The hospital which gave an overdose of kin thinner to three children, including the twins of actor Dennis Quaid, has been fined $25,000 (£12,600).
The Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles - along with ten other hospitals - has been punished for violations which caused or were "likely to cause, serious injury or death to patients," according to the Associated Press news agency.
Inner Space star Quaid’s twins, 12-day-old Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were being treated intravenously at Cedars-Sinai in November when their IV catheters were mistakenly flushed with a 10,000-unit solution of anticlotting drug Heparin, rather than the recommended ten-unit dose.
The newborns were reportedly admitted to intensive care after starting to "bleed out" as their blood’s ability to clot was undermined.
The twins were born via a surrogate mother on November 8th in Santa Monica, but the 53-year-old and his wife of three and a moiety years, Kimberly Buffington, have been raising the children.
The actor and his wife have after launched a lawsuit against Baxter Healthcare Corp, the manufacturers of Heparin, claiming the company is negligent for packaging different doses of the product in similar blue vials.
Speaking on the US show 60 minutes last Sunday, Quaid said that at the time of the undesigned overdose, "our kids are bleeding from everyplace that they’ve punctured".
"They were moving on Boone, whose protuberance button would not stop bleeding – blood squirted across the room. It was blood everywhere. It was a life-and-death place," he explained.
Quaid also has a 15-year-old son, Jack Henry, with ex-wife Meg Ryan.
Quaid can currently be seen on UK screens in assassination thriller Vantage Point.
Archive for March, 2008
By Jim Cheng, USA TODAY Paul Scofield may have turned down a knighthood, but his place among British acting royalty is nonetheless assured.
The legendary stage actor, who won an Academy Award for A Man for All Seasons, made only a handful of films, but he made them count.
Scofield died Wednesday at time of life 86 in a hospital in southern England. He had been suffering from leukemia.
On stage, Scofield brought his physical gifts — a craggy face and a powerful, rumbling voice — to roles from Shakespeare and Shaw to Steinbeck and Chekhov.
Richard Burton, once regarded as the theatrical heir to Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, said it was Scofield who deserved that place. “Of the 10 greatest moments in the theater, eight are Scofield’s.”
Even A Man as being All Seasons, perhaps his greatest film role, was an adaptation of a play that won him a Tony Award in 1962. He reprised his role as Sir Thomas More, who was executed after clashing through King Henry VIII, in the 1966 film.
“With a kind of weary magnificence, Scofield sinks himself into the part, studiously underplays it, and somehow displays the inner mind of a man destined for sainthood,” Time magazine said.
In 1979, he received acclaim for another great historical stage role, as composer Antonio Salieri in Amadeus.
For all the fame, Scofield remained a family man who lived most of his life a few miles from his birthplace.
“It is hard not to be Polyanna-ish about Paul because he is like a manifestly good man, so rational and decent, and curiously void of ego,” said director Richard Eyre, former artistic director of Britain’s National Theatre. “All the pride he has is channeled through the thing that he does brilliantly.”
Scofield reportedly had been offered a knighthood, but declined.
“It is just not an aspect of life that I would require,” he once said. “If you want a title, what’s wrong with Mr.?”
Still, in 2001 he was named a Companion of Honor, one of England’s top accolades, limited to 65 living people.
Scofield received his second Oscar nomination for Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (1994). His other films included Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (1973), Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V (1989) and The Crucible (1996).
He told The Sunday Times in 1992, “Yes, I’ve turned down quite a lot of parts. At my age you exigency to weed things out, but the idea that I can’t be obliged being bothered anymore with acting — that’s quite preposterous. Acting is all I can do. An actor: That’s what I am.”
To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. Enlarge AP file photo
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By Mike Clark, USA TODAY Sandwiched between modest projects that became only cult items at best, Anthony Minghella crafted three of the most ambitious and keenly bankrolled movies of the past dozen years. As a product, he had a surprising career, as surprising as his death at age 54 Tuesday.
