To fend off other states trying to lure movie production away with tax incentives, the California Legislature approved a production incentive that covers 20% of below-the-line expenses for productions of up to $75 million. The state will pay 25% of expenses for indie feature productions of up to $10 million.

No word on yet if Lethal Weapon 6, Battlefield Earth in 3D, Good Burger 4, No Country For Old Men 2: Chigurh Goes to Whitecastle, or any other sequel staring Tim Allen will be eligible for funds.

AVC: I understand that you were friends with Peter Sellers.
CM: Peter was a good buddy of ours, we knew him from the very beginning of our career...When we came over to England, he met us at the airport and introduced us to the press and went to all our shows...It was very cool to have Peter Sellers meet you at the airport with a bar of hash that looked like a Hershey bar, you know. [Giggles.]

AVC: There was a little controversy [over The Lion King], because people said it was racist that the hyenas were voiced by a Chicano and an African-American actor.
CM: Fuck ’em. [Laughs.] Fuck those morons. It was two voices. We just did two voices and tried to make funny characters out of those hyenas. That’s all that was involved.

AVC: There has been some talk in the media about how the popularity of escapist movies like Beverly Hills Chihuahua might be linked to the scary economy and the rocky stock market.
CM: Yeah, I think you can directly link chihuahuas to Dow Jones. No, it’s a fun movie, and parents think, “I’m gonna go watch a movie and take my kids. I hear this is something really good, and everybody I like is in it, and it’s fun.” What I think it proves, since it came out the same week as Body Of Lies—the big Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe movie—that people don’t want to see white guys in movies anymore. There’s just no audience there.

Marin could well be onto something, as recent contributions to Forgettable White Guy Cinema—releases like Yes Man, Australia, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and even Seven Pounds (it's white inside)—have been faltering at the box office, while more exotic films like Slumdog Millionaire, Kung Fu Panda, and of course Beverly Hills Chihuahua have been triumphing, feeding audiences' insatiable appetite for their sensitive and realistic ethnic portrayals.

• Random Roles: Cheech Marin [A.V. Club]

1. Max Payne - $18 million
Fresh off his ass-whispering turn on an especially excruciating, Sarah Palin-boosted episode of SNL, it's Mark Wahlberg who's doing most of the laughing today: The actor's latest cinematic foray clicked with young male moviegoers, despite being dismissed by most critics as being hyper-stylized junk, like some spiraling turd floating in the Wachowski brothers's septic tank. Still, not all were left unimpressed, as a giddy Colin Powell, his eyes reflecting a steady downpour of slo-mo bullets, gushed to his wife that the "transformational" third-person-shooter adaptation who would "electrify" our country's fanboy electorate.

2. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - $11.2 million
Audiences continued to roll onto their backs and squirm in delight as they had their bellies rubbed by Disney's bat-eared superstars. Not surprisingly, then, the hit's microscopic sequel—Fleas of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, about a poor, parasitic insect family that hops from rich chihuahua to rich chihuahua so that their children can enroll in the area's public schools—is being rushed into production.

3. The Secret Life of Bees - $11.05 million
Gracefully developing, is-she-or-isn't-she-stroppy? superstar Dakota Fanning and friends balanced out the vast gender divide for Fox, giving their Searchlight label the women who avoided Max Payne like the plague. "We had something for everyone," explained Fox VP Bert Livingston, temporarily forgetting about the 99.999999% of the world's population interested in neither.

4. W. - $10.55 million
Let's run down W.'s numbers: It's Oliver Stone's fifth-best opening ever, right behind Natural Born Killers. Exit polling showed 47% of audiences were over 40, 90% don't like the President, 80% were voting Obama, and 6% McCain. A round 100%, however, thought the movie was intermittently engaging, but by and large a cojones-deficient mess.

5. Eagle Eye - $7.343 million
"If you want to live, you'll do as I say. Now get wasted, hook up with Adrian Grenier's girlfriend, and lose a pinkie nail in a near-fatal car accident at the corner of Hollywood and La Brea. You'll get your next instruction there."

