The political drama has a good friend in Rod Lurie, who makes intelligent, earnestly liberal movies that are meaty and watchable, if not always great. He has a thing for strong female protagonists, too. He was first noticed for The Contender, about a female vice-presidential candidate being grilled about her past, and he created the lady-president TV drama Commander in Chief for ABC. His latest, a spiritual sister to The Contender, is the arbitrarily titled Nothing But the Truth, in which thorny ethical dilemmas once again mess up the life of a woman.

She is Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale), a Washington D.C. newspaper reporter who learns that America's recent missile strike against Venezuela may have been unjustified. It was done in retaliation for that country's supposed involvement in an assassination attempt against the U.S. president, but Rachel has learned that a CIA agent filed a report indicating Venezuela was not to blame -- a report that the president ignored, ordering the military strike anyway.

Rachel's news story makes waves in Washington, not just for its damning evidence against the president, but for outing the CIA agent who made the report. She is Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga), the wife of an ambassador and supposedly just an ordinary soccer mom. Her undercover profession as a government spy is over now, of course; nobody wants a spy whose name has been plastered all over the news.

Now the question is which high-level government employee leaked Erica's identity to the press? A special prosecutor named Dubois (Matt Dillon) is appointed to find out; Rachel refuses to reveal her sources; Rachel is held in contempt of court and sent to jail; stubbornness and principle-upholding ensue.

Obscenity! The '50s! Legal drama! Book-length poems! OK, that last one is part of what distinguishes the upcoming Howl, in which James Franco will star as legendary beatnik writer Allen Ginsberg. The film revolves around the court trial that took place after Howl was published in 1956 -- and promptly banned for obscenity. Mary-Louise Parker, Paul Rudd, Jeff Daniels, David Straithairn, and Alan Alda have just been added to the cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

All will play fictional versions of real-life characters. On the side of the prosecution (boo! hiss!), indie darling / TV star Parker will play radio personality Gail Potter, the reliably venal Daniels will embody Professor David Kirk, and the firm and steady Staithairn will be prosecuting attorney Ralph McIntosh. In behalf of the defense (yay! cheer!), Paul Rudd will play literary critic (?!) Luther Nichols. Calm and fair as always, I'm sure, Alda will play Judge Clayton Horn.

Documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman will make their narrative debut and the film is all theirs: they are writing, producing, and directing. Epstein made the terrific doc The Times of Harvey Milk and the pair made Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt. Gus van Sant is serving as executive producer, and Coen crony Carter Burwell is set to provide an original score. I hope that Epstein and Friedman can pull off the transition to narrative film and give us an incendiary picture; the elements are all in place, and the time is right.

TITLE: Nothing But the Truth
DIRECTED BY: Rod Lurie
STARS: Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga, Alan Alda, David Schwimmer, Noah Wyle, Angela Bassett, Matt Dillon

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: A political reporter (Beckinsale) writes a story about a government scandal, revealing the name of a covert CIA operative (Farmiga), and ends up behind bars when she refuses to divulge her source. The story parallels the real-life drama surrounding CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose status as a covert operative was outed after her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times charging the Bush administration with manipulating intelligence information to justify a war with Iraq.

WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT: A solid ensemble cast and a script written and directed by Lurie should keep this real-life drama firmly out of dreaded "movie of the week" territory. Alda, as the lawyer who fights to keep the reporter out of jail, should have plenty of opportunity for brow-knitting and dramatic courtroom scenes, and we can't wait to see Dillon's turn as the prosecutor who goes after Beckinsale -- his performance was the best thing about 2005's Factotum. We're loving seeing him reinvent his career as a solid indie actor.

Back to the TIFF Preview page ...

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Diminished Capacity (click to enlarge), starring Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen and Alan Alda. Based on Sherwood Kiraly's novel, the film is -- to borrow an old quote from myself -- a "quiet little comedy starring Matthew Broderick as a guy suffering from memory loss due to a concussion who joins up with his Alzheimer's-impaired Uncle (Alan Alda) on a journey to a baseball memorabilia expo to sell a rare card."

While it first premiered back at Sundance, I managed to catch this gem at the Gen Art Film Festival a few months later and really enjoyed it. If you're from Chicago or happen to be a Cubs fan, definitely check out this flick because it's tailor-made for you. Everyone else should enjoy the subtle performances and quirky characters (Alan Alda is a blast to watch); I know I did. As I said back when I first saw it, it's the kind of film that just leaves you with good vibes. And don't we all need a little of that every now and then? You can check out the film's trailer over on Moviefone, and make sure you head out and support this indie winner when it hits theaters in NYC (Sunshine Theater), Los Angeles (Music Hall Theatre), Chicago (Century Centre & Renaissance Place) and On Demand (Your living room) this July 4.