Minghella’s publicist, Jonathan Rutter, said the filmmaker died at London’s Charing Cross Hospital of a hemorrhage following surgery. Minghella was operated on last week for a growth in his neck, “and the operation seemed to have gone well. At 5 a.m. today he had a fatal hemorrhage,” Rutter said.
The British writer/director found success when 1996’s The English Patient won nine Oscars. He followed with The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain.
All were movies of a dying breed: big, grown-up subjects, dreamy budgets, easy-on-the-eye extension values, long running times and the kind of performances that spark “for your consideration” trade ads. Juliette Binoche and Renee Zellweger won Oscars under Minghella’s direction with additional nominations going to Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jude Law (twice).
He also was a theatrical and TV counsellor who staged Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the English National Opera in London.
Minghella first attracted international attention with his first big-screen effort, a 1990 telepic that springboarded into theaters. The phantom-like romance Truly Madly Deeply, with Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson, picked up a small loyal following that eluded his next effort, which he did not write. Mr. Wonderful (1993) did not have a premise to portend Patient or even Minghella’s future tenure as director of the British Film Institute.
In 2007, Minghella came out with the indifferently admitted Breaking and Entering, which reunited him with Law and Binoche while adding Robin Wright Penn.
He recently completed the TV movie The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency for BBC and was set for an anthology film with a self-revealing title: New York, I Love You.
Ultimately, Minghella will be remembered because his Big Three, all available on DVD.
•The English Patient (1996, Miramax, $20). By taking on Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize winner, Minghella and producer Saul Zaentz defied the odds by turning what some called some unfilmable novel into an aerobic workout for the tear ducts. Dual settings span the Sahara Desert and a Tuscan monastery, the latter a wartime vantage headland from which a horribly disfigured ex-geographer (Ralph Fiennes) recalls his passionate, sand-swept 1938 romance with a married aristocrat (Kristin Scott Thomas). As his attending nurse, Juliette Binoche took a supporting Oscar, human being of nine the film won, including best picture and director.
•The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, Paramount, $10). Beautiful Italian coastal settings, a beautiful ’50s jazz-club decade in all its Bird/Dizzy/Chet Baker splendor and, yes, beautiful people until suicide, murder, forgery and concealment enter into that which never ceases to subsist one of ’90s’ cinema’s most physically pretty pictures. Previously filmed as France’s 1960 Alain Delon classic Purple Noon, Patricia Highsmith’s novel got a slightly different screen take as Minghella emphasized different aspects of a conniver’s story and added a role for Cate Blanchett. Matt Damon is the central poor-boy opportunist who only gradually becomes transparent to his victims. Co-stars: Oscar-nominated Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is stealing scenes even then.
•Cold Mountain (2003, Miramax, $15). In the episodic epic of novelist Charles Frazier’s acclaimed best seller, Minghella cut between two stories of equal weight to become one of the few Civil War movies giving full weight to the home front and the soldier’s plight. Oscar-nominated Law is the plot-central wounded, battle-weary Confederate who escapes from a hospital and begins a long trek home to his North Carolina belle (Nicole Kidman). Oscar winner Zellweger, going rustic, headed a burdensome supporting cast (Brendan Gleeson, Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman). And Dante Ferretti’s production design is almost beyond top-of-the-line.
To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, incorporated town and state for verification. 
Enlarge By Reed Saxon, 1997 AP file photo
By Erin Carlson, Associated Press NEW YORK — Mark Burnett is returning as executive husbandman of the MTV Movie Awards.
Burnett testament helm the anything-can-happen show for the second year in a row, MTV announced Tuesday. The 17th annual ceremony will air live June 1 from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal incorporated town, Calif.
“It’s already shaping up to be the most movie-star attended (show) yet,” the reality TV mastermind told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
Burnett, producer of Survivor and The Apprentice, steered the MTV show as it went live for the first time last year. Among the highlights: Host Sarah Silverman made a crude joke at Paris Hilton’s expense, and Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell shared a lingering smooch as they accepted “best kiss” honors for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
Burnett promises more surprises this year. He said a live telecast keeps the show short — and the celebrities happy.
