We'd really hoped this one would be visiting your neighborhood sooner than later. Alas, Precious, featuring Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz, lauded newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, and Mo'Nique in a career-defining performance as an abusive mother from hell, quietly disappeared this week from its prestigious closing-night slot at New York's New Directors/New Films festival. Sources point to the studio's open-ended legal standoff with Harvey Weinstein as a serious threat to seeing a deglammed, mustachioed Carey back on the big screen any time soon.

It's probably the most significant such drama since 2005, when Fox Searchlight jacked Jason Reitman's Toronto Film Festival hit Thank You For Smoking from the dozing Paramount Vantage. And in any event, it's a 180-degree reversal from Precious's trajectory out of Park City, where news of a big-time deal with Lionsgate, Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey accompanied its Grand Jury Prize. That wasn't the only accompaniment, however; The Weinstein Company soon intervened, claiming that they had a deal to release the film domestically. Breach-of-contract suits and countersuits followed — none of which are yet resolved, we hear, indefinitely postponing Precious's appearance anywhere outside Sundance.

Meanwhile, a Lionsgate representative told us this morning that the film is on track for a fall release. Here's hoping; Harvey shouldn't go hogging all the awards-season fun.

• New Directors/New Films

THR provided an exhaustive analysis today of exactly how and when financier toes were stepped upon and moguls were made to cry like five-year-old girls, which we've broken down into a handy Get Your Hands of My Push Baby Timeline.

· January 16 — Push debuts in Park City. It built steady buzz over the week, wooing suitors, but accepting no official bites.
· January 24 — Sundance's closing day. In a few hours, Push would win both U.S. grand jury and audience prizes. Weinstein execs land in Park City to negotiate for a buy.
· January 25-27 — A series of meetings and conference calls between Push producer-financier Smokewood Entertainment Group, TWC, and Cinetic, a film financing advisory assigned with brokering the deal.
· TWC also explored two other options: one that would pair them with a private investor, another that would see them going halfsies with Lionsgate—a partnership that proved successful in the past with Fahrenheit 9/11.
· Lionsgate was interested, especially since their Chief Drag Officer and one-man money-making -machine Tyler Perry loved Push.
· January 27 — That morning, TWC and Cinetic reach a detailed agreement. A phone call with the Push financiers that day and one e-mail that evening later, TWC had made an official bid, accepting the filmmakers' terms and requesting paperwork from Cinetic. A Cinetic rep replied in an e-mail that he was "explaining every detail" to his client. The paperwork never came.
· January 28 — TWC tell Lionsgate the deal has closed. Lionsgate approached Cinetic and were assured Push was still theirs for the taking.
· February 2 — Lionsgate seals their own deal, with Perry and Oprah Winfrey's involvement secured.
· February 4 — TWC files complaints in New York Supreme Court against Cinetic, Lionsgate and Smokewood.
· Lionsgate fights back, filing a pre-emptive lawsuit asking a judge to declare Lionsgate the film's legal owner.

The crux of the case, then, lies in Cinetic's e-mails and the intention behind them. According to TWC's Scary Hollywood Lawyer Bert Fields, "The critical thing is that (TWC) sent an e-mail saying we've accepted your terms and we've reached an agreement, and when (Cinetic) writes back and says we're explaining the deal to the clients, that's an adoptive admission that a deal exists." A lawyer for Lionsgate retorts, "The material deal terms were not agreed to, and I think it's apparent on the face of their complaint. Some of those e-mails are deliberately authored in ways to suggest that there was a contract where indeed there wasn't."

• How 'Push' came to shove [THR]

1. He's Just Not That Into You — $27.465 million
There was every reason to believe Into You would connect with audiences: The zeitgeisty line of Sex and the City dialogue had already been spun off into a popular self-help book, talk show, weight loss plan, Israeli martial art, and library cataloging system. Surely the Hollywood movie—a star-studded ensemble comedy examining tribulations of dating in a technosavvy age full of crossed wires and mixed-messages—was destined to be just as successful. Now there's no stopping America's single women, newly empowered by the awareness of their own undesirability. You go, girl-not-worthy-of-being-that-into!

2. Taken — $20.3 million
A puny 18% drop from its first week suggests male audiences sought some quality mantertainment that didn't portray them as either bumbling idiots (Pink Panther, Blart), shallow, affection-withholding brutes (Into You), or unrealistically hunky renegades who could send shockwaves out of their palms (The Wrestler). That left the paternal vigilantism of Taken, a movie whose lack of Harrison Ford in the lead we still can't completely wrap our minds around.

3. Coraline — $16.335 million
This macabre and visually stunning Hansel and Gretle-ish tale appealed to adults as much as it did to the kiddie set, and deservedly so. If you're a fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas, or the art of Edward Gorey, or are even the least bit curious as to what a colony of Scottish Terrier bats might look like flying at you in 3-D, we highly recommend it.

4. The Pink Panther 2 — $12 million
5. Paul Blart: Mall Cop — $11 million
Unfortunately, the bad Pink Panther omen proved correct. Face it, Steve Martin: Clouseau should have been left under glass. If we want to see an incompetent, moustachioed crimefighter face plant into a fountain, we'll call Blart.

6. Push — $10.204 million
We've already seen some confusion regarding the two Pushes, with at least one box office chart listing Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire instead of this Push by mistake. Though the more we think about it, the former Push's incestuously knocked-up Precious could really have benefited from the ability to psychically explode all the blood vessels in her father and evil mother Mo'nique's bodies. The only power she came equipped with, however, was superhuman perseverance in the face of unimaginable adversity. You go, Precious! We're that into you!

