The idea in Guillermo del Toro wanting to direct a Tarzan movie for producer Jerry Weintraub — I can’t think of two smart players who are more fundamentally unalike than these two — is what exactly? To take Tarzan out of the naturalist realm and have him fight monsters? Del Toro can’t make a movie without some kind of monster-demon of the id or supernatural element, and yet the writer is said to be John Collee, whose Master & Commander script was nothing if not tethered to the real worlds of men and the sea. What could be the basis for believing that audiences are about seeing another Tarzan movie anyway? Doesn’t Weintraub realize that John Derek’s 1981 Tarzan, The Ape Man ruled the earth and that any attempt to overcome its impact is futile?

AICN’s Harry Knowles vs. the fiendish mutant vomiting anorexic celebrity quartet — animated. It goes on a wee bit too long, and the animator over-emphasizes Harry’s jug-breasts but otherwise…

N.Y. Times writer Cindy Price on four “other” January film festivals — Slamdance, Santa Barbara, Smogdance (in Pomona) and one in Beloit. “Film festivals have a tradition of being for the elite, but they shouldn’t be,” SBFF director Roger Durling tells Price. “It should be like a candy store. Anyone should be able to walk in and grab whatever they want.”

“‘And I Am Telling You,’ for all the defiance of its lyric and the triumphal swell of its orchestration, is an anthem of impotence, a proud woman’s protest in the face of humiliation and defeat. Like it or not, Effie is going. She has no choice in the matter. But it’s not often you go to the movies and see a big-boned, sexually assertive, self-confident black woman — not played for laughs or impersonated by a male comedian in drag — holding the middle of the screen. And when was the last time you saw a first-time film actress upstage an Oscar winner, a pop diva and a movie star of long standing? Jennifer Hudson is not going anywhere. She has arrived.” — N.Y. Times critic A.O. Scott in his otherwise lukewarm review of Dreamgirls.

A 12.14 “Page Six” item says L.A. Times/ “Envelope” writer Paul Lieberman couldn’t get Martin Scorsese to talk to him for a Departed article, so he allegedly dug up nearly two-year-old quotes that Scorsese supplied for an Aviator interview and re-used them for a 12.13.06 “Envelope” piece, which ran yesterday.
Okay, not good at all…but at least the old Scorsese quotes that were used seem to actually apply to The Departed. Sample #1: “I did not want to do another gangster movie” but Scorsese read William Monahan‘s script to be polite, “as a matter of form.” Sample #2: But by the time he got to page 26 and thought, “What the hell’s going on here? [The characters] “are all duplicitous and all deceiving each other and ultimately all wind up in a kind of elegant, how shall I say it Gotterdammerung.”
So to be in the clear, all Lieberman had to do was say Scorsese wasn’t available but that he said the following back in ’04, etc. What would have been so hard about that?

This happened last year and here we go again: with Sundance Film Festival lodging suddenly in doubt, enterprising columnist needs a clean place to flop and file and take showers. Being part of a house share is fine as long as there’s good wi-fi. Get in touch before Xmas and we’ll all breathe easier. In Park City only….thanks

Richard Roeper and (in Roger Ebert‘s absence) co-host Aisha Tyler get into Dreamgirls (opening limited tomorrow).

Roger Durling‘s Santa Barbara Film Festival (1.25 thru 2.4) has lined up Factory Girl as its gala opening night attraction, with Sienna Miller, director George Hickenlooper and costars Guy Pearce and Hayden Christensen expected to attend. (It would be extra-neat if Bob Dylan were to show up also, but that’s on the doubtful side.) This in addition to Helen Mirren Will Smith, Forest Whitaker and An Inconvenient Truth‘s Al Gore and David Guggenheim lined up for special tributes. (Note: THE SBFF website was posting the dates for the ’06 festival until yesterday, hence HE’s error in passing along same.)

The CG-plus-live action Charlotte’s Web (Paramount) and The Pursuit of Happyness (Columbia), the Will Smith feel-good drama, are both going to do $20 million-plus this weekend. Tracking has Web running 85, 31, 9 — very good for an animated film — and Pursuit is at 81, 51 and 18. 20th Century Fox’s Eragon will be close behind them — 61, 34 and 13. Rocky Balboa (12.20) — 84,29, 6; The Good Shepherd (12.22) — 62, 34, 4; Fox’s A Night at the Museum (12.22) — 73, 41, and 7 (still looking big); We Are Marshall (12.22) — 57, 31, 4; Black Christmas (12.25) — 37, 25, something. Dreamgirls (12.25) — 70, 30 , 5.

