Oswald's Ghost is the rare film whose power increases with distance. As I sat in the historic Texas Theatre last week, where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested on the day President Kennedy was assassinated, and watched a special screening of the documentary, the suggestive rhythm of the editing and the understated urgency of the musical accompaniment lulled me into a false sense of security. I was deceived into thinking that I knew what kind of film it was and so, based on that assumption, I allowed the shaped narrative to lead me down a certain path, only to discover at the end that I had arrived at a very different destination than I expected.

Filmmaker Robert Stone says that he was initially inspired by the furor that erupted after the release of Oliver Stone's JFK in 1991. Why were people so wrapped up emotionally in what had happened so many years before? How had that pivotal event changed the nation? Ten years later, he saw parallels in how the nation responded to 9/11 and started what he calls his own "journey" to discover why America has remained obsessed with the JFK assassination, to the point that he calls it a "theology."

That being said, Stone does not take the approach I had anticipated. After an opening fusillade of opinions issued by experts, he dives right into the events leading up to November 22, 1963, laying them out one by one in distinct, logical order as though he had an organized sheaf of papers he was slapping down on a table. The drama is inherently captivating; no matter how many times you've seen news footage and photographs from the days in question, it still feels like you're dragged against your will into a nightmare.

In another example of adaptation rights being picked up before a book is done, Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream is finally making its way to a feature biopic. Variety reports that Universal has bought the rights to I Am a Man, a book currently being written by Hampton Sides about King's assassination in Memphis, and the hunt for James Earl Ray. The decision was made from an 11-page proposal that's being described as "a compressed historical thriller" by the author, who has a history with the King story -- his father's law firm had repped King, a friend's father was the neurosurgeon who operated on King, and Ray's lawyer was his dad's best friend. Mark Bowden, the pen behind Black Hawk Down and the upcoming Killing Pablo, has already been tapped to adapt it.

As the story goes, King had gone to Memphis to lead a garbage workers protest. While on the balcony of his hotel, he was shot and subsequently died. Two months later, James Earl Ray was caught, and later plead guilty to avoid a trial conviction and death sentence. This seems to be as far as the movie will take it, but considering the studios' addiction to dueling pictures, I wouldn't be surprised if we later see one about his work before, or the aftermath of his assassination. There has been much chatter about a conspiracy theory, which is further strengthened by the fact that King's family believes Ray didn't do it. But that's another story. Is his assassination and the hunt for Ray what you want to see hit the big screen?

Thanks to people like Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood and Lawrence Kasdan, I'm a huge fan of the Western genre. (Yes, Lawrence Kasdan. What of it? Silverado rocks!) So when I read that Warner Bros. was bankrolling a Western with Brad Pitt as Jesse James and Casey Affleck as the man who (finally) put Jesse in a pine box, I was more than a little intrigued. Then I learned that Andrew Dominik (Chopper) would be directing, that Ridley Scott (one of my favorites) was producing, and that the supporting cast would include Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel and Ted Levine. I was officially psyched for this movie.

Unfortunately that was about two years ago. So where the heck is the movie already? Its release date has been pushed around more violently than a Big Mac at a vegan rally, but what gives? It's got BRAD PITT in it, right? How tough is it to release a Brad Pitt movie these days? Well, according to The L.A. Times, the flick's been met with some pretty unfriendly test screening audiences. Reports also indicate that director Dominik has his preferred cut, but Pitt and Scott also have a version that they like. One of the cuts apparently runs over three hours long; WB wants something more Clint Eastwood-y, whereas Mr. Dominik seems to be shooting for something a bit more Terrence Malick-ish. Good thing they have three-time Oscar winner Michael Kahn helping out in the editing room.

Seems to be a prickly issue all around, but the thing only cost about $30 million, which is probably about as low-budget a studio Western as you'll ever find these days. Based on the book by Ron Hansen, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is presently scheduled for release on September 21. And I bet they shorten the title too.