Being one not entirely fond of controversy for controversy's sake, I cannot deny that the prospect of 'Politically Incorrect' host Bill Maher working with Borat director Larry Charles to make a documentary regarding religion in any respect and having it distributed by a studio all too proud to remind you of the hand it had in releasing Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 wasn't one that had me eager to line up around the block for it any time soon.

However, all things considered, while the new trailer for Religulous fails to dilute any notions that this thing is a lightning rod in waiting, I found myself unexpectedly consoled by the fact that Maher and Charles appear to be covering every faith and denomination that they can in making a film about the seemingly ridiculous nature of any one belief to another.

If Ben Stein can both cause an old-fashioned ruckus with his doc on the exclusion of creationist thought in public schools and rake in some relatively decent grosses while doing it, it'll be interesting to see just how much attention this film will inevitably garner come this October 3.

Because Michael Moore can't make enough movies to piss people off 24/7, we fortunately have people like Bill Maher, whose new anti-religious documentary, Religulous, hits theaters this fall. Of course, Maher has said that he shouldn't be compared to Moore, whom he considers to be a genius. Plus, Maher didn't direct the film, Larry Charles, of Borat, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, did. But in the same way that Al Gore is credited with An Inconvenient Truth, Maher, who hosted one of my favorite shows of the past (Politically Incorrect) and currently hosts HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher (which I've never seen, because I don't have HBO), will be continually given credit for this film. No matter who gets the higher billing, though, it's certain that Religulous is going to be hilarious thanks to the talents of both gentlemen.
Now, to help promote the film and presumably to get people either laughing or offended a few months early, Maher has unleashed a new website called Disbeliefnet.com. It seems to be part satire, part examination of the world's religions, part blog of religion-related news and part movie marketing. Movie fans might want to check out the grouping of clips/trailers from films detailing the endless suffering of Jews. Personally, my favorite gag is the "Donate Now" button that goes to a randomly chosen religion's donation form. Now I can give to everyone equally with ease.

And speaking of equal coverage, Maher and Charles' film seems to touch on all the major and minor religions of the world, bringing their "guerilla" shooting style into places cameras have supposedly never been before. But if the film doesn't focus any attention on your religion, don't worry: you can be offended about not being able to get offended. Or something.

Religious opens October 3rd.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Religulous (click on the image to enlarge), directed by the very funny Larry Charles (Borat, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) and starring that oh-so-controversial comedian Bill Maher (who currently hosts the HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher). From what we know, Religulous is a documentary about world religion, with Maher and Charles traveling the world to interview people from different countries and get their opinions on religion. Knowing Maher and his beliefs, it's pretty much guaranteed that all hell will eventually break loose. I think it's pretty fair to say there will be a certain amount of people who don't agree with what Maher has to say about religion. Personally, I think he's a pretty funny guy and I dig the fact that Lionsgate would get behind a film like this. Lionsgate: The Distributor with Balls!

Religulous arrives in theaters on June 20.

Faced with the prospect of checking out several new releases or luxuriating in a new print of Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt, audiences overwhelmingly chose Godard's 1963 classic. Playing at a single location (Film Forum in New York City), Contempt earned $13,100 over the weekend, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady of Movie City News. Distributor Rialto Pictures has the film booked at Film Forum until March 27, and then perhaps will tour the print, though no details are provided on their site.

Indie holdovers also did better than the newest offerings. David Gordon Green's Snow Angels (Warner Independent) made $8,666 per screen at three theaters in its second week out, per Box Office Mojo, while Oscar winner The Counterfeiters (Sony Pictures Classics) pulled in $6,263 per-screen at 72 locations in its fourth week. Ira Sachs' Married Life (Sony Pictures Classics), Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park (IFC) and Jacques Rivette's The Duchess of Langeais (IFC) also performed well; the first two in their second week of release, and the latter in its fourth week.

