L.A. Weekly columnist and blogger Nikki Finke claims that she has received, from three different sources, copies of an internal Warner Brothers memo from president of production Jeff Robinov. In it, Robinov claims "we are no longer doing movies with women in the lead." From a historical standpoint, it's bad; this was the studio that the films of Bette Davis (above) helped establish. From the standpoint of a civil rights issue, it's worse, The memo, Finke says, is a response to a pair of fiscal disappointments: the Jodie Foster vengeance opus The Brave One, and The Invasion, the most recent (and worst) version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Nicole Kidman in the lead: "as if three different directors didn't have something to do with the awfulness of the gross receipts," Finke suggests.

"But now the official policy as expressly articulated by Robinov is that a male has to be the lead of every pic made." Finke concludes by noting that famed anti-discrimination attorney Gloria Allred has been appraised of the situation. You don't have to be Finke to note that women's pictures are recent underperformers, compared to 2007's hit bromance movies about the love between men (300 to Superbad to 3:10 to Yuma). In Finke's column, Allred suggests a boycott of WB might be the answer. What do you think? However this comes down, there'll be plenty of actresses who'll be grimly satisfied to see in print what they might have suspected already.

An unusually nasty piece over at The Guardian is causing revulsion, even among seen-it-all types like Jeff Wells at Hollywood-Elsewhere, who calls it "one of the meanest and most heartless" celebrity journalism pieces he's ever read, as well as being "insensitive" and "pointless." I have to agree. Let me start by saying that, as a long-time fan of Nicole Kidman's -- check out the three-part retrospective of her early career I did a while back -- I share the originating sentiment of the Guardian piece, which is that Kidman is of late taking a wrecking-ball to her film career with one inexcusably awful choice after the other. From dreck like The Stepford Wives and The Human Stain to almost-unreleasable garbage like Bewitched and The Invasion, she's practically daring fans to turn away from her. Even her latest prestige project, Margot at the Wedding, is completely awful. After seeing Margot in Toronto, I declared this to be Kidman's "annus horribilis."

All that said, however, this piece reads like it was written by some fourth-grader, undercutting whatever serious intent it may contain with a ton of personal smears. Kidman is referred to as a "former Scientology hostage bride" who only won an Oscar for wearing "a false hooter" and who is now "box office poison." Soon enough, the piece warns, "Hollywood's powers that be -- or their accountants -- will rise from their crypts one morning and realize it's time to cut their losses." The article also urges Kidman to retire before she becomes "Joan Crawford 1944" and is way too harsh on Birth, the one semi-decent movie Kidman has produced in the last three years.

Kidman is also on the cover of this month's Vanity Fair, but that piece is hardly any more worthwhile. It's entirely oriented around her personal life and content to elicit from the actress fortune-cookie aphorisms about how to handle a long-distance relationship and the like. Is there no place left for a serious critique of an actor's career, or lack of one?

Summer's nearly over, school is about to begin and Hollywood is counting its money. Looking back, we could assume the studios made bundles this season; almost every weekend seemed to deliver a new record-breaking blockbuster. In order of enormity, there was Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Transformers 1 (it will have sequels), Harry Potter 5, 300, Ratatouille and finally another threequel, Bourne 3 (which should gain on at least that numberless Pixar movie). According to Box Office Mojo, the grosses for 2007 are up 7.2% over last year, and 13.7% over 2005 (aka the year of the slump).

Now, normally about this time of year, we can also look back and see a number of disappointments, bombs and otherwise failed releases. In fact, Entertainment Weekly should be giving us its annual rundown (my favorite) any week now. But Business Week has already announced the biggest losers of the season: Evan Almighty and Stardust. And as dishonorable mentions, it points to The Invasion, Grindhouse, The Reaping and The Number 23. Of course, the latter three were released much earlier in the year, and shouldn't be counted -- they seem to be thrown in as other mistakes of the year in general.

What, you expected something different? Nicole Kidman has spoken with Entertainment Weekly (and by extension The Sydney Herald), seemingly to quell a firestorm that I didn't even know was raging -- concerns that New Line's The Golden Compass will upset Catholics. Kidman strongly suggests to EW that the film adaption of Philip Pullman's blatantly anti-theistic His Dark Materials books will not retain material that would upset religious folks. She says the religious message put forth in the film version of The Golden Compass "has been watered down a little," and she goes on to say that "I was raised Catholic, the Catholic Church is part of my essence. I wouldn't be able to do this film if I thought it were at all anti-Catholic." So in other words, 'nothing interesting to see here -- move on.' This movie just continues to fall lower and lower on my 'to see' list.

In other Kidman news, she's faced with a real career speedbump after The Invasion made only about one-third of her $17 million paycheck in its opening weekend. The film was released in a state of complete disrepair, with unfinished scenes, bizarre flashbacks to action scenes that hadn't happened yet, action-scenes staged with total incompetence, a completely stupid political subtext and an ending that's money-back terrible. I think it's safe to say that Kidman's priorities and choices are completely off-the-wall these days, but here's hoping she pulls it together and maybe gets herself a new agent -- the one she has isn't doing her any favors.

