Boomp3.com

While the Labor Day holiday traditionally spells the end of summertime, Christina Ricci believes otherwise. Ricci, along with her Speed Racer co-star/boyfriend Kick Gurry, took full advantage of the empty beaches of Malibu on Tuesday afternoon. In between tanning sessions and delightful romps through the surf, Ricci said, "It's the perfect time for a beach trip. No kids. No teens. No tourists. I'd be so depressed if I had to spend my day trapped in an office with weather like this. It's amazing!."

[Photo Credit: INF Daily]

*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.

According to "Visions of Caliban: On Chimpanzees and People" by famed primatologist Jane Goodall and Dale Peterson, the original "Clyde" was trained with a can of mace and a pipe wrapped in newspaper. He was viciously beaten the day before filming started to make him more docile. Near the end of filming the sequel "Any Which Way You Can," the orangutan was caught stealing doughnuts on the set, brought back to the training facility and beaten for 20 minutes with a 3 1/2 -foot ax handle. He died soon after of a cerebral hemorrhage.

You'd think that 30 years would improve the lot of chimps. In some cases it has, as filmmakers like Peter Jackson are opting for animatronic apes or actors in ape suits. At least two high-profile trainers have been pressured out of the chimp business in the last few years by lawsuits or protesters. Yet some persist. This summer " Speed Racer" became one of the only films in recent history to earn an "unacceptable" rating from the American Humane Assn., the group that monitors the use of animals in films.

Now there are certainly moviegoers who will argue it was they who were mistreated by the Wachowski brothers' candy-colored box-office bomb, but at least consumers weren't physically manhandled. According to the AHA website, two chimps were used to portray the character of Chim-Chim (who performed such feats as driving a golf cart in the movie), and a trainer hit a chimp during a training session in front of a representative of the AHA. (Warner Bros declined to comment.)

Ironic, then, that virtually the only thing left unpixellated in the Wachowski Bros. bomb was the monkey whom activists actually wanted to go CG. Naturally, the reclusive directors had no comment, preferring instead to pass along a message from their publicist that appeared to be scrawled in feces, bearing only the mysterious phrase, "Ooh ooh ooh AHH AHH AHH!"

• PETA doc ask movies to end chimpanzee abuse [LAT]

And while we can't and/or wouldn't argue any of these points, a ceremonious Warners rimjob also seems untimely. After all, what did Meyer do with his Speed Racer faxes on opening weekend? That and a few more pressing questions after the jump.

1. What about Speed Racer? Warners' legacy is one of adventurous flops and sturdy gambles, not messianic cultural events like TDK. If the point is a "content" state-of-the-union, then it's worth noting that the studio also dropped the summer's biggest bomb. For which, by the way, we love them; Where the Wild Things Are isn't likely to fare much better, but it is nice to know it's there.

2. What about Warner Independent and Picturehouse? The slimmed-down New Line earns a cursory mention, but its return to genre-junk roots is one of Time Warner's signature (and slightly desperate) content revisions since the AOL merger. And the axed Picturehouse — which had a strong summer of Mongol and Kit Kittredge after winning three Oscars in February — was all about "content" that's hit and missed just as regularly as the mother ship.

3. What about Get Smart? Again, the sturdy gamble is the thing: A hit that's grossed $200 million worldwide, will land equally hard on DVD and VOD and has sequels on the way. Screw TDK, really — Bewkes needs more like this, and he needs them recognized.

4. Did you know that Charlie Sheen makes $800,000 per episode of Two and a Half Men? A bit of rehash of an earlier question here at Defamer, we know, but a phenomenon we've come to now grudgingly accept knowing that T&HM is the flagship of a $4 billion television empire. Not that we get it; feel free to continue discussing below.

5. Whither questions and actual answers about new media revenues? Just because Tim Arango is writing all about Warners' precious "content" doesn't mean Bewkes can get away without answering his own query, "[T]he consumption of entertainment products is growing rapidly... The question is how do you offer it, and how do you get paid for it?" And this guy wonders why TW stock still hovers around $16. Come on, Jeff.

