'Bruno' sashays to the top of the box office chart

Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno tops the weekend box office grosses, according to BoxOfficeGuru.com. The lewd, crude comedy sold an estimated $30.4 million in tickets, better than Cohen's Borat, but there's a catch before he begins celebrating.

Borat opened to $26.4 million in 2006, on nearly one-third fewer screens (and with slightly lower ticket prices). Cohen's breakout hit had legs, though, expanding to more theaters and winding up with $128.5 million in domestic revenues.

Bruno has already opened as wide as it will. Given the usual weekly dropoff in ticket prices -- 35 percent lower is still considered a successful encore -- it'll be tough for Bruno to match its predecessor's total.

Bruno didn't exactly dominate the weekend race. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs placed second with $28.5 million. Beating a second-week movie by less than $2 million in the summertime takes a bit of glitter off Bruno's victory. And with the Harry Potter flick opening Wednesday, it won't become a winning streak like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Kirby Dick's 'Outrage' about closeted gay politicians showing July 15 at Tampa Pitcher Show (not that there's anything wrong with that)

One the year's most controversial documentaries -- Kirby Dick's Outrage -- is getting a one-night-only engagement July 15 at an unlikely place: the suds-and-cinema showcase, Tampa Pitcher Show. It's part of a monthly film series sponsored by community radio WMNF-FM 88.5. Show time is 7 p.m. and tickets are going fast.

One of the film's "stars" is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, one of several politicians Dick accuses of being closeted homosexuals.

What Outrage seeks isn’t embarrassment but ending hypocrisy by politicians living one way and voting another. Other targets include former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig with his infamous public restroom arrest, after repeatedly voting against assistance for AIDS and hate crime victims.

But it's the inclusion of Crist that's making Outrage a hot topic in the Sunshine State.

"When Kirby Dick was filming the movie, he sent a film crew to WMNF, a few days before the governor's wedding, to shoot a call-in show that was talking about the protest being planned at the governor's wedding," said the station's director of news and public affairs Rob Lorei. "The footage of WMNF didn't make it into the (finished) film but the movie was on our radar."

That must be high-intensity radar. Dick claims “a brilliantly orchestrated conspiracy” keeps gay politicians in the closet. Some may say the same about the extremely limited release of Outrage (although to be fair, none of Dick’s films have been widely seen in theaters).

At its peak, Outrage only played in 18 theaters nationwide, for a number of reasons, including Dick's previous documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which took the MPAA ratings board to task for judging sex in films more harshly than violence. Dick declined to submit Outrage for an MPAA rating, and many theater chains are skittish about playing unrated movies.

Beyond that, it’s all about money. The audience for Outrage is a narrow niche compared to, say, the latest Transformers flick, and the distributor, Magnolia Pictures, is too small to afford striking and transporting hundreds of prints to theaters. Dick’s name certainly isn’t as marketable as Oscar winners Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) or Errol Morris (The Fog of War).

My column on Outrage and its insinuations about Crist will be published online and in print Monday.

Is the movie fair and balanced about our governor? Hardly. But it's a fascinating watch.

Friday Fromage double feature: I was a teenage monster movie freak

Back in the dark ages before DVDs, cable networks, even Betamax, movies circulated on theater circuits for years after their initial releases. They returned to towns any number of times, depending on their popularity.

I can't guess how many times my dad played the moonshine melodrama Thunder Road at his Alabama drive-ins, where good ol' boys imagined themselves as Robert Mitchum and their girls wished that were true.

The encores I never missed were horror flicks with "teenage" in their titles, remaking cavemen, zombies and other creatures into something more relatable. The most memorable of these turned two of Hollywood's tentpole monsters -- the Wolfman and Frankenstein -- into high school delinquents.

There was something so right about Michael Landon sprouting hair and fangs whenever the school bell rings, and Gary Conway getting pieced together from body parts yet remaining true to his girlfriend. Kind of like primers for adolescence that was just around the corner.

So, here in all their cheesy glory, are the trailers for I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, each co-starring the mad scientist of the moment, Whit Bissell. Enjoy!

Teen filmmakers invade Fort De Soto Park

Making movies is no day at the beach. That doesn't stop a group of teenagers armed with cameras and sound equipment from trying today at Fort De Soto Park in Tierra Verde.

FreshFilms is running a nationwide contest for teens wishing to shoot their own short movies, in teams categorized as cities. The team working at Fort De Soto is the Orlando team, although one member -- 19-year-old Ashley Crouch -- hails from St. Petersburg. The Orlando group spent the past week in that city for pre-production. Now they have 12 hours today, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., to complete principle photography.