Last night I attended the opening of the 2008 Gen Art Film Festival here in New York City, where the film Diminished Capacity enjoyed its New York premiere at the historic Ziegfeld Theater. Did you go? Really enjoyed this film; as one guy points out in the video above -- "it was cozy." That's exactly how I felt; it was this quiet little comedy starring Matthew Broderick as a guy suffering from memory loss due to a concussion who joins up with his Alzheimer's-impaired Uncle (Alan Alda) on a journey to a baseball memorabilia expo to sell a rare card. Great quirky characters (especially Dylan Baker as a crazed Cubs fan) and the kind of film that just leaves you with good vibes.

But anyway, our very good pal David Jr. is all over this year's festival (as he is every year) with his trusty video camera that tends to freak people out (watch Matthew Broderick's reaction). So if you weren't able to attend the festival last night, his videos give you a great glimpse at what it's like to enjoy a hot, hip Gen Art film event. Seriously, these people are very hot and very hip. I do not, in any way, shape or form, belong in their company. I'm just a slacker from Queens who's balding.

Enjoy the video. Visit DavidJr.com for more of his wacky videos. And head over to the official Gen Art Film Fest site to get tickets, see what's screening, blah blah blah. OH, and Diminished Capacity hits theaters on June 27. Go see it -- cute flick.

When juries are put together for these film fests, chances are the everyday person wouldn't have the slightest idea who most of the people are -- perhaps they make ultra-arthouse films, or they work behind the scenes in some capacity. But for Sundance, they've collected a bunch of names that are pretty recognizable -- coming from both the world of big-budget film and indie wonder. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Marcia Gay Harden, Sandra Oh, Quentin Tarantino, Jason Reitman, and Alan Alda are heading the list of 24 jurors chosen to hand out prizes at Sundance this year, which starts later this month.

There are six juries selecting the prizes, and this is how it is broken up:

Dramatic Competition Grand Jury -- Harden, Diego Luna, Oh, Mary Harron, and Tarantino.

Documentary Competition Grand Jury -- Michelle Byrd, Heidi Ewing, Eugene Jarecki, Steven Okazaki, and Annie Sundberg.

World Dramatic Competition Jury -- Shunji Iwai, Lucrecia Martel, and Jan Schuette.

World Documentary Competition Jury -- Ilda Santiago, Leena Pasanen, and Amir Bar-Lev.

American & International Shorts Jury -- Jon Bloom, Melonie Diaz, and Jason Reitman.

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Jury -- Alda, Michael Polish, Evan Schwartz, Benedict Schwegler, and John Underkoffler. (It's awarded to a film focusing on science or technology, and most of these names are in the biz.)

Ah, if only I could be there! Stay tuned to Cinematical for lots of Sundance goodies as the fest heats up.

In honor of the striking screenwriters, I wanted to write a list of my favorites, either contemporary or all-time. But I decided that it would be more respectful to not exclude any of them. Even the bad writers need recognition right now. I've tried writing screenplays, and I salute anyone who has had one produced, whether brilliant or not. Even if it weren't difficult to actually write a script, it's certainly tough to deal with the b.s. of Hollywood and the sad truth that your vision will likely not make it to the screen as devised. So, instead of concentrating on real writers, I figured I'd look at screenwriter characters, specifically those portraying the hardships of the job.

"Joe Gillis" from Sunset Blvd. (1950, Billy Wilder).

I imagine there's nothing scarier for a struggling screenwriter than the thought of ending up like poor Joe Gillis (William Holden). The opening shot of Wilder's classic shows the character floating face down in a swimming pool, and immediately he's labeled "an unsuccessful screenwriter." This sets up a hopelessness for the character, and for writers in general, as the film then flashes back to one of the greatest stories of Hollywood cynicism ever made. Gillis not only represents the difficulty of making it as a screenwriter, he also shares some juicy lines about how writers aren't recognized enough by the public ("Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture; they think the actors make it up as they go along."); about drastic alterations to his scripts ("The last one I wrote was about Okies in the dust bowl. You'd never know because when it reached the screen, the whole thing played on a torpedo boat.") and about the desperation that turns good writers into seemingly hack writers (replying to talk of his once promising talent, he says, "That was last year. This year I'm trying to make a living."). There were screenwriter characters before him, and plenty after, but Gillis will forever be the quintessential example.

