The Screening Room

According to Entertainment Tonight:

A source close to Angelina Jolie confirms to ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT that Jolie has given birth to twins in France.

The babies are the fifth and sixth children for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, whose family consists of Maddox, 6, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3 and Shiloh, 2.

But over at People.com:

Contrary to a flurry of recent reports that Angelina Jolie has delivered her twins, PEOPLE confirms that the rumors are not true.

"Angelina has not given birth. She is fine, enjoying her home and her family in France," a rep for the actress tells PEOPLE.

And here, AP splits the difference with "Conflicting reports emerge on Angelina Jolie birth.

How is it already the end of May? Thus endeth the first (and biggest, from the looks of things) month of the summer movie season. Two of this week's flicks actually opened at midnight: Sex and the City (shocker!) and the lesser hyped The Strangers, which was slated to open here a few months ago. While it only scored a 'C' from international man of movie criticism Roger Moore, he makes it sound awfully intruiging:

Fans of the "pitiless-merciless killers" school of horror should get a jolt out of The Strangers, a harrowing real-time tale of an assault on a remote country home.

This is Funny Games without the smug, rich villains and smug, taunt-the-audience director. It's When a Stranger Calls with the menace coming from a knock on the door in the middle of the night, not a phone call, or Vacancy set in a ranch house, not a hotel.

Here's what's on the marquee for this week. Tell us what you thought of these flicks, especially if you caught either of the midnight openings:

• Sex and the City (A-)
• The Strangers (C)
• Surfwise (B)
• A Four Letter Word (B-)
• The Fall (C)

This warms my hockey/Veronica Mars fangirl heart (courtesy of WENN news by way of IMDb.com):

Actress Kristen Bell has harboured a crush on hockey star Chris Osgood since her youth - and insists she would pick the Canadian goaltender over Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt any day.

Why pay on the back end of a graphic novel property when you can get in on the ground floor? That seems to be Disney's thinking as it announced its new Kingdom Comics, designed to develop and create graphic novel and film projects. Keep reading for the full press release.

Kurt Kuenne, the director of Drive-In Movie Memories, a 2001 documentary that paid homage to Texas as much as it honored the elegiac spirit of drive-in cinema, may be on the verge of something big. He's the writer, composer and director of Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, which recently earned standing ovations at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin. Dear Zachary, Mr. Kuenne's tribute to his best friend, Dr. Andrew Bagby, who was killed in November 2001, just received rave reviews in Toronto, where it was shown at the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival. It's fitting that such accolades occurred in Canada, because the Canadian justice system is at the heart of the story. It would be wrong to say much more about Dear Zachary, whose spellbinding power comes in not knowing the details before you see it. For those who wish to watch the trailer, click on the YouTube play button below:

Photo above: As children, Kurt Kuenne (left) and Andrew Bagby

Largely lost amid the talk of Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure : The production value is freakin' amazing. With a score by Danny Elfman and cinematography by Robert Richardson, the film - especially the re-enactments - reminds us that a documentary can look and sound every bit as good as a major Hollywood production.

"Documentary is interesting because you can re-invent it," Morris told me when he came to Dallas. "You can create something that is really different. Thin Blue Line to me was really different than anything that had been made before. I'm proud of it. Just because it had style and it's been constructed and thought out doesn't mean it didn't have facts underlying it, or an investigation underlying it. The same is true of this movie. I should use really bad cinematographers to make it more truthful? It is still a movie."

Just out of reach
So Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull fell about $2 million short of breaking the Memorial Day weekend record held by last year's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. But the folks over at Paramount can dry their tears with $100 bills as the fourth installment of the adventure franchise still earned $151 million domestically and $311 million worldwide.

All Sex and the City fans have a favorite character, so in preparation of the movie's release, we asked four die-hards to tell us why they love Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte or Samantha the best. Now its your turn. Tell us who you love best and why.

Much will and should be written about Sydney Pollack who died of cancer as reported in The New York Times today. But while he may be most lauded for his directing, it's his acting turns I can't get out of my head. He was terrific as the practical, just business lawyer in Michael Clayton (a character for whom the concept of conscience was nothing more than an annoying peculiarity that afflicts the weak-willed). But I will always see him as the agent in Tootsie -- so exasperated when Dustin Hoffman's character insists he has to feel like a tomato to play a tomato. I was even more impressed knowing the fierce battles he had with Hoffman on that film and how he managed to turn the tension of their difference into some of the most unforgettable comedic moments on film. I will miss him.

