Going solo Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., stars of "The Soloist," reportedly were "blindsided" by Paramount's decision last week to push the film's release back from Nov. 21 to March 13, effectively taking it out of awards consideration. Speculation has it that the movie, a true-life drama about the relationship between a newspaper columnist and a homeless musician, was being punished for being a DreamWorks production in the wake of that company's bitter divorce from Paramount. Meanwhile, several other high-profile movies have also been shifted, including Daniel Craig's "Defiance," whose wide release has been moved from Dec. 12 to Jan. 16, and the highly anticipated "The Road," based on a novel by Cormac ("No Country for Old Men") McCarthy and starring Viggo Mortensen, which was first moved from Nov. 26 to sometime in December, and then into 2009.
The final reel Steven Soderbergh is wooing Catherine Zeta-Jones and Hugh Jackman for a 3-D live-action rock 'n' roll musical about original glamor girl Cleopatra. ... Anne Hathaway will star in "The Fiancé," billed as a romantic comedy. How many yuks can she mine from such a sore subject? ... "Troy" wasn't enough: Brad Pitt will be back in a leather toga in George Miller's adaptation of "The Odyssey."
CYNTHIA DICKISON
