Genius director Alexander Payne is going a bit Charlie Kaufman-esque with a film called Downsizing, about a man (Paul Giamatti) who decides to shrink himself to preserve his health. Reese Witherspoon meets cute with him along the way, and Sascha Baron Cohen plays a strange, tiny foreigner. Sounds twee. And wee! [Variety]

Keira Knightley will be starring in a movie version of Kazuo Ishiguro's sci-fi chamber piece Never Let Me Go—a scary and ponderous book—to be directed by Mark Romanek, who did scary and ponderous before, to middling effect, with One Hour Photo. Knightley, in my estimation, is actually pretty decent casting. [EW]

Arrested Development smirker Jason Bateman has just signed on to the Jason Reitman comedy Up in the Air (based on snark-defender Walter Kirn's novel), about a man (George Clooney) who is obsessed with frequent flier miles. Sounds zany!!!!! [Variety]

Young Loren Dean, who had some coulda-been-big opportunities in the 90's movies like Mumford and Gattaca, never quite made it. Ah well. He'll be starring alongside the inexplicably-made-it Hillary Swank in her exoneration pic Betty Anne Waters, currently filming in Ann Arbor. Pack a sweater, Loren. [THR]

Stars of old and relatively new will be joining the basically useless Entourage next season. Jami Gertz, who commingled with your Jason Patric vampire sex fantasies in The Lost Boys (or maybe your Bill Paxton/tornado fantasies in Twister), will play the wife of Gary Cole's sadsack agent character. And the delightful Autumn Reeser from The OC will play a junior agent at Miller/Gold. Good news for them, bad news for us that there's to be another season of all that limp bro blustering. [THR]

Ah even more sorta-forgotten actors getting brief glimmers of hope only to have most of it dashed. Still, good for you Julie Bowen, Scott Wolf, Jonathan Silverman, and Sabrina's Aunt Zelda (and Kate's mom from Lost), Beth Broderick. You'll all be heroes for at least a week. [THR]

Following in that vein, Kim Raver (Lipstick Jungle) and Alyssa Milano (Gold Rush: A Real Life Alaskan Adventure) have also landed pilot roles. Raver in Shonda Rhimes' already-annoying TV news drama Inside the Box, Milano in an "Untitled Ricky Blitt comedy" about a telemarketer. [THR]

A meandering, exquisitely shot dark comedy about an actor (Giamatti playing himself) who undergoes an experimental soul-extraction process to improve his performance in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, Souls was inspired by a vivid dream Barthes had in 2005. In that dream, her soul was the shape of a chickpea and its containment was a matter of not just a little existential angst. The screenplay that followed was intended for Woody Allen, Barthes explained Sunday following a sold-out screening; having given up ever enticing Allen back to the United States or attaining services that would no doubt require considerable creative acquiescence, she turned to the man she had enjoyed in American Splendor and had run into at an event not long after adapting her dream as a screenplay.

Naturally, Giamatti had some script consulting to contribute as well. "There was a lot of rewriting," he said Sunday. "We played with different ideas of backing off it being me, and making it more me. I had to find something that was comfortable, too; I didn't want it to be all me. I think part of the idea of someone using their actual identity lends it a more surreal, dreamlike quality that needs to be well-balanced. We found a way to be comfortable with a me that wasn't 'me,' and then we kept the name. We had a different name, but Sophie and I both felt it needed to be my name. It had lost something by not having it be my name."

But isn't that kind of Kaufmanesque? "I knew this question would come," Barthes said. "Strangely, it's a question I only get in the US." Yet she acknowledges the similarities in spirit, if not technique or inspiration; never striking within a mile of Charlie Kaufman obtuseness, Cold Souls is alternately a thinking person's comedy, an international intrigue (Giamatti's soul is stolen by a Russian "soul mule") and an ambitious, flawed indictment of quick-fix compulsion that plagues Americans up and down the social ladder.

It's no coincidence that a soul-hoarding hedge-funder has the last word in the film, and it similarly won’t be coincidental when the film avoids Kaufman's requisite, polarizing theoretical jabber upon its release. It's too clear-headed and elegant — again, less a dream writ large than a dream nurtured to life. We're not so sure about the bidding war anymore, but we feel confident you'll have every opportunity to scratch your head outside a theater near you by the end of 2009.

