Sam Moore filed suit today in Nashville, accusing the Weinsteins of raping and pillaging from his career performing with partner Dave Prater. The pair was adversarial to say the least, informing Samuel Jackson and Bernie Mac's own depraved duo on tour throughout America. Moore, however, says it wasn't quite that raw on the road, and either way, someone's needs to pay for his and Prater's implosive career models:

The lawsuit states that the movie "constitutes serious insult to Sam Moore's reputation, his talent, his legacy and his long-held personal views and beliefs" due to its "tawdry content."

It accuses the filmmakers of invasion of privacy, unfair competition and trademark dilution (although the complaint does not cite any evidence that Moore ever registered the "Soul Man" trademark). Moore seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and asks the court to order the "recall and destruction of all infringing versions of the movie."

The Weinsteins — who already have A-list litigators David Boies and Bert Fields chewing on Lionsgate in their battle for Push — assigned their junior henchmen to this one. They dismiss Moore pretty much out of hand, and, as the report goes on to note, Moore's likely take-home from a mere $12 million grosser isn't enough to warrant a sweat on either side. But if he's anything like us, the "recall and destruction" clause sounds plenty appealing, leaving merely the opening and closing credits and Isaac Hayes's scenes. Harvey's scissor-hand needs exercise anyway. Justice delayed is justice denied.

• 'Soul Man' sues filmmakers for depicting him [Nashville Post]

After I got over the emotional experience of seeing America embrace an African American as its president, I found myself wondering: Did this election really represent a huge cultural triumph as well as a political mandate? That was a big reason why I spent Friday night with "Soul Men" producer David Friendly, watching him do what producers often do on their film's opening night, traveling around to local theaters to see whether their movie has any juice at the box office.

"Soul Men" isn't just any movie. It's a comedy starring two prominent African Americans, Sam Jackson and the late Bernie Mac, playing '70s-era backup singers who reluctantly reunite three decades later to play at a memorial concert for their old frontman. So it was an intriguing cultural test case: Would white audiences come out to watch an R-rated comedy with two black actors engaging in uproarious, but often barbed and profane insult humor? The box-office results provided a simple answer: No.

And here we were thinking that audiences just didn't want to see this movie! In fact, later in the piece, Goldstein admits that theaters at the Magic Johnson complex were only half-full for Soul Men's first 10:15 screening, suggesting that even black audiences weren't moved to see a film where the only surviving member of the main cast has a terrible, terrible goatee-type thing. Patrick, dump the politics-cum-pop analysis (we're still trying to shake off "Secret Life of Bees Buries the 'Bradley Effect'") and stick to what you do best: going out to lunch with producers you know, and occasionally basing an entire film's box office outlook on what a Brentwood nine-year-old had to say about it.

• 'Soul Men' delivers mixed verdict on Obama victory [LAT via Brendan Nyhan]

WHAT'S NEW: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa revives the DreamWorks zoo-animal-on-the-loose franchise this weekend in the hopes of pulling down as much as $60 million — which it might manage, considering High School Musical 3's slowed box-office pace in its third week. Universal deftly counterprogrammed David Wain's R-rated comedy Role Models, featuring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott as would-be mentors to McLovin and a black kid whose best jokes you've probably already seen in the commercials. That shouldn't stop it from pulling down around $12.6 million while the screeching Madagascar throngs tear down the multiplex around it.

Also opening:Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains, the reenactment-heavy doc about cannibal survivors of a 1972 plane crash in the Andes; the Holocaust drama The Boy in the Striped Pajamas; and the goth horror-musical Repo! The Genetic Opera.

THE BIG LOSER: Maybe "loser" is too harsh an estimation of Soul Men's fate, but let's face it: If it weren't the final entry in both Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes's filmographies, it wouldn't likely fare in the top five on any weekend outside the dumping grounds of January or August. But as cynical, posthumous curios go, it'll draw, coaxing up to $9.5 million and possibly cracking the top three. Whatever sells, we suppose.

THE UNDERDOG: The documentary Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father defies conventional review, if only to preserve the mystery that makes it one of the year's most gripping and extraordinary films. The less you know about it, the better, but: Director Kurt Kuenne originally set out to chronicle the legacy of his childhood friend Andrew Bagby, who was murdered in 2001 by his ex-girlfriend Shirley Turner. When Turner fled to her native Newfoundland, pregnant with Bagby's child, Kuenne's personal film suddenly inherited a true-crime narrative laced with extradition battles, custody haggles and, ultimately, unbelievable tragedy. That it must be believed (and reckoned with, if you can) makes Dear Zachary an infuriating, devastating, graceful and utterly essential theatrical experience. Bring Kleenex.

FOR SHUT-INS: If you've managed to plow through last week's box-set bounty, reward yourself with last summer's Get Smart updating, Waterworld: The Extended Edition (!!!) or another complete-series windfall: The Wild Wild West, The Outer Limits, I Dream of Jeannie and/or Batman: The Complete Animated Series.

So after you check out Dear Zachary, what's next? Is anyone actually contemplating going, ahem, 2 Africa? Are you paying final, $10 respects to Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes? Or are you the one American in the market for an extended edition of Waterworld? Go ahead, be honest — we're all friends here.

You may be interested to hear Jackson hold court on Sarah Palin rallies, how Obama is hamstrung by what society wants to see in a black man, and his greatest fear involving the candidate, but our favorite moment was Jackson's brief, jowly McCain impression. Hey Sam, we hear SNL is hiring — sure, there's that whole racial barrier thing, but that hasn't stopped Fred Armisen from playing Obama, has it?

• SAMUEL L. JACKSON TALKS OBAMA [Hollywood Outbreak]