“Now that John Lesher has moved over to run the big studio motion picture division for Brad Grey, he’ll release what’s left of his Vantage slate, including Sundance pick-up American Teen, Defiance, the Keira Knightley-starrer The Duchess and DreamWorks’ Revolutionary Road, starring Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
“But a sign of what the new Vantage will be is all too obvious in this story about acquisition and production head Amy Israel leaving the studio. Guy Stodel, the guy replacing her, is a respected dealmaker from New Line Cinema who supervised two Texas Chainsaw movies. Enough said.” — a 7.15 posting by Variety‘s Anne Thompson.

HE has never been a place for hot-bod shots (and never will be), but this Helen Mirren still, taken recently in Southern Italy, is, I feel, given her decades and all, fairly stupendous. This is obviously a crop; here‘s the full thing.

The entirety of Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes is up on Google Video. Nice not to have to watch it in five separate chunks.

“I do think high school kids will relate to this movie and find this movie, but it’s very challenging, if not, dare I say it, impossible, to a sell a movie as an art house release to a high school student. We’re releasing it as an independent movie. It has a rollout and a relatively small media budget. So we’re directing our attention to our sweet spot of those 18-to-24 recent graduates who go to independent cinema.” — Paramount Vantage marketing-publicity vp Megan Colligan, speaking to L.A. Times guy Mark Olsen on how American Teen is being marketed as essentially a teen film and not a doc.

Now this is what we were looking to hear about the Josh Brolin-Jeffrey Wright arrest incident last weekend! All we heard last Saturday afternoon was “one of the W guys wouldn’t leave at closing time, the owners called the cops and they all went to jail.” Yesterday the Chicago Sun Times‘ Bill Zwecker got the real story — right-wing rednecks vs. Hollywood lefties bustin’ heads over the suspected Bush-skewering content of Oliver Stone‘s W.

“Seems a couple of good ol’ boys got wind of the fact Brolin, Wright and their crew buddies were part of Stone’s film project,” Zwecker wrote. “Some folks in conservative Shreveport — while happy to collect the bucks spent by the filmmakers during the current down economy — are not happy their town is serving as the site for a movie about a president they have enthusiastically backed in his two runs for the White House.
“According to a sober source who was in the Stray Cat, a few profanity-laced barbs about Stone, his politics and the reported anti-Bush tone of W led to harsh words from Brolin — who is known for his own short fuse. Then a few pushes (it’s unclear who started the pushing) degenerated into punches being thrown.
“A W crew member reports Wright initially tried to play peacemaker, but that changed ‘after a racial slur was yelled’ and the actor got ‘into it as well.'”
I love, love, love that Wright tried to play the pacifist Gandhi card and wound up stomping redneck ass. Remember that scene in Deal of the Century when the born-again Gregory Hines tried to turn the other check with a hostile Hispanic couple, and then finally loses it and torches their car with a flame thrower? Wright has my respect for life after this. Brolin too, of course — BurmaShave has christened him “the New Nolte.”
I want to see a short film about this incident at next January’s Sundance Film Festival, and I want Brolin — a fledgling director — to direct and star in it. Please.
Everyone knows Brolin plays George Bush in the film, right? And that Wright portrays former Secretary of State Colin Powell?
“The situation was complicated when crew member Eric Felland, Brolin, Wright and several members of their party also refused to obey bar management’s request they leave — as it was past closing time.”
Here’s some more after-the-fact reporting from KYBS News.

“About two years ago, Steve Guttenberg walked into the showbiz haunt Crustacean on Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills. ‘I walked in and the maitre d’ made a big deal for me,’ said Mr. Guttenberg. The Goot — as he’s known to his friends — appreciated the show. To hear him tell it, eating in public in Los Angeles is a dangerous business for an actor whose last box office hit was Three Men and a Baby in 1987.
“All of a sudden, the maitre d’ says, `Get out of the way!'” said Mr. Guttenberg. “And they literally threw me to the side and Tom Cruise came in. And he sat Tom Cruise and said, `I’m so sorry, but you know, Tom Cruise.’ And I’m like, `Holy fuck.’
“So after three decades in L.A., he bought a place on the Upper West Side. ‘I came to New York to find a better life,’ he said. Uprooting took some time. The 15-year-old golden retriever he loved dearly was old and sick; the golden died a month ago. So two weeks ago, the wavy-haired, Brooklyn-born 49-year-old actor, who describes his career as a ’32-year-overnight success,’ finally made it back to New York City.
“‘In L.A., I think about what I don’t have,’ he told me. ‘In New York, I think about what I do have. And I’m really tired of comparing myself to Tom Cruise.” — from Spencer Morgan‘s 7.15 N.Y. Observer article, “Look Out, New York Ladies — The Goot Is Loose.”

Besides the possible inclusion of Clint Eastwood’s Changeling and Ari Folman‘s Waltz With Bashir, Variety‘s Winter Miller claims that “industry insiders suggest pics on this year’s shortlist for the New York Film Festival may include Gus Van Sant‘s Milk…”if it’s finished in time.” Sounds doubtful. If it happens, though, Milk won’t play Toronto…right?

The other hot possibles, Miller says, are Steven Soderbergh‘s two-part Che (yeah, heard that); Charlie Kaufman‘s Synecdoche, New York; one of Claire Denis’ two films, 35 Rhums or White Materials; Sam Mendes‘ Revolutionary Road (really?), John Hillcoat‘s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy‘s em>The Road; Ron Howard‘s Frost/Nixon and John Patrick Shanley‘s Doubt.
Anne Thompson chimes in also: “Neither Sam Mendes‘ Revolutionary Road nor John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt will be ready for the NYFF, as previously reported here. Gus Van Sant’s Milk, starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, will also not be finished until late October or early November, while John Hillcoat‘s film version of Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road, starring Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortenson, will not be complete until December.
“As for Che, I hear that it will only turn up at a fest willing to screen it as a 4 1/2 hour feature, as Cannes did.”

Congrats to Paramount exec marketing/publicity vp Mike Vollman for snagging the twin posts of exec vp marketing for MGM/UA and marketing president for United Artists. MGM chairperson Mary Parent did the hiring.

Mike Vollman

Variety‘s Michael Fleming reported this morning that Vollman informed his Par bosses last night. Fleming adds that since Vollman “worked closely with Terry Press at DreamWorks, the hire will only accelerate speculation that she is in line for the top post, which has been the rumor for months.”
Vollman will immediately begin working with Parent and UA topper Paula Wagner on Valkyrie, Jim Sheridan’s Brothers, Perfect Getaway and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

As long as we’re on a Kubrick jag, I happened upon this while searching for the Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes installments. I’ve heard it, I think, on that Taschen audio disc that came with that Kubrick coffee-table book, but I’ve never seen it accompanied by footage. Here’s Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. I love hearing Kubrick admit that his senior class grade average was 67, which, in 1945, prevented him from getting into even the lowest-calibre college due to all the soldiers pouring into schools on the G.I. bill.

Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes, Part 1 of 5. Here are the URLs for part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5. Will someone swoop in and have it taken down?