CYRUS SPARKS TO TEEN ROMANCE

By Sarah Sluis

Miley Cyrus has just made the shrewdest career move ever.  Forget adapting an existing novel, Cyrus' team has commissioned Nicholas Sparks to write a book and screenplay tailored for her.  Her team has
good reason to want so much control over her next film.  The incredibly bankable star of Disney's Hannah Montana, singer of sold-out concerts and a record-breaking IMAX concert film, is literally growing out of her role, making her success in a teen-to-adult part crucial.  With her slightly racy Annie Leibovitz-led Vanity Fair shoot a misfire, the Cyrus team is under extra pressure to prove she has the ability to switch to teen and adult roles�enter proven property, Nicholas Sparks.

Sparks' books have been great vehicles for teen-to-adult stars.  Featuring pull-on-heartstring romances and strong family ties, and having enraptured legions of female viewers, these films are exactly what growing Hannah Montana fans will seek.  Singer Mandy Moore benefited from her turn as a preacher's daughter with a terminal disease in A Walk to Remember, and Rachel McAdams' career took off after she followed her performance as Queen Bee in Mean Girls with an is-that-her? performance later that summer as sweet Southern Allie Hamilton in The Notebook.  The Notebook in particular had an indie following that resonated with teen viewers.  The word-of-mouth tagline (which no marketer could have thought up) went something like: "Have you seen The Notebook yet?  Ohmigod, I cried so hard, I was just bawling."  Montana fans, who similarly engage in the content across platforms by buying CDs, going to concerts, and dressing up like her as Halloween, will need an emotionally engaging film that will inspire multiple viewings and collaborative chatter.

The genre, too, represents a shift from childhood wish fulfillment to teenage wish fulfillment.  Miley Cyrus made her fame out of the proven "teen double life" genre, which I remember from my Nickelodeon childhood days.  A literal representation of a childhood desire to be special and to become independent, they involve tweens who have access to a "phone booth" moment, wherein they transform to a television star ("The Famous Jett Jackson"), rock star ("Hannah Montana"), or superpower liquid ("The Secret World of Alex Mack").  What makes these television shows so compelling is their preservation of the awkward, normal tween character.  Shifting between the normal and super personas, viewers experience the transformation moment again and again.  Sparks' adaptations keep the fairy tale in the romance, making its couples part of a special, fated love blocked by circumstances, you guessed it, again and again.  If Hannah Montana tapped into a kid's desire to be special, a Nicholas Sparks adaptation will tap into the teen desire to be loved by someone special�a perfect project to allow Hannah Montana to age with her viewers as they transition to adulthood.

MONEY, POLITICS & HOLLYWOOD

By Sarah Sluis

Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy Affects Hollywood

Hollywood may be in the entertainment business, but the industry is far from isolated from the current political and financial climate.

With the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and news that Bank of America will buy Merrill Lynch, some have wondered what will happen to Hollywood.  United Artists, for example, has a $500 million credit line with Merrill Lynch.  As all of Merrill's assets are examined during its merger, UA, which failed to live up to its contractual obligation in terms of films per year, could lose its contract.  Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog has this to say about big-studio financing:

"UA has a $500 million production facility from Merrill Lynch; will Bank of America scrutinize that for a way out? MGM and The Weinstein Company are seeking money to finance slates -- and that's getting harder by the day. Summit and Marvel, who have debt facilities, may be in a slightly better position because acquiring companies tend to scrutinize loans less than they do equity investments...but don't expect the companies to go back and get money on the next go-round nearly as easily as they did the first time."

Frankly, though, the Tom Cruise/Paula Wagner mess at United Artists (see: Lions for Lambs, upcoming Valkyrie) is probably a better bet than one of those famed mystery meat packages of adjustable rate mortgages.

Hollywood Opens Checkbooks for Candidates and Content

On a political note, last night also brought news of a political fundraising effort in Beverly Hills for Barack Obama�two events that should raise him a staggering $9 million. 

Speaking through their films as well as their checkbooks, the studios are delivering a number of political films before and after November's election.  Upcoming Oliver Stone film W. will release just weeks before the election, taking some assertive swipes at an active presidency.  Other films, such as documentary Battle in Seattle, about the WTO riots in 1999, address political uprisings.  In fiction films, political CIA thriller Body of Lies, starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, hits theatres October 10th.  The Lucky Ones, a road trip movie about a mixed group of soldiers heading home after sustaining injuries, will release on September 26th.  While the film looks to be ultimately heartwarming, the message of soldiers healing and learning to renew their lives is bittersweet.