It should be recognized that Paramount Pictures had the most Golden Globe nominations of all the distribs — 15 — which is two higher than the studio’s 1999 record of 13 noms (which were largely generated by The Truman Show and Saving Private Ryan). Babel , which tallied 7 nominations, is the first film to come out under Paramount Vantage, the Paramount- funded independent unit being run by John Lesher.

“If we are to believe that the Golden Globe nominations will have a direct effect on Academy (and Guild) voting patterns, then it must be said pictures like World Trade Center, The Good German, The Good Shepherd, Children Of Men, The Prestige, The Illusionist and The Painted Veil…have been voted off the island,” writes Hollywood Wiretap‘s Pete Hammond in his just-up Globe nom reaction piece.

“Annette Bening, an early favorite would seem to be a dark horse now despite a Globe comedy nomination. Will Smith is the only thing keeping the high hopes of Pursuit of Happyness. Peter O√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢Toole, the sentimental favorite is now an underdog to emerging front-runner Forest Whitaker. In fact, Whitaker√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢s Last King and Helen Mirren√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢s Queen look like good bets to become Oscar royalty as well and have pretty much run the board proving critics, like Academy voters, are duly impressed when actors play well-known real life figures.
“In the battle of the 9/11 films, World Trade Center was dissed while Universal has steered United 93 into position with significant notice from N.Y., D.C., L.A. and S.F. critics groups, a mention on the AFI list and a BFCA nom but the lack of Globe nominations might be troubling in going forward to Oscar. United 93 boosters should take heart from The Thin Red Line which was completely shut out in the Globes but went on to 7 Oscar noms including Best Picture in 1998.
“But will the many reluctant Academy members who have resisted popping their screeners into their DVD players feel they have to watch now? The jury is out but at least one member told us that while he has given it some renewed thought he still has no interest in seeing the movie, critical acclaim or not.”

Bob Dylan is reportedly concerned that George Hickenlooper‘s Factory Girl suggests that he was responsible for Edie Sedgwick‘s suicide, which, as far as the film is concerned, is horseshit. (That is, if the version that the Weinstein Co. is opening in early February bears any relation to the cut I saw last August.) The legendary singer-songwriter has told attorneys to go after producers Bob Yari and Holly Wiersma in order to ensure that he has a chance to see the film and assess the content before it’s shown any further.

Dylan’s lawyer Orin Snyder is demanding that the film’s theatrical release plans be halted and even for critics screening to cease “until [Snyder] and Dylan can see it to determine if Dylan, who they say has ‘deep concerns,’ has been defamed,” according to a 12.14 “Page Six” item.
HE to Dylan: You’re worrying about next to nothing. In the version of Factory Girl I saw, the “Danny Quinn” character (Hayden Christensen) is obviously you through and through — same hair, same speech patterns, a brown suede (or leather) jacket that strongly resembles the one you wore on the cover of Blonde on Blonde…the whole shot. And yes, Quinn has an affair or close alliance of some kind with Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller). And yes, when he disappears out of her life she gets upset and starts to fall apart. But she’s mostly frazzled because Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce) has thrown her over for Nico, i.e., the model and Velvet Underground singer.
Here’s the thing: before “Danny” bids farewell, he warns Sedgwick that she’s being used by Warhol and that he’s not a friend, and that she should get back to her love of sculpture and invest in herself rather than just hang with Warhol’s Factory crowd, whom he regards as a band of cutthroat scenesters and poseurs. In short, you come off as a fairly compassionate and tender friend of Sedg- wick’s, and hardly the cause of her suicide, which happened a good four or five years after the mid ’60s New York period depicted in the film.

The letter sent to Yari and Wersma reportedly says, “You appear to be laboring under the misunderstanding that merely changing the name of a character or making him a purported fictional composite will immunize you from suit. That is not so. Even though Mr. Dylan’s name is not used, the portrayal remains both defamatory and a violation of Mr. Dylan’s right of publicity…Until we are given an opportunity to view the film, we hereby demand that all distribution and screenings …immediately be ceased.”
Snyder reportedly also contacted Factory Girl screenwriter Aaron Richard Golub. Hey, what about co-screenwriter Captain Mauzner? Doesn’t he rate a threatening letter also? And what about Hickenlooper and Harvey Weinstein? Everybody must get stoned.