“The stars don’t have a great time sitting there through extremely long commercial (breaks) while everyone’s trying to figure out what to do next,” he said. “When it’s live, it just goes. All those stars left last year, saying, ‘Oh my god, that was great.’”
Nominees will be announced at a later date.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For divulgation consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. 
Enlarge By Phil McCarten, AP toothed photo
By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY Mexican actress Kate del Castillo didn’t get recognized much by the tony denizens of Beverly Hills during her visit to promote her film Under the Same Moon, but she made the maids, doormen and other blue-collar workers breathless with excitement everywhere she went.
Del Castillo has an strict following, but only among those who tend Spanish-language TV and movies.
REVIEW: ‘Under the Same Moon’ tells a powerful tale
“It is something I really appreciate from people,” Del Castillo says. “I’ve heard their stories thousands of times. Every time I approve somewhere, anywhere … lunch, they’re all Latins. The service people, the valet parking, all these people who work really hard … they all know me! I’m delighted to hear their stories.”
She is now the one telling the story, and she’s hoping it resonates with a broader audience.
“It’s a very good feeling knowing America is opening its arms to embrace this kind of movie,” she says.
Under the Same Moon, opening today in excellent cities, is a heartwarmer comedy-drama touching a Mexican boy (Adrian Alonso) who sets off alone to cross the border into the USA after his grandmother dies. He wants to find his mother (Del Castillo), an undocumented immigrant who works as a maid and needle-woman to support the tribe she longs to return to. Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera has a small role as an inept American smuggler.
Though Under the Same Moon is mainly in Spanish, distributors Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Co. hope it will be changed to one of the rare foreign-language films that also strikes a nerve with the broader English-language audiences, as did Italy’s Cinema Paradiso, China’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or France’s Amelie.
Hispanics are the USA’s fastest-rising demographic of ticket buyers, a study by the Motion Picture Association of America shows. On average they saw 11 movies last year, up from eight in 2006. The typical moviegoer saw eight last year.
Much is made in the political debate over the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the USA, but the total Hispanic population, including American citizens, is close to 42 million. That number is projected by the Pew Research Center to triple by 2050.
So studios are eager to seek reference of the case to this congregation.
“These smaller films like Under the Same Moon are tapping into a market that has been really untapped at this point, and I think it’s adroit to explode,” says Jeff Bock, analyst for Exhibitor Relations Co.
But he notes that though the MPAA get by heart cited Hispanics as frequent moviegoers, that doesn’t mean every Spanish-language film will be a hit. “They’re going to see the arrogant films that everybody is going to see,” he says.
Kellvin Chavez, chief executive officer of movie location LatinoReview.com, says Hispanic moviegoers want escapism, not realism, and immigration tales don’t appeal to people who are second- or third-generation Americans.
“Maybe immigrants can relate to it, but me personally, I can’t. I was born and raised in New York City. I’m not Mexican. I’m Ecuadorian, but I don’t go to Ecuador,” Chavez says. “It might relate to my dad.”
But Under the Same Moon was picked up at the 2007 Sundance Festival precisely because it has potential diffused appeal, says Nancy Utley of Fox Searchlight.
The film is not just a saga of struggling workers, she notes, but also a drama about a family reuniting and, at times, a buddy comedy between the boy and a fellow illegal immigrant (Eugenio Derbez).
“We’re trying to make this successful with both the Hispanic audience and the art-house audience,” she says. “What I’m hoping is the Hispanic audience turns out in a big way. … I’m also hopeful we get upright reviews, and some audience that may not think they want to see a Spanish-language film will take note.”
Under the Same Moon opens on about 200 screens. It’ll be seen in Los Angeles, New York and Florida and Texas, where there are large Spanish-speaking populations.