After watching The Invasion, I sincerely hope that Nicole Kidman becomes the next test case for the new Jim Carrey-style Hollywood deal, where talent receives no money up front and must live or die by the quality of the film they make. An actor with her star power, while not in a position to challenge the Warner Bros. decision to replace director Oliver Hirschbiegel and remake large portions of this film after what they deemed to be an unacceptable first cut, could certainly have taken some kind of stand for basement-level quality control that doesn't exist here at all. The Invasion is a borderline-unreleasable mess, with unfinished scenes, absurdly rushed exposition, and a plethora of random bad decisions that could only be the product of a hugely stressed production. Whose idea was it, for example, to embarrass Kidman with a Carmen Electra-sized Wonderbra that she totes around for most of the picture? Also, this has to be the first time I've ever seen an adrenaline-syringe-in-the-heart scene filmed with the casualness of a blocking rehearsal.

The set-up: A returning space shuttle explodes upon re-entry and the pieces are scattered over Nowhere, America, leading to a montage of the great unwashed reporting the crash to the news media. I'm not sure if the body snatchers crashed the shuttle on purpose or if they were just hitching a ride and something went wrong, but either way their mission is accomplished -- they are now extant on Earth and can get down to their business, which is infecting all of us through liquid contact and turning us into Democrats. You see, we're told repeatedly that body snatchers are peaceful and that once they rule the roost, there will be no more war and violence. As they begin to turn more and more people, we start to see 'positive' news on television screens -- President Bush warmly meeting with Hugo Chavez, for example, with Bush having presumably been turned. By the last act, the recurring visual of a smartly-dressed Kidman being chased through D.C. parking garages by the aggressive peaceniks plays like a reel of Ann Coulter's nightmares.

The Invasion's troubled path to theaters - in which German director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) apparently submitted an unacceptable cut of the film to the studio, leading to covert additional script-work and shooting by the Wachowski Brothers and V for Vendetta's James McTeigue - have at this point been well documented. Yet while it's easy to pinpoint such issues as the explanation for the mess that is this latest version of Jack Finney's classic sci-fi novel The Body Snatchers, it's much tougher to see how Dave Kajganich's screenplay could have ever been turned into something great, what with its near-total lack of character development and downright embarrassing stabs at injecting its tale with modern political subtext. Hirschbiegel's film is simultaneously cursory and heavy-handed, a lethal combination compounded by a pervasive disjointedness seemingly brought about by endless post-production re-configurations of the material. Labeling it a mess would be to understate the case; a more apt description would be that it's chaotic to the point of being anarchic, a handsomely photographed pulp fiasco that squanders its strong cast as well as any modestly intriguing ideas rumbling around in its head.

In a set-up so quick it's liable to give one whiplash, The Invasion outlines the origins of its alien incursion: a space shuttle explodes upon reentering Earth's atmosphere, and its debris is contaminated by an extraterrestrial organism that enters human hosts' bloodstream and then, when people fall asleep and enter the REM cycle, combines with night sweat to do something or other to their DNA to make them act like stiff, detached robots. Self-serious scientific mumbo jumbo spreads throughout the film like a contagion, corrupting any fun that might be had from the patently supernatural proceedings - or, at least, any intended fun, as there are a few mean-spirited pleasures to be had at watching a project flail about in such patently absurd and incompetent ways. Such as watching Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (as a psychologist and doctor, respectively) pretend to be infected by showing no emotion, a state that seems no different from their normal comportment. Or trying to figure out why Craig's doctor, who works at a hospital, is close friends with upper-crust foreign diplomats. Or how, with one laughable cut, Kidman goes from fleeing a group of pursuers on a quiet suburban street to running - still at full speed - through downtown D.C.

No big surprises for last weekend, though Stardust did less business than I was expecting. Rush Hour 3 took top honors, but made $17 million less than Rush Hour 2 did on its opening weekend, and The Bourne Ultimatum held strong for its second week. Here's the break down:

1. Rush Hour 3: $50.3 million
2. The Bourne Ultimatum: $33.7 million
3. The Simpsons Movie: $11.1 million
4. Stardust: $9 million
5. Underdog: $6.5 million

This week's releases bring aliens, gladiators and teenage horn dogs. Yeah, sounds like my prom too. Here's what's coming:

The Invasion
What's It All About: For the fourth time Invasion of the Body Snatchers -- Jack Finney's novel about aliens creating duplicates of people -- is adapted for the screen, this time featuring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.
Why It Might Do Well: Usually three times is the charm, but the third adaptation of Finney's book -- 1993's Body Snatchers -- was a fairly forgettable exercise. With two really strong leads, The Invasion may be a worthy successor to the excellent 1978 version, and this tale of subversion and paranoia seems to be tailor-made for today's audiences.
Why It Might Not Do Well: A third remake? They may have gone to the well once too often.
Number of Theaters: 2,700
Prediction: $12 million

The Last Legion
What's It All About: The Roman Empire is in mid-tumble and a deposed child emperor seeks out Excalibur, a sword once possessed by Julius Caesar and which will one day belong to the legendary King Arthur.
Why It Might Do Well: The trailer promises a lush production with lots of action.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Some folks may assume The Last Legion is a sequel to something called The First Legion. Stranger things have happened.
Number of Theaters: 2,000
Prediction: $7 million