• October 17–19, 2008 [Box Office Mojo]

1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua — $17.5 million

Disney unleashed its vast canine army for a second straight week, prompting mad scientists at competing studios to commence top-secret experiments to engineer another, equally lucrative breed. Word on the street has Miramax taking the early lead with Tribeca Guard Dog, the story of a vicious German Shepherd named Henrik who unexpectedly finds love with a pug who persuades him to let her owner out of captivity in a dank Manhattan editing facility. Scott Rudin will produce, natch.

2. Quarantine — $14.2 million

The stunning opening gross for Sony's horror film exceeded its budget by $2 million, thus inheriting the B-schlock mantle from the retiring Saw franchise and guaranteeing another five years of sloppy, utterly forgettable viral marketing. Well done, America.

3. Body of Lies — $13.1 million

We never thought we could be accused of being too generous to Ridley Scott's spy-flick folly, but there you have it.

4. Eagle Eye — $11.1 million

The Shia LaBeouf thriller sustained exceedingly well in its third weekend, dropping less than 40% percent and inspiring DreamWorks to scour the Hitchcock canon for the third thinly veiled Gen-X updating between their young star and director D.J. Caruso. The front-runner to date: Nutso, one of Hollywood's hottest unproduced scripts, which would feature Shia as a rural motel proprietor on the outs with his mysterious, Klonopin-addled stepmother. A green light is forthcoming as soon as the judge lifts the injunction.

5. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist — $6.5 million

Continuing a new tradition, expect the disappointed producers of The Express — the highly touted footbal biopic that nevertheless finished a distant sixth behind Playlist — to launch an inquiry into ticket fraud and other Michael Cera-inspired box-office shenanigans by the end of the day.

Boomp3.com

Midway through a matinee of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, mother-daughter duo Katie Holmes and Suri sent Tom Cruise out for a refill on snacks and sodas. As soon as Cruise left the theater, Suri leaned over to her mother and whispered, “If we ever wanted to run away, now would be the time. We got maybe five minutes before he gets back. Are you with me?” Holmes looked over her shoulder and eyed the door. Nobody was coming. Holmes stared into the eyes of her daughter and wondered if they could pull it off. Before she made her mad dash for freedom, Suri left behind an origami unicorn crafted out of a movie ticket stub.

[Photo Credit: Splash Pics]

*A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

We have had heard from numerous people across the country that there has been some ticket fraud when buying a ticket for An American Carol this past weekend.

Please check your ticket. If you were in fact one of those people that were "mistakenly" sold a ticket for another movie please fill out the form below. Hold on to your ticket so we can have proof.

If you have noticed other irregularities with the theatres in your area please let us know in the comment section below. For instance, Rated R film rating (when in fact we are rated PG-13), posters not being up, not being listed on the marquee, image or focus problems, sound issues, etc.

Please email us a picture of your ticket stub to fraud@americancarol.com

We are investigating.

Though the American Carol team is mounting their own oversight committee to investigate every exhibitor and ticket booth in the nation, we have a feeling they might not like what they find. The chihuahua voting bloc is loud and legion, and though rumors of a secret ticket counterfeiting operation have never been confirmed (despite a recent scandal involving conspicuous paw prints on numerous stubs for Nights in Rodanthe), you don't want to mess with the dogs. Sure, it may win you points with the 6-12 cat demographic, but we all know they never show up to vote.

• Fraud [An American Carol via Hollywood Elsewhere]

1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - $29 million
Since we first glimpsed its trailer—a jaw-dropping depiction of 45,000 CGI chihuahuas line-kicking to a song about burrito condiments on the steps of a Mayan ruin—we've made little secret of our obsession with this movie. Sadly, a painful ingrown toenail prevented us (yes—all of us; when one hurts, the others feel it just as deeply) from actually paying to see it. Enough did, however, to earn Disney its highest-ever October opening. They were mostly struggling American families, looking in this canine rags-to-riches story for a distraction from their growing financial woes, like Little Orphan Annie offered during the Great Depression. Unfortunately, the plan largely backfired, as all hungry audiences could see in place of the film's adorable Mexican lapdogs were delicious, charcoal-broiled rotisserie chihuahuas floating across the screen.