When the immigration drama Crossing Over opens Aug. 22, The Weinstein Co. is considering a similar strategy: heavy advertising in Spanish-language newspapers and TV broadcasts. Brazilian actress Alice Braga (I Am Legend) power of determination become as important a selling point as co-star Harrison Ford, who plays an Immigrations and Customs agent.
With the “Three Amigo” Mexican directors — Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel) — “at the forefront of cinema,” according to Exhibitor Relation’s Bock, audiences can rely upon the Hispanic influence on movies to continue.
“Studios watch these trends very closely,” he says. “If they can build on an audience, that’s what it’s all about. Building, building, building.”
To bruit corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include connection, phone affix a number to, city and state for verification. 
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By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY Though it appears to be about the travails of illegal immigrants, Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) (* * * out of four) is a powerful and evocative account of the efforts undertaken to forge a perilous mother-and-child reunion. Told in Spanish with English subtitles, it is a moving tale of yearning, as well as unflagging courage and determination.
Rosario (Kate Del Castillo), a young single mother, has left her home in rural Mexico and settled in Los Angeles, where she works because a domestic to earn enough money to improve the lives of her young son and elderly mother, back in their hometown. She is gone for four years, and her son, Carlitos (Adrian Alonso), now 9, misses her terribly.
MORE: Studios zooming in on Latino moviegoers
When his grandmother dies, he undertakes a dangerous border-crossing journey, traveling to the USA hoping to determine judicially his mother. He has a order of adventures along the way, some harrowing, others eye-opening, a few even comical. We become deeply invested in Carlitos’ odyssey, feeling for this spirited and optimistic little boy who needs his mother more than anything other.
This is not a retread of Gregory Nava’s seminal 19 84 film on immigration, El Norte, in which two Guatemalan siblings boldness huge odds crossing the border and finding employment in the USA. Moon covers similar turf, but it does so from a markedly different perspective.
Under the Same Moon approaches this polemical and fraught issue from a compelling emotional angle, one that hasn’t been covered in recent films. It raises a specific and probing question: Is Carlitos better off living in poverty, with his affectionate mother at home to care for him, or separated from her but in greater comfort with more possibilities in favor of a better future?
The dilemma is brought into vivid focus in an emotionally affecting scene in which a poorer schoolmate covets Carlitos’ spiffy new tennis shoes, sent by his mother.
This straightforward story of a boy and his mother wisely avoids oversimplification of a complex social question. It is poignant, even unabashedly sentimental, without being overwrought or sugary sweet.
And the acting is honest and understated, particularly the attractive portrayal by young Alonso, since convenient as strong performances by del Castillo and comedian Eugenio Derbez, both big stars in Latin America.
Under the Same Moon is a heartfelt story of unquenchable hope, by the plight of illegal immigrants serving as an intriguing and timely backdrop. (Rated PG-13 in the same proportion that antidote to mature thematic elements. Running hour of travail: 1 hour, 49 minutes. Opens today in select cities.)
To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone figure, city and state for verification. 
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Cineworld said summer blockbusters including the latest Harry Potter film and The Simpsons Movie helped boost pre-tax profits to £12.4 the great body of the people from last year’s £7.7 million loss.
The multiplex-chain said its initial public offering in May last year was a success and raised £120 million for the group.
cluster revenue rose 2.4 per cent to £285.3 million, while net debit was reduced to £124.4 million compared to £314.2 million in 2006.
Stephen Wiener, chief executive of Cineworld, said: "The new year for Cineworld has started well and attendances have been strong.
"This has been driven by the success of a number of blockbusters and is testament to the resilient nature of our business model and the enduring appeal of film. Overall, we anticipate an increase in revenue for 2008 as a whole."
Admissions up 4.9 per cent over the year to 45 the masses, earning the company £185.7 million in ticket sales, despite a slowing economy.