I like the part in this story about a big-time Star Wars collector in Southlake:
Little did they know their first date offered a sign of things to come.
Anne Wise had never seen Star Wars. Philip Wise had seen it seven times.
"Oh, I don't know if I can go out with you," she recalled him saying.

David Modigliani is suddenly all over the place. And that's a good thing. Mr. Modigliani is the director of the acclaimed documentary Crawford, about -- what else? -- the town of Crawford, Texas, and all the incredible changes it's undergone since a chap named George W. Bush bought a ranch there in 1999. The film was a big hit at both the recent South by Southwest film festival and the AFI Film Festival in Dallas. And now, it's being shown in New York City, on Wednesday, June 4, at the Brooklyn International Film Festival. And if that's not enough, it's being carted to Crawford itself, where it will play outdoors, on a 50-foot mobile screen set up on the town's football field, for a showing on Sunday night, June 8. So far, those singing Crawford's praises include Variety, Texas Monthly, Film Threat, Politico.com and Premiere as well as actor Jake Gyllenhaal and director Richard Linklater.

Photo above: President Bush and first lady Laura Bush after voting in Crawford, Texas

To watch a trailer of Mr. Modigliani's film, click below:

Does anyone think that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is setting up plans for a new series starring a younger adventurer? It is hard to believe that Harrison Ford could do any more of these and the way Shia LaBoeuf was looking at Indy's hat at the end, well...What do you think? Would the series, like Bond, survive a new actor in the role?

• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (B)
• Standard Operating Procedure (A-)
• Constantine's Sword (B+)
• Mister Lonely (B)
• Bra Boys (D+)

This just in from the Hollywood Reporter -- the part in W that Oliver Stone had the most trouble casting, Dick Cheney, has gone to Richard Dreyfuss and I have to admit it's an inspired choice. While I was thinking it could be an interesting part for Anthony Hopkins, not only is Dreyfuss a consummate (though much underused for many years) actor, I can really see them making him over to look the part.

In honor of the new Indiana Jones adventure the folks at Rotten Tomatoes have posted a rundown of Steven Spielberg's ten best-directed movies. Jaws tops their list, and it tops mine as well. But I have to say I'm not the typical Spielberg fan. E.T.? Liked it when I was 11, not so much now. Minority Report? Loved it. Same with Munich, Close Encounters and Private Ryan (I guess that would be my five, with 2-5 jumbled and random).

What sayeth you?

Are you just whiling away the hours until Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls opens at midnight? Me, too. So if Scrabulous is loading too slowly, try your hand (and your brain) at Ford's Theater. Just click the image below:

Am I the only one who wonders about the role economics plays in modern movies? And this is not box-office results I'm talking about. I'm talking about characters who inhabit fictional movies. I suggest we all take a cue from Cuban Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire and demand they show us the money. Seriously, where do the characters in fictional movies come up with the endless supply of money they appear to have? Are the L.A.-based screenwriters and directors so rich that they assume everybody has the money they do? Case in point:

Photo: Richard Jenkins of The Visitor

Two weeks, two disappointments
Though it faired significantly better than the disaster that is Speed Racer, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian failed to live up to expectations despite earning $55 million and topping the box office. For starters, its predecessor, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, earned $65 million when it opened in 2005. And even more worrisome -- Prince Caspian must now do battle with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Good luck with all that.

Why settle for seeing the Sex in the City girls when you can be one of them? The Angelika is offering $150 in Angelika Cinemoney for winners and $75 in Cinemoney for runners-up in two categories as part of Sex and the City: The Movie Contest. The two categories are (drumroll, please) -- a photo that shows your unerring likeness to one of the fabulous foursome and a Carrie Bradshaw-style column.
So what is Cinemoney? It's an opportunity to see Sex and the City LOTS with your best girlfriends when it opens on May 30 (and it pays for the refreshments, too). For contest rules and details, visit here.