After the election, Milk, a biopic of America's first openly gay elected official Harvey Milk, who was assassinated for his sexuality, opens on November 26th.  Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, about talk show host David Frost's interview with Richard Nixon after his resignation, will come to the screen on December 5th.  The mix of biopics, dramatizations of actual events, fiction films, and documentaries shows that Hollywood is actively courting content relevant to the current political climate.  As for the other releases, film scholars will certainly make assertions about how their "latent content" speaks to our current political and financial climate�The New York Times has already done a feature tenuously contrasting depictions of wealth in teenage television shows in different eras, so it's only a matter of time.

COENS, PERRY TOP BOX OFFICE

By Sarah Sluis

After weeks with nothing to see, America turned out in force to catch four new wide releases, placing them #1-#4 at the box office.

Burn After Reading claimed the top spot with $19.4 million, creating an opening weekend record for the duo.  True, many of their films have opened in limited release and racked up the millions more slowly, but this nevertheless represents a victory for the Coens, who were able to roll over the critical success they achieved with No Country for Old Men into box office dollars for their current film.

Not far behind, Tyler Perry's The Family that Preys finished at #2 with $18 million.  Perry's continued success�$250 million in box office on his past six films, with five of the six films opening at #1 or #2, and 11 million DVD sales�has made more people stand up and take notice.  By not screening his films for critics in advance, and targeting mainly African-American viewers, Perry's films have made it big at the box office without a similar splash in the media.  Expect more stories about Perry, as a $250 million track record is hard to hide.

Righteous Kill (#3, $16.5 million) and The Women (#4, $10 million) were both star-studded mediocre releases.  Neither was particularly well-reviewed, although I imagine they will both find their way into many people's Netflix queues.

The House Bunny surpassed Tropic Thunder this week ($4.3 million to Tropic's $4.1 million), actually adding 27 theatres to its run.  Female-oriented films are known for opening small but lasting for several weeks as they gain word-of-mouth, and this film definitely speaks to that point.

Lastly, that incendiary film Towelhead had the highest per-screen average for the week, earning $13,250 per screen (with only four locations playing the film).  In terms of per-screen averages, Tyler Perry's The Family that Preys trailed at second with $8,705 per screen.  Choosing a wide but selective release of 2,070 locations was undoubtedly a smart move and certainly reflects the niche-to-mainstream position of Perry's films in the marketplace.

PAIR-UP SPECIAL: COEN BROTHERS, DE NIRO AND PACINO, AND A-LIST WOMEN

By Sarah Sluis

After two weeks of nothing, Hollywood has several options this week to bring viewers back to the theatres.

Righteous Kill
The much-hyped pairing of Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro arrives onscreen with Righteous Kill, written by Russell Gewirtz of 2006's Inside Man.  Early reports rank the script as a lesser effort by the writer, exacerbated by director Jon Avnet's poor control over the picture.  Unfortunate, given that Inside Man had well-developed twists and was a bit of surprise coming from director Spike Lee.  Given the draw of the star power, however, this film has a strong chance of coming in at number one.

Burn After Reading
The Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading, featuring Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand as personal trainers-turned-blackmailers, has received "not as good as No Country for Old Men" reviews from virtually every critic, but Focus Features' marketing campaign has heavily emphasized the Coens' No Country for Old Men laurels in their ads.  With George Clooney added to the headline, this film will do brisk business.
Towelhead
Towelhead, mired in controversy I covered earlier, releases to New York and Los Angeles this week, and will undoubtedly be buoyed by the buzz surrounding the film, as well as the sizeable marketing budget.
Tyler Perry's The Family that Preys
Not being terribly familiar with Tyler Perry beyond his "Madea" character, I was surprised to learn that The Family that Preys does not feature a man in drag but instead takes a dramatic-comedic tone to depict a story about two families connected by friendship, affairs, and hidden paternities.  Of note, this film features a mix of white and black actors, including the always entertaining Kathy Bates.  Whether this was included in the original script or a studio attempt to have Perry's films reach a wider audience, eyes will be watching to see if this movie will expand Perry's viewership beyond his loyal black audiences.
The Women
Promising a Sex and the City experience, ensemble film The Women releases today to mediocre reviews. The original film was based on a play by suffragette Clare Boothe Luce, and the 1939 George Cukor film in turn honored the feminist roots and preserved the satire.  What I loved about the original, besides the neat visual trick that never brings any men onscreen, was how the primary conflict, a woman being cheated on, becomes an opportunity for complex iterations of power�not disenfranchisement and weeping.  The women are in complete control over their domains, and their power spots are not golf courses and smoky mahogany clubs, but beauty salons, spas, and fashion shows.  Judging by the reviews, this message has softened in the remake.  Nevertheless, those seeking an echo of the original The Women or this summer's Sex and the City will probably come out sated.

LATE BUYS AT TORONTO

By Kevin Lally

FJI correspondent Daniel Steinhart continues his reports from the Toronto International Film Festival.