This year's themes are comedies and superhero flicks. Orlando is charged with the latter, in a short film titled How I Met My Mermaid. The group planned to film at Cocoa Beach today but changed theri minds at the last minute, believing Fort De Soto had more of what they needed for settings.

When completed, How I Met My Mermaid will be posted online with other teams' movies at the FreshFilms site, and later broadcast on DirecTV. Online voting for the Viewers Choice Awards will be open to visitors from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2. In addition, they'll be viewed by FunnyorDie.com masterminds, director Adam McKay (Talladega Nights) and writer-producer Chris Henchy (Land of the Lost).

The contest is sponsored by Slurpee soft drinks and Airheads candy. With such a tight shooting schedule, the sugar rush should help.

He's baaaaack! Michael Moore announces new movie, 'Capitalism: A Love Story'

Everyone's favorite political champion/effigy doll (depending on which side of the fence you're on), Michael Moore, announced Wednesday that his next movie will begin ruffling feathers in theaters on Oct. 2.

Capitalism: A Love Story will offer Moore's analysis of the global economic collapse. No word yet on how he'll tie the Bush administration into this but you can bet on it. The Oct. 2 release date is one year and a day after the U.S. Senate approved a Wall Street bailout.

But what about that title? Has Moore gone mushy on us?

"It will be the perfect date movie," Moore explained at Wednesday's announcement. "It's got it all: lust, passion, romance and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day. It's a forbidden love, one that dare not speak its name. Heck, let's just say it: It's capitalism."

Like Sicko, his autopsy of the U.S. medical care system, Moore seeks whistle-blowers to help make his case.

"Be a hero and help me expose the biggest swindle in American history," Moore implored on his Web site in February.

Don't expect much to change. Moore's previous films didn't stop GM from closing plants (Roger & Me), derail gun sales (Bowling for Columbine), stop the Iraq War (Fahrenheit 9/11) or create universal health benefits (Sicko). But there isn't a filmmaker today who will inspire more vitriol.

R.I.P Oscar Mayer

I know it's a different Oscar than usual but ...

Before anyone gets snarky about the subject, here's to the man whose luncheon meats helped moms leave something for the kids when they came home from school, which was probably a repeat of what they had for lunch but both meals were made with love and attention.

Update on 'A Fonder Heart': Burt Reynolds isn't signed yet; July 13 start date for filming in Pinellas County is pushed back

Burt Reynolds' publicist said Wednesday afternoon that the actor isn't officially signed yet to star in A Fonder Heart, a movie from writer-director Jim Fitzpatrick that has been slated to begin shooting in Pinellas County on July 13.

Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick said Wednesday afternoon that the start date is now pushed back to July 15, at least, due to one of his three key investors facing a family tragedy that could lead to his money being withdrawn.

Fittzpatrick has trumpeted Reynolds as his star on the $5.5 million project's official Web site and during interviews with the Times last week.

Jeffrey Lane, who has represented Reynolds for nearly 12 years, said Reynolds likes the project and wants to join but Lane hasn't received confirmation from the actor's agent about a contract to publicize.

"I know it's very much in the works," Lane said by telephone from his Los Angeles office, "and I know that it's probably very close. But up until this very second, I have not been advised that this is a definite go.

"It's not that it's not happening but I can't honestly tell you that it is. I know the part has been offered to (Reynolds) and it's something he wants to do. The contracts have not been signed."

Lane noted that he was speaking just after 9 a.m. Los Angeles time, and industry types were just arriving at work. "In the next hour, who knows?" he said.

"These things with lawyers and agents; it's always 'hold off, hold off' (on announcing projects) and then it's 'go, go.' It could be over a comma in a contract for all I know. Until they give me the green light, I'm always apprehensive to be overly enthusiastic.

"It's got to be worked out pretty quickly if it's all starting next week, hasn't it?"

Fitzpatrick said he never dealt with Lane before and "Jeffrey is obviously out of the loop as far as what's going on."

Fitzpatrick claims to have "deal memos with all of our stars," defining deal memos as salary and work time parameters. Last week, representatives for co-stars Daryl Hannah and Lou Gossett Jr. confirmed their clients' involvement with A Fonder Heart.

But Fitzpatrick says he has another issue to handle, as well. 

"I'm up against it, man," he said. "One of our investors, something really bad happened with his brother and he's up in Pittsburgh with his brother. Very tragic."

Asked if the financing of A Fonder Heart will be affected by the investor's family tragedy, Fitzpatrick replied:

"If (the brother) dies, it is. (The brother) has eight kids and the youngest is 2 years old, and (the brother) may not make it through the week. He's unconscious now. If that does happen, I actually wouldn't blame (the investor) if he gave the family some of the money he planned to put into the movie."

Fitzpatrick declined to identify any of the three investors he claims, citing privacy issues.

