, sensitive one from Tobey Maguire.

79. Scott Rudin (producer). Credits: THE STEPFORD WIVES, A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, THE LIFE AQUATIC, THE SCHOOL OF ROCK, THE HOURS, CHANGING LANES. Volcanically tempered, but a brilliant, tenacious, Tiffany-level producer. Only high-profile, quality-level guy working with Paramount Studios, a corporate outfit that has otherwise tarnished itself with bottom-line attitudes.

80. James Schamus (Focus Features president/producer/screenwriter). Focus Features distributed LOST IN TRANSLATION, 21 GRAMS. Schamus, a longtime Ang Lee collaborator, wrote THE ICE STORM, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN, etc. “Schamus wrote THE HULK? Banned for life!” — Movie writer for major U.S. daily. “Loves the credit, loves the spotlight.” — publicist.

81. Bryan Singer (director, writer). Credits: X2, APT PUPIL, X MEN, THE USUAL SUSPECTS. Has built his directorial rep with tremendous visual pizzazz, yes, but known also for his lengthy, verbally dextrous flirtations with the darker side of human nature. “Solid peeps.” — Studio-based producer.

82. John Sloss (indie financier-executive producer / IndiGent Films). Credits: PIECES OF APRIL, TADPOLE, THE FOG OF WAR, FAR FROM HEAVEN. Slick, high-powered, go-for-broke New York attorney. Widely respected, neck deep in the shit.

83. Kevin Smith (writer, director, sometime actor, internet maven). Credits: JERSEY GIRL, DOGMA, JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, CHASING AMY, CLERKS, the upcoming RANGER DANGER AND THE DANGER RANGERS, FLETCH WON. Yes, I’m on the take, but does that mean the guy’s rep isn’t what it is? Who else seems to have a more established handle as the savviest, most commercial, and most satirically influential auteur-level filmmaker of the under-40 generation? (Please…I’m open to suggestions.) Bennifer casting in JERSEY GIRL seems unfortunate, but at least Jenny kicks it early on. Another leading player in Biskind’s “Down and Dirty Pictures.”

84. Steven Soderbergh (director-producer-writer). Credits: OCEAN’S 12, OCEAN’S 11, FULL FRONTAL, TRAFFIC, OUT OF SIGHT, THE LIMEY. Currently slumping, but respect is still strong. DISSENT: “He’s overrated. Managed to make the only Julia Roberts movie in ten years to fizzle financially and it didn’t even cost anything.” – Studio-based producer. “Will he quit screwing with the color schemes in his films? I’m sick of having to explain to my mother that the TV set isn’t out of whack.” — Joe Corey.

85. Steven Spielberg (director-producer). Credits: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, MINORITY REPORT, A.I., SCHINDLER’S LIST, the upcoming TERMINAL and INDY 4. If you’re as rich and powerful as Spielberg, and involved in hiring as many people as he is on a regular basis, people are going to call you “cool” and a “good guy” whether you are or not. Which isn’t to diss or under-value his better films.

86. John Stockwell (writer-director). Credits: BLUE CRUSH, CRAZY/ BEAUTIFUL). A-1 with actors, knows how to bring out realism in performances. One of the smartest, hippest, most personable directors in the business.

87. Oliver Stone (director-writer – ALEXANDER, ANY GIVEN SUNDAY). “Always on the edge, out there …and ALEXANDER yet to come.” — L.A. industry analyst. “The fact is that we’re in the middle of America’s McCarthy era revisited, and we need Stone and his ilk more than ever.” — owner of publicity company. “You think so? Addled, I say.” — Studio-based producer.

88. Quentin Tarantino (director-writer-actor). Credits: KILL BILL I & II, JACKIE BROWN. Gifted lazybones (some think BILLwas a huge kick), and a relentless party hound. Was it really necessary for BILL to be chopped in two and the two films to be opened four months apart? Will his next effort take ten years to deliver?

89. Billy Bob Thornton (actor-director). Credits: (actor) BAD SANTA, WAKING UP IN RENO, PRIMARY COLORS; (director) ALL THE PRETTY HORSES, SLING BLADE. Post-Angelina Jolie, he’s surged with his SANTA performance- one of the funniest damned things any actor’s ever done. What happened to the directing career?

