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Sean Astin, whose "Rudy" helped him ease the sometimes rough transition from child to adult actor, has signed on to "The Final Season," a film that covers similar territory. Unlike "Rudy," which saw Astin portray the point of view of a student trying out for the football team, "Final Season," which is inspired by a true story, will find him on the coaching staff of a small town Iowa high school basketball team that makes an unlikely rise to dominance in its division. Astin will co-star alongside Powers Boothe ("Deadwood"), who has been cast as head coach Jim Van Scoyoc. "The Final Season" is being co-produced by Fobia Films and State of Mind Films.

What this really means, is that "The Final Season" is basically a starring vehicle for Powers Boothe, whose career has been re-engergized by the sucess of "Deadwood," with Sean Astin in a supporting role.

What's striking to me, immediately, about Astin's few post-LOTR career highlights, is that he can't seem to get studios to think of him as someone whose name will sell a film by itself, or even take seriously at all. He's finally had some luck recently with an extended guest starring role on Fox's high concept dramatic action series "24," but that was like a short drink of cool water after a long walk in the desert.

I think between that opportunity and the completion of his work on LOTR, Astin may have directed a small, independent film that possibly involved his mother, Patty Duke, but I'm not sure. Even if it did happen, nobody saw it; so he's basically been ignored by studios since he ran a gauntlet of acting challenges, all while doing an accent, in what he hopes would have been a big wake up call to casting directors as to his flexibility as a performer--not a whiny child star any longer.

Things might have gone a lot smoother if Astin hadn't notoriously tried to parlay his experience in New Zealand into a career as a director, and then go on a whine tour to various internet sites when it didn't happen. The actor was very serious about being handed the reigns to "Fantastic Four," a big budget comic book adaptation that eventually went to Tim Story. Astin was down for the count.

Interestingly, Elijah Wood has been given multiple headlining parts since LOTR, with several more in the pipeline -- this after many fans and some critics pegged Astin's performance as being the most impressive in the trilogy.

Maybe his relative obscurity since those films has ties to some kind of repremand for his arrogant push to be transferred control of the 100+ million dollar budget of "Fantastic Four" with essentially no qualifications. It's like some studio big wigs decided to let Astin know that "that's no how this town works" and had him go sit in the corner for a while.

"24" and "The Final Season" show that Astin is, by degrees, rejoining the rest of the class. "Season" doesn't represent the kind of film I most want to see Astin associated with, but it does signal that he's "getting back into it."

At least it's not the "Goonies" reunion film. A lot of fans seem to want nothing more than to see the principle "Goonies" reassembled and assigned adventure, but I'm not so sure. I think it may be a slight setback for the ones who've done something with their lives since "Goonies" (like Astin), and a sad airing for most of the rest of the cast other than Astin. At worst it could play out like a funeral march for the memories of many childhoods.

Astin, Boothe and company will report to duty on "The Final Season" sometime in May, 2006.

"Things We Lost in the Fire"

Benecio Del Toro has recently been cast in "Things We Lost in the Fire," a "serious" film from Paramount Pictures. Halle Berry has been cast as a woman who tries to cope with the sudden loss of her husband by inviting her husband's downtrodden best friend (Del Toro) to come live with her.

Halle Berry will again try to demonstrate with "Fire" that she is capable of headlining a hit film. She struck out spectacularly --in front of the whole world, it felt like-- with "Catwoman" in summer, 2005, just months after "Gothika" failed to become the "creepy blockbuster" it was probably pitched to the studios as having the potential of being. "Gothika" was her first chance to show she could carry a film after winning an Oscar earlier that year. She couldn't.

"Catwoman" and "Gothika" were directed by Pitof and Matthieu Kassovitz, respectively. These were two young, "hot" French directors of which, at the time, a lot was expected. Kassovitz made the highly praised "social issues" pic "La Haine" ("The Hate") and then the Jean Reno-Vincent Cassell co-toplining blockbuster "The Crimson Rivers." Pitof, who made his directorial debut with "Catwoman," was an accomplished cinematographer, known for his close association with filmmakers like Luc Besson.

Unfortunately for Kassovitz and Pitof, their vehicular entry into Hollywood was to be driven by Halle Berry, who crashed both times out. As it was on a "world stage" of high visibility, "fleeing the scene" was not an option. Now Berry is struggling with a reputation of being box office poison, outside of ensemble casts in science fiction and fantasy films. Although, the fault for Berry's current predictament is probably more complicated than just saying, "she's box office poison" or something like that.

Hollywood actresses appearing in failed "event" films directed by young, "hot" French directors has a precedent: Signourney Weaver was paired with Jean-Pierre Jeneuat for "Alien: Resurrection," which was served by a groundswell of positive anticipation from the online community, yet still earned little enough to be considered a setback for the "Alien" franchise. Like Berry, Weaver had also found her greatest box office success in sci fi and fantasy franchises, often with ensemble casts.

"Things We Lost in the Fire" could be a smart move for Berry, as it isn't the kind of film one associates with box office fireworks. If it does any kind of business, Berry can probably chalk it up as "part of the healing process," like a sports team making a single field goal after a long scoring drought: a small sigh of relief.

Gary Oldman to direct short film for Nokia website

Gary Oldman, after keeping a low profile for what seemed like years, has recently enjoyed a rennaseince of visibility with recurring characters in both the "Harry Potter" films and Christopher Nolan's "Batman" series, two important Warner Bros. franchises.