2. Eagle Eye - $17.7 million
Meanwhile, this hi-tech thriller starring Shia LaBeouf (in his last pinkie-nail-intact role) continued to draw them in, in which he and Katie Holmes's MI3 stand-in play two strangers taunted mercilessly by That Lady Who Offers Voicemail Options.

3. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - $12 million
We had high hopes based on the cleverly culled clips used in the commercial, but came away extremely disappointed, as just about everything in this movie—from the queer band members cast by obviously straight dudes, to the CW-caliber dialogue, to the most disgusting sequence we've ever endured involving a wad of chewing gum—came off as just plain wrong. (With the exception of Michael Cera, who emerged unscathed using his mutant superpower of being insanely cute.)

4. Nights in Rodanthe - $7.355 million
While we're not ones for Hallmark porn, we're confident that Richard Gere has achieved in Rodanthe yet another heart-shaped turd to toss onto his ever-growing shmalzography pile.

9. An American Carol - $3.810 million
10. Religulous - $3.5 million
Bill Maher's amazing voyage inside the heart of bible-thumping America performed strongly, earning around the same as what David Zucker's execrable An American Carol—a profoundly unfunny satire paradoxically geared to an audience born without satire-detection capacities—managed on three-times the screens.

• WEEKEND BOX OFFICE October 3–5, 2008 [Box Office Mojo]

Ticket buyers older than 8 should simply close their eyes and ponder a more stimulating concept: Beverly Hills Cujo. — Claudia Puig, USA Today

It's still only October, but I'll go ahead and say it: Beverly Hills Chihuahua is the best film of 2008 starring a purse dog. — Carla Meyer, The Sacramento Bee

You could say Beverly Hills Chihuahua is Lady and the Tramp meets Viva Zapata!, but seriously, I've seen zestier attitude in a Purina commercial. — Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Sublimely silly and oddly poignant, Beverly Hills Chihuahua — that's right, the one with the talking canines — is Lady and the Tramp for lap dogs, Roots for pooches, Legally Blonde told from Bruiser's point of view. — Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Enquirer

The film is Beverly Hills Chihuahua. The audience is the fire hydrant. — Kyle Smith, NY Post

Right? Right?? Can't! Wait!

• 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' [Rotten Tomatoes]

WHAT'S NEW: This is the week we've been waiting for since May, when Disney ignored our urgent plea to immediately release Beverly Hills Chihuahua from its high-camp captivity. And now that it's here, we're kind of over it; blame it on last month's chihuahua-only sneak preview. Not like the sadists at Disney need us: BHC is this week's only new family release and will do business accordingly, setting up for around $32.3 million over the three-day. The Michael Cera/Kat Dennings effort Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist will ride teens and the date crowd to about $17 million, which still won't be enough to overtake Eagle Eye for second place. Nothing else will break $10 million; Greg Kinnear's windshield-wiper biopic (!) Flash of Genius is on too few screens, Julianne Moore's dodgy drama Blindness will fall victim to the angry blind lobby, and Ed Harris's expanding Western Appaloosa couldn't find traction when it was on 1,000 screens, let alone 2,000.

Most of the remaining release slate looks like a gang of orphans hassling tourists for change: Jia Zhangke's acclaimed Still Life; the timely, revealing political doc Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, Rutger Hauer's psychological love-triangle drama Mentor; Obscene, the story of Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset; the Muslim stand-up concert film Allah Made Me Funny, and the Iraq-vet basket case drama The Violent Kind.

THE BIG LOSER: MGM's hard-luck streak looks likely to continue with How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the adaptation of Toby Young's thinly-veiled bestseller about his misadventures in the Conde Nast empire. It won't fail for lack of trying — at least not with a cast including Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Megan Fox and Jeff Bridges rocking his best Graydon Carter impression — and a month ago, in less-congested times, this may have even had some multiplex leverage. But in this glut, with the reviews it's receiving and audience awareness less than half of what it needs to be, expect a $3 million opening and quick dispatch to DVD. Where, in fairness, the Fox connection will more than make up for it stillbirth at the box office.