The Inwood Theatre has ripped out the traditional seating in its downstairs theater in favor of more cushy sofas, ottomans and loveseats to create a Living Room Auditorium. The concept is a partnership with furniture maker LoveSac and opens late, late Wednesday night/early Thursday for a 12:01 a.m. showing of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And if that weren't enough, they also added a bar inside the auditorium so that you won't miss anything when you're grabbing that refill.

It's off-season for AFI-Dallas (as if any festival had an actual off-season), but there are still major doings at the top of the organizational pyramid. According to a press release received today, Stephanie Hunt will assume the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors while festival founder, chairman and director Liener Temerlin will become Chairman Emeritus. The change is effective Sept. 1.

Said Hunt, a Dallas native and founding board member, "I'm honored and humbled to be asked to follow Liener. He has made such an incredible contribution to Dallas with this film festival. I have learned a great deal from working closely with Liener over the past year and he has assured me that he will always be available to continue to provide the board with his advice, counsel, and creative input."

In other words, Temerlin will stay involved. In fact, as he put it, "I hope to be involved with AFI-Dallas for the rest of my life."

I have a new favorite movie for the year -- Then She Found Me, directed by and starring Helen Hunt. I caught it at the Angelika in Plano Saturday night and it made me cry at least three times -- in a good, life-affirming way. Hunt plays a woman who wants a baby but rejects adoption as she herself was adopted and views that as a lesser option. When her devoted adoptive mother dies, her biological mother (Bette Midler) seeks her out. Rather than that being a panacea, it makes her life emotionally more complicated. And that, it turns out, is not a bad thing. Hunt is better than you've ever seen her in terms of summoning up the complex depths of her wounded character. Colin Firth is the most irresistible of leading men. And Bette is and always will be the Divine Miss M. What amazes me, too, is how this movie about a baby can come out the same time as Baby Mama and guess who gets the love? Well, not from me. Get thee to the Angelika.

I'm glad to see Prince Caspian top the box office, and I hope it will have legs this summer. Now I'm not one to trash on fellow critics (as the tables can turn oh so quickly), but one thing that bothered me in some reviews was the apparent lack of familiarity with the books. Too many critics have been comparing this one unfavorably to the first film OR comparing it unfavorably to Lord of the Rings. Hello? C.S. Lewis had different things to say about the nature of faith, the ways faith changes as you mature and how you deal with the apparent absence of God in dark times. Also, when I think of that haunting scene of those left behind as the Pevensies flee Miraz's castle, I'm impressed by the guts it took to film a scene in a family movie that deals so viscerally with the high cost of war.

This AP story on the new Indiana Jones flick premiering in Cannes this weekend seriously buries the lede.

While the article mostly focuses on the layer of secrecy around Crystal Skull -- you'd think Spielberg would have learned his lesson after this backfired so badly on A.I., but whatever -- the writer also delves into why it took so long for the new movie to get made:

In its earliest incarnation, Lucas proposed an all-out alien flick called "Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars." Spielberg and Ford didn't like that idea, and it took more than a decade of wrangling to come up with a story all three could live with.

Just let that sink in.

Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars

I think the question is no longer how Lucas managed to screw up the Star Wars prequels so badly, but how he managed to not screw up the original three films.

Sheesh.

OK, so I'm not actually at Cannes. Still never been. May never go. Yes, life is hard. But Manohla Dargis' piece in today's New York Times makes me eager to see Waltz With Bashir, Ari Folman's animated film about a 1982 massacre at Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Though the tone sounds much different from that of Persepolis, one of my favorites from 2007, I'm struck by the shared use of animation to depict an unsettling time and place in recent international history. Dargis refers to the strategic distancing effect that animation can have, and she mentions Art Spiegelman's Maus in this regard. Wonder when the first animated film about the Iraq War will come?

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (A-)

My Brother is an Only Child (B+)

How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer (B-)

Before the Rains (C)

My copy-editing cohorts Tatia and Laura and I had a discussion tonight about whether Prince Caspian is, as Nancy Churnin writes in her review of the film adaptation, actually the second book in C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. Some research revealed the answer: It is and it isn't.

The Chronicles were first published in this order:
1) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 2) Prince Caspian, 3) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 4) The Silver Chair, 5) The Horse and His Boy, 6) The Magician's Nephew and 7) The Last Battle.

