Salon’s Stephanie Zacharek has filed a long dispatch from the Berlin Film Festival, where she’s seen and loved two films that have been widely derided by the bulk of the press corps: Tom Tykwer’s opening night flick The International, and Lucas Moodysson’s Michelle Williams-starring Mammoth. Being on the wrong side of the angry mob has led Zacharek to contemplate what she perceives as a pronounced anti-Hollywood bias among critics at the festival. First, w/r/t The International:

…Read more

• Though five new wide releases open on Christmas, Yes Man is expected to do better in its second weekend because the weather will be better and because it’s still a comedy. Of course, two of those five new films are also comedies. Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories is expected to be the champ of the long holiday weekend, with Marley & Me coming in second.
• If you’re not into laughing, however, either during the holidays or during a recession, let Liz Smith guide you to all the depressing films out this season, including that disappointing movie about suicide from the otherwise “great comic star” Will Smith and that marital angst film that will apparently have you never wanting to take on a serious relationship again.
• Clive Owen, who was once thought perfect to play James Bond, has been cast as another international agent in the Colombian drug cartel film Cartagena. I’ve lost count, but this will be at least Owen’s fifth Bond-like role (not counting the look of his character in Croupier).

• With the fate of Heath Ledger’s final projects up in the air, Variety takes a look at some past films that were effected by the sudden deaths of their respective stars. Would Shrek have been as popular with Chris Farley as the voice of the titular ogre? Would Interview With the Vampire be better with River Phoenix? Should Jane Harlow’s final film, Saratoga, have been scrapped?
• WGA reps and studio execs enter a second day of informal talks today, which should be more exciting that it feels to me. Maybe it’s because I just read this detail of how badly the writer’s strike is effecting the economy, and now my head hurts.
• After confirming that Tony Gilroy had directed him to a second Oscar nomination, Tom Wilkinson has decided to reunite with the Michael Clayton director for the pharmaceutical company drama Duplicity. He is joined by Billy Bob Thornton and joins Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.
• Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida are now considered a “husband-and-wife team” for writing an original screenplay that Oscar-winner Sam Mendes will direct as a low-budget comedy. Currently untitled, the movie will be about a young couple trying to decide where in the U.S. is best to raise a child. It could be a very short film if the couple just reads the latest issue of Fit Pregnancy magazine.

• Strike talks broke down last night, with both sides refusing to budge on DVD residuals. The producers say the’re willing to make concessions on everything else; the writers say that after three months of negotiation, “the AMPTP still has not responded to a single one of our important proposals. Every issue that matters to writers, including Internet reuse, original writing for new media, DVDs and jurisdiction, has been ignored. This is completely unacceptable.” WGA has scheduled a membership meeting for 7pm tonight; they may or may not return to the bargaining table tomorrow.
• IFC has picked up all North American rights to In Search of a Midnight Kiss, a one-night-in-LA romantic comedy by first time director Alex Holdridge. The film premiered at Tribeca and won the “Best of the Fest” prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
• Clive Owen Alert: The constant object of Karina’s imaginary affections will again star opposite Julia Roberts, this time in Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity. They’ll play “longtime lovers who happened to work as spies on opposite sides. They team up to stage an elaborate con to rip off corporations and steal a valuable product.”
• Terry Gilliam’s next project will be “a modern-day fantasy adventure” called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It’ll co-star Heath Ledger, who previously worked with Gilliam on The Brothers Grimm.
• Simon Wincer–who, in the picture tagged to the Variety story, actually looks a bit like Kevin Costner, but for a tweak in the aging process–will direct a sequel to Dances with Wolves called The Holy Road. Costner, who won two Oscars for directing and producing Wolves, doesn’t seem to be involved in the sequel.

***Music video icon Mark Romanek (see his infamous clip for Fiona Apple’s “Criminal” above) is set to direct Ben Stiller in a comedy called In Deep. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Dreamworks is resurrecting the project, which crashed and burned in the late 80s (!) when the prodution company behind it went bankrupt. Steve Conrad has been hired to do a “Page One rewrite/reconceive” on the ancient script, which has something to do with unpaid parking tickets.

***In another high-profile partnership, Frank Miller is turning Raymond Chandler’s noir Trouble is My Business into a star vehicle for Clive Owen. Miller and Owen are apparently BFF since Sin City, and with Trouble Miller will be taking cues from that project, shaping the script around narration to be delivered by Owen.

***Michael Apted, the mastermind behind the 7 Up documentary series, will direct the next Narnia pic.

***The Los Angeles Film Festival will screen a program of celebrity-directed shorts this Sunday to celebrate Live Earth Day, including clips helmed by Casey Affleck and Madonna.