Crowe won his Academy Award for his role in Scott's Gladiator, but this is Denzel's first go-round with the director of classics like Blade Runner, Alien and Thelma and Louise. Jeffrey Wells from Hollywood Elsewhere has a secondhand account about the film, which screened in L.A. last week, and his source says that, although Crowe is great, it’s Washington who really shines. What can a gritty Academy Award caliber fall movie yield for your Ultimate Movie Moguls studio? Last year's The Departed yielded an 8.6 IMDb User Rating, $132.3 million domestic, 18 Top 5 points and 1 PTA point. In other words, ignore American Gangster at your own risk.

Beware the killer croc
Back in 2005, Greg Mclean arrived on the scene as writer-director of a little Aussie horror flick called Wolf Creek. It wasn't your average slasher movie, grabbing seven Australian Film Institute nominations (those are the Australian Oscars) and a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Weinstein/Dimension botched the release, using it as Christmas Day 2005 counter-programming, and it managed only $16.1 million domestic despite positive buzz and a solid critical reception.

Mclean's follow-up is an Australia-based killer crocodile movie called Rogue, and MGM/Weinstein will open it wide on Oct. 12. I know what you're thinking. Buena Vista's killer croc movie Primeval died quickly in January with a $6 million opening weekend and $10.5 million domestic. Plus, Anaconda sequel Anacondas: The Hunt for the Black Orchid opened with only $12.8 million in 2004 and finished with $32.2 million domestic, about half the total of 1997's original. Before writing Rogue off, however, look at this trailer.

This picture looks more like Jaws, and that hunch has been backed up by a poster known as Arnie Bragg, who posted this review on Ain’t It Cool News. Arnie, who is obviously an Aussie and knows a thing or two about crocodiles, writes ...

"The croc is pretty good. Mostly CGI, they have done a pretty good job of capturing the movements and behaviours of big crocs. No clunky robots here or snakes that move faster than lightning here ... this croc is doing pretty much what I've seen crocs doing all my life ... just more aggressively ...

"The great thing about this film is that, like Jaws, it's not a completely unbelievable scenario. Sure the croc is slightly bigger than usual (crocs usually don't get much bigger than 6 (meters) ... but that's still bloody huge considering a 2 (meter) croc is big enough to eat a person."

It sounds like the croc itself won't be ridiculous, like the snake in the Anaconda movies, and, although the Weinsteins have really struggled since exiting Disney, they did execute a perfect release of this summer's horror pic 1408. Oct. 12 is a very crowded date, but there's no other scary flick set for release, so I think Rogue is worth a long look.

The "best actor of his generation" strikes again
If you've been reading my work for any length of time, then you probably know that I'm a huge Ryan Gosling fan. In 2001, I saw him in an indie film called The Believer, and I was blown away (put it in your Netflix cue and thank me later). Since then, this former Mickey Mouse Club member has done a creepy turn in Sandra Bullock's Murder By Numbers, generated sparks with Rachel McAdams in The Notebook, scored a solid hit and held his own with Anthony Hopkins in Fracture, and earned an Oscar nomination for his work in last year's Half Nelson.

For my money, he's the best under-30 actor there is. One of Gosling's gifts is choosing the right material. Half Nelson is a great example. It's a small film about a gifted teacher who is addicted to drugs. This is a complex character, filled with guilt and sweetness, and shame and innate goodness. For his next trick, this 27-year-old Canadian will play a lonely guy who is in love with a life size doll in Lars and the Real Girl (MGM).

Peter Sciretta from Slash Film points out that this quirky picture is written by longtime Six Feet Under staff writer Nancy Oliver, and there is definitely a dark comic feel in this trailer. As strange as the premise is, however, the trailer reeled me in. Emily Mortimer also stars, and after her work in Lovely and Amazing and Match Point, she is definitely someone to watch. Lars and the Real Girl isn't a good play for Box Office Moguls, but if you're playing Ultimate, you can expect a very good IMDb User Rating and 4-7 PTA points. If, by chance, Gosling generates Golden Globe and Oscar buzz, $15 million domestic is possible and 10-12 PTA points wouldn't be out of the question.

Could your kid play Fantasy Moguls?
Maybe not. But your kid might be able to make thousands of dollars as an abstract painter. That's what happened to 4-year-old Marla Olmstead, and it's all captured in My Kid Could Paint That (Sony Classics), set for limited release Oct. 5. The film was directed by Amir Bar-Lev and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. You can check out the trailer at Awards Daily.

It's an interesting story, and I have no doubt this is a well-made little film, but there has been a real glut of documentaries, and it's getting tougher and tougher for the good ones to break through. My Kid Could Paint That appears headed for a domestic gross in the $750,000-$1.25 million range, and with Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.) opening on just a handful of screens on Oct. 5, along with sure-fire blockbuster The Heartbreak Kid (Dreamworks/Paramount) opening wide, the Sony Classics doc is unlikely to manage any more than 3 PTA points.