THE UNDERDOG: Religulous is already exhibiting legs in New York, where it opened Wednesday to $13,000 on two screens. It'll bulk up it Oscar doc creds this weekend alongside Rachel Getting Married, a genuinely brilliant piece of ensemble filmmaking by Jonathan Demme and an awards-season lock for Anne Hathaway. But like last week's evangelically supported Fireproof, which "shocked" everyone but us with a $6.5 million opening, watch the conservative satire An American Carol explode in the red states. Vivendi pushed it aggressively before and after last night's debate, it's critic-proof (not that it was available for review) and will fare far better on 1,600 screens — like "$6.3 million" better — than anyone will give it credit for.

FOR SHUT-INS: This week's new DVD releases include Iron Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Julian Schnabel's rock doc Lou Reed's Berlin, the steroid expose Bigger, Faster, Stronger* and, because you (or somebody) asked for it, Can't Hardly Wait: The 10th Anniversary Edition.

So how do you plan to sort out the mess at the multiplex? Are there chihuahuas in your future? Can Kinnear's windshield wipers overcome? Can American Carol be the pandering sensation it aspires to? Call your shots, and aim carefully; there are too many innocent bystanders in the mix this week.

But that's OK! One critic apparently had an early look at the film, either busting Disney's review embargo or pimping it outright for a price — let it suffice to say he liked it. Still, even after a review with 12 chapters and seemingly no spoiler left unpeeled, we don't really get why:

Beverly Hills Chihuahua most certainly does not suck. ... What’s truly surprising is that the trailers contain virtually nothing that’s actually in the movie – which is simultaneously a monstrous undertaking in untruth-in-advertising and a remarkable case of branding savvy. The previews issued by Disney were indelible, if for all the wrong reasons, and got tongues and tails wagging. A series of scenes featuring the live-action doggies and their CG mouths opposite the likes of Piper Perabo and Jamie Lee Curtis would’ve led to little but shrugs and yawns.

The film does begin rather poorly, with a montage of Beverly Hills scenes set to Gwen Stefani’s Rich Girl. Jamie Lee Curtis is Vivian, a chic fashionista who runs a business but spends her every spare moment tending to Chloe, her female Chihuahua and “greatest treasure”. The little mutt is preened in salons, has a dozen couture changes a day, and Chloe and her little pooch pals say things like “talk to the paw” while they chill-ax on banana lounges by the pool at Vivian’s mansion. The gardener Sam’s working-class Mexican immigrant Chihuahua Papi (he of the trailers, even though this is Chloe’s story – another dubious marketing ploy) pines hopelessly for Chloe, proving his devotion by offering to “lick inside your ears” and “chew the hard to reach places”. [...]

[H]ilarity spills over into a half-satirical, half-straight speech about Chihuahua rights and freedoms, made not by Papi, but by Monty, a wise old dog who’s a mongrel of Yoda and Malcolm X. Elsewhere, slapstick moments – dogs in baths, prancing through a museum, enjoying a bouncy castle at a Beverly Hills lawn party – connect for their simplicity.

We also learn that "80 percent" of Beverly Hills Chihuahua is in fact set in Mexico, where the Mexico City police hunt for the missing Chloe with a conviction and urgency perhaps suggesting their ongoing anti-corruption efforts might be advancing faster than we thought. Then again, the depiction of "working-class immigrant" dog Papi likely just torpedoed that progress — and that's not even counting the mounting threat of L.A.'s costumed-chihuahua brigade amassing for an obvious culture war to come. Do the right thing, Disney — stand down, and let us arbitrate. Chihuahua relations are clearly too volatile to be left to one force alone.

• 'Beverly hills Chihuahua' Photo Shoot [Le Studio via BWE]

• 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua': The Verdict [Schlock Around the Clock]

THERE WILL BE A SPECIAL (FIRST TIME EVER) MOVIE SCREENING FOR CHIHUAHUA OWNERS AND THEIR DOGS! THIS WILL BE FOR THE UPCOMING DISNEY MOVIE 'BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA' (IN THEATERS 10/3). This screening will be part of a promotional photo shoot that will be used for PR and media. Exact date TBC, but it will most likely be Sunday 9/14 or Thursday 9/18. This is for Chihuahua's [sic] only. DRESS TO IMPRESS!!

