Filed under: Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Celebrities and Controversy, Box Office, Newsstand, Movie Marketing

Or, alternatively, which do you think would make more money at the theater: I Know Who Killed Me or Lindsay Lohan talking to Larry King for an hour? In case you've just woken up and Cinematical is the first thing you're reading today (if so, we're honored -- thanks!), La Lohan was once again arrested in the wee hours of the morning and charged with a number of things, including drunken driving and cocaine possession. Apparently, the cops were called when the mother of Lohan's former personal assistant found her vehicle being chased around a parking lot by Lohan. Just another day in the life, huh Linds? Her arrest comes only a couple days before her latest film, I Know Who Killed Me, is set to hit theaters. Since the marketing campaign for that film has been all but non-existent (has anyone even seen a TV spot?), there's a chance all this free publicity might turn out to be great for a film heading into the weekend with little to no buzz behind it.

Although something similar happened the week before Georgia Rule hit theaters (in that case, video of Lohan snorting coke had surfaced online), it did nothing to bolster that film's box office take. Then again, Georgia Rule wasn't very controversial and/or appetizing -- I guess some would call it a "chick flick." On the other hand, I Know Who Killed Me features Lohan playing a stripper -- it's a thriller -- and those attracted to her bad girl image might be more inclined to check it out after seeing her name splashed across the news all week. Keep in mind, each and every single story that mentions Lohan will, at some point, talk about I Know Who Killed Me. And although TriStar Pictures would never admit it, her getting arrested could be the best thing to happen to a little thriller lost amongst the hustle and bustle of this summer's bigger films. What do you think? Will you be seeing the film this weekend? And will Lohan's latest arrest factor into your decision?

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Filed under: Drama, Independent, Celebrities and Controversy, Religious

It is now anybody's guess when Pope Joan will go into production. You may remember that the adaptation of Donna Cross's novel hit a snag back in April because John Goodman abruptly departed the film. He was subsequently sued, and production of the film, which was supposed to start shooting in May, was put on hold. Now, the film has also lost its director, Volker Schlöndorff (The Tin Drum), who has been fired. Constantin Films gave Schlöndorff the pink slip following the filmmaker's remarks to a newspaper about his problems with Constantin's practice of simultaneously making extended versions of its films for play on television (ooh, does that mean there's a longer cut of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer out there for my enjoyment?). I'm not sure what his stated problems were, whether he feels the practice makes audiences more patient to wait for films to hit their TV sets or if he simply has a problem with his work being out of his control and released in a cut that isn't his own.

The film will (eventually) star Franka Potente (The Bourne Identity) as the title character, a woman who pretends she's a man and manages to become Pope for two years in the 9th century. Although this film is based on a recent novel, Pope Joan is a legendary figure in history, and may have actually existed. She was previously portrayed by Liv Ullman in a 1972 film from director Michael Anderson. It should be a monumental role for Potente, who follows such Oscar-winning, cross-dressing actresses as Hilary Swank, Gwyneth Paltrow and Linda Hunt (plus cross-dressing/cross-gendering nominees Felicity Huffman, Julie Andrews and Ingrid Bergman). Pope Joan had been re-set to begin shooting in six weeks (they must have finally replaced Goodman), but it will probably be delayed again while Constantin searches for a new director. Meanwhile, Schlöndorff will just have to look forward to screening his latest, Ulzhan, at Toronto this fall.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Casting, Warner Brothers, Celebrities and Controversy, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

As J. Peterman once said, "I am smack dab in the middle of a good old-fashioned cat fight!" While recently discussing her role in next year's Bat-sequel The Dark Knight, Maggie Gyllenhaal dunked Katie Holmes into a Dawson's Creek of verbal abuse. Gyllenhaal is taking over the role of Rachel Dawes, which Holmes originated in 2005's Batman Begins. Check out this quote from Gyllenhaal, but you might want to put a jacket on first: "I'm not thinking of it as a role that anyone's played before. I'm not walking into Katie Holmes' performance. I'm thinking of it as an opportunity to play somebody who's alive and smart. Chris (Nolan) asked me to do this because he wanted me, not because he wants some generic lady in a dress." Daaaaaamn! No she didn't!