Cineworld said 2007 was a good year for film, at least in terms of ticket sales: the fifth Harry Potter instalment, the third Pirates of the Caribbean film, Shrek The Third and The Simpsons Movie, all contributed significantly to admissions, according to the company.
Of its foreign language films, Germany’s The Lives of Others, French films Tell No One and La Vie En Rose and The Curse of the Golden Flower from Hong Kong all contributed strongly to box office sales.
Cineworld also improved its aliment and drink sales, with retail spend per person by 3.1 per cent from £1.62 last year to £1.67.
The group has signed new contracts with Carlsberg for the supply of all alcohol at its cinemas and plans to roll-out branded coffee across its estate.
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Action thriller 10,000 BC has rumbled to the cover on the top of the UK box office charts after its opening weekend on release.
The prehistoric epic, from Independence Day director Roland Emmerich, took £1.9 million in its first three days on UK screens to grab the number one spot in UK and Ireland.
Steven Strait stars as tribal hunter D’Leh in the box office hit, forced into action when the beautiful Evolet (Camille Bell) is captured by a band of warlords.
D’Leh and his remote mountain tribe embark on an epic quest to win her back, encountering along the way sabretooth tigers, woolly mammoths and a lost civilization.
Last week’s digit one movie Vantage Point dropped to second spot while many releases retained a spot in the top five.
Comedy horror The Cottage, starring Andy Serkis, Reese Shearsmith and Jennifer Ellison, was the second highest new entry of the week, taking £303,016 from 260 sites across the UK and Ireland to claim sixth position.
Black comedy In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as assassins stranded in Belgium after a botched hit, climbed four places to seventh, while Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert did not repeat its US chart-topping success, entering the UK charts in ninth.
This week’s top ten films at the UK box office are:
1 (-) 10,000 BC - £1,939,658
2 (1) Vantage Point - £936,175
3 (3) The Game Plan - £759,084
4 (2) The Other Boleyn Girl - £716,978
5 (4) The Bank Job - £426,795
6 (-) The Cottage - £303,016
7 (11) In Bruges - £ 273,619
8 (5) The Accidental Husband - £241,181
9 (-) Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour -£241,119
10 (10) There Will Be Blood - £225,695
by dint of. Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY A not-so-funny thing happened to Judd Apatow, Hollywood’s reigning buddha of belly laughs, when Walk Hard opened late last year.
The movie honcho might have taken cinematic hilarity to new R-rated highs (and lows) with 2007’s Knocked Up and Superbad, grossing a combined $270.3 million, but the musical biopic spoof that he produced and co-wrote tripped on its way to the box office, taking in a measly $18 million.
MORE: Get the details on Apatow’s four new comedies
Apatow blames bad timing. “while we picked the date (Dec. 21), there wasn’t a lot opening,” he says. “But then, hey, they put Sweeney Todd in continuance that begin and Charlie Wilson’s War. And it was a week after I Am Legend came out.”
But a rare misstep means little to this purveyor of man-child mirth, especially since the second coming of Judd is just around the corner.
Apatow, 40, who has been on a pretty steady hot streak since 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, is destined to regain his mojo in the next couple months with the arrival of a much-anticipated quartet of farces released under his production banner.
First up Friday is the PG-13 Drillbit Taylor with Owen Wilson as a homeless con man turned bodyguard for hapless high-schoolers.
It’s followed by more typical R-rated risqué business: Forgetting Sarah Marshall (April 18) starring Jason Segel as a breakup casualty; Step Brothers with headliners Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as rival sibs by marriage (July 25); and Pineapple Express (Aug. 
with Seth Rogen and James Franco as stoners on the run.
All showcase regulars, the two in front of the camera and behind, of an ever-burgeoning Apatow comedy network that has its main roots in the cast and crew of his one-season TV wonders, 1999’s Freak and Geeks and 2001’s Undeclared.