Hurry, though! Only 114 spots remain to assign before tomorrow's RSVP deadline. We think we might have an attendee in mind, and let's face it — this really is a To-Do backdrop waiting to happen.

• 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' Movie Meetup [Meetup.com]

1. Brad Pitt will win an Academy Award. We know the post-Toronto establishment has all but engraved Mickey Rourke's name on this year's Best Actor Oscar (hell, even Rourke has engraved his name on this year's Best Actor Oscar), but taking both The Wrestler (release date TBD) and Pitt's epic The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (12/25) sight unseen, we'll take the aging-backward-on-other-people's-bodies gimmick over the gritty indie comeback 10 times out of 10. Not that it won't be close: Brad Grey will spend more on his old pal's campaign than Fox Searchlight is probably ready to drop on Rourke's, but Rourke will be the more accessible nominee to the media. Look for dark horse Sean Penn (Milk) to split the field late; Focus Features won't settle for another 0-fer in '08.

2. W. (10/17) will tip the election to the GOP. Opening less than three weeks before Election Day, the film will be too muddled to move the Democrats yet irreverent enough to galvanize the Republican base against Hollywood one more time before voting. Oliver Stone will be recognized as the new Ralph Nader.

3. You're going to miss Don LaFontaine a lot more than you think. Otherwise execrable trailers like this one for The Haunting of Molly Hartley (10/31) acquired bittersweet relevance overnight:

4. The Weinstein Company will muscle its way back to prominence. Harvey had a relatively hemorrhage-free summer, closed out by his $16 million-grossing (and counting) Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Meanwhile, Zack and Miri Make a Porno (10/31) left Toronto with goodwill to spare, the LA immigrant saga Crossing Over (10/24) has Harrison Ford, Sean Penn and others channeling Crash, and the company bumped up The Reader for Kate Winslet Oscar consideration. (NB: The Rourke Factor also reportedly inspired Harvey to finally slot his long-shelved Killshot on Nov. 7.) The Weinsteins being the Weinsteins, of course, the operation could crash at any time, but at least the ensuing conflagration promises Hindenberg levels of spectacle. That's our Harvey.

5. Owen Wilson will emerge from, return to hiding after explaining the trailer to Marley & Me (12/25). That is all.

6. The Soloist (11/21) will be better than it sounds. But it sounds great, right? Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, directed by Pride and Prejudice/Atonement helmer Joe Wright? Alas, the logline: "A schizophrenic, homeless musician from Skid Row, Los Angeles dreams of playing at Walt Disney Concert Hall." Based on a true story, natch: Downey Jr. plays the real-life LAT reporter who befriends him, warning Foxx behind the scenes about the perils of going full-schizo. All things being equal, we like their chances.

7. Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York (10/24) will be this year's unlikeliest tearjerker. Not just for its devastating, beautiful final act, but also for the probability that Sony Classics will weep red ink when it makes about five cents at the box office.

8. Twilight (11/21) will only be the second-best vampire movie released this fall. You won't find Let the Right One In (10/24) on the cover of EW, but you'll find the Swedish export in a lot of festival juries' hearts since last spring. Half coming-of-age romance and half vengeful horror epic, it picks up the story of a bullied 12-year-old boy whose sweet new girlfriend next door ends up being several thousand years older than she looks — and behaves accordingly. Genre distributor Magnet Releasing might only get this on a hundred screens, but watch the word-of-mouth and top-10-list acclaim bump it into sleeper status by the end of the year.

9. Extreme Movie will open to a $0 gross after viewers confuse it with the other, less-illustrious Movie franchise. But you can be prepared: Extreme Movie is the teen sex comedy starring Michael Cera and Frankie Muniz; Disaster Movie et. al. are the ones whose auditoriums smell faintly of piss. Know the difference!

