All in all, it made me really question what I am doing in this country. It has become impossible to work as a journalist without the risk of physical violence from the government.

Filmmaker James Longley (Iraq in Fragments) was in Iran working on his new film when the fallout from that country’s contested election began this weekend. In a series of postings on the documentary forum DWord, which AJ Schnack has excerpted at All these wonderful things, Longley recounts the situation on the ground, climaxing with his account of being detained by riot police while his translator was severely beaten and then sworn to silence. Read the full thing at the link.

• Ben Stiller is replacing Mark Ruffalo as the male lead in Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama Greenburg, which has also just lost female lead Amy Adams. Between this and the news that Stiller’s directing The Trial of the Chicago 7, it appears he’s headed for a more serious course. If so, he should try and get that Zoolander sequel made before he becomes the next Tom Hanks. Joking aside, though, this could be good for those of us who prefer his performances in Permanent Midnight and Your Friends and Neighbors.
• Hollywood is making yet another apocalyptic alien invasion movie, yet the latest, a comic book adaptation called Atlantis Rising, involves a threat from beneath the ocean. Obviously, it’s labeled a cross between two James Cameron films, Aliens and The Abyss.
• Oliver Stone’s latest documentary about a controversial world leader will focus on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who he’s been filming for six months. There’s also rumor that he’ll follow that up with a doc on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• Speaking of Stone, for those who wished Will Ferrell had played the lead in W., HBO is airing a live telecast of Ferrell’s upcoming Broadway show You’re Welcome America. A Final Night With George Bush. The date of the telecast is still unrevealed, but it’s likely to be in March.
• Oscar ratings in France should be huge this year, because Jerry Lewis has been named to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy Awards.

In the hopes of resuscitating box office loser A Mighty Heart, Paramount is trying something new. The idea is to cut down from over 1,300 screens, to about 600 - a “retroactive platform release” designed to spread word of mouth and keep the pic in theaters longer. The Variety story is of the “let’s just keep the exec talking and count how many outside forces he manages to blame” variety. My favorite part is when Paramount blames John Cusack for stealing their older women quadrant with 1408.

“With no new wide releases scheduled to open Friday, the weekend dynamics already are in gear,” writes Gregg Kilday at the Reporter. “[T]he three dominant holiday players [are] on track to extend their winning streaks.”

Sicko will screen at the first Iran International Film Festival, but it’s maker is not coming with. A Sicko rep claims that a “right-wing promoted” rumor Michael Moore would follow his film to Tehran is “an urban myth right up there with alligators in the sewers of New York City.”

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected Oliver Stone’s request to make a film about him. In a statement, a media advisor to Ahmadinejad said, “It is right that [Stone] is considered part of the opposition in the U.S., but opposition in the U.S. is a part of the Great Satan.” For his part, Stone took advantage of the rejection to send a dig to a different president: “I have been called a lot of things, but never a great Satan. I wish the Iranian people well and only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours.”

The New York Civil Liberties Union is protesting a proposed change to local film permit regulations, which would require a permit for two or more people who plan on shooting with a handheld camera for more than thirty minutes. According to the NYCLU, the new regulations, which may go into effect by the end of the summer, “makes no sense, violates the First Amendment right to photograph in public places and opens the door to selective and discriminatory enforcement.”

You and I may be suffering from sequel overload, but franchises are having the intended effect overseas. International box office is up 13% so far this year, and one-third of that increase can be attributed to trilogies.