And all follow at least a portion of what has evolved into the filmmaker’s signature crowd-pleasing formula, one perfected by his first directing effort, 2004’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Ingredients include either a couple in an unstable relationship or a gaggle of misfit male buddies, a heavy dose of raunch and rough behavior, dialogue both frank and foul that is often ad-libbed, visual shockers and a cameo by Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill or some combination.
Apatow insists the provocation stuff is mere window dressing — or undressing, as the case may be.
“We try to start with a good story and characters that the many the crowd care about,” he says. “Then we hang the disposition on that. I don’t start with a wacky premise, then add emotion later. To us, that is the most important part of making it funny. My big inspiration was the series Taxi,” co-created by one of his comedy heroes, James L. Brooks. “It was smart and funny but with tenderness and characters you cared about.”
Making privates public
Still, Judd Hirsch’s Alex Reiger never felt the need to wiggle his wee-wee at the camera, a recent addition in Apatow’s squirm-worthy bag of naughty tricks.
Random male members pop up in both Walk Hard and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In fact, Segel’s apparatus is granted four separate scenes, which collectively earn almost as much screen time as Ruby Dee’s Oscar-nominated role in American Gangster.
Another, yet-unexplored body part is in Step Brothers for the reason that well.
“We do have a very revealing moment with Mr. Ferrell,” promises its director and co-writer, Adam McKay, who previously teamed with Apatow on Anchorman and Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. What exactly is shown is under wraps. But at early screenings, he says, “the big question has been, ‘Was it real or not?’ ”
Suddenly, Rogen’s bulbous naked butt in Knocked Up seems quaint.
Such one-upmanship raises the question: Will in that place come a point when audiences jade of this penchant for down-and-dirty frivolity and ribald foolishness?
“I’ve shown all the movies to audiences, and they play great,” flatly states a confident Apatow, who suggests each title is a different shade of his comedy rainbow. “Pineapple Express is about a drug dealer and client running from assassins. Step Brothers is a demented version of The Parent Trap. Finding Sarah Marshall is a romantic disaster movie about getting dumped.”
For him, some R rating is simply a way to make sure there will be some semblance of reality on-screen. “It’s due an excuse to be honest and show how people speak and behave,” he says. “Everything I do during the day would put me in an R rating. Even now I’m naked.”
OK, then.
His mix of sex, swearing and silly antics has to this time to bore fans, says Kevin Crossman, ringleader of the Frat Pack Tribute website. Judging by the response to the upcoming trailers, “People are still jazzed about this stuff.” The key: Work that adult rating, baby. “R-rated romps have to look and act like R-rated romps,” while Walk Hard was dismissed as R-lite.
in that place also is an altruistic thrust to Apatow’s need to dictate our national comic tastes. His expanding sphere of influence in the industry has given him the power to grant the career wishes of others.
He’s the fairy godfather of comedy. A hairy goof like Rogen wants to become a romantic lead and get his scripts produced? POOF! Knocked Up happened. The doughy gentle giant Segel, another Freaks and Geeks alum, wants to follow suit? POOF! Here is Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
“I noticed that it was very hard for unique actors to find a piece of work that showed off their talents,” Apatow says. “Then I noticed that people who write scripts for themselves would break through, like Jim Carrey when he co-wrote Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. So I stimulate them to write for themselves. Jason knows what is funny for Jason.”
Segel has a not the same theory on why Apatow is so bent on making a star out of everyone from Freaks and Geeks.
“When Judd got on this comedy steam train, he decided to make a point to everyone who canceled the show that they were wrong. We were onward a plane recently, and I heard him let out a long exhale. ‘I finally got you a lead in a movie,’ he said. ‘You’re the last one.’ “
Once Apatow launches them, however, he tends to keep them. With Forgetting Sarah Marshall riding a wave of buzz, he quickly re-signed Segel and director pal Nicholas Stoller for another romantic comedy, Five-Year Engagement.
His talent pool expands
Apatow also is spreading his talent net beyond past associates. He lured well-regarded director David Gordon Green into his fold for Pineapple Express.
