For the past few weeks, limited releases have almost vanished from the calendar of the Web site that provides a lot of the scheduling information used by Fantasy Moguls, Box Office Mojo. BOM sometimes has troubles with its dates for wide releases, but arthouse films are even more problematic, which limits the offering of films for Fantasy Moguls players. As a consequence, for the past two weeks I've had no films to preview on Dances with the Arthouse, while in reality five arthouse films are being released in U.S. theaters on Sept. 5 alone, including Hallam Foe (aka Mister Foe) which, if I had to make the list of my Ten Favorite Films of 2008 so far, would be included in it.

Last year, in my very first column, I discussed five films that were to be released on Sept. 7. This past month of August gave me the opportunity to discuss six films ... for the whole month. I am as frustrated as you probably are, and hope something will happen in the very near future to finally give Box Office Mojo's, and thus Fantasy Moguls's, release schedule the richness we all deserve.

Now, after a few weeks of emptiness, there are finally films I can write about this week, two precisely, opening on Sept. 12, although one of them might be released much wider than the usual "limited" that Dances with the Arthouse covers. In these starving days, it will be more than enough to reinvigorate you, Fantasy Moguls player or hazardous wanderer, with some arthouse love.

I am sure there are fans of late HBO series Six Feet Under around here, and I think I'm not going too far out on a limb by saying that Towelhead is one of their most anticipated films of the season. For this is Alan Ball's directorial debut, the first film to be directed by the creator not only of Six Feet, but also of the screenplay for American Beauty (almost a decade ago). For his first time behind the camera, Ball boldly decided to adapt Alicia Eran's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, which explores racism through the character of Jasira, a 13-year-old Arab-American teen living with her strict father while on the cusp of discovering her sexuality.

A film destined to raise a few eyebrows and feed a few animated conversations about racism in America, Towelhead was shot two years ago, and shown at Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007 under the title Nothing is Private. After many months, and presentations at Sundance and in Seattle, Ball's film took back the book's title, which recently created a polemic. The Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded that Warner Bros., distributing the film through its specialty division Warner Independent Pictures, change the title, objecting that "the use of such a derogatory term by a major film studio will serve to increase its acceptability in public discourse." Alan Ball and Warner stuck to Towelhead, arguing the film was plainly not intended to encourage the use of such language.

A little debate over the release of a film never hurts it, and this one also has a few other interesting assets on its side. Well, one major one, at least: Aaron Eckhart. Up until this summer, the actor was an indie darling with a few arthouse successes (Thank You For Smoking, In the Company of Men) and several Hollywood misses (The Core, Paycheck, Possession, Suspect Zero) on his resume. Summer 2008 changed the stakes. Eckhart appeared in the biggest Hollywood movie of the year, both in terms of quality and of revenues. The Dark Knight suddenly made him one of the hottest actors on the map, with his portrayal of Harvey Dent  earning him rave reviews from both critics and fanboys. His presence, alongside Toni Collette, Maria Bello and newcomer Summer Bishil, clearly boosts the chances of Towelhead. It won't be a box-office hit, but it may attract some Batfans who would not have gone see it without the presence of Two Face in the cast.

The R-rated drama opens on Sept. 12 in New York City and Los Angeles, before expanding in subsequent weeks. With the announcement of Warner Bros.'s decision to shutter Warner Independent Pictures, Towelhead may very well become the last film to be distributed by the label. After such successes as March of the Penguins and Good Night, and Good Luck., WIP has suffered many flops these past two years (The 11th Hour, In the Valley of Elah, etc.), and the studio has the opportunity to go to its grave in style.

If the film won't be much help in the Box Office Moguls leagues, its prospoects in Ultimate Movie Moguls games are much brighter. Given how few in number the limited releases are in September (per Fantasy Moguls's calendar, anyway), such a strong contender could easily grab many PTA points, 6 or 7 being a low projection. I wouldn't be surprised if the film grabbed around 10. Which would make it an interesting catch for $13, with the excellent User Rating the film is sure to get (it currently sits at 8.2 with more than 300 votes). Box-office numbers will not be impressive, but thanks to the scheduled expansion, it could rise as high as $10 million, though that is an optimistic prediction.

Coincidentally, the other arthouse release of the week is The Women, the long-gestating remake of the George Cukor classic. What is funny is that The Women is being released by Picturehouse, another specialty label that is about to be shut down, following the absorption of New Line by Warner Bros.

A high-class remake of 1939 comedy about women gossiping has been in the works for years during which all kinds of speculations about a possible cast have arisen. Who, nowadays, in Hollywood, could fill the shoes of Norma Shearer, Paulette Godard, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine and of course Joan Crawford? Could it be possible in the contemporary cinema to line up such a cast? It has taken time to put up these new Women, and it seems that, over the years, the hype surrounding the film has slowed down. The mind behind the remake is Diane English, a writer and producer making her directorial debut here. She's managed to assemble a "star-studded" cast, but you couldn't really call it an "A-list" roster.

In the original play by Clare Boothe Luce, as well as the 1939 Cukor film, there was no male character in the story (at least not in any other form than just verbal mentions of them), and it seems English managed to keep that interesting challenge intact in her version. So what does the cast look like in the end? Annette Bening, Meg Ryan, Debra Messing, Candice Bergen, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Bette Midler, Cloris Leachman and Carrie Fisher. Now, with all due respect to these (some of them excellent) actresses, only one of them could be considered a "hot" property right now in Hollywood, Eva Mendes. The others have not had a real success in quite a while, or never really acquired the status of movie stars.

Still, Picturehouse seems on the way of releasing the PG-13 film in an unusally large combination of theaters for the studio, as Filmjerk predicts 2,500 locations on Sept. 12. On the paper it looked more like a film that would necessitate a platform release, but apparently they have enough faith in what they've got to to launch it big (perhaps hoping to surf on the last eddies of the Sex and the City wave), or, on the contrary, so little faith they prefer to bank on the name cast and try to grab as much money as possible quickly (I tend to think the second speculation is the accurate one).

Fantasy Moguls wants $8 for your date with The Women in Box Office, and $12 in Ultimate. Personally I would not give The Women a call in either category. This film has no Sex and the City-sized fanbase, no real box-office hero in its cast, no famous filmmaker behind the camera, and  ... well, I can't say the trailers have been very thrilling. I won't even speculate about reviews, which will inevitably compare the new film to Cukor's, a comparison that I really, really doubt the new Women can withstand. In 2,500 locations, the film won't get PTA points, or at least won't get more than 1 or 2, thanks to the lack of competition, maybe one or two Top 5 points, and I think it will have difficulties meeting Fantasy Moguls's predictions of $22 million in total box-office numbers.

Next week, Appaloosa, Battle in Seattle, Elite Squad and Wayne Wang's beautiful A Thousand Years of Good Prayers should be on my Dances with the Arthouse dance card. Maybe the new September-November season of Fantasy Moguls will invite them into the Moguls mix. At any rate, I will still have Hounddog and The Duchess to examine, so be on time for our appointment!

If Indie Jones had been directing The Women, then he'd have definitely cast Gong Li instead of Eva Mendes. Then magazines like Variety could have announced the casting by saying "Jones bongs Gong for Women." Who would you have cast? Send smoke signals to danceswiththearthouse@gmail.com.