Superbad
What's It All About: Two high school buddies are accepted into different colleges and must contemplate life without each other as well as desperately seeking to rid themselves of that pesky virginity.
Why It Might Do Well: Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen -- both of whom brought us this summer's hilarious Knocked Up -- are involved respectively as producer and writer, with Rogen also acting in the film. Rottentomatos.com is giving this one a whopping 95% fresh rating.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Star Michael Cera was also on a smart and funny series called Arrested Development that failed to pull in ratings. Might the curse have followed him onto the set of Superbad?
Number of Theaters: 2,800
Prediction: $28 million

My method for predicting this coming weekend's top five involved taking the ages of the directors and dividing them by the number of writers, and adding the number of brothers in the Baldwin family. Don't scoff, it's all very scientific.
1. Superbad
2. Rush Hour 3
3. The Bourne Ultimatum
4. The Invasion
5. The Simpsons Movie

Here's the ranking from last week's competition. Congratulations to Ethan and Bubba for getting perfect scores.
1. Ethan Stanislawski: 16
1. Bubba8193: 16
2. Josh: 13
2. Ian: 13
3. Matt: 12
3. Anna07: 12
4. Ray: 9
4. Corey: 9
4. Curt: 9
4. jasonsmusicpage: 9
5. Skyler: 8
5. Porcalina: 8
5. Nathan Mathieu: 8
6. Mayorjimmy: 7
6. El Borracho: 7

Please post your prediction for the top five films in the comments section below before 5:00 PM on Saturday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie. Greatness awaits you.

Only two weeks left before we get to see The Invasion, Warner Bros.' latest version of the Body Snatchers storyline, and the studio has issued another poster for the movie. It seems to be a design for one of the foreign markets, though, because the release date is given as August 23 instead of August 17. That would be the date for release in Hong Kong (according to IMDb) and Germany (according to Box Office Mojo), but I can't find any other indicator of where this poster is being distributed. And I haven't heard anything about the movie being pushed back for six days in the U.S ...

Regardless of where it's going, the new one-sheet is pretty cool. Over at Bloody-Disgusting.com they're calling it "lackluster", but I actually like it. Sure, it isn't as beautiful as the poster we've seen at the multiplex all month, but I can appreciate this one on its own. As a fan of To Die For, I'm always happy to see Nicole Kidman illuminated with a blue tint. I also like the way that Kidman looks a bit creepy here. It goes a little better with the movie's theme than does a shot of the actress appearing worried or afraid. I can't understand why Daniel Craig isn't featured -- is he not a star in either Hong Kong or Germany? -- but his expression in the American poster is so out of place that I don't really mind.

I think if this were the German poster, it would somewhere promote the movie's director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, whose Downfall was the German nominee for the 2005 Foreign Film Oscar. This is the filmmaker's Hollywood debut and I'm curious to find out, if possible, how it is received in his homeland -- especially considering he was replaced for re-shoots and I'm sure it bears no resemblance to his usual work. I'm also just as curious to see how The Invasion is received here. So far we've seen both good and bad reactions from the test screening stages. I can't wait to find out next Friday.

It might just be me, but every time I turn around it seems like The Invasion has released another batch of photos, a trailer, or a new poster in the hopes of drumming up some business for the production. Now ComingSoon.net is hosting a brand new gallery of images from the film. Actually, I'm sure we have seen some of these before, but at least this grouping has some more action-packed images to choose from. It's no secret that the film has been making headlines for over a year, with news of massive re-shoots being undertaken by the WB's sci-fi/action duo, The Wachowski Brothers, as well as James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), reportedly to liven up some of the film's action sequences. All of this without the involvement of original director Oliver Hirschbiegel.

The film is a loose update of the 1955 classic, The Body Snatchers and even 52 years later, if it's done right, the tale of conformity and paranoia should probably resonate with audiences. This version stars Nicole Kidman as a psychiatrist living in D.C. when a mysterious space shuttle crash seems to be turning local residents into mindless drones. Along with her doctor friend (Daniel Craig), she tries to unravel the mystery of what has happened while trying to locate her son, who "may hold the key to stopping the devastating invasion." This latest gallery will probably be the last we get from the film until it hits theaters on August 17th, and considering that the photos do not give too much away, there is still plenty of room for surprises.

This August, a vicious group of body snatchers will invade multiplexes once again in The Invasion, the fourth incarnation of the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers story. What does this one have that the others don't? Well, it has Nicole Kidman for one ... and Daniel Craig (aka the new James Bond -- so hot right now) for another. And from the looks of the Invasion trailer, this take on the tale of an alien virus that turns humans into zombies boasts a much more sinister and decidedly less campy tone than its predecessors (speaking of which, props to whoever decided to set the trailer to that moody Sigur Ros song). We have an exclusive first look at the brand-new poster below, and I have to say that I find it rather cool and rather creepy looking. Stop staring at me with those piercing blue eyes, Dan! Click on the poster for a larger version.