90. Team Todd (producers Jennifer and Suzanne Todd). Credits: MEMENTO, HBO’s IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK, BOILER ROOM, the Austin Powers films, the forthcoming ZOOM’S ACADEMY.

91. Robert Towne (screenwriter-director – WITHOUT LIMITS, PERSONAL BEST, TEQUILA SUNRISE) Towne’s ASK THE DUST biopic about John Fante, expected to roll in early ’04 in South Africa with Colin Farrell in the lead, may belie this legendary screenwriter’s rep about having lapsed in recent years into a gun-for-hire status.

92. Christine Vachon (producer). Credits: John Waters’ A DIRTY SHAME, PARTY MONSTER, THE COMPANY, GIRLS DON’T CRY, the upcoming I’M NOT THERE: SUPPOSITIONS ON A FILM CONCERNING DYLAN (from director Todd Haynes). If the film is about gay characters or a gay sensibility, or is being directed by a gay man or woman, and /or is in the lower-budget realm, chances are Vachon is the producer. She has this turf well covered, and always aligns herself with quality.

93. Ruth Vitale (co-president, Paramount Classics — former president of Fine Line). Credits: exec producer on GUMMO, LOVE, VALOUR, COMPASSION!, Keith Gordon’s MOTHER NIGHT. Currently championing Mike Hodges‘ I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD. The hippest, shrewdest, most unabashedly honest “dependent” distribution honcho I’ve ever encountered, bar none.

94. Larry and Andy Wachowski (writer-directors). Credits: THE MATRIX RELOADED, THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, BOUND. Larry and Andy who…? The bloom is definitely off these two following the seismic disappointment that greeted the final two MATRIX flicks, but they’re hip and gifted, and there’s always the next act. And…well, Larry’s happy…right?

95. Christopher Walken (actor). Credits: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, STEPFORD WIVES, MAN ON FIRE, POOLHALL JUNKIES, GIGLI. A legend. The best in his class. Most vocally imitated actor in recent history.

96. Chris Wedge (honcho of Blue Sky, the award-winning animation studio). Credits: ICE AGE, TITAN A.E., FIGHT CLUB, THE SOPRANOS (i.e. the talking fish with Big Pussy’s voice).

97. Peter Weir (director-writer). Credits: MASTER AND COMMANDER, his best film since Witness or Gallipoli (a tossup), DEAD POET’S SOCIETY, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, THE LAST WAVE. Admired by everyone. “Without fuss, Peter has always done his own thing, his way” – Philip Noyce.

98. Harvey Weinstein (co-chairman, Miramax Films) — After all is said and done… unstoppable, unquenchable, undeniable….a major mover and gambler extraordinaire. “Where would we be without him?” – Phillip Noyce. DISSENT: “No — bullies don’t deserve [to be honored].” — writer for U.S. daily.

99. Debra Zane (casting director). Recent credits: MATCHSTICK MEN, SEABISCUIT, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, FULL FRONTAL, ROAD TO PERDITION.

100. Terry Zwigoff (director) Credits: Bad Santa, Ghost World, Crumb, the forthcoming Art School Confidential. A late bloomer (in his mid 50s), but riding a sensibility that’s at once funny, compassionate and agreeably twisted.

Cheers to Garrison Dean and the Monocular Group for making an Expendables trailer that Tim Palen and this Lionsgate marketing team probably should have created themselves. Wait…was this a secret sub-contract?

I was whipped when I last saw The Kids Are All Right, or half of it, at last January’s Sundance Film Festival. It struck me as good enough — believably written, unaffected acting — but not levitational. I was in and out, waiting, checking my watch. I decided to duck out and catch another film I had to see.

I saw Kids again last night at the Clearview Cinemas, and this time to the finish. It went down pretty well! Not a great film but a much better one than I recall. (Being well rested makes a difference.) I don’t think it’s the Second Coming, but I’m giving it a B-plus for shaping and selling the story of a gay couple — played by Annette Bening and Julianne Moore — confronted with history and infidelity in a smart, likably middle-class way. With an honest third-act emotional payoff. It’s modest but genuine. I have no beef with it.

Bening has a Best Actress nomination in the bag, I think. Best Performance of a Neurotic, Controlling, Affluent, Red-Wine-Sipping Physician Lesbian by a straight actress in a long time. And Mia whatsername-with-the-nearly-unspellable-and-unpronouncable-Polish-name…okay, Wasikowska…is an exceptional off-pretty actress with a better role than she had in HBO’s In Treatment and a much better one than she had in Tim Burton‘s 3D borefest. And Mark Ruffalo is true and settled as “the sperm donor” — an engaging, easygoing L.A. resturateur who can’t keep it in his pants.

