So a friend emailed me the other day asking how they go about reshoots. Seems he read about a film going through reshoots and was wondering what it meant for his league. Well, I'll tell you what it means: Do NOT draft that film. Run for the hills, because disaster is looming. I know that's a blanket statement that's not entirely accurate (the amount of reshoots on the Lord of the Rings trilogy was staggering) but it IS the mindset you should have, and it should drive you to find out more about the film. Reshoots mean something has to be fixed, that the film is not working on some level. Now, sometimes what's not working is a few scenes, moments that need to be tightened or changed for the entire thing to be coherent and plausible. There are also those reshoots that are done as a last-ditch effort to save what will otherwise be an unmitigated disaster. Often this is impossible, but there are exceptions, as you will see below.

No matter what you read, no matter what spin you see put on it, last weekend was a disaster. Everything dropped like a summer blockbuster -- that is to say, 50 percent (or close to it) -- across the board. Nothing was spared. Sure, the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend usually sucks so hard it blows because everyone is out shopping. But come on. A 44.6 percent drop from the same frame last year? Studios will say they were disappointed in the numbers, but are looking for them to bounce back this weekend with a strong blah-de-blah-de-blah. It's time we take the marketing executives out of the closet and expose some of their trade secrets for you.

So the season is moving along, your holiday slate is well underway and your main moves right now are either sweating out your rather crappy openings (Stranger than Fiction screwing me blue and doing its best to make me look like the goof I’ve been accused on many occasions of being), glorifying in your own genius for drafting Borat or 007, or looking to make a trade to unload what looks like a stinker for an up-and-comer. Fantasy columnist Howard Roark (aka Hop Woo) covers the best ideas/options available in his column The Pick-up Artist so I’m not going to bore you with redundant information and get Howie in an uproar for “stepping on his turf”. No, I’m going to look ahead to the 2007 season. Sure, I’ll reference one film in the holiday release schedule, but you have no hope of landing it at this point so it won’t be of any use for you.

This news was too big to pass over and write about something as silly as the purpose of this website and its content. As many of you have heard by now, Tom Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner have been tapped by private financiers to resurrect the currently dormant UA Studios (United Artists). While many rip the couch-dancing fanatic as a lunatic at best and an automaton at worst (or was I the only one who did that?), I couldn’t be tickled any pinker if I was Paris Hilton with a case of Grey Goose and a German Chauffeur named Der Kommisar.

“How long is this guy staying in the Hamptons?” some are wondering. “Didn’t the festival end last weekend?” more ask. “Who the hell does he think he is?” others are saying. Well, we just returned to the City of Angels and I can report to learning several things:

Greetings from Bridgehampton! Yes, it is one of the towns that make up THE Hamptons, and we’re staying on a horse farm – replete with show-winning jumpers – only a hop-skip-and-a-jump from the fine, sandy beaches that help make the Hamptons famous.

Okay, so your draft is coming up. Let's talk about some strategies, some whimsies, and some truly questionable decisions.

We conducted several mock drafts and kicked off our Box Office "league" with our official draft, and if there's one foolproof piece of advice (which means I failed miserably) it is this: do NOT send any vibes, juju, energy - anything you want to call it - about the film you plan on drafting. There were several films that would have been considered chances at the slot I was going to take them - gambles that one would think would preclude others from choosing them. But as soon as I started thinking about them and putting the vibe out there - BOOM! the guy in front of me took them. Every single time. Once, okay, pure chance. Twice... maybe someone's tapping into my lists somehow. EVERY FREAKING TIME??? It was getting scary, quite frankly. Melanie Griffith as a cop being passed off as a Jew in the world of Hasidic Jews scary (A Stranger Among Us). Though the Melanie example is far more vexing. Who sits down and says, "That's a hell of an idea!" when that one comes across the desk? People actually took lunch meetings to make that one happen.

G'day mates! No, I'm not Australian – I just always wanted to start a column with that. Call it a little dream of mine – one that has now been fulfilled. I thank you from the bottom of my cockles.

So, you wanna be a mogul, do ya, kid? DO YA? YOU TALKIN' TO ME? I DON'T SEE ANYBODY ELSE STANDING HERE! Let's just go through a couple of rules first. And by rules, I don't mean the rules of the game. I mean methods to live by – ways of thinking like an executive (and, hopefully, a very successful one who will take not only your friends money in your league but their dignity as well).