• Holy Cash Cow, Batman! Content Is Back [NYT]

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — $151.1 million
Defamer's groundbreaking Indiana Jones PlunderWatch Projections Tracker™ was just about pinpoint precise once we factor in the the +/- $9.5 trillion margin of error, calculating the triumph of America's archaeological/Commie-killing sweetheart in real time over its five-day opening frame. Its four-day total was no less impressive, tallying $126 million from Friday to Monday, while the worldwide total of $311 million had George Lucas stroking his massive under-chin on his Marin County deck, conjuring inspiration for his and Steven Spielberg's forthcoming fifth installment, Indiana Jones and the Hard-to-Insure Septuagenarian Star.

2. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian — $28.6 million
Disney insiders cooly told us this morning they're not worried about the 58% drop from Caspian's opening weekend or the fact that the four-week old Iron Man almost surpassed it for second place overall. When asked about the shrieks and cries audible in the background, we were rebuffed: "What? Oh, that? It's nothing. Andrew Adamson stopped by, is all — he's telling us about the next Narnia movie. Anything else?"

3. Iron Man — $25.6 million
The comic hero bumped his cumulative take to $260 million since May 2, which means Marvel Studios' troubled companion film The Incredible Hulk can draw literally nobody to the theater and still be an official success. Congrats to David Maisel and the whole team!

4. What Happens in Vegas — $11.1 million
Fox's "shite date movie" counterprogramming trick worked like a charm once more against the action/fantasy epics encircling it, but look for the "late Sydney Pollack cameo" wave to lift Made of Honor to a resurgent weekend ahead.

5. Speed Racer — $5.2 million
If the box office was The Gong Show, a cackling Chuck Barris would have pointed this sorry act offstage two weeks ago. Alas.

[Photo Credit: Rotten Tomatoes]

2. Iron Man - $31.2 million
In a stunning testament to the power of doing enough drugs to kill a humpback whale, then stopping, then being really picky about material, the man in the iron suit becomes the first to jet-propulse across the $200 million mark in 2008.

3. What Happens in Vegas - $13.85 million
It's happened, right under your very noses: Ashton Kutcher is the Biggest Star in the Universe. Not even just this week. Always. You can react to this news in one of two ways: Accepting his rightful place as your Cougar-Chasing Lord and Reality-TV-Producing Savior, or being fated to tambourine and cowbell duty for an eternity of Fantasia performances. The choice is yours.

4. Speed Racer - $7.645 million
Some people might say Speed Racer's 59% decline is a bad sign, but we prefer to see the good in everything. So let's spin it this way: $7.645 million's worth of independently minded Americans could give a rat's ass what everyone else thinks, and wanted to see how badly this movie sucked for themselves! Either that, or the $200 bucks it cost for a sitter, tickets, snacks, and parking seemed a minor sum in exchange for getting their kids to shut up about seeing Speed Racer.

5. Baby Mama - $4.593 million
This is sort of off topic, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention it: How fantastic is that landmark California Supreme Court decision legalizing gay pregnancy?! It's about time! Happy ovulating, fellas!

• WEEKEND BOX OFFICE May 16-18, 2008 [boxofficemojo]

WHAT'S NEW: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is guaranteed to knock incumbent champ Iron Man from its box-office perch, with most observers predicting the second installment of the Disney franchise to muscle into first with as much as $79 million. And with merely five days before Indiana Jones 4 wheezes into multiplexes internationally, Disney is no doubt hoping that even that number is somehow on the low end. We don't think so; even without major counterprogramming, $74 million seems a little more reasonable what with holdovers Iron Man, What Happens in Vegas, Made of Honor and even Speed Racer still pulling in viewers who are just fine waiting for the DVD. Also opening: a light week overall, with the America Ferrera vehicle How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer and the acclaimed Norwegian drama Reprise playing small-ball in Caspian's shadow.