The Kids Are All Right is Lisa Cholodenko‘s best film ever, I feel. She’s a good filmmaker but she’s only hit line drives and doubles until now; this is her first triple.

I was a bit confused about Magnolia opening Leon Gast‘s Smash His Camera theatrically on 7.30 despite the doc having preemed on HBO roughly seven weeks ago (on 6.7.10) and still being available via HBO On Demand. (I reviewed it favorably just prior to this debut.) The solution, according to a publicist, is that “the film is scheduled to stop airing on HBO and will no longer be available on HBO On Demand next week.”

Why not, right? It’s an amusing, above-average film, and well worth a theatrical looksee. Not everyone has HBO or has the time to watch everything on it.

Why would any semi-healthy person want to watch a brand-new, grosser-than-the-original I Spit On Your Grave? What kind of animal wants to watch cartoony yee-haw woman-haters humiliate an actress and then watch her get some payback by going all medieval Antichrist on their asses? Who’s the audience? Under-20 lowlife males and who else?

Scurvy violent scumbags in violent movies are always, always played by actors with no talent or crude chops. And if they have anything good to show they aren’t allowed to make use of it. Jeff Goldblum played one of Hope Lange‘s rapists in Death Wish, and he was nothing but a faceless fiend with a shaved head.

Here’s Roger Ebert‘s 7.16.80 review of the original I Spit On Your Grave, directed by Meir Zarchi.

Radar Online posted a second Mel Gibson tape about three hours ago. I think the point was made with the first recording, and that this is, like, overkill. Gibson has an ugly mouth, an uncontrollable temper and may be physically violent — we get it already.

But as long as some of us are listening to this horrible-ness, it would at least serve the cause of good storytelling if someone could try to explain what led up to the arguments. The tit-for-tat that resulted in all the hurt and rage, etc. Because this yelling is monotonous and far from Albee. No one is blameless, it takes two to ruin a relationship, etc.

Harvey Pekar, the 70 year-old author of the ground-breaking comic book series “American Splendor” who was portrayed by Paul Giamatti in the much-admired film of the same name, was found dead earlier today in his Cleveland home. He’d been coping with prostate cancer, high blood pressure, asthma and (naturally) depression. Tough deal but he made his mark.

Joyce and Harvey Pekar at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival — taken by myself.

I interviewed Harvey and wife Joyce (who was played by Hope Davis in the film) on the big green lawn of the Grand Hotel at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. He seemed like one sharp cat — extremely bright, alert, open-pored. He was more like a wolf in a sense, constantly sniffing and detecting whatever faint tremor or aroma might be in the air. He struck me as the opposite of smug.

Directed and written by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, American Splendor won the Grand Jury prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, and Berman and Pulcini won a ton of Best Screenplay awards. (They were Oscar-nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay but lost out in the ridiculous Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King sweep.) American Splendor won the Best First Film award from the New York Film Critics Circle, and Best Picture awards from the L.A. Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics.

With pretty much everyone resigned to the notion of Roman Polanski being extradited to the U.S. very soon and almost certainly doing time for a few months for having had unlawful sex with a minor 33 years ago, Swiss authorities have manned up and told the Los Angeles district attorney’s office to suck it — no Polish sausage for you to taunt, humiliate and kick around. Too bad, assholes!

For RoPo is a free man this morning. Probably on a train or a plane back to Paris as we speak. Hardcore Polanski coddlers need to gather in bars this evening and raise a few glasses. The Blue Meanies and Twisted Sisters have been cold-cocked, and the whole matter is finally over and done.

The Swiss offered two reasons for their decision. One, they “blamed U.S. authorities for having failed to provide confidential testimony about Polanski’s sentencing procedure in 1977-1978.” And two, they cited “national interests.” What, someone suggested they might face adverse consequences of some sort if they extradited Polanski? This is way too vague.

What a great way to wake up on a Monday morning! The idea of the pitchforkers — the Big Hollywood team especially — being all purple-faced and swearing and punching their refrigerator doors over this matter is almost too delicious to contemplate.

