· Smelling Oscar, Jamie Foxx will star in DreamWorks' adaptation of the book The Zebra Murders: A Season of Killing, Racial Madness and Civil Rights, playing one of "trailblazing black detectives who set out to solve a series of racially motivated serial killings that rocked San Francisco in the fall and winter of 1973-74." It's a serial killer flick! It's a socially conscious civil rights tale! Academy voters are already fantasizing about checking off Foxx's name on their ballots. [Variety]
· The Red Sox's World Series-opening rout of the Rockies gives Fox nearly as big a Nieslen win over its network rivals. Also: Bionic Woman (see above for fun behind-the-scenes news!) dropped off 23 percent from its previous averages. [THR]
· Demonstrating that Hollywood Cares About The Wildfires, Disney kicks in $2 million in relief. [Variety]
· Michael Mann is making plans to butch up a gone-too-soft Robert De Niro. [Variety]

I'm about to give all the Hollywood moguls indigestion before they've even taken a bite of their Thanksgiving meal. That's because I'm told that Akiva Goldsman, who adapted Dan Brown's worldwide bestseller into a $755.6 mil hit pic, is receiving $4 million for the Da Vinci Code sequel in the works by both Imagine Entertainment and Sony Pictures. Not only is that major moola, but agents are telling me this represents a new $$$ high for hiring a screenwriter. And, no, Goldsman isn't getting a producer credit, so this is for straight scribbling. "That would be a lot for a pure writer's credit," one agent gushed. "It puts Akiva in the absolute top of his profession." (Actually, the first rumor I heard was an astounding $6 mil, but the truth is $2 mil less than that. As for whether the deal also includes gross points, dunno.)

If this deal is going to set a new market for screenwriter salaries, we sincerely hope that Charlie Kaufman's agent is on the phone right now, letting everyone in town know that if "that hack Goldsman is getting four mil a script to cut-and-paste shitty Dan Brown dialogue into Final Draft, my guy isn't getting out of bed for less than five."

• EXCLUSIVE: New $ High for Screenwriter [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

Some say the government yanked the film in response to complaints from Chinese Catholic groups... Others contend the flick was too popular: It was poised to break records as the highest-earning foreign movie ever shown in China, putting domestic Chinese movies to shame. [...]

Wu Hehu, a spokesman for Shanghai's United Cinema Line Corporation, said he received a notice to cease showing the film, but he didn't know why the order was made.

"This is such a short notice from the film's distributor. They will stop showing it from tomorrow," Wu said. "I don't know the reason either. We just do what we are told to do."

We doubt the decision was the result of any campaign on behalf of China's Catholics to stuff the People's Ministry of Cinematic Well-Being suggestion box with outraged appeals to "mercifully shield the citizenry from the devil Tom Hanks' stringy-haired heresy." Rather, the move sounds more likely to be the handiwork of the lesser-known but highly influential "self-flagellating, murderous Chinese albino" lobby, who felt strongly that the film portrayed them in a negative light.

• China Pulls 'Da Vinci Code' Movie [CBS News/AP]

Despite Pascal's unequivocal insistence that Hanks and Howard will return, some informed speculation holds that Sony could live without either of them for the next installment. The talent on The Da Vinci Code is expensive, and some at the studio—looking at the film's extraordinary success overseas—give a measure of credit to a strong international cast, including Jean Reno, Ian McKellen, and Audrey Tautou. Since Angels & Demons is set before the events of The Da Vinci Code, a younger (and cheaper) male lead might work out fine.

All things being equal, of course, we'd bet Pascal would be happy to make the investment in Hanks and eschew the more budget-minded options; she'd spare herself innumerable nights of waking up drenched in sweat, haunted by nightmares of Vin Diesel in Hanks' much-ridiculed Da Vinci hairpiece, attempting to mumble his way through page after page of stilted expository dialogue.

• The Da Vinci Sequel [Slate]

• 2006 Cannes Film Festival [THR]

Pirated DVD versions of both "The Da Vinci Code" and "Mission Impossible 3" were selling for 5 yuan ($0.60) each, but the workmanship was poor, as is usually the case for early pirated copies often made with hand-held camcorders in the cinema. One customer said he could seeing people walking in front of the cinema screen.

"I could even hear someone drinking Coke or something," he said, adding that he lost patience half-way through and vowed to pay up and see the movie at the cinema.

While a jubilant Sony dispatches accountants from its worldwide distribution arm to Shanghai to ascertain how many 60-cent copies were sold and add the total to its international grosses, the MPAA will launch a manhunt in the city, hoping to find the disgruntled consumer from the story and create a series of PSAs around their new hero, which will tell the story about how his experience with shoddy, pirated product inspired him to abandon his evil ways and seek redemption at the multiplex.

• Pirated "Da Vinci Code" hits China streets [Reuters]

1. The Da Vinci Code—$77 million
Judging from the results of the last few weekends at the box office, moviegoers are much more interested in Jesus Christ's fictional love life than Tom Cruise's. Sony obviously learned a valuable lesson from the botched M:i:III campaign, and wisely refrained from filling the gossip rags with stories about the Messiah's suspicious relationship with Mary Magdalene and the couple's own Miracle Baby. The key moment in Sony's strategy of restraint came when they bravely resisted producer Brian Grazer's suggestion that the Son of Man crisscross France by bullet train, Vespa, Le Car, and jet ski, with the Word Made Flesh finishing up his action-packed promotional tour at Da Vinci's premiere in Cannes. Worldwide audiences, it seems, appreciated the tasteful rejection of this stunt to the tune of $224 million.

2. Over the Hedge—$37.2 million
Until the childcare industry discovers a solution for screaming five-year-olds less messy than good, old-fashioned, blunt head trauma, movies about wisecracking CGI animals will continue to be an incredibly profitable line of business.

3. Mission: Impossible III—$11 million
Huzzah! M:i:III has finally crossed the mostly meaningless $100 million mark at the domestic box office; self-congratulatory full-page ads in the trade papers to follow shortly.

4. Poseidon—$9.2 million
Huzzah! Poseidon has finally crossed the $36 million mark; full-page mass-suicide notes in the trade papers from disgraced producers and Warner Bros. executives to follow shortly.

5. RV—$5.1 million
We're going to pretend that RV has already fallen out of the top five a weekend early and refrain from further contemplation of Robin Williams' current movie career.

• May 19-21, 2006 [Box Office Mojo]

• Manila Bans, India Clears 'Da Vinci Code' [AP]

"I've done a good job in my own mind of being modest as to the expectations," [chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment Michael Lynton] told Reuters in an interview this week while en route to the south of France, where "The Da Vinci Code" will launch the vaunted Cannes film festival later on Wednesday amid protests from the Vatican and many Christian groups.

"I've encouraged, and Amy Pascal (chairman of Sony's motion pictures group) has encouraged myself and others not to expect something that's out of proportion," he added.

This ass-covering tactic of managed expectations is a wise one, and a prescient one, as Lynton gave that quote before the flood of bad buzz following the first screenings last night. Should something truly disastrous happen, say, like Sony discovers when the weekend numbers come in that it didn't make a movie good enough for people to want to bother shoving past the priests who lit themselves on fire in their local multiplex lobby, they can always say they were never really that excited in the first place.

• INTERVIEW - Sony Pics CEO plots new course amid Da Vinci hype [Reuters]