I'm excited enough that Rod Lurie is returning to politics with Nothing but the Truth, a film loosely associated with the story of Valerie Plame. But I'm becoming more excited that it will feature a wide range of talented actors, from Kate Beckinsdale to Alan Alda to Matt Dillon to Vera Farmiga to David Schwimmer to Edie Falco to Harry Lennix to the just-announced Angela Bassett and Noah Wyle. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Basset and Wyle join the ensemble as supportive figures. Bassett is to play editor-in-chief to Beckinsdale's reporter and Wyle is to play the lawyer defending Beckinsdale's character, who ends up in jail for not revealing a source.

More than 13 years after being nominated for an Oscar (for What's Love Got to Do with It), I'm happy to see Bassett getting more meaty roles. In addition to this part, which will probably be too small to garner too much recognition, she is set to star opposite Don Cheadle as the titular wife in the biopic Toussaint, and she's sure to be seen by millions and millions in Tyler Perry's next movie, Meet the Browns. Wyle, too, is deserving of making his mark on the big screen now that he's done playing Dr. Carter on E.R. Coming up for him is a father role in the 1963-set coming-of-age film Boy of Pigs and his directorial debut, a romantic comedy titled Prince Test.

The interesting thing about Nothing but the Truth is it somewhat seems to combine Lurie's The Contender (possibly my favorite political film ever), which also focused on a woman under heavy scrutiny, and his recent box office disappointment Resurrecting the Champ, which similarly dealt with the world of journalism. For the sake of this great cast, I hope Nothing but the Truth is closer to the success level of the former.

In just over a month, Rod Lurie is Resurrecting the Champ, he has got a remake of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs on the way and now he's gearing up to direct another script of his -- something more like The Contender and less like raping violence. The film is called Nothing but the Truth (get the reference?), and it's a drama about a Washington D.C.-based female reporter who outs a CIA agent and is sent to prison for not revealing her source. Now that should definitely sound familiar -- the film is paralleling the case of Valerie Plame, whose CIA agent status was exposed after Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, wrote an opinion piece that criticized the Bush administration.

While the cast has not been finalized, a number of actors are in talks -- a collection of which would make a sweet pot of political drama. If all of the talks work out -- Kate Beckinsale would be the journalist, Matt Dillon would step up as the prosecutor, Vera Farmiga would be the CIA agent, Edie Falco would be the editor of the paper that publishes the story and as a wonderful cherry to the selection, Alan Alda would play the attorney trying to free Beckinsale from jail. That's more than enough to hook me, and I'd love to see more serious Beckinsale, free from the action and thrills. The question that remains -- will we get a commutation-gathering Scooter Libby in a sequel?

Although Virginia Madsen has worked consistently since her start in 1983's Class, Sideways marked a bit of a return for the actress, who hadn't received much attention since some of her darker films of the 90's. After indulging in tasty California wines, she's had some higher-profile roles, but her live action work hasn't really measured up to her success in the Alexander Payne film. The Number 23? Egads! However, I wouldn't be surprised if the latest casting news will come to her aid. Variety is reporting that she's signed on to star in Diminished Capacity, along with Matthew Broderick and Alan Alda in headlining roles, and Bobby Cannavale and Lois Smith in other starring roles.

Sherwood Kiraly, who wrote the book that the film will be based on, is currently writing the screenplay, and Oz alum Terry Kinney will direct the feature. Mr. Sarah Jessica Parker will take the lead as Cooper Zerbs, a man who is suffering from memory loss after a closed-head injury. Along with his high school sweetheart (played by Madsen), and his Alzheimer's-ailed Uncle Rollie (Alda), he travels to a memorabilia show where the memory-loss pair scheme to sell a valuable baseball card to get the older man money. As if dealing with two memory-challenged men wasn't enough, the book has a bunch of added quirks -- namely, a poetic fish, a Dear John videotape, a gun-slinging alcoholic who trades baseball cards for booze (Could this be Cannavale's role? I can only hope!) and a fast-food establishment with a genetically-engineered salad. It sounds weird enough to work. But let's hope that it's more of the Sideways calibre, and less of the 23 flop. The movie will be filmed this Spring in New York and Chicago, so we might be able to see it by the end of the year.