I’m not joyful over the world now being a safer place for foul men who might want to take advantage of children — that’s not what this is about.

This is about the fact — in my head, at least — that the LA District Attorney’s office had totally forgotten about Polanski for the better part of 30 years, and had only engineered Polanski’s arrest Zurich and the Swiss extradition request because they became agitated by Marina Zenovich‘s Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which reminded that the application of LA justice had been (and might still be) corrupt, political, ego-driven and obstinate in the face of damaging facts.

This is also about the Swiss doing something they’re not exactly known for — i.e., acting like men.

“The 76-year-old French-Polish film director Roman Polanski will not be extradited to the USA,” the ministry said in a statement sometime around noon today. “The freedom-restricting measures against him have been revoked.”

Polanski’s lawyer Herve Temime said the director was still at his Swiss chalet in the resort of Gstaad, where he has been held under house arrest since December.

“Mr. Polanski can now move freely,” Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf declared. “Since 12:30 today he’s a free man.”

From a HuffPost summary: “Approving extradition had seemed the likeliest scenario after Polanski was arrested on Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award from a film festival. Polanski had also suffered a series of legal setbacks this year in California courts.

Widmer-Schlumpf said the decision was not meant to excuse Polanski’s crime, saying the issue was “not about deciding whether he is guilty or not guilty.”

It all started with Polanski’s arrest in Zurich on 9.26.09. Here’s the first HE post on the subject — “Cheap Swiss Theatrics.” On 9.28 I ran another posting called “Polanski Wars.”

In a 9.2.09 Newser piece, Michael Wolff explained the basics.

“Prosecutors ignored Polanski for 30 years because it was a terrible case in which the prosecutor’s office and the sitting judge, in the interest of getting publicity for themselves, had conducted themselves in all variety of dubious ways. But then, last year, a documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, came out detailing all this dubiousness. So the first motivation for going after Polanski now, as it so often is with prosecutors, is revenge — Polanski and this film makes the DA look bad.

“The second is that the documentary reminded everybody that the LA prosecutor must be turning a blind eye to Polanski, wandering freely in Europe — hence the arrest now is the prosecutor covering his ass.

“The third is — and it’s curiously the success of the documentary that made the LA prosecutor’s office realize the brand name significance of the case — press. The headlines now sweeping the world are the prosecutor’s ultimate benefit. Many careers are suddenly advanced.

“It could tell us quite a lot about the real motivations and real interest in Roman Polanski in the LA prosecutor’s office, about the sudden enthusiasm for Polanski’s capture and the convenient timing of it, if we just got the date and time — Polanski’s lawyers can certainly get this information through discovery requests — when they began to Google him, and when they set up the first alert.

“Among all media whores, there is none so greedy and mendacious as a prosecutor.”

In a brilliant 10.1.09 piece called “The Roman Area,” Phil Nugent wrote the following:

“Polanski may be a sleazeball, but nobody thinks he’s a menace to society — one big difference between then and now is that nobody working for his prosecution can seriously think they’re working to prevent him from doing this again — so the spectacle of his detainment and possible future prosecution can only appeal to that lizard part of the brain that thinks that the justice system has nothing to do with protecting society and everything to do with punishing those we disapprove of.

“This isn’t, or shouldn’t be, about how much of your pity you want to lavish on monsters. It’s about whether, in a country with the largest and most overcrowded prison system in the world, we want to apply any practical considerations at all to who goes and stays into a cell or if we just want to use the system to luxuriate in our capacity for blood lust.”

Apart from its reportedly strong entertainment value, exhibitors are doubly delighted with Phillip Noyce‘s Salt because of its 95-minute running time (plus titles), which obviously allows for more shows per day than the 148-minute Inception. Five or six 11 am-to-midnight shows daily vs. four, not counting midnighters. What’s the shortest action thriller ever released? I’m asking.

The Boston Herald‘s Stephen Schaefer, fresh from this weekend’s Washington, D.C. Salt junket, has called it “the best damn thriller I’ve seen in years. Noyce once again nails the political thriller, mixing high octane action with, as we’ve learned from recent headlines, real-world spy issues. Angelina Jolie stars/scores as CIA operative Evelyn Salt, on the run as an accused sleeper cell Russian agent who attempts to stop an assassination and regain her security clearance. Like Lisbeth Salander, she rates as an irresistible fantastical creation in a realistic milieu.”

