August is finally over, and other bits and pieces.

By Alison Willmore on 09/02/2008

August, it's been real. Jim Ridley on "Disaster Movie" at the Village Voice: "Best text message sent from my screening (it wasn't me, but I certainly sympathized): 'I want to die.' " But he's outdone by Nick Pinkerton, reviewing "College" at the same publication: "Nearly justifies traveling back in time to pre-emptively kill Edison, Muybridge, and the Lumière brothers."

Steven Zeitchik at the Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz blog suggests that if you want to see Adria Petty's Paris Hilton documentary "Paris, Not France," its Toronto premiere may be the only place to do it before the film is swallowed by litigation threats from its displeased subject: "And so the movie, while putatively handled by William Morris (who reps Petty) isn't actually being sold at the festival; costs from the legal wrangling simply wouldn't be worth the financial upside for a buyer. Which means that like Soderbergh's Che at Cannes, you may never get a chance to see it this way again."

"The Brothers Bloom" director Rian Johnson addresses the fact that his film, also slated to premiere at Toronto, has had its released date pushed to January, with an awards consideration limited release December 19th:

There were a few reasons for the move: October and November are crowded as hell, it's a tough tough market, especially for a smart unique film like ours, and we'd have a week or two at the most to sink or swim. Whereas concentrating on a couple markets for awards consideration in December, then pushing the wide in the more open January slot just seemed like a better use of resources. Mostly though, what convinced me it was a good idea was that it gives us more time to get more awareness of the movie out there. There are alot of films competing for attention, the more time I have to travel around to film festivals, do interviews, show and talk about the film, the better.

German actress Diane Kruger will play a German actress in Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards," a role that was apparently first intended for Nastassja Kinski, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Helen Mirren continues to look great in a bikini and to give good quote -- via the AP:

I loved coke. I never did a lot, just a little bit at parties. But what ended it for me was when they caught (Nazi war criminal) Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, in the early 80s. He was hiding in South America and living off the proceeds of being a cocaine baron. And I read that in the paper, and all the cards fell into place, and I saw how my little sniff of cocaine at a party had an absolute direct route to this ... horrible man in South America.

[Photo: "College," MGM, 2008]

+ Disaster Movie (Village Voice)
+ College (Village Voice)
+ Paris Hilton: I Kind of Prefer Wiseman's Verite Work (Hollywood Reporter)
+ new: Jan 16th wide release for Brothers Bloom (RCJohnso.com)
+ Tarantino gets his German girl (Hollywood Reporter)
+ Actress Helen Mirren: I used to 'love' cocaine (AP)