Summit picks up Doug Liman's 'Fair Game' before its Cannes debut...

...perhaps signaling it might be an Oscar contender. Here's the story from The Hollywood Reporter:

Two weeks before its Cannes Competition premiere, Doug Liman’s fact-based “Fair Game” has been acquired by Summit Entertainment. The studio has picked up North American distribution rights to the political thriller as well as those in Italy, Benelux, Scandinavia, Japan and CIS.

Starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, the film is based on the memoir written by undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband Joseph Wilson’s book, “Politics of Truth.” Jez Butterworth and John Butterworth wrote the screenplay.

Producers include Bill Pohlad of River Road Entertainment, Janet and Jerry Zucker of Zucker Prods., Akiva Goldsman of Weed Road Pictures, Liman via his Hypnotic banner, and Jez Butterworth. The film was financed by River Road, Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi.

“We choose our partners based on a like-minded philosophy,” said Imagenation Abu Dhabi’s CEO Ed Borgerding. “Participant, River Road and Summit share our commitment to supporting films that not only entertain, but also raise awareness of issues and encourage social change.”

-I'm interested in seeing how it does at Cannes...thoughts?

Sean Penn to no longer be a Stooge?

Potentially, according to this in Variety:
Sean Penn's busy shooting schedule has suddenly gone dark.
In an announcement that has caught two studios by surprise, Penn has pulled out of two films, citing personal reasons.
Penn has informed Universal and Imagine that he will be unable to star in the Asger Leth-directed drama "Cartel," which was to be his next movie. His role will be recast. Studio is putting together a list of actors now and hopes to stick with an early fall start date.
Scripted by Peter Craig, the movie follows a man who journeys to protect his son after his wife is murdered by Mexican cartels.
Penn will also be unable to make the start date of MGM comedy "The Three Stooges." He was to star as Larry in the pic, directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. "Stooges" also stars Jim Carrey as Curly and Benicio Del Toro as Moe. It's unclear if the studio will recast or wait for Penn to return to work.
Penn has completed two films for River Road, both earmarked for release next year. "Fair Game," the Doug Liman-directed drama about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, co-stars Naomi Watts. The Terrence Malick-directed "The Tree of Life" also stars Brad Pitt.
During the Cannes Film Festival, Penn was revealed to be in talks to star in "This Must Be the Place," which will mark the English-language feature debut of Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, with a script co-written by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello (Daily Variety, May 17). Pic was to be produced by Nicola Giuliano of Indigo Film and Andrea Occhipinti of Lucky Red. Financing and scheduling were not yet complete on that film, but Penn still intends to make the film at some point.
Penn is taking an undetermined sabbatical -- possibly as much as a year -- to focus on his family.
-Hopefully everything is ok and none of the films suffer...what do you think?

Sean Penn finds another project to add to his slate

From Variety:
Sean Penn is in talks to star in “This Must Be the Place,” a film that will mark the English-language feature debut of Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, who is Un Certain Regard jury prexy at Cannes.
Penn would play a wealthy rock star who becomes bored in his retirement and takes on the quest of finding his father’s executioner, an ex-Nazi war criminal who is a refugee in the U.S.
The script was co-written by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello.
“This Must Be the Place” will be produced by Nicola Guiliano of Indigo Film and Andrea Occhipinti of Lucky Red, producer of Sorrentino’s “Il Divo.”
While conversations about financing are just getting under way, sources said Penn and Sorrentino have made the commitment to work together on the project, pending the completion of his previous film commitments that include “The Three Stooges,” the MGM comedy to be directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly and star Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro; Universal/Imagine drama “Cartel,” to be helmed by Asger Leth; and “Fair Game.” That Doug Liman-directed drama about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame has just gotten under way, with Penn and Naomi Watts starring for River Road.
Penn most recently completed the Terrence Malick-directed “The Tree of Life,” also starring Brad Pitt, for River Road.
-He's certainly not slowing down off of his Oscar win...thoughts?

Is it actually better to LOSE an Oscar than to WIN one?

This article in Cinematical seems to make the arguement that the great films/performances keep their strength by not winning, using The Wrestler/Mickey Rourke as an example:

The Oscars are history now and soon people won't even be able to remember the winners. But I keep thinking about that Best Actor race that came down to a near-draw between Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler (291 screens) and Sean Penn for Milk (111 screens). My group, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, simply called it a tie. We agreed that both men gave the performance of their lifetimes. Other critics groups and other year-end awards also split between them; there was no clear consensus. For my annual predictions, I went with my gut on this one: I got the vague impression that, just from the cultural temperature, people were really into Rourke. But Penn won. And now that it's over -- with some hindsight -- it makes perfect sense. The Oscars didn't want to ruin The Wrestler for us.
The Wrestler is just a couple of months old now, but it has already gained a certain type of following. It has actual fans; people love this movie rather than just admire it. Milk has become a good movie for students to watch in school, but The Wrestler is a film that they will choose to watch, in their free time. It's a cult film now. And cult films don't win Oscars. It automatically disqualifies them from cult status. A cult film is something that people discover on their own. If the Academy acknowledges it, then it has been plucked away and turned into something official. It has a stamp of approval, and cult films are all about not being approved.
You can bet that Citizen Kane wouldn't always poll as the best movie of all time if it had actually won Best Picture in 1941. (The actual winner, How Green Was My Valley, is a good film, but it doesn't get nearly the same kind of love.) Think about films like Showgirls (1995), The Big Lebowski (1998), Fight Club (1999), Donnie Darko (2001), Memento (2001) or Brick (2006). Together those six beloved cult films earned a total of three Oscar nominations, and all lost. (Fight Club for Sound Effects Editing, and Memento for Screenplay and Editing.) Part of the fun of enjoying these films on a cult level is the idea of coming to their rescue, pulling them from obscurity and planting our own flag on them.
Additionally, I seriously believe that part of Martin Scorsese's enduring, loyal following from 1972 all the way through 2006 came from the fact that he never won an Oscar, and thus was never officially accepted. (Just look at his Oscar-winner colleagues like Coppola, Schaffner or Avildsen.) Now Rourke is riding on this cult success. Now that he has become our actor and not their actor, we will demand -- and get to see -- him in lots more films. I imagine the odds are only about 50-50 he will ever be nominated again, but won't it be fun to see him going nuts in two, three or even four movies a year? But better still, just imagine if Penn had lost. He'd probably go back to making more angry, message-laden films, hoping for more nominations. But now that he's got two Oscars, he has stopped, smiled and taken a role as Larry Fine in the upcoming Three Stooges movie! That alone will be worth his Oscar victory.
-What do you think? Does this arguement hold water?