Reel World

PENN-DULUM Sean Penn’s performance as a mentally challenged father battling for custody of his daughter in I Am Sam is already getting Oscar buzz, but the movie, cowritten and directed by Jessie Nelson (Corrina, Corrina) looked like anything but a slam dunk when it was being developed at Fox several years ago. According to one of the filmmakers, Fox was unwilling to make the $25 million movie with Penn, who had written a scathing letter to the company after being denied the use of a corporate jet to attend a screening for 1998’s The Thin Red Line. A Fox spokesperson denies that Penn was the problem, citing ”general creative differences [that made us] unable to move forward on the movie.” Last year, Sam jumped to New Line, with Michelle Pfeiffer attached to costar as a hard-charging lawyer. But then Michael DeLuca, who had greenlit the film, left the company, and a few weeks later, the day before filming began, New Line announced layoffs that included the executive on the film, Claire Polstein (who stayed on as a producer). On the bright side, says the filmmaker, ”We didn’t get a single note in postproduction. We stayed just under the radar.” Sam will receive an Oscar-qualifying limited run Dec. 28, opening nationally in January.

CANDY COATING It would appear that these days, studio executives are concerned about scaring audiences even on Halloween: Screenwriter Michael Bender recently sold a comedic pumpkin pitch to Columbia about a group of older wayward kids who steal candy from innocents. ”It’s kind of like a spaghetti western,” says Bender, who also cowrote the parody Not Another Teen Movie, which will be released Dec. 14. ”It’s not spooky.” As for the pitch meeting, held the week after the terrorist attacks, ”The difference in the room was amazing,” says Bender. ”You really felt that people wanted family stuff.”