Normally, I don’t care about upcoming projects and leave that to the trades. But a Peter Jackson writing/directing project is an event. Sources tell me that today certain Hollywood studios were given the big PJ spec script with Mr. Lord Of the Rings himself attached to helm. It’s an adaptation of The Lovely Bones, the…

To movie industry heathens like you and me, we'll always remember where we were when Mel Gibson made his drunken anti-Semitic tirade, when Tom Cruise got fired by old coot Sumner Redstone, and when the 2007 Summer Movie Season made $4.5 billion. That's how much I’m told box office gurus predict the mega-blockbusters…

BEST MOVIE 300 (Warner Bros. Pictures) Blades of Glory (Paramount Pictures) Borat (20th Century Fox) Little Miss Sunshine (Fox Searchlight) Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (Disney) BEST PERFORMANCE Gerard Butler 300 Johnny Depp Pirates 2 Jennifer Hudson Dreamgirls Keira Knightley Pirates 2 Beyoncé Knowles…

Given everyone’s horrible behavior in Hollywood, it’s rare to find something that scandalizes its denizens who’ve seen it all. But Michael Ovitz managed to do just that last week when he failed to show for longtime CAA colleague Ray Kurtzman’s funeral. Ray, one of the most respected guys in showbiz, died of…

I can clear up all the rumors: I’m told definitively that Alec Baldwin left CAA only because he didn’t want to be at the same Hollywood agency as his ex, Kim Basinger.

In major cities around the country, Sony has quietly added lots of Thursday midnight showings of Spider-Man 3. Most of the sneaks start at 12:01 AM — so technically that’s Friday, which is the official day Spidey is released in U.S. venues. And in some major megaplexes, like Pacific’s The Grove Stadium 14 in Los…

Obviously, Lionsgate has yet to find a horror flick too sick or twisted to sell. I’m told the indie studio is still going ahead with plans to release its bloodfest film about the torture and killings of college coeds on a trip to Europe even though the Virginia Tech tragedy is still fresh in the headlines. Hostel: Part…

Obviously, Donald Trump and Arnold Schwarzenegger think we just fell off the turnip truck and are gullible as hell. Political campaign watchdogs are up in arms over the fact that The Donald just gave $10,000 to The Arnold to help pay off $2.3 million in campaign debts left over from his 2006 re-election bid and that…

The CBS’ Nielsen-topping series CSI and its NYC and Miami spin-offs are having a profound effect on juries, trials and law enforcement. But is hair and fibre analysis actually passé in crime-fighting? That’s the basis for Jeffrey Toobin’s article in the upcoming New Yorker. because of the show, “criminalists have…

SUNDAY AM: So Nicolas Cage is back to making bomb after bomb after bomb, with his Revolution / Paramount pic Next unable to open better than 4th place, behind a three-week-old teen/tween movie and a suspense film starring nobodies. With a paltry per screen average at 2,725 theaters, it was hard pressed to even make $7…

I’m told Frank Langella, who’s so brilliant as Tricky Dick in Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon play, is going to snag the movie version as well. This means Warren Beatty won’t be playing the role of the disgraced President interviewed by David Frost. (I already knocked down the Internet rumor that Imagine’s Ron Howard had a…

Think of it as the quiet before the storm: Expect a lackluster movie weekend before the sizzling Summer Movie Season officially kicks off the following Friday with Spider-Man 3. With no significant competition, Paramount’s Next with Nicolas Cage should finish this Friday-Saturday-Sunday as No. 1 with low teens, as in…