As the Toronto Film Festival comes to a close, the lackluster acquisition market has perked up a bit with two major buys. Summit Entertainment nabbed domestic distribution rights to Kathryn Bigelow's war film The Hurt Locker. This was another film I missed to recuperate from a cold, but the trades are suggesting that the picture could overcome the public's general lack of interest in Iraq war films by eschewing politics for straight-up action.

The other major acquisition was IFC Films' securing of U.S. rights to Steven Soderbergh's Che, the nearly four-and-a-half-hour biopic of Che Guevara. This is a bold move, especially considering the unpredictable indie market. Plans are to roll out the film for a limited release of the complete picture in December and then distribute the film's two parts separately a month later. Releasing part one, "The Argentine," and part two, "The Guerrilla," makes economic sense, but I think the whole film will suffer as a result. It seems to me that the two parts should be seen back-to-back, as together they form a mirror of distorted reflections, rich with parallels and contrasts. The complete film is also a rare epic moviegoing experience for the modern age, replete with intermission and roadshow overtures that accompany geography lessons on Cuba and Bolivia. This is an unwieldy film and it's hard to make a fair assessment after a single viewing, but let me offer some initial impressions.

It might frustrate some that the film avoids the biopic convention of charting the inspiring rise and fall of a hero. But if you're looking for inspiring Che, watch Gael Garca Bernal shaking hands with lepers in the forgettable The Motorcycle Diaries. Here, Soderbergh and Benicio Del Toro, who plays Che, give us a tenacious and wheezing strategist, who first mounts a successful revolutionary campaign in Cuba (part one) and then an unsuccessful one in Bolivia (part two). Che's political ideology is rarely delivered through rousing speeches, although we do see him going head-to-head with various emissaries at the UN in 1964 via flash-forwards. Instead, his politics come through his commitment to action, the enforcement of discipline amongst the guerrillas, and even in his bedside manner as the good doctor treats both comrades and peasants. This is a film of detail and breadth, which I think partly comes from the versatile camerawork. The film was shot on the much-touted Red One digital camera, and seeing the film projected digitally, audiences got the full effect of the new technology. While the camera may have allowed the filmmakers a great deal of flexibility on location, the images still lack the richness and warmth of 35mm. And on another technical note, part one is presented in 2.35 anamorphic and part two in 1.85. Tech talk aside, this is not one to miss in the theatres, especially if you get to experience the full roadshow treatment.

Certainly, getting to see Che was one of the highlights of the festival for me, but there were many others, including Waltz with Bashir, Hunger, Better Things, Liverpool and Gomorrah. I also enjoyed 24 City, Of Time and the City, Three Monkeys, The Wrestler, Me and Orson Welles, and the Dardenne Brothers' new Le Silence de Lorna, a strong film, but not on par with their previous work. I struggled through Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata, but its ending has made me rethink the film and compelled me to want to see it again. It was also a pleasure to see Kelly Reichardt's modest and perceptive Wendy and Lucy while sitting next to Czech filmmaker Bohdan Slma. Sadly, I gave short shrift to Canadian cinema�a typically American move�but was very fond of the one Canuck movie I saw: Bruce McDonald's language-driven zombie film, Pontypool.

Finally, there were two films from two masters that I thoroughly enjoyed: Clair Denis' 35 Rhums, a great film, and Takeshi Kitano's Achilles and the Tortoise, a very good film. I think Denis works like an alchemist, putting an array of elements together�beautiful faces, the perfect song, the trading of glances, a certain gesture, graceful movement�and conjures up something radiant. 35 Rhums, about a tight-knit father and daughter, is beautiful from beginning to end. As for Kitano, he's fallen out of favor with critics because of some missteps, but I think his new film is an inspired piece of work. Achilles and the Tortoise tracks the life of a failed painter and is divided triptych-like into childhood, youth and old age. The film is an amusing meditation on the artistic process and a showcase of Kitano's own painting. I think the movie also demonstrates that the filmmaker is one of the great color stylists working in modern cinema.

STEVEN SODERBERGH MOVES FROM CHE TO LIBERACE; FLOWER FILMS ACQUIRES ROMCOM

By Sarah Sluis

Steven Soderbergh has double news today. First off, his biopic Che, which showed at Toronto as well as Cannes, has been picked up by IFC Films. The choice of IFC was a bit of surprise, as the filmmakers had actively pursuing deals with other studios. In the end, IFC's "enthusiasm" won out, which may or may not be a euphemism for "Oscar marketing dollars." IFC plans on releasing the film for a week in NY/LA to qualify it for the Oscars, and then re-releasing the film in January on video-on-demand as well as a theatrical release. Che will become of the most expensive films to pursue such a strategy, but Soderbergh has been open to experimental release strategies, pioneering simultaneous video/theatre releases with Bubble back in 2005. For a film like Che, which consists of two, 120-minute film, the length and form links it a mini-series, making it a natural fit for television and on demand and its pause-for-popcorn and bathroom break button.