· As assumed, the Michael Cera-Charlene Yi potboiler Paper Heart will screen in Park City, where it's one of the few competition features expected to find an immediate distribution suitor. A couple others: John Krasinski's directorial debut Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, an adaptation of a novel by the late David Foster Wallace starring Krasinski, Julianne Nicholson, Rashida Jones and Timothy Hutton; and Cold Souls, starring Paul Giamatti as a "famous American actor" who, "in the midst of an existential crisis [...] explores soul extraction as a relief from the burdens of daily life." So basically it's about joining CAA.

· Chris Rock crosses over to the gritty nonfiction world with Good Hair, a documentary about barbers.

· Pierce Brosnan will attend the world premiere of his drama The Greatest, prompting a burst of confetti and showgirls upon some unwitting attendee's 1 millionth grudging complaint that Sundance is "so fucking over."

· Complement your mid-January American Idol saturation with Afghan Star, about the nation's TV talent-competition hit Pop Idol; "this film follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk their lives to sing." All that, just to succumb in the end anyway to Afghanistan's equivalent of Priscilla Presley. Heart-rending.

· Robert Siegel, former Onion editor and an Oscar-nomination lock for his Wrestler screenplay, makes his directorial debut with Big Fan, starring Patton Oswalt as "a parking garage attendant who happens to be the New York Giants' biggest fan." He life is "turned upside down after an altercation with his favorite player," whom we really, really hope isn't Plaxico Burress.

· It's a three-way tie for best synopsis, as far as we can tell:

The Cove — Dolphins are dying, whales are disappearing, and the oceans are growing sick. The horrors of a secret cove nestled off a small, coastal village in Japan are revealed by a group of activists led by Ric O’Barry, the man behind Flipper.

Dirt! The Movie — The story of the relationship between humans and dirt, Dirt! The Movie humorously details how humans are rapidly destroying the last natural resource on earth.

Humpday — A farcical comedy about straight male bonding gone a little too far.

Tough call, though we think we've already seen that last one. What do you think?

• Sundance Film Festival

• Sundance Sets Slate: 64 Films To Compete In Park City [IW]

The film would cap a dream dating all the way back to 2002, when Giamatti stumbled upon the cult hit Bubba Ho-Tep in a New York art house, submitting his sizable imagination to the story of an over-the-hill Elvis (Bruce Campbell in the role of his life), a black JFK, and their joint battle against a mummy cowboy in the nursing-home showdown of the century. As Vanity Fair notes today, the closing credits jokily promised a sequel, but the overwhelmed Giamatti wasn't letting Campbell or director Don Coscarelli off the hook. There would be a Bubba franchise, and Paul Giamatti would kick-start it to life, attaching himself as Elvis's doomed manager Col. Tom Parker:

I really think movies like this are so much more insightful about Elvis and the myth of Elvis than any bio-pic could ever be. Anyway, it also explores his relationship with Colonel Parker, his Svengali-like manager who controlled so much of Elvis’ career. It’s about how the Colonel cons him into doing one more movie, and then they get involved with vampires and the Colonel literally ends up selling his soul to the devil. There’s also a character who thinks he is or may actually be Sitting Bull. And there are peyote trips and all sorts of weird, supernatural things. It’s such a great script.

And "hot female vampires," naturally, just in case an Oscar-nominated sidekick isn't enough nudge this closer to a green light in a skittish financing climate. Giamatti isn't worried at all, he adds: "We’ll definitely get Bubba Nosferatu made. It’s just a question of when and where." This is probably where that Manoj connection would be best utilized; that guy craps money, and God knows he owes Giamatti at least 15 million favors after Lady in the Water.

• Q&A: Paul Giamatti's Dream Project: 'Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She Vampires' [VF.com]

The Academy has the full, looong slate of nominees, naturally, but we've narrowed our interests down to 10 easy storylines for our own Emmy dramedy — conveniently outlined after the jump!

1. Mad Men joined Damages as the first basic-cable programs to earn a nomination for best dramatic series. Its 15 other nods led the pack among all nominated dramas, while 30 Rock led all shows with 17 noms.

2. For the last time (literally), the Academy has snubbed The Wire for a dramatic series nomination. Critics at the TCA press tour will be symbolically immolating themselves by lunchtime.

3. In other snubs, FX is wondering this morning who it has to blow to get Denis Leary, Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver back on the list after nominations in 2007. Hint: It might be a bribe-friendly exec at AMC, which scored a kind-of-stunning two dramatic actor nods this year.

