If you've seen American Beauty, then you already know Kevin Spacey can do a mean pothead on screen -- especially one that is a little ticked at the way his life has turned out. Both skills will come in handy now that Variety has announced that Spacey has signed to star in the indie drama, Shrink. Jonas Pate is already on board to direct Thomas Moffett's script about a celebrity shrink in the midst of a personal crisis.

Spacey will play a psychiatrist to the stars who's thrown for a loop by a personal tragedy. When he is unable to deal with the loss, he becomes a chronic pothead and all-around burn out; eventually losing faith in his ability to help his patients. Starring as his various celebrity clients are Saffron Burrows, Jack Huston, Griffin Dunne, Robin Williams, Pell James, Robert Loggia, Keke Palmer, Laura Ramsey, Gore Vidal, Dallas Roberts and Mark Webber.

Our friends over at indieWIRE continue their ongoing series of discussions with filmmakers at the Apple Store Soho by bringing in director David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls) to show scenes from and discuss his latest film, Snow Angels, which opens March 7. Snow Angels, which stars Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Amy Sedaris, Olivia Thirlby, and Griffin Dunne, is about two romantic relationships -- one just beginning, and one beginning to end. If you live in NYC, this should be a great filmmaker discussion to check out. The event happens Wednesday, March 5 from 7:00-8:00PM at the Apple Store Soho, 103 Prince St.; seating is first-come, first-served, so you might want to get there early.

In the meantime, you can read our review of Snow Angels from Sundance 2007, and listen to James Rocchi's interview with David Gordon Green from that fest.

After screening at Sundance last year, a trailer for Snow Angels has finally hit the net, which you can check out above. The latest from indie filmmaker David Gordon Green, Angels follows his small-town formula, but this time, with dueling stories of happiness and darkness. On the one hand, there's the burgeoning love story between Michael Angarano (the cutie from flicks like Almost Famous and Sky High) and Olivia Thirlby (who you might recognize as Juno's helpful best friend). On the other, there's a complicated familial story focusing on Kate Beckinsale, her estranged husband Sam Rockwell, and their young daughter. Making the whole deal even more tasty -- there's also the likes of Griffin Dunne, Amy Sedaris, and Nicky Katt.

If the trailer is any indication of the film, it should be a great cinematic experience. (But be warned: it does give a lot of detail into the film, as many trailers love to do.) However, if you need more of a reason to go see it, you can check out James Rocchi's glowing review from Sundance, as well as his interview with Green. On the flipside, you can check out Kevin Kelly's review, which was a bit less praising.

[via Empire]

"A naked American man stole my balloons."

1981 was the year of the werewolf. April saw the release of Joe Dante's The Howling, a dark, tense thriller laced with cynical humor, followed by an environmental call for action, Michael Wadleigh's Wolfen in July. (I'll be writing more about both next week.) An American Werewolf in London was the last of the unrelated modern "wolf meets man" trilogy to be released that August, but is probably the best loved and most remembered of the three.

In part that's because John Landis was at the top of his game. Just 31 at the time of the film's release, the writer/director had demonstrated his skill with low-budget comedies (Schlock, 1973; The Kentucky Fried Movie, 1977) and moved with great success into the studio system (Animal House, 1978; The Blues Brothers, 1980), capturing the zeitgeist of a movie-loving generation eager for irreverent, frat boy humor that was still deeply rooted in conservative, Middle American values.

Indeed, David Kessler, the hero of American Werewolf, is a cheery, jocular, modest, responsible everyman. As played by David Naughton, who had achieved a degree of fame by singing the theme song to a failed sitcom ("Makin' It") and starring in a series of soft-drink commercials ("Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?"), David always strives to do the right thing, no matter how stereotypical it may be.

He and his best friend Jack (Griffin Dunne) set off on a three-month backpacking tour of Europe. For some unexplained reason, David wants to start their trip in Northern England, and the film begins with the two exiting a sheep truck to hike across a beautiful, completely barren landscape as the sun sets. The joking banter between the two is light and mocking, and continues as they seek refuge from the weather in The Slaughtered Lamb, a typical British pub with atypically unfriendly locals and a pentagram painted on the wall. Hurried out into the night with odd warnings ("Beware the moon!" "Stay off the moors!"), the two soon find themselves bathed in the light of a full moon, smack dab in the middle of the moors, and listening with increasing disbelief to the howling of a wild animal in the night.

Industry attention is still focused on the Toronto festival, but most moviegoers just wanted something good to watch this weekend. Of the four new indie films released in limited engagements, Jeff Garlin's I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With topped the chart, earning $14,000 at its single screen, according to estimates by Box Office Mojo. Garlin is best known for his role as Larry David's long-suffering manager in the HBO improv series Curb Your Enthusiasm (which returned for a new season Sunday night). Karina Longworth interviewed him at Tribeca last year. He wrote, directed and stars in Cheese, "based on his one-man show on being a fat, gig-less, and lonely actor in search of someone to love," according to Ella Taylor's review in Village Voice. The film scored an 80% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

The other three new releases were not far behind, each averaging about $10,000 per screen. Again taking a look at the Rotten Tomatoes approval ratings, In the Shadow of the Moon did best, at 91% positive (Cinematical's James Rocchi liked it too), with The Hunting Party and Fierce People trailing badly, at 41% and 33% positive, respectively. Shadow of the Moon is a doc about the surviving NASA astronauts, Hunting Pary features Richard Gere and Terence Howard as TV journalists chasing stories in war zones and Fierce People is Griffin Dunne's coming of age story, with Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland.