Oldman has designs on diversifing the rennaseince with a comback indentity as a director of film - in this case a short film indended for exhibition on mobile phones and other electronic devices. Nokia has named Oldman as one of the filmmakers it will use to launch its Nseries project. Nseries will be a large-scale multimedia website that Nokia hopes will serve as a sort of Town Hall for "mobile phone directors" all over the world. Oldman will be the first "mobile phone director" to premiere his or her "dramatic art" on the Nseries community website.

Oldman made a promising directorial debut in 1997 with "Nil by Mouth," which went on to receive near universal praise and, recently, a stunningly high rank on a "Greatest British Films of All Time" list by a major British publication. "Nil by Mouth" almost missed this adoration, as it very nearly got shelved, unfinished, when its budget was consumed prematurely during production.

These problems were reversed during a fortuitous dinner engagement with Oldman's old pal Luc Besson, who had worked with the actor previously on "Leon." When Oldman explained his difficulty with Nil, Besson offered to finance the remaining production costs on the condition that Oldman sign on to play the villain in "The Fifth Element," which Besson was at the time preparing for Sony.

Clearly, the rest is history. British cinema has one of its greatest films of all time (apparently), and the sci-fi canon has another carving on its totem pole of mediocrity, due partially to the common complaint that the villainous Zorg felt "out of place," almost as if the actor playing him (Gary Oldman) "was forced to be there."

Krumholtz completes graceful arc of cool sensuality

David Krumholtz, who spent his time in the '90s teaching the movie going public about sensitive anti-social types in films like "Life with Mikey," "Adams Family Values" and "The Slums of Beverly Hills," has lobbied fairly hard in recent years for a seat at the cool kids' table. Krumholz is sweetening the deal with a lead role in Woody Allen's new untitled, Paris-set romcom.





Krumholtz's enterprise of image re-treatment was kicked off with his lauded turn as a suave math expert character in the hit CBS crime drama "Numb3rs" (opposite Rob Morrow), and further padded with a notable role in Joss Whedon's "Serenity." Many believe the motion picture spin-off of Whedon's cult but ultimately canceled Sci-Fi channel program "Firefly" gave Krumholtz a needed science fiction edge.

Plot details for the currently untitled Woody Allen film are being closely guarded. What isknown: the film will be an intimate tale about three young Americans living in Paris and, like Allen's recent London-set film, "Match Point," will have elements of both comedy and high drama. Krumholz as well as Michelle Williams ("Brokeback Mountain") have been cast as principles.

When I first learned of this recent casting I saw this as Krumholtz's completion of a graceful arc from typecast dork to more of a person casting directors can imagine in a wider variety of roles; most importantly, romantic lead parts. His part in this Woody Allen film will certainly qualify for that.

The only hiccup to this elegant notion is that pretty much exactly the same thing could have been said of "American Pie" actor Jason Biggs being cast in the Woody Allen romantic comedy "?" which, hitherto, has done absolutely nothing for his career. In fact, he's never had a lower profile since doing that film.

David Krumholtz is an exciting young actor. Let's hope he completes his graceful arc without damage. Don't forget: he has the red-hot "Numb3rs," a crucial variable absent in the Jason Biggs equation. The popularity of "Numb3rs" could wet nurse Krumholtz's deliverance in the Woody Allen film. Too bad for Biggs, whose popularity had trailed off significantly by the time "?" rolled around. He was flying solo.

Production on the untitled film begins sometime around Summer 2006.

Jason Lee, with both feet planted firmly in the mainstream





Jason Lee, spinning uncontrolably in a vortex of good press for his work on the hit NBC series "My Name is Earl," is being reeled in like a kite in a storm, momentarily, by SpyGlass Entertainment and Walt Disney Pictures. The actor/co-visonary (with some other people) behind "Earl" has been tapped to become the voice of Underdog in the film of the same name.

The cartoon dog character who went from "zero to hero" in the classic '60s TV series, decades later, is finally being transitioned into a major film. Lee, who voiced the villainous "Syndrome" character in 2004's "The Incredibles," is switching sides by playing the heroic Underdog. "Underdog," like 2005's "Garfield: The Movie," will be a live-action film in which CGI characters are seamlessly integrated.

Jason Lee, I feel, is really the first to emerge as a mainstream force from a core of actors associated with, and including, independent filmmaker Kevin Smith. In the last couple of years, Lee has stood up, shaken off the smallness of niche market films like "Clerks" and "Mallrats," and taken flight from his indie nest. He's becoming an actor whose name studio executives can fathom seeing above titles of movies appealing to a broader demographic than the "New Jersey Trilogy."

I would say I can imagine Kevin Smith with a single tear rolling down his face, like "Iron Eyes Cody," standing in the tattered, unholy wake of Lee's road to sell out. Then I remember Smith's own utterly shameless, desperation "leap of faith" for mainstream acceptance shown by his recurring appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," in which the once street credible filmmaker is sent on location around middle America, to poke cheap jabs at "average joe" types; the same people he hopes his "Tonight Show" gig will expand his appeal to including.

I'll go ahead and be optimistic and hope for better things from "Underdog" than "Garfield: The Movie." Unlike Garfield, "Underdog" has only to think its audience is as smart as it is, like the best of kid films. This approach can often let older viewers enjoy the finished film as well.