• BOM: Feb 6-8

WHAT'S NEW: It looked for a moment like the aging He's Just Not That Into You had done in New Line's climate-controlled film cellar might have punched up its all-star romcom flavor. Yet as taste test results pour in, we're learning that might have been a little too premature an assumption. Not premature, however: The expectation that the Barrymore/ScarJo/Aniston/Affleck confection will win the weekend, wringing around $22.6 million of date-night loot and safely distancing itself from The Pink Panther 2's $16.8 million. Look for the stop-motion fantasy Coraline to present the weekend's big 3-D X-factor on 2,200 screens, pulling enough viewers from the top-two openers — as well as holdovers Taken and Paul Blart: Mall Cop — en route to a surprising, Focus-satisfying $11.2 million.

Also opening: Darth Weinstein's own shelf-dust Fanboys; the Lysistrata-ian, Soviet-era sex-for-water comedy Absurdistan; and the much-anticipated Thai martial-arts offering Chocolate, about a "special-needs girl with a special need to kick some ass." We can't make it up, we swear.

THE BIG LOSER: We suppose Summit Entertainment had to follow its blockbuster Twilight with something, but we had hoped it wouldn't be yet another grim, garish confirmation of the B-flick factory the studio actually is. Yet here comes Push, the psychic actioner pairing Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning as a telekinetic and a clairvoyant trolling Hong Kong for some experimental drug that, should it fall into the wrong hands (namely Djimon Hounsou's), would wreak some global havoc. Like, say, a sequel. We love noshing on some delicious junk now and then, but since we get the feeling that even Summit itself would hesitate to lick the frosting off this particular cupcake — and with Chocolate calling our names anyway — we'll pass. As will the rest of America; see you at $7 million and on Flopz™ by June.

THE UNDERDOG: Face it: This is a make-or-break year for you and your Oscar pool. Seventeen wins won't cut it anymore. Luckily, Magnolia Pictures is pulling for you, offering this year's Oscar-Nominated Short Films as a means of sharpening your competitive advantage in at least two categories. Add in the extra benefit of all of them being generally good (a few are outstanding, including Pixar's Presto, pictured), and really, there's no excuse to say "No." We'll offer our own handicapping guide later today, but clear a couple hours this weekend to judge for yourself.

FOR SHUT-INS: A sparse week of new DVD releases includes Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, a two-disc edition of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, the good Dakota Fanning alternative The Secret Life of Bees, "deluxe" reissues of the first three Friday the 13th films, and the indispenable-to-somebody Becker: Season Two.

We'll admit that when we clicked on the HuffPo headline "Dakota Fanning Dons Jumpsuit For Letterman (PHOTO)," we were expecting some wacky Stupid Human Tricks that might involve harnesses and velcro walls. However, we'd forgotten that it's Dakota Fanning 2.0 that we're dealing with now, and that the actress is vamping it up in hopes of landing a role in the Twilight sequel. Behold, then, Fanning rocking this navy jumper to tape a Late Show with David Letterman appearance that will air on Friday. Abigail Breslin, your move!

[Photo Credit: WENN]

• Dakota Fanning Dons Jumpsuit For Letterman (PHOTO) [HuffPo]

· Lest the 2008 Oscar nominations leave a sort of bitterly predictable taste in your mouth, look ahead to 2009, when Push co-star Mo'Nique — yes, that Mo'Nique — may find herself among the contenders for Best Actress. Not a terrible turn-out for a woman to whom the director's warning, "Mo'Nique, this could fuck up your career" only encouraged her to fight harder for her role as an abusive mother. Good luck, Mo'Nique; you'll need it opposite Carey Mulligan.

· Variety's Todd McCarthy gets even more specific about the Push vs. An Education counterpoints: "The two emblematic films of Sundance 2009 are about two 16-year-old girls who dedicate themselves to self-improvement in their own ways, one to speed her entry into the enticing adult world of art, romance and savoir faire, the other to simply survive and insure a future for herself and her son." And then something about Obama. Seriously, Todd, quit while you're ahead.

· McCarthy's colleague Anne Thompson deposits her own two cents into the Bank of Sundance Postmortems, nailing precisely what made 2009 such a lovely festival: Everyone stayed home.

· IFC Films made its second acquisition of the week, buying the terrific (and terrifically profane), mile-a-minute British comedy In the Loop.

· And finally, in the spirit of transition, we leave Sundance's last words to Loop co-star James Gandolfini, who yesterday pledged to do a Sopranos movie "if I was broke." But be encouraged, fans! Another few days in arm-and-a-leg expensive Park City might take care of that.

1. The Cast. Or lack thereof. But that's only half of it: If some anonymous dude and his tremendous Photoshop 2.0 spiral-blowing powers take precedence over the talent's faces, then they must remain hidden deep in the credits well with the rest of the schmucks. Really, though, if you've got Dakota Fanning in your movie, you must have her in the promo art. There's no excuse for anything less. Get creative! Anything will work — for example:

You're welcome!

2. Four producers, no more. We've mentioned this scourge many times before, most recently with Righteous Kill. But again: When you have enough credited producers to field a beer-league softball team, you should not be designing a movie poster in the first place — you should be designing a DVD cover.

3. The Web site is a MySpace page. Last we checked, distributor Summit Entertainment released the most sensational, highest-grossing film of the fall. Would it kill them to splurge on "push-themovie.com" or something similar. Oh wait — they did. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

4. Random pandering overdose. There's a sports car. Getting blown up. Next to an automatic rifle. Flying through the air. Like they're wont to do. Fifteen-year-old boys are pretty dumb, but they aren't that dumb.

5. You don't blast Djimon Hounsou into the air with your palm-waves. He was in Amistad, motherfuckers!

• 'Push' Teaser Poster [Worst Previews]