• Surely this comes as no surprise to anyone, but the Academy has bypassed its rule for the Best Picture category to allow The Reader four producers named as nominees. This special exception was made due to the film’s “rare and extraordinary circumstance” of having two of its producers, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, die during production. Though The Reader is a dark horse for the top award, there is now a slight chance we’ll see three posthumous Oscars awarded on February 22.
• If ever there was a franchise that could use a do-over, its Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Fortunately, Warner Bros. is rebooting the series and re-adapting the popular video game in a way that will “bear no resemblance to the original pictures.” That doesn’t necessarily mean it will be better, but it leaves room for that possibility.
• The excellent Brazilian filmmaker Jose Padilha (Bus 174) has been stacking up Hollywood gigs since he won at Berlin last year with The Elite Squad, but the first project to go into production will be The Sigma Protocol, based on Robert Ludlum’s final novel, which will be modernized to focus on the present economy rather than on Nazis. Wait, does this mean recession fetish trumps Nazi fetish?
• Joe Carnahan has put his troubled Pablo Escobar film to the side, for now, in order to direct and co-script The A-Team for producer Ridley Scott and executive producer Tony Scott. Could this be the greatest no-nonsense TV adaptation since S.W.A.T.? Carnahan’s view on the matter makes it seem so: “Fox hired me to make it as emotional, real and accessible as possible without cheesing it up.”
• Dueling Steve McQueen biopics!

Two westerns on AMC show strong men grappling with the loss of freedom and dignity. The Shootist is John Wayne’s last film, and though the Duke is normally invincible in his movies, this one begins with the premise that he’s dying of cancer. He sets one last goal for himself–to die in a shootout.

Then there’s Open Range, the rare film that Kevin Costner is perfect for. Costner plays a haunted Civil War veteran of a killing persuasion, which he unleashes when a friend is cruelly beaten by a group of trigger-happy thugs. Also featuring the excellent Annette Benning and Robert Duvall, and one of the most intense gun battles I’ve ever seen on film.

If westerns aren’t your thing, you’ve got the classic Jason and the Argonauts playing on TCM. Not everything about the film has aged well, but Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion skeletons still give me the creeps.

Also playing tonight is the Samuel L. Jackson vehicle S.W.A.T. I only saw the last twenty minutes of it at a drive-in, but if that’s supposed to be the exciting climax I’d hate to see what comes before it.