At any rate, someone at Fantasy Moguls felt it was time to give these low-key films a column of their own and they decided to hand that column over to me. (Was it wisdom or foolishness? Only time will tell.) If you're a fellow Mogul, you may already have met me under the very French and very mysterious name Chienfantome. (If we have met, you may already be asking yourself, "Why on Earth have they chosen that French dude?!" And the truth is, I'm asking myself the same question.) (Wink.) If you haven't met me before and you're only just discovered that there is a Frenchman squatting beneath the cool name Indie Jones ... it's okay, they know.

So before I begin, of course, I have a couple of thanks to address. The first goes to our favorite bard, Shrykespeare. By my arrival, his duties will be reduced, on his personal recommendation. The Arizonan sun must have hit him too hard if he really thinks he wasn't good enough to keep doing the job, but I trust him to compose an even better Bard's Eye View each week now that he'll have fewer films to think about. My second thanks goes to the less visible Mr. X ... no, not the guy played by Paul Giamatti in The Nanny Diaries, but my new editor, who made the final decision to entrust me with this column. I hope he won't regret his choice.

So here's the deal. Each week, I will enlighten you on the upcoming arthouse releases scheduled to open on the third weekend after the date of each column, whether they are U.S. indies or foreign flicks (not chicks, Mr. Reynolds, flicks). They may only screen in a few theaters in North America, but they still deserve to be recognized. And, of course, fellow Moguls, some of them are highly valuable for your slates, especially in Ultimate Movie Moguls Leagues. I will also, at the end of each column, draw your attention to a film opening several weeks away but worth becoming aware of right now. So this week, we're gonna take a look at the Sept. 7 releases: one Middle-East drama, two American indies, a British documentary and, finally, a last-minute put-back a little further out in the release schedule.

Three years ago, an Israeli film came out of nowhere and turned out to be one of 2004's most beautiful pieces of cinema. The film was Walk on Water, and its director, Eytan Fox, will bear the weight of great expectation regarding his new film, The Bubble. Walk on Water told the tale of a Mossad agent asigned to protect a young German and find out where his Nazi grandfather is hiding, but Fox's latest film takes him to Tel Aviv and the young people who live there (the film's title is a reference to the nickname of that bustling Israeli city). The main characters of the film are three friends in their 20s, two guys and a girl, living between the thoughtlessness of youth and their anti-war activism. It's a light and yet poignant tale of friendship, love, doubt, war and pacifism that often has an unexpected and pleasant "feel good" vibe. It's not as strong or moving as Walk on Water, if you ask me, maybe because it tries to say too much, but it's still a sharp and engaging film.

The Bubble was released in the summer 2006 in Israel, and has since been presented at film festivals all around the world, including prestigious ones such as Toronto, Seattle and especially Berlin, where the film was awarded a couple of prizes. Three years ago, Walk on Water opened in 10 theaters and logged a per theater average above $6,000, going on to garner $2.7 million. I'm pretty sure that 99 percent of the people who saw that film will be interested in seeing this one, which captures with great sensibility what it's like being young in Tel Aviv. The Bubble is currently planned for a very small release, three theaters around Los Angeles, which could augur a good PTA result for Moguls players. And the current user rating of 7.3 is, I'd say unlikely to change much, which might make it a nice film to spend a few bucks on — $11 to be precise, if you're shopping in a brand new September-November Ultimate Movie Moguls league.

Next we have Fierce People, and what you can easily say about this film is that movies that are released many years after their production, movies that frequently appear and disappear from the release schedule, rarely find commercial success. Unless you're Francis Coppola and win a Palme d'Or with an unfinished movie tripping about the smell of napalm in the morning, then your much-delayed film is very likely to stay a few days in the theaters and go find a better life on DVD.

Fierce People is the fourth feature film by actor-turned-director Griffin Dunne, best known as the unfortunate hero of Martin Scorsese's After Hours. It's an adaptation of Dick Wittenborn's novel of the same title about the summer of a teenager who, after being caught by the police buying cocaine for his mother, is brought by that same mother to a countryside manor where she will work as a masseuse for the aged owner. The boy, who'd hoped to spend his holidays with his father, an anthropologist, decides to seize the moment and observe, as his father would, the living habits of the many people he meets there.

The theme is intriguing, and had the movie been released two years ago, as was initially intended, it might have been a tidy little success. Now, however, it seems like the movie was made ages ago: It premiered at Tribeca in April of ... 2005, and has been released in more than half a dozen countries already, in theaters or on DVD, without positive much word-of-mouth. If nothing else, the movie will probably benefit from its cast, which includes promising young actors Anton Yelchin and Kristen Stewart , as well as the invaluable Donald Sutherland and Diane "the older I get, the hotter I look" Lane, as well as Chris Evans, who's appearing in his fourth film just this summer, after playing the Human Torch again in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, in addition to appearing as a dedicated astronaut in the soon-to-be-cult-classic Sunshine and playing a hunk in The Nanny Diaries. Fantasy Moguls predictions are low key, no Top 5, no PTA and a 5.5 user rating. The rating probably won't be quite that bad (it should stay at least in the low 6s), but you should indeed not expect any Top 5 or PTA points. There are better options for $3.

There have already been a few "declaration titles" this year. I Think I Love My Wife. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. Here's another one, with the strangest title of them all, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With. No, it's not a documentary about the love life of cheese eaters in Holland, but in fact a romantic comedy set in Chicago. Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Jeff Garlin, the film follows a 40-year-old struggling actor living with his mother and desperately trying to lose weight and, of course, find love.