Green, whose latest, Snow Angels, is best described as dark and disturbing, gushed to New York magazine: “I just wanted to do something fun and loose and light, with some action in it. … It was a blast. I can’t wait to do it again.”
As for Franco, Apatow was bent on rescuing his Freaks and Geeks slacker from being forever typecast as the dour Harry Osborne in the Spider-Man blockbusters.
When filmmaker and eminent person ran into each other at the 2005 Austin Film Festival, “He told me, ‘I miss the farcical Franco,’ ” the actor recalls. “I told him I would love to do something with him. I did a great quantity of movies I was not proud of afterward Freaks. In hindsight, the show was such a special time. I didn’t know how unique it was until later.”
Apatow turned to producing only in self-defense. “I am primarily a writer,” he says. “I produce to withstand ensure that things get made well. Earlier in my career, I wasn’t a producer, and I could not control the practice things would turn out. To protect what I envisioned, I had to be a producer. And if I am the producer, I don’t have to fight with the producer.”
Accordingly, he seems psyched about the writing credit he shares with former roommate Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog fame on You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, the June 6 comedy about a Mossad agent who becomes a hairdresser. Not so coincidentally, Apatow just snared Sandler to star in his yet-untitled third directorial project.
The only drawback of being a constituent of the Judd club is that his involvement often overshadows the contributions of others. The Drillbit Taylor trailer declares, “From the guys who brought you Knocked Up and Superbad,” meaning Apatow and Rogen, a co-writer. But director Steven Brill had nothing to do with those films.
Brill doesn’t bristle over the billing. “It’s a marketing thing.” It’s also a case of turnabout is fair exhibit.
“When Judd and I did Heavy Weights in 1995, we were partners 100%,” he says of their co-written fat-camp comedy. “But the ads said, ‘From the creator of The Mighty Ducks,’ ” referring to Brill.
for what reason the mighty Hollywood heavyweights have shifted.
To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. 
Enlarge By Suzanne Hanover, Paramount Pictures
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TOP RENTED MOVIES
1. American Gangster
2. Beowulf
3. Into the Wild
4. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
5. Michael Clayton
6. 30 Days of Night
7. No Reservations
8. We Own the Night
9. Gone, Baby, Gone
10. Rendition
Source: Home Video Essentials, Rentrak Corp.
By Mike Clark, USA TODAY Multiple Oscar winner No Country for Old Men is the standout release this week. Also out: Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie and HBO’s look at UCLA’s basketball dynasty.
No Country for Old Men
* * * ½ (out of four), 2007, rated R, Miramax, $30; Blu-ray, $35
Written, directed and acted to the hilt — and a more satisfying Oscar winner than Gladiator or Crash— to name just two.
Back story: In a return to form for the Coen brothers, a Texas drug deal turns dreadfully brutal. Unified are a smiling psychotic (Oscar-winning Javier Bardem, beyond scary), a trailer park local (Josh Brolin, perfectly cast) and sheriff Tommy Lee Jones (the soul of this Cormac McCarthy adaptation). Yes, the much-debated finale makes thematic/intellectual sense, but anyone who says it isn’t the weakest scene in the film has lots of talking to do.
Extras, extras: Similar featurettes on the movie and its makers, who must be primed to talk. Younger Ethan is more outgoing initially, but brother Joel finally comes around. Kind of.
Bee Movie
* * *, 2007, PG, DreamWorks, $30 and $37
A bee (Jerry Seinfeld) faces post-college options: serving a queen, never getting a day off and (here’s a new one) getting harassed by the real-life Ray Liotta.
Back story: Overall, this cartoon feature is lukewarm, but the ensign are electric. And though the romance between Seinfeld’s lead bee and a human (voice of Renee Zellweger) in no degree really clicks, the brutal ragging of Liotta is this keenly marketed hit’s strength. (Speaking of animation, 1961’s 101 Dalmatians is just out with Disney’s “Platinum” treatment; $30.)