Among holdovers, Death at a Funeral ($2,183 average on 316 screens in its fourth week) and The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters ($1,717 per screen at 39 locations, also in its fourth week) continued to perform nicely. But everyone's favorite underdog, musical drama Once, is the real indie star of the summer. In its 17th week, Once made $1,595 per screen at 141 locations. Go, Once!

Argh, I totally dropped the ball last week and forgot to tell you about a really cool thing TCM (Turner Classic Movies) was throwing together. Throughout the month of September, TCM is partnering with Hermès and paying tribute to short films with a festival titled Behind the Camera: The Shorts Circuit. For those interested in checking out some of these shorts, TCM will mix them into their on-air schedule, throw a few online and host various premiere events around the country.

Okay, so if there's still some time left in September, then how exactly did I drop the ball? Well, this past friday TCM aired a slew of shorts (24 hours worth to be exact) ... and I forgot to tell you about it. Kill me now! Hopefully some of you managed to catch a few, it really was a special event. If it wasn't for a friend of mine (who, at the last second decided to use my DVR to record about five hours worth), I would have missed the entire thing. Instead, we were able to catch a bunch of shorts directed by folks like Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick.

However, TCM did throw a few shorts online and we'll check those out in a second. But first, I want to thank all of you for tipping me off on some wonderful short films. I promise to include a few of them in the next edition of Eat My Shorts. As always, if you happen upon a sweeet looking short online and think it would be perfect Eat My Shorts content, then feel free to send all tips, links and suggestions to shorts AT cinematical DOT com. With that, let's go watch some shorts ...

Odds and ends from I can't believe it's not Friday yet (a/k/a Thursday)

• After watching him sign on for role after role, I was waiting for the day when all of this pimping would catch up to Vin Diesel. Well folks, it appears that day has come. It's now being reported Diesel has dropped out of the film Black Water Transit, forcing filmmakers to hurriedly replace the actor with filming set to begin at the end of July. No word yet on why he skipped out on the pic (perhaps he hates black water and/or the transit system), but if a replacement isn't found soon, look for this one to get pushed back. Also starring in the film are Kevin Bacon, James Franco and Sophie Okonedo.
• While I'm not so sure what's funny about being a grieving widower, apparently NALA films felt there was something comedic behind the idea for Only Ever You. Griffin Dunne has been attached to direct the romantic comedy which will follow a guy who's having a hard time getting over the death of his wife. The description becomes a bit confusing after that, but I'm guessing he eventually moves on from the sadness and finds a new lease on life. Once again, what's funny about that?
• Looks like the Sundance Channel wants to get in on this whole internet thing. It appears the cable channel has struck a deal with two media companies to begin streaming some of its films online. We're not sure what, when and how this will all go down but they did note that all revenues will be shared with the filmmakers. Ain't that special. I'd be curious to see if they somehow work the Sundance Film Festival into this streaming as a way for folks stuck at home to catch a glimpse of the action playing in Park City. For those of us too poor to fly out to Utah, something like that would be very enticing.

For some reason, Uma Thurman seems to have decided she's going to dedicate her career to starring in the movies that industry-types like to call romcoms. (Because, you know, busy Hollywood producers just don't have time for all the extra syllables it would take to say "romantic comedies.") From Prime, she moved on to My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and now has signed to star in The Accidental Husband, yet another romance with a wackiness factor somewhere between those of the first two. According to this morning's Variety, the movie has a plot that was stolen from that bastion of creativity, Friends: Thurman will play a woman who, upon getting engaged, "learns she is already married." Wait, let me guess: Drunk in Vegas? (Hey, if they end up going off in an alien abduction, or "drugged and hitched so they could legally steal her kidney" direction, I'll be thrilled to be wrong.) So, Uma heads out to track down whoever this other dude is and, yes, finds herself conflicted. You probably never saw this coming, but she likes them both. And just so you know, it took FOUR WRITERS to come up with this.

The movie, which Griffin Dunne is in talks to direct, will shoot in New York this fall.

• Bloodrayne - Teutonic terror Uwe Boll directs movies no more than gravity directs objects to Earth. His grasp of pithy things like story and character development is nearly non-existent, and his penchant for adapting video games has earned him a reputation as a sort of idiot savant (only without the savant part), kind of like if the kid on the porch in Deliverance only knew how to play the riff that Vanilla Ice nicked from Queen's "Under Pressure". His latest, a shameless Blade ripoff about a half-human, half-vampire avenger (Kristianna Loken), is miscast, barely written and staged with the skill of a spastic with cataracts. Currently residing on the IMDB's Bottom 100 (at #34), it and Boll's rotting body of work have elevated the oeuvre of Ed Wood, whose non-charting Plan 9 From Outer Space was once considered the worst film ever made, to common hack status. At least the inclusion of the free PC version of the Bloodrayne 2 video game will help soothe buyer remorse.