I saw Birdman again last night. The two-hour masterpiece screened at the Little Theatre on the Fox lot at 7:45 pm. An outdoor reception followed with Michael Keaton and producer John Lesher. The silver-haired Keaton has shaved that scraggly goatee he wears in the film; plus he looks thinner, sleeker, healthier. Lesher looks a little silvery himself these days. I asked him about Glenn Zoller‘s Telluride gondola story (“I financed Birdman“) but he said he wasn’t the guy. Nice vibe, good food, cool nighttime air.

I spoke to Keaton a bit about Tom McCarthy‘s Spotlight, a Catholic Church child-molestation drama that he’ll begin shooting in Boston in a few days. Keaton’s last foray into movie journalism with in Ron Howard‘s The Paper. Participant is producing with DreamWorks having turned tail. The script has been cowritten by McCarthy and Josh Singer (The West Wing). It’s about a team of Boston Globe journalists who exposed a long-covered-up history of Catholic priest diddling of choir boys. Keaton’s costars reportedly include Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci and Rachel McAdams. Pic will almost certainly be part of next year’s Oscar conversation.

The Spotlight shooting means Fox Searchlight won’t be able to ask Keaton to perform promotional Birdman duties for at least the next…what, eight or ten weeks? And of Inarritu will be shooting The Revenant (Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy) in the Pacific Northwest between now and March. He’ll be able to attend a couple of events but few and far between.