• 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!

• Cannes: complete coverage, plus Karina’s 5 favorites.
• Sex and the City: Saving boyfriends, 5 Easy Ways To Dismiss It, is it Why They Hate Us
• Also possibly about sex: War, Inc’s big opening weekend.
• On FilmCouch: Bigger, Stronger, Faster (reviewed here), and gossip from Cannes.
• Sydney Pollack died.
• The Worst Film Ever Made is being remade.
• Manhattan already has been…with Muppets.
• Jean Claude Van Damme: unlikely target of respect.
• Is Tyson accurate?
• Mommie Dearest author tries to protect her lock on the market.
• John Woo returns to China.
• An accidental visit to the set of Brooklyn’s Finest.
• Italian Spider-man
• The Wackness on public access.
• Bill Murray’s divorce ripped from unproduced Lost in Translation 2 script
• 5 favorite graduates.
• Jordan Gray won our Presidential Zombie Contest.
• Fred Astaire brought sexy back 70 years before “SexyBack.”
• Brad Pitt had a funny hairstyle 17 years before Burn After Reading.
• A new movie about The Doors?
• Sharon Stone made China angry.

Oscar-winning director, producer and actor Sydney Pollack has died at the age of 73, reportedly due to cancer. Pollack’s death comes just two months after that of his producing partner Anthony Minghella, who, though almost 20 years Pollack’s junior, also suffered from cancer. Here’s the NY Times obit; see a clip from my favorite film directed by Pollack, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, above.

CHICAGO – Don’t be fooled by its formulaic, Hollywoodspeak tagline.

“The truth can be adjusted” is the Michael Clayton way of saying this film has rammed in a whole hell of a lot more than you might first presume and is about to blindside you with everything a picture-perfect Hollywood product should be.

George Clooney in Michael Clayton.
Photo courtesy of IMDb

An opulent, all-star cast as in The Departed sometimes yields the film of the year. At other times, the failure of that resolve can make financiers suicidal.

In the case of Michael Clayton, writer/director Tony Gilroy weaves the commanding George Clooney, flawlessly fanatical (and sometimes streaking) Tom Wilkinson, tautly corporate Tilda Swinton and the always-on-top-of-his-game Sydney Pollack into a film that pays its weight in gold.

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