Screening Gotham: Auteur Class War Edition

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--Those rumors about Woody Allen jumping back in bed with the Weinsteins are indeed true; Woody's dark Colin Ferrell/Ewen McGregor drama Cassandra's Dream was acquired by The Weinstein Company. No release date has been set. In their Miramax days, the brothers distributed nearly half of Allen's films from the '90s, including Bullets Over Broadway, Celebrity and Everyone Says I Love You; you might remember Harvey praising Woody as "a helluva great guy" last year on The Reeler. For his part, Woody chimed in via press release: "Harvey is one of the only producers-distributors around who can actually see beyond the grosses and gets real pleasure out of presenting fine movies." All right, all right -- get a room.

--Meanwhile, Abel Ferrara could use a suitor. Hot off the Cannes Film Festival, where his Go Go Tales polarized pretty much everybody yet arrived stillborn among distributors, he tells a captive Rob Nelson in this week's Voice of his plans to conquer the Internet. Inasmuch, that is, as "a modern-day version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Willem and [Matthew] Modine" is geared for conquest.

--A prize goes to the first reader who can accurately tell me how many projects Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden have in the pipeline. Last year Paramount pegged them for an adaptation of the novel It's Kind of a Funny Story, and then it was revealed that they would reteam with Half Nelson producer Jamie Patricof for the baseball indie Sugar. Now Borys Kit notes that Miramax inked the pair to adapt Marisha Pessl's acclaimed book Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Did I miss anything? Oh, and Scott Rudin is producing; that should be fun.

--Apropos of nothing, Sharon Waxman tries her trembling hand at the sow's ear of a story that is Lindsay Lohan. Not surprisingly, the result is anything but a silk purse: "One studio chief who has worked with Ms. Lohan said that he would not hire her until she proved herself healthy and reliable. (Confident at least of this possibility, he would only comment anonymously.)" Duck! No one hits harder.

Posted at May 31, 2007 8:37 AM