4. Silverman, Emmy Darling (Part 1): "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" was nominated for Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics. Silverman's competition is Flight of the Conchords and MADtv. As such, it bears saying aloud: " 'I'm Fucking Matt Damon' is going to win an Emmy."

5. Sarah Silverman, Emmy Darling (Part 2): Denied an actress nod for her own show, she earned a guest actress nomination for her turn as Marci Maven on Monk.

6. Amy Poehler's supporting-actress nod for Saturday Night Live is the first for an SNL actress since Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin were each nominated in 1978. Radner won.

7. There's apparently a formula for earning a few dozen Emmy noms: Just make a loooong historical epic like HBO's John Adams, which pulled in 23 mentions including outstanding miniseries — as Variety notes, the third consecutive year a period miniseries has drawn the year's biggest haul. Awards-bait film stars like Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney — both nominated as well — can't hurt either.

8. Come to think of it, film actresses on cable dominated dramatic categories in general, with four Oscar winners (including Susan Sarandon and Holly Hunter) and three Oscar nominees (Linney, Catherine Keener and Glenn Close) among the ten performers recognized. We presume Sally Field got Katherine Heigl's spot.

9. Speaking of whom, we're guessing ABC had higher hopes for Grey's Anatomy than two supporting-actress nominations and "Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Miniseries, Movie Or A Special."

10. If we must split up the reality and reality-competition categories, surely the Academy can find a way to further separate things like A&E's grueling Intervention from trifles like Extreme Makeover Home Edition and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Really.

• The 60th Annual Emmy Award Nominations [Academy of TV Arts & Sciences]

Though the costs to attend the various events are steep— $90 gets you entrée to Georg Reidel’s comparative taste testing on Saturday at 6:15, using his cool stem-less glasses (considering that plebians never hold wine glasses the proper way, might as well do away with those bothersome, lame stems); the 7:30 Riserve Dinner featuring eight courses paired with nearly as many wines and spirits is higher still, at $125. But the regular events are more reasonable at $45 for a day pass. On both days, there are featured speakers and food pairing discussions (wine and cheese, wine and olive oils) with winery directors, sommeliers, and food writers. Maybe you will finally be wine-smart enough to get a date with Virginia Madsen, too. Hopefully, you won’t blow it like this sad sack did.

LA Winefest: July 12 and 13th, Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood.

boomp3.com



Highly respected character actor Paul Giamatti struggled to catch a taxi outside an office building in New York City on Tuesday afternoon. Giamatti assumed that at least one taxi driver would have recognized him from his prior work in independent film staples like Sideways or American Splendor, or perhaps the more recent effort John Adams. Giamatti said, "My face was plastered all over the city to promote that one. Maybe if I'd worn that wig, somebody would've stopped." Yet as the sun beat down upon him, Giamatti became more desperate and started to wave a sizable wad of cash around. Even that action failed to get a cab for Giamatti. Giamatti stooped even lower and began to shout, "Baba Booey!" over and over again, in hopes that a cabbie would remember the versatile actor's appearance as Pig Vomit in the Howard Stern film Private Parts. Finally, a cab stopped for Giamatti, at which point the cabbie immediately asked Giamatti if he had ever played a talking orangutan from space before.

[Photo Credit: Splash Pics]

boomp3.com


A bold member of the craft service crew for the film Duplicity broke the news to Clive Owen that they had ran out of his favorite type of coffee yesterday morning. The craft services attempted to place the blame on the lack of coffee on John Adams star Paul Giamatti, stating that Giamatti made them fill a few thermoses up with the good stuff. Owen stood next to the craft services table, quietly judging everyone until the staff broke down in tears. Owen just nodded and said, "Just don't let happen it again."

[Photo Credit: Splash Pics]

The AP has some more nominee reactions:

"My eyes are so covered in tears, I couldn't see half the television. I didn't expect to cry. I thought I would be all right." Terrence Howard, best actor nominee for "Hustle & Flow." [...]

"I guess I'll go have a drink. I don't think my year could get much better." Paul Giamatti, best supporting actor nominee for "Cinderella Man."

Poor Paul Giamatti has obviously put last year's tragic Sideways snubbing behind him, and it's probably best that he remain blissfully unaware of the grand piano that's going to mysteriously fall from the sky above the Kodak Theater to grind his optimistic bones into the red carpet just minutes before the ceremony.

• Reaction to Academy Awards Nominations [AP]