THE BIG LOSER: Iron Man may drop another 50% from weeks two to three, but with Speed Racer forecast to pull in less than $10 million in its own second week — potentially accumulating less than $30 million domestically in 10 days of release — the indignities just never end for the Wachowskis, Warners and everyone involved.

THE UNDERDOG: Back when Sangre de mi Sangre (Blood of my Blood) was known as Padre Nuestro, its Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival all but assured it the fest's long-suspected "best picture curse." But we knew at the time it was a remarkable debut feature for writer-director Christopher Zalla, whose identity-theft thriller about a pair of Mexican stowaways transplanted to New York was misread as everything from a globalization allegory to an overreaching effort at social realism. In fact, Sangre is all and none of these things, nothing more so than a riveting glimpse at two immigrants' reinventions: Villainous schemer Juan (Armando Hernández) and his "papa," cash-hoarding dishwasher Diego (Jesús Ochoa). The latter's tentative warming to his imposter son — while real son Pedro (Jorge Adrián Espíndola) scours Brooklyn for any clues to both men's whereabouts — is as dynamically acted and observed as any first film you'll see this year. And despite its precarious limited release, you should seek it out, and you should see it. Fuck the Sundance curse.

FOR SHUT-INS: Highlights among new DVD releases include Francis Ford Coppola's mind- (and patience-) bending comeback Youth Without Youth; Denzel Washington's late '07 Oscar bait The Great Debaters; the Diane Keaton/Katie Holmes/Queen Latifah trifecta Mad Money; the Criterion Collection's Louis Malle tandem The Lovers and The Fire Within; and — finally, thank God — Two and a Half Men: The Complete Third Season.

Does anyone want to go out on a limb for or against Prince Caspian's weekend reign? Did we miss anything on a sluggish week for new releases? Can you explain Youth Without Youth in 50 words or less? Don't be shy; the floor is yours.

"My deal has a year and a half to go. I won't renew it until the deal is up. And my Dark Castle deal has 16 movies released through Warner Bros which are independently funded, and which we have all the money for. And the first one is the Guy Ritchie movie, RocknRolla, which will be in October." ...

"Everyone is disturbed about this. I know there's a long list of Hollywood types right now kinda elated about that. But Warner Bros is my family, I've been there for 22 years, and we're fine. But I can't stop the slings and arrows of the world around me."

Schadenfreude aside, a year and a half is a long time, so please forgive us, Nikki, for playing this one by ear anyway. That said, we tend to think Silver's fairly untouchable even after a succession of bombs at a studio where it's open season on upper management. Nevertheless,anything's possible — especially with a Guy Ritchie movie standing between now and then. Be afraid.

• Not so Fast, 'Speed' [Page Six]

• Joel Silver And Warners Say He's Staying [DHD]

• WATCH VIDEO

Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that earlier today, star Emile Hirsch informed UTA, his agency of seven years, that he would no longer be using their services. They write: "[Hirsch] is planning to park himself with his manager Sam Maydew, I'm told. 'He claims he just doesn't want an agent.'" His agent Shani Rosenzweig, meanwhile, is described as "gobsmacked" by the news, a state of shock that falls somewhere between "flabbergasted," "blindsinded," and "OMFG" on the stunned-reaction spectrum. It will certainly be a sad moment this coming awards season when he and Rosenzweig aren't able to share in any accolades bestowed upon the young actor for his physically taxing performance as an overcaffeinated AV club geek in Gus Van Sant's Milk.