I'm not sure Holmes really deserves any more negativity at this point. She's in a mercilessly mocked marriage that no one seems to take seriously, she's got a new baby, and she hasn't exactly been adored by the critics. Holmes certainly gave a pretty weak performance in Batman Begins, but let's give the gal a break here, no? What do you guys think about this, is Gyllenhaal being too harsh on Holmes? In the interview, Gyllenhaal also mentions that she might give the Jackie Chan thing a try in the film: "I'm really excited about it. I mean, it's not some silly action movie. Chris Nolan is directing, Christian Bale's starring. I'm really excited and curious about doing a couple of stunts in Batman." Why do all "serious actors" feel they have to justify being in action movies? They always have to point out how different and superior this one is to all the others, or its "I'm only doing this crap so I can finance my pet project -- a tone poem about migrant Chinese workers." You want to do an action movie, silly or otherwise, do it! We don't need to hear that you'd normally be above such frivolous projects.

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Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Music & Musicals, New Line, Celebrities and Controversy

Over at Hollywood Elsewhere (a frequent site of heated debates on issues like homosexuality and fatness versus thin-ness) Jeff Wells really pushed some buttons with a post about this New York Times piece on Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky by Monica Corcoran (note: login with a free account required to read it) in which Ms. Corcoran makes observations like, "To see Ms. Blonsky caper through "Hairspray," the musical adaptation of the John Waters camp classic, is to watch a Botero come to life as she wiggles her broad backside and flaps her ample arms." and "When plates of ribs and roast chicken arrived, she dug in with gusto." Golly gee, with those ample arms flapping in the breeze, however did she manage to even hold onto that plate of ribs, much less sign autographs for fans?

Wells doesn't actually weigh in (yeah, pun intended) with an opinion on Blonsky's proportions, but boy, oh, boy do his commenters get into it. This isn't the first time Wells and his readers have gotten into it on the issue of weight, but I find it interesting nonetheless that people are going after Blonsky for her weight (and I love all the concern about the poor girl's health) -- after all, the role of Tracy Turnblad calls for a "fat girl" -- that's kind of the whole point of the story, right? I mean, seriously ... imagine, if you will, if Adam Shankman had cast uber-skinny Keira Knightley as Tracy, and stuck her in a fat suit like they did with John Travolta in the film. Plenty of people are peeved also at the casting of Travolta in a fat suit instead of a real woman of larger proportions playing that role, by the by, even if the casting is a sort of homage to Harvey Fierstein and Divine.

I've not seen Hairspray yet, but by all the accounts I've read of the film, Blonsky's performance is pretty darn good -- how about discussing how she compares to Ricki Lake, or to any of the actresses who played Tracy on stage? Here's what I predict: Within a couple years, Blonsky's agent and PR people are going to convince her that she has to lose weight in order to continue having a career (after all, there are only so many roles for fat girls out there, right?) and we'll see a miraculous transformation ala Ricki Lake -- I can see the tabloid headlines now: "Former Fatty Nikki Blonsky: How I Stopped Eating Ribs With Gusto and Shed 50 Pounds!" Then she can start hanging out with Paris Hilton, get drunk at nightclubs, flash her crotch getting out of limos, and end up in rehab. Maybe then people will talk about her talent, and not her weight.

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Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Casting, Deals, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, The Weinstein Co., Family Films, Movie Marketing, Politics, Michael Moore, Lists, Cinematical Indie

Have you been reading Cinematical Indie lately? If not, here's what you've been missing ...


INDIE FILM GRAB BAG

• Atom Egoyan will start shooting on his newest film, Adoration, this fall -- his first since 2005's Where the Truth Lies.
• Cinematical Indie Seven: Documentaries worth catching on DVD ...
• Deliver Us From Evil director Amy Berg (pictured) talks to Cinematical Indie about the $660 million payout by the Catholic Church to victims of clergy sexual abuse, and how she feels about Cardinal Roger Mahony's "apology" to the victims.

FEST NEWS

• Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Fest announces its lineup, which includes some retro films (Grease, Raiders of the Lost Ark). It's Michael Moore's fest, so it's a given that there are plenty of social-issue films, but there will also be other fest fare like Waitress, Paprika and The King of Kong.
• Heading to a slightly more exotic locale, news from the Thessaloniki Film Festival is that the fest will be honoring one of Monika's fave directors, John Sayles, with a "Golden Alexander." The fest will also screen the European premiere of Sayle's latest film, Honeydripper (Monika wrote earlier this month about Honeydripper being selected for Toronto ... busy year for Sayles.
• The Middle East International Film Festival, announced at Cannes earlier this year, has a Festival Director: film fest veteran Jon Fitzgerald, who helped launch Slamdance and has worked for AFI and, well, lots of other fests. The fest will be held in October in Abu Dhabi, and the main site of the fest is the truly stunning Emirates Palace. Seems like the organizers of the fest intend to make it a major business-oriented fest with lots of deal-making going on ... it will be interesting to see how Fitzgerald grows the fest, and if it eventually becomes a key fest for dealmakers -- kind of like the Toronto or Sundance of the Middle East. Interesting ...
• The AFI Dallas Film Fest has announced its call for entries for 2008, the second year of the fest, so get your films submitted.
• Cinematical Indie gears up for our coverage of the major fall film fests, Telluride, Toronto and Venice.