Opening opposite Salt and Countdown to Zero on 7.23 is Christian Carlon‘s Farewell, a fact-based espionage drama involving Russian secrets funneled to the French, and set in the early ’80s. There’s an immediate Day of the Jackal/Smiley’s People vibe from the trailer. It played in Telluride last year. An intriguing John Anderson piece in the N.Y. Times got me started.

The costars are Guillaume Canet, Emir Kusturica, Guillaume Canet, Ingeborga Dapknaite, David Soul, Dina Korzun, Phillipe Magnan, Yevgeni Kharlanov, Willem Dafoe and Fred Ward.

Only one screening in Manhattan so far, and another I’ll miss on Wednesday. (I’m trying to snag a screener as we speak.) I’ve never even heard of the distributor, NeoClassics Films, and a well-connected LA friend couldn’t find any screening invites in his inbox.

The beginning of Phillip Seymour Hoffman‘s Jack Goes Boating (Overture, 9.17) “isn’t terribly made or horribly off its game,” I wrote last January. “It establishes an amiable, easy-going tone with dabs of low-key humor, but I really, really didn’t want to hang with Hoffman’s Jack, an oafish Manhattan limousine driver. Jack is pudgy — okay, fat — and rumpled and conversationally slow as molasses. He wears a dim and drowsy expression, and seems borderline stupid and to some degree emotionally shut down.

“‘I don’t like this guy — he’s too doltish,’ I muttered to myself. And the humor, as I heard it, conveyed a kind of low-energy flatness, reflecting the perceptions of people with somewhat diminished capacities.

“And then came a scene between Hoffman and Amy Ryan, portraying a plain girl named Connie whom Jack is interested in, and costars John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega. It ends with Hoffman telling Ortiz that Ryan wants to go boating sometime, and Hoffman explaining that this might not work because he can’t swim. And then Ortiz mentions that he could teach Hoffman to swim at an indoor pool he’s been to.

“That was it — I wasn’t going to watch Hoffman in bathing trunks. He’s been getting more and more corpulent lately, and it just makes me feel badly for the guy. I want him to be Capote-sized for the rest of his life. I’m sorry. I’m really not trying to be an asshole. It’s quite possible that Jack Goes Boating will be called a decent-enough film by critics and festivalgoers I respect. I just didn’t want to be in that world so I left. I’m sorry.”

Todd McCarthy‘s 7.9 Indiewire column about visiting the just-opened Norman Rockwell exhibit as the Smithsonian Museum with his 12 year-old son Nick didn’t quite ring my bell — sorry. McCarthy attended the 7.2 opening because he’d been hired to write the catalogue notes, and because he’s chummy with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who lent their 57 Rockwell originals for the show (which will go until 1.2.11).

But I love the photo of Nick and Spielberg. Nick could almost be a Rockwell kid out of a 1930s painting, and Spielberg (who has stubby-looking fingers) gives off a kindly paternal vibe. I don’t recall Rockwell having ever painted older Jewish guys with beards — he had a very white-picket-fence view of American culture. But squint your eyes and Spielberg could be one of Rockwell’s drug-store managers or small-town rabbis or haberdashers.

I’ve never been a Rockwell fan, and I don’t take kindly to worshippings of the man. He’s as much an illustrator of small-town schmaltz — more Frank Capra than Capra himself — as John Ford was a chronicler of Irish sentimentality among men of action. Rockwell was a talented artist with a lazy, status-quo mind. He’s today considered a sentimental scene-painter of a long-gone, dead-and-buried America that was probably half-phony to begin with. And McCarthy’s story is basically about a couple of lazy, multi-millionaire filmmakers coming to Washington, D.C., to pay tribute to themselves.

Rockwell’s America is “a vision of America that may have had some ties to actual 1950s culture (i.e., when Spielberg and Lucas grew up) but which really came out of the 1920s and ’30s,” I wrote a couple of months ago. “It had actually begun to die in the wake of World War II, primarily from (a) the psychological post-war shocks that brought a certain dark undercurrent to the lives of returned veterans, (b) the corporate tract-home construction and bland suburbanization of Middle America, and (c) the various ’50s be-bop influences (Ginsberg-Kerouac-Cassady-Burroughs, rock ‘n’ roll, Little Richard, Elvis Presley‘s hips) that began to change the way Americans saw themselves and behaved.”