• More 'Speed Racer' Fallout: Emile Hirsch Exits United Talent; "Total Shocker" [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
• 'Speed Racer' comes in 3rd as 'Iron Man' maintains grip [AP]

1. Iron Man - $50.5 million
Iron Man's strong finish was confidently predicted by just about everyone, including your own mother, who called yesterday to thank you for her bouquet, but "would have preferred you send me that Roger Downey Jr. fellow—he can rocket-boost over here anytime! Oh, your father's getting jealous now. Pipe down, Seymour—you know you're the only Iron Man for me. By the way, I predict a healthy 49% drop with the audience skewing slightly more female due to strong word of mouth. Anyway, thanks again for the flowers! And don't forget to call your sister!"

2. Speed Racer - $20.210 million
How to tell the difference between an underperforming™ tentpole and a true bomb? When studio executives can't even drum up a quote brimming with the false, "Hey, let's see how it fares internationally—those foreigners love everything!" optimism we've come to expect from someone with a stinker to spin and a job on the line. That said, let's take Speed's temperature, via these observations from Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman: "It's just one of those moments in our business where the results don't seem to justify our hopes, and we'll move on." Bomb, Speed Racer, bomb!

3. What Happens in Vegas - $20 million
Certainly the fact that Racer could barely* outpace Vegas—a moderately budgeted Hollywood remake of a Japanese horror film about a man who wins big at Pachinko and is forced to marry Cameron Diaz—only heightened Warner Bros.' shame, leading to a tragic but seemingly inevitable mass seppuku ritual at their Burbank offices this morning, using the ceremonial, third-floor-kitchen bagel knife.

4. Made of Honor - $7.6 million
The 17th straight Patrick Dempsey romantic comedy to connect with his core audience of extremely lonely women, clinical psychotics, and people in dire need of a quiet place to nap and/or duck the law held strong in the fourth position, practically guaranteeing its sequels, 27 Tuxes and A Groom of One's Own.

5. Baby Mama - $5.766 million
Lamaze humor is frequently lost on us.

*And probably won't even.

• WEEKEND BOX OFFICE May 9-11, 2008 [Box Office Mojo]

Warners' popular company line has invoked Speed Racer's comparatively low $100 million budget as flop insurance, but that rationale factored in a decent run internationally as well. Alas, the rest of the world turned its back, too, chipping in less than $13 million of the global $33 million take. And it gets worse: The families at whom Warners was ostensibly aiming Speed Racer not only didn't come out, but with Disney offering The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian this Friday and Iron Man retaining momentum in its third week, they probably will never come out.

The studio will find black ink eventually on home video, but the collateral damage is ugly. Emile Hirsch? Can't open. Wachowskis? Tighten their leashes (and quit giving them a pass, media). The Dark Knight? More like the Great White Hope for Warner Bros., whose buzz-building efforts on its behalf make Speed Racer look like the Dennis Kucinich campaign. Hell, Picturehouse fared better with the Spanish-language Pan's Labyrinth on a fraction of the screens in 2006; maybe thinking small could do all right by Warners after all.

Speed Racer
· Just a drag 'Racer' [LAT]
· Great fun, if you like watching video games [Globe and Mail (sub. req'd.)]
· 'Speed Racer' stalls at the starting line [Detroit Free Press]
· 'Speed Racer' spins by screen at nauseating, wearing pace [Salt Lake Tribune]
· 'Speed Racer': Take a Detour [WashPo]
· 'Speed Racer' limps around the track [USA Today]
· A nonsensical computer-generated racing thriller freaks out our correspondent with its cartoon plastic tackiness [London Times Online]

What Happens in Vegas
·Insults, but no jackpot in 'Vegas' [EW]
·'What Happens in Vegas' is nothing to write home about [Kalamazoo Gazette]
· Not buying this Vegas line, or even the odd couple of losers [Union Tribune]
·There is no escape in 'Vegas' and not much comedy, either [signonsandiego.com]
·Wedded miss in new Kutcher, Diaz comedy [suntimes.com]
·Shoulda Stayed in Vegas [Winnipeg Sun]
·What happens? You don't want to know [CanWest]
·'What Happens in Vegas' feels like a losing streak [USA Today]