DEALS and DISTRIBUTION

• Just when we got all excited about the July 20 release of one of our fave flicks from Toronto last year, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, things got curiouser and curiouser, culminating with the announcement that -- too bad, so sad -- we're going to have to wait until 2008 for the film's official release now. Wha --? Poor Mandy -- first, she didn't get a freaking poster until two weeks before her release date, then she got dumped by the Weinsteins' Dimension and acquired by Senator Entertainment. But never fear, the Brothers Weinstein have a positive spin on the bizarre dumping of the film, saying that Senator will give Mandy a wider release than they had planned for her, and Senator already owned her German rights anyhow ... and there's less competition in the film's new release slot (and, just maybe, the horror genre will recover from the dreadful opening of Captivity by then -- though Elisha Cuthbert's career may not). Ah, Mandy. The guys dying to see the film will just have to wait a while longer ... but I guess as long as a girl is trading up, it's all good.
• Speaking of the Weinstein boys, The Weinstein Company (TWC) also acquired Benny Chan's Invisible Target ... and Peter Martin ponders whether this one might head straight to DVD ...
• Here! Films picks up Tribeca player Fat Girls, while First Run (finally, it's about time someone did) acquires one of my own fave Sundance flicks, For the Bible Tells Me So.

INDIES ONLINE AND ON DVD

• Robert Bresson's first film, Les Anges du Péché, finally gets a DVD release, but you have to buy it from a French website.
• Willy Wiggins reinvents The Outlaw Son.
• Peter Martin writes up the latest indie DVD releases, including his top pick-of-the-week, Avenue Montaigne.

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Filed under: Comedy, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, DIY/Filmmaking

Now that Lindsay Lohan is officially out of rehab (and wearing a "Thou Shalt Not Do Anything Stupid" ankle bracelet), the girl should have plenty of time to start shooting the dark comedy Poor Things; that film starring Shirley MacLaine we told you about back in May. Remember how there was talk Lohan would be replaced in the flick, until MacLaine came to her rescue and issued a bizarre statement, saying they were rearranging the schedule of the film so Lohan can shoot her scenes following the 30-day stint in rehab? Remember all that? Well, according to one of the most reliable sources in the world (ahem, Page Six), the plug has been pulled on Poor Things for good. As in, the movie is dead. Page Six cites an email from production designer Fontaine Beauchamp Hebb (I'd like to see that on a birth certificate) to product vendors GE and Dell (both of whom were promised placement in the film in return for cash) that came attached to the subject line: "Poor Things has been cancelled."

Apparently, the body of the email read as follows: "Sorry to be the harbinger of bad news, but I just received a call from Jacky Gilardi, the producer, pulling the plug on the ill-fated film. Apparently, Ms. Lohan's antics in Las Vegas over the weekend have scared the bond companies and all of the funding has been pulled . . . I look forward to working together in the future and trust our next project will not be as fraught with difficulty." It should be noted that one of Lohan's friends called bullsh*t on the email, telling Page Six the actress had nothing to do with the movie shutting down. Says the friend: "It was a mess to begin with. They randomly fired Channing Tatum for Giovanni Ribisi, and then financing fell through because producers spent money like water. It was only supposed to cost $4 million -- Lindsay was being paid nothing for that role." As expected, everyone involved with the film declined to comment. So until final word comes through, I'd say you should chalk this one as another "Lohan ruined everything" rumor. Poor thing ... even when she's sober, she can't catch a break.

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Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Deals, Sundance, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, Movie Marketing, Politics, Cinematical Indie

One of my fave films at Sundance this year was For the Bible Tells Me So, a documentary exploring the disconnect between what most Christians believe about homosexuality versus what the Bible actually has to say on the subject and,in particular, the way the Christian right has used misinterpretation of the Biblical take on the issue to shut homosexuals out of their faiths.

Director Daniel Karslake scored some amazing interviews to flesh out the film, including Bishop Desmond Tutu, Rabbi Zachary Mayer, and, at the center of the film, Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to be elected Bishop of that denomination. Robinson's election was controversial and divisive, and he and his partner received so many death threats that he had to wear a bullet-proof vest under his robes at his consecration (because Jesus was all about the death threats, right?)

Continue reading First Run Acquires Sundance Doc 'For the Bible Tells Me So'

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