In any case, Fitzpatrick said the start date for A Fonder Heart has been moved to July 15 due to situations that led him to recently spend days traveling to Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.

"We're pushing it day-by-day with bated breath, waiting to see what happens with our investor's brother," Fitzpatrick said. "But everybody is, the whole cast and crew. You can't just start a movie with only two-thirds of the budget intact. Everything's got to be in the kitty at once.

"It'll be no earlier than the 15th. It's day-by-day at this point."

'Saturday Night Live' skit MacGruber getting stretched to feature length

Hand me that bobby pin. Give me the rubber band, and do you have any gum? I'm trying to craft a weapon to aim at the genius(es) who greenlighted a feature length movie based on Will Forte's admittedly funny MacGruber sketches on Saturday Night Live.

Funny, yes. But only in 60-second, late-night doses or a Super Bowl commercial for Pepsi. For some reason Haddaway's What Is Love? from A Night at the Roxbury keeps ringing in my ears.

Hollywood Reporter says Forte and fellow SNL comedian Kristen Wiig will reprise their roles as MacGruber -- the less intrepid son of MacGyver, the 1980s TV action hero -- and his harried assistant handing him the junk used to manufacture whatever he requires to escape or trap a villain. The examples of MacGruber posted are among the first episodes broadcast, with Molly Shannon and Maya Rudolph sharing Wiig's duties. (Sorry for the commercial Hulu.com attaches.)

Ryan Phillippe is negotiating to play an Army officer teaming with MacGruber to stop a nuclear terrorist. Val Kilmer is angling to play the bad guy. Want another bad sign? The director will be Jorma Taccone, who did the job on SNL but whose only big-screen credits are co-writing Extreme Movie and playing Chaka in this summer's lousy Land of the Lost update.

Trying on MOSI's 'Extra-Large Shorts' and finding a 'Moon'

Starting Friday, Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry offers the U.S. premiere of Extra-Large Shorts, a six-pack of short films coinciding with a new exhibit on the animation process.

Coinciding doesn't necessarily mean complementing, though. While the animation exhibit is squarely aimed at children -- Cartoon Network helped develop it -- Extra-Large Shorts is sophisticated stuff likelier to make kids doubt their creativity rather than inspire it.

One of the six minimovies isn't even animated; Norway's Where the Trains Used to Go is live action along a countryside railway, filmed with time-lapse photography. Another, titled Primiti Too Taa, is a simple idea -- nonsensical words rhythmically typed and read -- that is expanded to incomprehension by the museum's massive, curved IMAX screen.

More successful in the format are Pandorama, a hectic mixed media exercise; Falling in Love Again with its silly free-fall romance while Marlene Dietrich sings; and Mark Osborne's More, a tale of lost bliss from Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne. 

Each film runs six minutes or less except the gorgeous finale, Alexander Petrov's 1999 Academy Award winner The Old Man and the Sea. Hand-painted with oils on glass, Petrov nails the macho essence of Ernest Hemingway's classic story of an aging Cuban fisherman and the big one that gets away because nature has other plans.

At 22 minutes, The Old Man and the Sea comprises more than half of Extra-Large Shorts' running time. Considering the hit-and-miss nature of the other five works, that isn't a bad thing.

The shorts collection and animation exhibit continue through Sept. 7. IMAX-only tickets are available ($7.95 for adults, $6.95 for seniors and $5.95 for children).

I also got a phone message today announcing the late addition of Moon to this weekend's lineup, only at AMC Veterans 24 in Tampa. Moon orbited the festival circuit in the spring -- including Sarasota's showcase -- earning mixed reactions from audiences and critics.

Sam Rockwell stars as an astronaut ending a solitary tour of duty, mining resources on the moon with only a Hal-like computer (voice of Kevin Spacey) for company. There's a secret to be uncovered, a darker side of the moon than Pink Floyd dreamed. It'll be revealed on home video soon enough, if you can't make the trip to Veterans 24.

Remember that tie for the box office weekend title? It transformed.

As expected, the tie at the top of the Fourth of July weekend box office was broken when studio accountants sharpened their pencils.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen won the weekend when real ticket sales were counted, according to Variety.com. Well, not exactly real but whatever was reported or sorted by studio number crunchers. Kind of like a blind auction bid. Enough people are expecting a headline Monday morning that Sunday estimates count most in a news cycle, and enough people liked the tie situation T-minus-2 and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs created.

But it didn't hold up. The Transformers flick reported $42.3 million grossed domestically to hold the No. 1 spot. The Ice Age flick ponied up $41.7 when its Sunday bluff was called. Both films are officially below the $42.5 million total estimated Sunday, so both studios were fibbing.