Michael Haneke's remake of his own Funny Games (Warner Independent) did very little business, grabbing just $1,800 per screen at 289 engagements, which is disappointing since our own James Rocchi called it "a great film ... it's hard to say which Funny Games stirs up more -- your guts, or your brain." Meanwhile, Bill Maher's Sleepwalking (Overture) was right behind at $1,640 per screen at 30 locations. In the review by Cinematical's Jeffrey M. Anderson, he concluded: "Worst of all is that title, which is exactly the kind of title that filmmakers should stay away from if they want to avoid a fairly obvious one-word film review."

One of the things I hate most about wannabe indie movies is the fallacy of the two-day scruff. That's when a male character wakes up every day with exactly two days' growth of beard, even if the movie takes place over the course of two weeks and even if he lacks the means to shave. That's a small thing, I know, but it indicates that the director is grasping at straws trying to come up with a visual look for his story, perhaps a kind of cool, grungy look. The new Sleepwalking, directed by Bill Maher (not the Comedy Central guy) is filled with such things, like a spookily serene shot of a girl swimming underwater with weird sunglasses on, or swirls of powdered snow wisping across a lonely highway. These images may fill out a 2-1/2 minute trailer, but they're out of place in Maher's feature film.

Nick Stahl plays the "sleepwalking" James, a dead-eyed slacker who works a construction job and goes home to a dreary apartment. One day his sister Joleen (Charlize Theron) disappears and his 11 year-old Niece Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) turns up looking for help. Even though he can't drive, James attempts to maintain a schedule, driving her to school in the mornings, before turning up at his job. One day he's late, and the next he calls in sick to look for his sister. On the third day, they oversleep, just as social services turn up. James loses his job and Tara is shipped off to a home. But the first chance she gets, she coaxes her uncle to help her skip town. Their money carries them only as far as James and Joleen's father's farm, which looks permanently chilled and dried and wind-blown (only scraps of paint remain on the outside walls).

To be honest, I'm a little surprised that today is the first day I have heard about the indie-drama Sleepwalking -- mainly because it stars two Oscar-nominated actors. Heck, one of them even won. You would have thought that the marketing department would have had a field day with that kind of award-winning pedigree. Trailer Addict is now hosting the first trailer for this dysfunctional family drama, which stars Charlize Theron, Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb and Dennis Hopper.

Robb plays a young girl who has to come to terms with the fact that her mother (Theron) has abandoned her, and that she has been left with her uncle James (Stahl), who is not ready to deal with raising a kid on his own. Hopper plays the patriarch of this dysfunctional family and by the looks of the trailer, he is making full use of his skill with playing a 'villain.'

Sleepwalking was written by Zac Stanford, who is a relative newcomer, and this was his first feature film script. Bill Maher (no, not that one) directed the dysfunctional weepie, and is also relatively new to the directing game. (So far, Maher has spent most of his career as a visual effects artist on films like X-Men and Mars Attacks!) The movie was chosen to be a part of the Sundance slate (you can check out stills from the film from our Sundance coverage here), but there is no word about a release date. One look at the credits would lead me to believe that it probably won't take long before the property is snatched up by a studio.

[via Filmstalker]

pun·dit
Pronunciation: 'p&n-d&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Hindi pandit, from Sanskrit pandita, from pandita learned
1 : PANDIT
2 : a learned man : TEACHER
3 : a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media : CRITIC
- pun·dit·ry /-d&-trE/ noun

Quick, name the most powerful American pundits you can think of. Bill Maher? Bill O'Reilly? Jon Stewart? According to an article on Forbes, who analyzed data from E-Poll, the most powerful pundit in America is film critic Roger Ebert, who's been reviewing movies for 32 years. Ebert scored top marks for being "intelligent, experienced and articulate," he appealed to 70% of those polled, and he's recognized by well over half the population. Also making the top ten was another critic, Entertainment Tonight's Leonard Maltin, ranked seventh on the list, thanks in part to his Movie and Video Guide. Maltin ranked pretty close to Ebert in terms of appeal (67 out of 100), with an "awareness" level of 24.7%.