Extras, extras: Hands-on “Jerry” every step of the way, including voice-over commentary, his introduction of several endings and appearances in 16 “TV Juniors.” These bite-sized promotional skits are mild overall, though one involving street-vendor movie piracy is pretty funny.
Daisy Kenyon
* * *, 1947, unrated, Fox, $15
Like many of director Otto Preminger’s noir-ish melodramas at 20th Century Fox, it’s very grown-up for its day.
Back story: A commercial artist (Joan Crawford) dangles between a wretchedly married lawyer (Dana Andrews, an impressively complex specification) and a shaken war vet (Henry Fonda). Preminger’s best movies are objective, primarily character-driven and without vociferation points. To appreciate them, you have to be the clement of person who, argue, gravitated toward last year’s cool-ish Zodiac.
Extras, extras: Commentary by noir historian Foster Hirsch; excellent featurettes about Preminger, Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck and Crawford’s go-get-’em performance despite (at 42) being too old for the role.
ALSO ON DVD:
The UCLA Dynasty
* * *½, 2008, HBO, unrated, $20
Straight-arrow John Wooden, out of Indiana, flourished at the mecca of goldilocked cheerleaders and eventually coached 10 NCAA basketball champions in 12 years (1964-75). But he had to do it as his increasingly politicized players (Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, many more) refused to ignore the exploding world around them. From debates over Walton’s hair length to protests over President Nixon, the off-court turmoil failed to obscure the magnitude of a college dynasty not likely to be replicated. Many team principals are interviewed (Wooden lovers all), as are entertaining former alumni for extra juice. Included: The Doors’ Ray Manzarek, Wayne’s World director Penelope Spheeris, actor and former UCLA quarterback Mark Harmon and even Beau Bridges, who made the basketball team and averaged (he notes) 0.6 points a game.
Things We Lost in the Fire
* *, 2007, Paramount, R, $30
David Duchovny, married to Halle Berry, dies in an act of heroism. Out of loneliness, she asks her husband’s longtime junkie buddy ( Benicio Del Toro) to move into her home with the kids, though she has never liked him. Many moviegoers complained that 2007’s best picture Oscar nominees were downbeat, ignoring the filmmaking sizzle that vitalized much of the nibble. This one, though, is a bummer you can’t imagine anyone recommending or seeing a second time — a comedown for Denmark’s Susanne Bier, whose 2006 Oscar nominee After the Wedding has more layers and emotional force.
More highlights
•Dan in Real Life (* *, 2007, Disney, PG-13, $30; Blu-ray, $35): Widowed dad Steve Carell falls for his brother’s intended (Juliette Binoche), and when you think of the train-wreck familial ramifications, there’s potential for dark comedy or even something added. Instead, this one “nices” you to death — hardly enough in the year of edgier Knocked Up, Superbad and (if you like, though I didn’t) Juno.
•Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (* * ½, 2007, Fox, G, $30; Blu-ray, $40): Natalie Portman can’t carry her half of this only initially wondrous kids pic, but Dustin Hoffman has one of his most beguilingly idiosyncratic modern-day roles as a toy replenish owner, age 243. The first 40 minutes is a color-saturated marvel. On Blu-ray, it’s of “demonstration disc” caliber.
•Sleuth (* ½, 2007, Sony, R, $27; Blu-ray, $39): Nearly each hour shorter than the windy 1972 original, this ill-advised remake lets a husband and his wife’s lover toy verbal cat-and-mouse in (mostly) a unmarried room. Michael Caine takes over the onetime Laurence Olivier role, and Jude Law gets what was previously Caine’s. A key plot twist is ludicrously self-evident, and the result is a slog malice running less than 90 minutes.
Due Tuesday: The Oscar-nominated war romance Atonement; Amy Adams’ starmaker Enchanted; Will Smith, not quite alone in I Am Legend
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