But if you go to the bookstore or Amazon and buy a boxed set, you'll find they've been rearranged, and are now published in chronological order according to the timeline set forth in the books. That order is:
1) The Magician's Nephew, 2) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 3) The Horse and His Boy, 4) Prince Caspian, 5) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 6) The Silver Chair and 7) The Last Battle.

So which is right? Purists insist on published order -- that if you read The Magician's Nephew first, you'll find out all sorts of things you're just not supposed to know yet. Others say that if you're looking for the biblical themes and allusions in the books, those become much clearer in a chronological reading. Lewis himself, in a letter published in 1957, said either one was fine with him, although he expresssed just a smidgen of a preference for published order.

What do you think? Discuss.

She's back (Paramount Pictures)

Karen Allen returns to Indiana Jones land next Thursday. She's happy to be back for the ride, as well she should be; Raiders of the Lost Ark was the biggest hit of her career. But, as she told me last week, it's not the only movie that gets her stopped in the grocery store.

"I get recognized for Starman a lot," she says. Certainly Raiders. And Animal House still, even though it was 30 years ago. That film will not stop celebrating itself. And Scrooged because it's on every year at Christmas now, and people see it year after year and it stays in people's minds."

Check out Guidelive.com this Sunday for more on Karen Allen and her Crystal Skull experience.

Slamming on the brakes
Just two weeks into the summer movie season, the first bomb has dropped. Speed Racer, the $120 million adaptation of the television cartoon, earned just $18.6 million and a third-place finish. Meanwhile, Iron Man continued its heroic pace, earning another $51 million to bring its two-week total to $177.8 mil. It should come as no surprise that Paramount has already ordered up the franchise's next installment.

A writer from the New York Post claims to have a script of Oliver Stone's W in hand. And the details he's spilling do seem juicy. In fact, the story is so specific it credits these revelations to page 42 of the script: "Checking a map, being told it passed "Humint," whereupon the President of the United States asks, "What's 'Humint' again?" and being told "It's Human Intelligence." A scene in which, auditing an Iraqi intercept, W. asks, "Wolfowitz, got any Maalox on you? . . . and while you're at it, trim your ear hairs." And Cheney checking his heart pills."
And then:
"There's Rove saying, "The polls have shot up to 80 percent behind the president. The American people want blood. They demand it." And Colin Powell: "This about politics or policy? I'm really confused. What're you doing in this room?"

We know it's not W's year at the polls, but how about at the box office? Not only is there lots of buzz about Oliver Stone's upcoming biopic, W, but now Variety reports that Michael Moore is planning a sequel to Fahrenheit 911

Have you been itching to catch 1982's First Blood on the big screen? Me neither. But that's not going to stop 430 theaters nationwide from showing the original Rambo at 7:30 Thursday night in a digitally remastered print. The screening will be followed by an onscreen interview with Sylvester Stallone as well as an alternate ending. For a list of theaters, go to http://www.fathomevents.com/.

Son of Rambow is one of my favorites of the year so far. It's one of those quiet, affecting films where the kids seem so real and the story so unforced that you find yourself melding with their world. A boy from a sect so strict about media exposure that he has to wait in the hallway when his teacher puts in an educational video collides with a boy who is such a troublemaker he is always getting thrown out of the classroom into that same hallway. Somehow the bad kid -- well, bad in a Tom Sawyer-ish kind of way -- convinces the other one to help him make a movie for a contest. They come up with a First Blood sequel in which Rambo's son seeks his father (both boys have father issues, naturally). The charm lies in how they put the pieces together and what they find out about each other -- and themselves -- on their journey.

• Speed Racer (A)
• What Happens In Vegas (C)
• Redbelt (B-)
• Then She Found Me (B+)
• Son of Rambow (B+)
• Girls Rock! (B)
• The Babysitters (F)

The clock is ticking on registration for the Video Association of Dallas' 24-Hour Video Race. But there's still time. Register in person from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at Magnolia Lounge in Fair Park, or online at www.24hourvideoracedallas.com. If you do it in person you can watch the winning videos from past races. Registration fees start at $50. The race itself is next Friday night. For more information call 214-428-8700.