10. Daniel Craig will miss 2006. Casino Royale was a surprising, sporadically brilliant reboot, but the honeymoon is over: Quantum of Solace's trailer isn't dazzling anyone; the title is stillborn; Sony couldn't settle on a US release date (it finally chose 11/14); and unfairly or not, franchise obsessives want nothing to do with new director Marc Forster. And all this after the Bond curse cost Craig part of his finger. It's a cruel world, but not as cruel as it'll seem after Defiance (12/12), the WWII Jewish resistance drama in which he and screen bros Liev Schrieber and Jamie Bell fight off Nazis during the invasion of Poland. Among the last of Paramount Vantage's orphaned prestige titles, and opening opposite Doubt, an expanded Frost/Nixon and The Day the Earth Stood Still, it's bound to knock Craig back to stardom's second tier for a while to come.

11. Beverly Hills Chihuahua (10/3) will astonish and amaze. But you already knew that.

[Cohen will play a] lawyer of Latin descent who transforms from contingency attorney to hero of the working class when he helps an immigrant win a judgment against his wealthy employer after a landscaping mishap.

He also becomes the enemy of L.A.'s power elite.

While reading the synopsis initially brought on the kind of dyspepsia one might suffer after glimpsing 12,000 Latin stereotypes defecating on a Mayan temple, we defer to Cohen to tackle the always delicate subject of immigrants' rights with his trademark, anvil-heavy satirical touch. And there's really no telling where this very special The End of Ideas—Billboards and Bus Ads Edition might lead next: Perhaps Eddie Murphy's triumphant return to the top of the box office, starring (with the help of his trusty fat suit) in the summer 2010 comedy sensation, Big Boy's Got Gas.

• Baron Cohen to produce 'Accidentes' [Variety]

It's too good to be true and really too hideous to fathom, so find your place in that spectrum with a glimpse at the video after the jump. And you! Disney moles! Where's our rough-cut screener? You know where to find us.

• Beverly Hills Chihuahua [Youtube via Guanabee]

WHEREAS, said trailer features George Lopez in his archetypally go-to role as Hollywood's default Mexican voice talent, and

WHEREAS, per cosmic law, secondary Mexican voice talent Cheech Marin is also represented, and

WHEREAS, said trailer introduces Papi, the character referred to in the film's title and the descendant of small singing dogs who "fought alongside Aztec warriors," and

WHEREAS, said trailer features Papi leading a garish CGI chihuahua-ganza of cruise-ship music and Busby Berkley-esque showstoppers, and

WHEREAS, said trailer employs the hip-hop refrain, "We're tiny, we're mighty, we're number one / Yo, we're the real hot dogs, so hold the bun," and

WHEREAS, the frame captured at left is an actual image from said trailer, and

WHEREAS, we cannot stop staring at this image in stunned, staggered anticipation, and

WHEREAS, the only thing missing from the otherwise flawless said trailer is a sequence featuring a chihuahua shaman removing a still-beating chihuahua heart; and

WHEREAS, said trailer ends with the unassailably profound tagline, "50% Warrior. 50% Lover. 100% Chihuahua," and

WHEREAS, we are surprised to discover that the film said trailer supports in not of the "straight-to-DVD" variety but rather a full-length feature to be released in theaters Sept. 26 of this year, and

WHEREAS, there is no fucking way we are waiting nearly five months to see this year's tacky, tasteless, post-culture equivalent of Snakes on a Plane,

NOW, THEREFORE, LET IT BE RESOLVED BY DEFAMER,

1. That Disney moves up the release of Beverly Hills Chihuahua to this Friday, May 9 — preferably as a replacement to Speed Racer, which we viewed yesterday and which barely seems finished;

2. That Beverly Hills Chihuahua rename its female lead "Apocalynkerbell" in deference to its studio's previous anthropological foray into extinct Mesoamerican cultures;

3. That said trailer precedes every screening of every film in every theater from now until the date Disney can arrange for the wide release of the full-length feature.

RESOLUTION PASSED this 6th day of May, 2008.

SIGNED,

DEFAMER

• Beverly Hills Chihuahua [Disney]