WHAT'S NEW: Whereas last week the only question we faced was the degree of the Iron Man beating awaiting Patrick Dempsey and Made of Honor, today we're starting a pool to see how close (or how far) Marvel's $100 million hero will keep Speed Racer before pulling away in the Sunday home stretch. Most observers expect Iron Man's take to drop as much as 50% this weekend, but like last Friday, we think lingering word-of-mouth and irresistible talent will keep the film well in excess of expectations — as in $65 million to Speed Racer's $40 million. We'll get to the Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz vehicle What Happens in Vegas in a second, but more painlessly for now, here are some of the other new titles bottlenecking theaters: Music video maven Tarsem's sumptuous (and apparently boring) labor of love The Fall; the John Leguizamo / teenagers-fucking satire The Babysitters; the espionage spoof OSS 117: Nest of Spies; and the canny Paskowitz family documentary Surfwise.

THE BIG LOSER: We've heard it said that What Happens in Vegas is Fox's idea of counterprogramming to Speed Racer, but what do you really call it when the weekend's biggest new release itself amounts to second fiddle overall? History will decide, but we think $20 million estimates are far too generous for the Kutcher/Diaz miscarriage. Try closer to $16 million and, as the gift that keeps on giving, a pan for the ages from Manohla Dargis: "[B]ecause its director, Tom Vaughan, brings nothing of interest to the movie, including filmmaking, there isn't anything to say other than to note its insulting ugliness and ineptitude. ... It's disheartening that Ms. Diaz doesn't seem to realize that there's no upside to a role that strips away her dignity even as it peels off her clothes, especially when she's playing the shrew." Now that's love we can all take to the bank.

THE UNDERDOG: A terrific Famke Janssen skips the glam in Turn the River, the writing-directing debut of actor Chris Eigeman (Metropolitan, Kicking And Screaming). As a single-mother gambler and pool shark planning to steal her young son away to Canada — but only after hustling her way to $50,000 — Janssen digs into River with both leading-lady aplomb and a wounded integrity most of her male contemporaries usually try to approximate through overwrought brooding. Co-star Rip Torn is good for a few ironic flourishes that redeem the late melodrama, all of which are outdone by Janssen's real pool-shooting exploits. We wouldn't bet against her — at least not this weekend.

FOR SHUT-INS: You can have your I'm Not There DVD's, your P.S. I Love Yous, your vagina dentata comedy Teeth, your fourth season of The 4400 and all that other bullshit. But there is really only one new title worth welcoming into the guilty sanctuary of your own home: The Hottie and the Nottie. Miraculously neither watchable nor as bad as it's made out to be, judge for yourself the blight of Paris Hilton vanity on this week's release calendar.

So are you down for or down on Speed Racer? Will What Happens In Vegas stay, ahem, in Vegas? Will newfound billiards talent Famke Janssen kick your ass for an easy 50 grand? Go all in and let us know where your money's riding this weekend.

Sarandon admits she took plenty of drugs during her time in 1970s Hollywood, and isn't afraid to share her experiences with the teenagers. "When they were pretty young, Miles said, 'Did you do crack?' and I had to explain, 'No, they didn't have crack in those days."

So "what type of girl" was the bright-eyed new It Girl back in the day? Unsurprisingly, just the type of girl most 70s actresses should have been: a reefer-loving hippie chick, or as Susan puts it herself, "a hallucinogenics and weed type of girl." And really, this news just warms our heart and erases any fear we may have of aging whatsoever. Knowing that one of our idols spent years hallucinating and stoned managed to look as fine as she does now, thirty years later? The next time (you know, in our dreams) we find ourselves sitting around a bong with Judd Apatow and his trendy stoner crew, ideally next to Paul Rudd, pass that joint our way, boys.