From the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Time Warner Inc. says it is closing its Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures film studios and eliminating 70 jobs.

The move is the latest in a series of cost-cutting efforts by Time Warner President and CEO Jeff Bewkes since he took over as chief executive Jan. 1.

Despite the move, Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn says he is confident the spirit of independent filmmaking will continue to have a presence at Warner Bros.

The company says the job cuts in Los Angeles and New York are meant to eliminate duplicate marketing, distribution and production functions.

In February, Time Warner also announced it was laying off 450 people at New Line Cinema as the independent studio was absorbed into Warner Bros.

/Film reports that Criterion will release 13 films on Blu-Ray this October. Film fans, prepare to get your geek on.

Here's the list (break out the credit cards):

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

David Mamet seems like a tough customer. He certainly writes like one. But Chiwetel Ejiofor, the star of Mr. Mamet's Redbelt, says the Man's Man of theater and film is actually kinda...soft?

"I found him really easy - a really nice, really pleasant guy to spend time with," Ejiofor told me recently. "He's very big-hearted. I don't know if I was really expecting that actually, to find him so soft. His writing has a real edge to it, so I always thought of his demeanor as a bit prickly, having never met him. Spending time with him I realized that there's a slight touch-in-cheek quality to his writing, and people don't really recognize it until you meet him. He's a very funny man."

Read much more about Ejiofor and Redbelt this Friday at Guidelive.com.

As fans of the Wu-Tang Clan know, Ghostface Killah has been known to use the alter-alter-ego Tony Starks as an homage to the dude behind the red-and-gold suit. (Why a guy named Ghostface Killah needs yet another alias is open to debate. But that's the Wu). Said Wu heads might also know that Ghost was originally supposed to have a cameo in the mega-blockbuster, but he got left on the cutting room floor. This may be cause for fans to swarm like killer bees, but at least he can be heard briefly on the soundtrack.

As we reported during SXSW, The Visitor star Richard Jenkins did some time at the Dallas Theater Center (Former DTC honcho Adrian Hall worked extensively with Jenkins at the Trinity Square Repertory Company in Providence).

Hall once brought Jenkins out to Big D to act in Sam Shepard's Fool For Love. Keep reading for a funny Jenkins anecdote on DTC's sometimes-squeamish audiences.

Did you catch Iron Man Thursday night? Tell us what you thought and share your thoughts on early screenings before official openings.

Here's what else is opening this weekend:

• Iron Man (B+)
• As It Is In Heaven (B+)
• Made of Honor (C)
• The Visitor (A-)
• Planet B-Boy (B)

And start planning your summer vacation with our Summer Movie Guide.

Dallas author Harry Preston has been known to offer his screenwriting courses through Richland College's continuing education department. But this summer the college seems to have run out of classroom space. Yeah, things are tough all over. If you still want to take his course this summer, give the man a shout at 972-276-5427.

No.

I mean, have you seen these trailers?

I guarantee that every gamer that lined up at midnight on Monday for GTA IV is lining up tonight for Iron Man.

If only I had a babysitter, I'd be dragging the wife to the multiplex tonight, as well.

With Iron Man getting strong reviews, and sneak previews being sold out, I think Iron Man could well supplant Spider Man as the most hip comic book movie franchise on the planet.

So, I set out on Tuesday after work with my Iron Man screening pass in hand with what I thought was more than enough time to park the car, get through any line there might be, and find a decent seat at Cinemark Movies 17 on Webb Chapel Road in Dallas. Well, you know what they say about best-laid plans and such ... Anyway, I get dropped off at 6:30 p.m., a whole hour before the screening's scheduled start, and make my way through the gaggle of people in front of the theater, thinking, "I've done this before; I know where to go." Well, before I could pull the pass all the way out of my purse, the doorkeeper (though she was standing at a table) said, "No."

Movie Critic Chris Vognar offers up an early look at Iron Man. Technically it opens tomorrow, but you can find it at plenty of theaters starting at 8 tonight.

Are you heading out tonight to see it? If so, check back and tell us what you thought.

And what do you think about movies that start screening a day before its official "opening"? Special sneak peak for geeks, or marketing ploy to inflate box office totals?