The News: No Balls, One Strike

By S.T. VanAirsdale

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--The Writer's Guild East took to the picket lines this morning as the Great Work Stoppage of 2007 got underway at Rockefeller Center; I'm headed over in a little while to see what there is to see. Meanwhile, Brooks Barnes is back on the beat in The Times: "If the strike goes more than a month, the guild is going to have a colossal mess in terms of members challenging leadership," industry lawyer Daniel H. Black tells him, referring to the seven-figure income disparities between many WGA members. WGA reps beg to differ, but until solidarity kicks down a Thanksgiving turkey, I put the over-under on this one around three weeks. What are your own wagers? Let's hear 'em in the comments.

--No word yet on how the strike will impact the television spinoff of Marc Levin's Nicky Barnes documentary Mr. Untouchable, which Forest Whitaker will produce for Showtime. Not to be outdone, Barnes's cosmic kingpin foil Frank Lucas killed this weekend at the box office, where American Gangster took in $46 million. I have no idea how these guys will square off next, but count on a climactic cremation urn showdown to be officiated down the line by Mark Jacobson.

--MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center this morning posted their all-call for submissions to next year's New Directors/New Films, scheduled to kick off March 26th. You have until Jan. 9, 2008 to pull your breakthrough together, or, if you're Paul Auster, tack your name onto a bunch of Irene Jacob nude scenes and score an opening-night berth. The sky's the limit, New York.

Posted at November 5, 2007 10:37 AM