• SUSAN SARANDON TALKS DRUGS TO HER KIDS [Hollywood.tv]

It might be self-serving of us to suggest they publicize their films, and in a way, we empathize with their reclusion; Larry Wachowski has been the subject of sex-change and dominatrix-dating speculation since a feminized version of himself — earrings, plucked eyebrows, manicure — showed up on the Matrix Revolutions red carpet in Cannes five years ago with mistress Ilsa Strix (née Karen Winslow) on his arm. The siblings later sneaked into the New York premiere of V For Vendetta (which they wrote and co-produced), and last week in Los Angeles they went positively presidential with subterfuge at the debut of Speed Racer. "They did not do the red-carpet press line at the Nokia Theatre on Saturday, and were well-camouflaged during the after-party," wrote Borys Kit in The Hollywood Reporter. "Photographers were sworn to secrecy as to their whereabouts, and Warner Bros. assigned handlers the mission of keeping journalists off the scent."

Like it matters; the Wachowskis haven't granted an interview in the decade since The Matrix, deferring to mega-producer and de facto representative Joel Silver and their casts to flog their work publicly. Their crews sign non-disclosure agreements. The duo's contracts entitle them to a luxury rarer than final cut — an opt-out provision shielding them from the promotion of their films. It's Stanley Kubrick/Terrence Malick/Eric Rohmer stuff, but with one crucial exception: Their films aren't that good.

Or at least they haven't been in nearly 10 years; Speed Racer is no different. But what is good about it are the things to which only they can speak — the practice of reinventing the source cartoon, the relationship of vision to execution, the extraordinary scene transitions eschewing cuts for something closer to a scrolling-head montage (like "bullet-time," you just have to see it), or, on the most basic of levels, directing a standout cast (and even a goddamned monkey) against one green-screen backdrop after another. Unlike Iron Man or Warners' even more anticipated summer offering The Dark Knight, the brands work in concert with personalities to acquire traction. Emile Hirsch's abstract praises are not enough.

Warner Bros. faced the similar scenario with Kubrick for nearly three decades, covering the director's final five films from A Clockwork Orange through Eyes Wide Shut. Obviously, his death in March 1999 put a pretty irrevocable kibosh on promoting the latter film, but he did speak out from time to time about the intervening work; his daughter Vivian's behind-the-scenes documentary about The Shining was a broadcast TV event in 1980, and he did a few select interviews in 1987 on behalf of Full Metal Jacket. Moreover, he was always involved with people — actors, writers, other filmmakers — and his 15 years of work prior to his British exile in the late '60s had installed him permanently among the world cinema vanguard.

Not so for the Wachowskis, a couple of ex-carpenters from Chicago whose one-two dynamos Bound and The Matrix boosted expectations from 1996 to 1999. Their work since has lapsed into the type of indulgence that further evokes itself in those clauses guaranteeing their immunity to press, and by extension, their audience. That audience has had nothing to latch onto for too long now; no taut narratives, no singular parallel universes and certainly no visual benchmarks that can and/or should speak for themselves. Their self-containment borders on alienating, their aloofness sharing breath with its conjoined twin, arrogance.

As the most public recluses working today (and at the highest budgets), their godfather Silver can only buy the Wachowskis their privacy for so long — especially as another of their putatively visionary summer efforts meets diminishing returns in a culture craving voices with faces and faces with names. If the Viral Era has taught us anything, it's that every mystery needs a payoff, and you have to earn your mystique if you expect to exploit it.

[Photo Credits: Wireimage, Getty]

At 61, Susan's complete lack of wrinkles or droopage on her face normally leads to speculation on whether or not she, like so many of her peers, has gone under the knife once or twice. But as she explained to reporters at last month's Speed Racer premiere, "I never say never...It's when people start looking like somebody else, their lips start to get weird, or they are younger looking at 65 than they were at 30 and they have that burn victim terrified look, that's just bad taste." Not to mention the fact that Sarandon has another secret to maintaining her youthful appearance the natural way: "I have a young husband." Oh, Susan. We officially crown you Queen of the Cougars.