Who else made the top ten? You'll find Bill Maher and Bill O'Reilly there, but not Howard Stern or Jon Stewart -- Forbes decided that Stern and Stewart, although they offer opinions, serve the primary purpose of entertaining. Forbes also finds it "troubling" how many young adults get their news from Stewart's The Daily Show (what, but Fox counts as "news" in their book? Please.) Just because it's entertaining doesn't mean it's not informative, Forbes -- Stewart's merciless cutting through the crap and political spin is what draws so many of the younger demographic to trust him over mainstream news media. You will find Fox's Greta Von Susteren on the Forbes list, along with Rosie O'Donnell and Geraldo Rivera (!). Check out the full top ten in pictures or read the full story here.

It's pretty darn impressive for two guys who write and talk about movies to hold two slots on the Top Ten Pundits list, especially at a time when critics are getting canned and consolidated by places like The Village Voice, and the field of film criticism is constantly questioned as to its relevance. The proliferation of individual bloggers writing their thoughts on movies may make it harder for readers to suss out whose opinions to listen to, but at least Ebert and Maltin are still up there. It's interesting to note as well that both Ebert and Maltin are on television; I wonder how print and online critics would rate overall in a poll strictly about the movie biz. Would we see print and online personalities like David Poland, Anne Thompson, Nikki Finke, Mahnola Dargis, and indieWIRE editor Eugune Hernandez on such a list? Who are your favorite film pundits?

Larry Charles made his feature directorial debut with the utterly ridiculous Bob Dylan film Masked and Anonymous, but he has been a big name in television for years. He wrote several classic Seinfeld episodes and is a frequent Curb Your Enthusiasm director. Those two credits make him a hero to me, but it was his last film that really catapulted him onto the A - list: Borat. You would think after the enormous critical and commercial success of that film, the guy would have no problem setting up another project. Unless that project is a sure-to-be controversial flick about "the role of institutional religion around the world." Charles showed a ten-minute promotional reel of his new film to around 200 buyers at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, and it already has people speculating that it will cause an uproar.

The film, currently titled A Spiritual Journey is said to be "a blend of comedy and reportage," which makes it sound like some of the lighter segments of Michael Moore's work. The movie has finished production, but has yet to be edited. Comedian Bill Maher will narrate the film, and he is no stranger to controversy himself. His comments criticizing the US government after September 11th led to the cancellation of his show Politically Incorrect. A Spiritual Journey has been selling quite well to foreign distributors, but America might be a trickier proposition. Those who saw the advance footage think it would be an extremely difficult film for a division of a major studio to handle. We live in a world where even the suspicion of religion bashing can cause huge protests and boycotts -- Dogma and The Last Temptation of Christ are just a couple examples of flicks that infuriated religious groups. That sort of controversy can make the big studios wary, but it can also sell a lot of tickets. I have no doubt we'll see A Spiritual Journey here at some point, but it sounds like it's going to come with a whole lot of hubbub.

Steve Anderson's feature-length documentary Fuck sports an impressive, wildly diverse cast: Thanks to the magic of editing, Pat Boone appears alongside Chuck D and Billy Connolly, and Sam Donaldson, Janeane Garofalo, Bill Maher, Miss Manners and Ron Jeremy -- among copious others -- also make appearances. All are on hand, presumably, because they speak from a position of authority on the film's title word. In addition to the actors, newsmen, comics, porn stars and politics, the film also features a handful of "cunning linguists," who provide periodic infusions of what passes for academic commentary. Token academics aside, however, the film is little more than a flimsy excuse -- an entertaining excuse, mind you, but an excuse nevertheless -- to shout "FUCK!" in a crowded movie theater, and to mock the conservatives Anderson knows won't see his movie.

Less focused than its title and press would have us believe, Fuck is a superficial examination of obscenity in America. It revolves around the word in question, but branches out generously into subjects like FCC regulation, the impact of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, and the horror of Janet Jackson's dreaded right boob. Most of the movie is made up of sound-bite friendly talking heads interviews which, because they take place against a black background, can create the weak illusion that all the subjects are in the same room. Thus, Anderson can cleverly edit his interviews with Miss Manners and Ron Jeremy into one another, vaguely suggesting at one point that she's been driven from the room by the power of his dirty words. (Nothing of the sort happened, of course, but it's always fun to mock Miss Manners, right? And oh, that naughty Ron Jeremy!)