After profiling a Marxist South American revolutionary executed by his enemies, the logical next step for Soderbergh is Liberace, the flamboyant and theatrical piano player who had millions of women fooled until he died of AIDS and his lover sued to inherit his money. Overwrought glissandos aside, Soderbergh actually has some meaty work on his hands. As a director who likes to weigh in on social and political issues in his biopics (second example: Erin Brockovich) I imagine that AIDS and Liberace's closeted identity will figure prominently into the script.

Drew Barrymore's production company, Flower Films, picked up the book How to Be Single. They're currently producing another title by the same author, Liz Tuccillo, He's Just Not That Into You, which has a scheduled release date of February 9, 2009 (right before Valentine's Day, hmm). One thing I find curious about Flower Films is its choice of content�middle-budget romantic comedies, and other films where Barrymore steps down and takes a supporting role. Star-led production companies usually are formed to find Oscar-worthy roles for their founders, but perhaps compensation is a bigger concern for Barrymore. This route certainly would allow Barrymore to make a larger profit on the films she produces. On a related note, Domino did a feature on Flower Films' production offices back in April, and they have the most gorgeous, best-place-to-produce-romantic-comedies workplace imaginable, which you can look at here.

VERHOEVEN AND ANDERSON EYEING NEW PROJECTS

By Sarah Sluis

Today the trades were filled with project updates from a
couple of film school idols and perennial buzz makers: Paul Verhoeven and Wes
Anderson.

Returning to the ground he covered in Basic Instinct, Paul Verhoeven is in talks to direct a thriller
about a college intern who has an affair with his boss's wife (cue the angry
boss out for revenge and twist-filled manipulations of power dynamics). Wendy Miller wrote the screenplay, and
although she has lengthy television credentials, she has no film credits to her
name. She's currently working on VH1's
frenetic pop culture recap show Best Week
Ever. Considering the film has been
billed as "Fatal Attraction meets Risky Business," I imagine that some of Best Week Ever's madcap humor made it
into her script�it would certainly make for some good one-liners.

Wes Anderson plans to rewrite French film Mon Meilleur Ami for Universal Pictures,
with the possibility that he will direct the project. Rewriting an existing work is a good choice
for Anderson, whose last
couple films have failed critically, and some have
cited scripting issues as the cause. Like so many others, I fell in love with Rushmore, The Royal
Tenenbaums, and Bottle Rocket on
video, watching them again and again, but have been disappointed by his
subsequent projects, The Life Aquatic
and the The Darjeeling Limited. The repetition of style, characterization,
and plot elements to an audience already intimately familiar with their
trajectory fell flat, and his visual and musical ornamentation of plot could
not disguise its lackluster form.

A few years ago Slate
contributor Field Maloney wrote an article after the failure of The Life Aquatic, attributing the
success of Anderson's first films to his co-writing with Owen Wilson, which he
felt tempered Anderson's tendency towards esoteric references and style over
narrative�his "fantasy world." Testing
this theory by reuniting this writing team will not come anytime soon. After some kind of nervous breakdown last
year, Wilson's
rebound pic, Marley & Me, seems
like a forced attempt at happiness: based on a memoir about a neurotic but
loveable dog, the film includes sitcom star Jennifer Aniston as a love interest. Not exactly Wes Anderson-style material.

Anderson has since worked with a variety of writers, including acclaimed writer/director
Noah Baumbach, on The Life Aquatic
and upcoming animated picture The
Fantastic Mr. Fox. With Wilson unavailable, perhaps having a pre-existing script
will aid Anderson
in tempering his style. While he won't
be working off original ideas, the plot itself seems ripe for an Anderson adaptation. The story centers on an unlikable man oblivious
to the fact that all his friends hate him, until an awkward moment at a dinner
party clears this up. His business
partner then challenges him to produce a best friend in ten days, in order to
win a vase (an expensive vase, mind you). With his black book of "friends" yielding no results, the man ends up
enlisting a taxi driver, who teaches the gruff man about politeness.

I can already see this film populated by Anderson's trademark cast�Bill Murray would
be phenomenal in the title role. Like
all of Anderson's
films, this plot involves a character using deception and lies to develop a
superficial relationship, only to seem surprised when others are upset when
they find out about the ruse. In the
end, his characters still end up developing an "unlikely friendship," to use
plot synopsis terminology. Case in
point: Gene Hackman pretends he is dying to move back into the family home and
reconnect with his family in The Royal
Tenenbaums. With the characteristic Anderson plot already a part of Mon Meilleur Ami, Anderson
should have smooth sailing ahead of him. I am curious to see how this film moves forward, especially with
casting.  Anderson needs this picture or Mr. Fox to break away from the narrow
path he has created for himself.