[Photo credits: Getty, Daily Mail]

• 'WHY IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO GO UNDER THE TATTOOIST'S NEEDLE' SAYS ACTRESS SUSAN SARANDON, 61 [Daily Mail]

At present, Speed Racer appears on track to gross $25 million-$35 million during the coming frame, though a late-breaking surge in must-see sentiment could produce a bigger bow. The film targets family moviegoers, a group notoriously tough to track before openings.

Boxoffice derbies aside, Warners execs suggest there's no need for Speed Racer to open huge.

Most of its splashy effects were done with relatively affordable green-screen technology. So the $100 million production will pencil into profitability roughly when its domestic gross hits a similar nine-digit sum, and even a $25 million bow could put it on track to deliver that.

When even the studio hedges, it know what it has — a hyperactive, overlong, purely confectionery treat that disorients as much as it disarms and won't pull near the word-of-mouth that the incumbent possesses. And we even kinda liked it. Warners faces a troubling marketing paradox as well: The viral approach that has so successfully (if slovenly) embedded The Dark Knight among multiplexers is powerless in the service of the kid-friendlier Speed Racer, which relies on conventional methods to boost awareness among youngsters and the parents who'll haul them to the theater. Do most of these kids even know what Speed Racer is? And are the folks ready for the acid trip live-action version of the cartoon they may have seen once? Or do they already have tickets for another viewing of Iron Man?

• 'Speed Racer' tracking unimpressively [THR]

What's replacing them isn't that surprising either, but the mind reels nevertheless when we see it in print:

[T]here's a sense now — evident in multiple boxoffice metrics and comments uttered privately by the dozens of agents, managers and producers interviewed for this report — that the interplay among consumers, celebrities and entertainment dollars is changing. The new dynamics are a challenge the next generation of up-and-comers — Shia LaBeouf, Seth Rogen, Emile Hirsch and Katherine Heigl often are cited — could face.

"As audiences get younger, they don't care about movie stars in the same way," Sony Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper says. "The idea of seeing a beautiful movie star on the big screen just isn't the same to them."

Yikes! Katherine Heigl will pretend she didn't hear Culpepper — the man responsible for the recent no-name hit revival of Prom Night, incidentally — just say that. Meanwhile, we're looking at Speed Racer's sluggish tracking and wondering if fledgling leading man Emile Hirsch isn't facing that challenge as we speak. On the bright side, his generation already has Orlando Bloom, so he doesn't have to worry about plunging into that niche. Sky's the limit, kid.

• Hollywood's top stars face devaluing of A-list currency [THR]

Among the many questions in the poll, the most revealing one asked the 420,000 respondents which May release they were "most excited" about. And surprisingly, the gals of SATC: The Movie won the majority with 32%. Sadly for Iron Man, especially considering today is the day when Robert Downey Jr. will begin charming audiences with his Third World-loving superhero, Indy 4 came in second with 31%. Sadder still, Iron Man only won over 7% of pollsters in this category. But Speed Racer actually fared worst in the poll, with only 2% saying they were most excited for the Wachowski brothers' car racing flick.

The Moviefone poll's other most revealing question asked which male and female stars they "most wanted to see" throughout the entire summer blockbuster season. Mirroring the first question's results, Sarah Jessica Parker and Harrison Ford took top honors, and once again Iron Man fell short. Following Ford was the late Heath Ledger, whose role in The Dark Knight "would likely draw curiosity seekers" to the chillingly fantastic-looking flick, according to Moviefone's Editor in Chief, Scott Robson. (Insert any variation of "Duh" here, since we'd rather not.) But there is one (yes, one!) silver lining for RDJr. this thrilling morning: 22% of pollsters said he is the "superhero they're most psyched to see." So...there's that!

• MOVIEGOERS HAVE 'SEX' ON THE BRAIN: POLL [Moviefone]