Trade Round-Up: Sad Penguins
Like nearly all seemingly feel-good Hollywood stories, March of the Penguins's triumphant run is ending in legal ugliness, with the doc's director of photography suing for a director credit on the film. [Variety]
Jason Lee will star in and produce Krater, a comedy about a late 70s/early 80s rock band who hires a lead singer with "secret Broadway ambitions" a description that we will decode as "is secretly gay." [THR]
Getting a whiff of the awards buzz on Letters from Iwo Jima, Warner Bros. pushes director Clint Eastwood in front of as many media members as possible, politely urges him not to confuse people by talking about the other World War II movie he recently did for another studio that everyone's already forgotten about. [Variety]
The Reporter calls 2006 the "Year of the Apology." Serial apologizers Mel Gibson and Michael Richards figure prominently. [THR]
With Studio 60 getting the week off, made-for-TV holiday flick A Year Without a Santa Claus ably filled in as NBC's designated Monday night ratings momentum-stopper, even though the movie completely ignored the lessons we learned about the sham that is Christmas on S60's uplifting holiday special. [Variety]