Garlin transposes one of his one-man shows to the silver screen, bringing in quite a troupe of Second City comedians from different generations. He plays the lead himself and also ropes in Bonnie Hunt, Amy Sedaris, Dan Castellaneta and a few others. On top of that that, the lead actress and love interest of the Garlin character is portrayed by Sarah Silverman. That's practically an entire family's worth of comic talent. Garlin is far from being a film star, having yet to make it big in movies (his biggest success is a supporting role in Daddy Day Care ... yikes!), but his work on the small screen, from Curb Your Enthusiasm to his occasional stint on Arrested Development certainly hints that he has talent.

In both August-October and September-November Ultimate leagues, I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With will cost you $7 (it can be had for just $2 in Box Office Moguls leagues). Fantasy Moguls predictions are for 2 Top 5 points and a 6.2 user rating. The film is opening in only one theater in New York City, a year-and-a-half after being presented at Tribeca. Given the talent involved and its tiny release, gleaning a couple of PTA points is definitely possible. But given that very few people will see the film, its IMDb rating won't climb much, and it currently stands under 6. So if you're already good on User Ratings and are just looking for a few extra PTA points, it might be a good film to take into consideration. If you don't want to take a tumble in said User Ratings, look elsewhere.

If you think $7 is a gamble, what would you say about the fact that British documentary In the Shadow of the Moon will set you back $19 in the same season ? It sure is a strong price for a film that can almost certainly not be counted on to have a measurable impact in either box-office or Top 5 points. BUT. (Yeah, I'm sure you knew this was coming, there's gotta be a "but" once in a while) Sometimes you gotta be brave and take your shot at something pricey, and In the Shadow of the Moon just might be a good gamble. While the current trend is to focus documentaries on animals, the environment, or the Iraq War, this one covers an original and fascinating subject, the conquest of outer space. Combining archival footage and conversations with surviving astronauts, the movie specifically deals with the Apollo moon missions.

The new last frontier still intrigues and fascinates, and a reportedly well-crafted doc on the subject should do the same, as its Audience Award win at the Sundance Film Festival in January would indicate. The film opens in New York and Los Angeles, so PTA should be strong initially, and with expansions forecast in the following weeks, you can reasonably expect more than 5 PTA points. As far as User Ratings go, In the Shadow of the Moon currently sits just below 9. I'm guessing that the worst case scenario would be a plunge to the low 8s. Still a very strong rating. Just don't expect to revive your box-office stats with this one.

There's also a slight chance that The Hunting Party, by director Richard Shepard (The Matador), will be released in a couple (maybe more) of New York and Los Angeles theaters on Sept. 7. Well now, one might assume it would be a sure thing. But The Weinstein Company is playing with this film like a yo-yo, one week announcing an Aug. 17 release, the next week removing it completly from the release schedule (they also changed the title; at one point, it used to be Springbreak in Bosnia), before deciding ... for now ... to open it in September as a platform release.

It's a shame the Weinsteins don't know, apparently, what to do with this movie, which follows three American reporters going back to the Balkans after the Bosnian War to track down a war criminal. Shepard is a good director; The Matador was funny as hell and probably had the best performance Pierce Brosnan has ever gratified us with. The subject of Shepard's new movie is interesting, based on an article published in Esquire a while ago, and it stars Richard Gere, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg (the elder kid from The Squid and the Whale). There's a lot of artistic talent involved, and its official selection at the Venice Film Festival indicates quality.

But given the way the film is being handled by its distributor, if it really is released this September, well, it won't have much impact on the box-office. It could grab a couple of PTA points, depending on the reviews, and it should be able to have a decent IMDb user rating, from 6.5 to low 7, but it's hard to tell since no one seems to have actually seen the movie. As unpredictable as the film's potential is, the price in Ultimate Leagues for the August-October season is a bit high at $9. It's not much for a movie starring Richard Gere and Terrence Howard drama, but more than enough for a movie that changes its release date as often as The Dude scores a strike. Well, maybe not THAT often ... but still. I know I won't put it on any of my slates.

Instead, you might be wise to take a look several weeks ahead. As I told you, every week, at the end of my column, I will recommend a film opening a couple of months away, a limited release that could be the next indie sensation. It's a totally subjective weekly feature that I'd like to inaugurate with a film I genuinely love, Control. Directed by photographer and music video specialist Anton Corbijn, the film follows the personal and musical journey of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Manchester band Joy Division, who took his own life more than 20 years ago at age 23. Control made a thundering debut at the Cannes Film Festival last May, opening the Director's Fortnight and earning some of the festival's best reviews. It also finished second in the Best First Feature Film competition. It's not your typical musical biopic: an unknown is the lead actor, the film was shot in a beautiful black and white, and it's much more an intimate look at the life of a tortured soul than a glowing and entertaining movie. It's the kind of movie that haunts you several days after you've seen it. The U.S. release is scheduled for Oct. 10, a Wednesday. Mark that date. A lot of people will be talking about this movie by then.

That's it for today, ladies, gentlemen, Moguls and curious visitors. I hope I'll manage, through this column, to convince you that it's worth placing a few (and sometimes a lot) of your Moguls dollars on small releases that, at first glance, aren't much to look at. And if it also convinces you to go and see some of the films in theaters (or put your hand on the DVDs if you live far far away from a good indie theater), well, I might prove myself useful in the end. So thanks again to Shrykespeare, the X and everyone else who read this column till the last line. And Nico, if you are reading this, I dedicate this first "Dances with the Arthouse" to you.

Indie Jones is not nearly as Frantic as Harrison Ford once was about finding himself in The City of Lights. Welcome him to fold at danceswiththearthouse@gmail.com.