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"Max Payne" has box-office crown in its sights (Reuters)

ORLANDO (Hollywood Reporter) - The movie theater operators who attended the ShowEast conference here had to rush back to change their marquees Friday as another batch of new titles hit multiplexes.

Among the newcomers is 20th Century Fox's "Max Payne," an adaptation of the action-packed videogame that stars Mark Wahlberg in the titular avenging-cop role and has the young-male demographic in its sights. How high into the teen millions it will open depends on how many young men bring dates to the theater Saturday, with its Friday debut likely to be substantial regardless.

But the movie certainly won't have the market to itself, and the studio even has a second wide-release debutante of its

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Americans behaving badly abroad seek independence and redemption in writer-director Seth Grossman's "The Elephant King." Vaguely pitched somewhere between indie-gritty and predictably conventional, the film struggles to strike a manageable equilibrium, much as its characters attempt to navigate the prospects and pitfalls of a footloose life overseas.

Lacking a sufficiently compelling cast or a genuinely engaging narrative, production company Unison Films' first foray into distribution, opening Friday (October 17), likely will face widespread indifference in an art-house market already awash with independent releases and awards-season specialty contenders.

Los Angeles (E! Online) - • Steve Carell's got a Napoleon complex. The Get Smart star is dumbing down to play the title character in The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard, per Variety. The comedy (what else?) centers on a Clouseau-like buffoon in the French army during the Napoleonic Wars and is written by the guys behind Blades of Glory and inspired by stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

• Speaking of Blades of Glory, Will Arnett just scored some big bucks from Fox to create and star in his own sitcom for the 2009-10 season. Call it an arresting development deal.

• Da biopic! Da biopic! Fantasy Island fans have had a dream come true with word that Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve Zaillian

Is there room among the pratfalls and bedroom tirades of YouTube for an experimental, full-length film?

On Friday, the director Wayne Wang will premiere his movie "The Princess of Nebraska" on the video sharing site. It will be available to watch for free at the YouTube Screening Room, a recently launched channel for movies: http://www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom.

Wang, who has made both studio films (1993's "The Joy Luck Club") and indies (1995's "Smoke"), is one of the most notable filmmakers to try giving away a film for free online. While it has become standard practice in music for albums to stream for free, movies are generally only available for free illegally.

Last month, Michael Moore release

LOS ANGELES - For people in the beauty business, Hollywood is Mecca: Regular doses of red-carpet glamour, plus headline-making haircuts and camera-ready stars on practically every corner.

But most outside the entertainment industry don't know their AD from their PA. Stylists might be slick with the shears, but aren't quite clear on the difference between an art director and a creative director — possibly hindering their success in this insular business.

That's why celebrity stylist Michael Shaun Corby and Alterna Professional Haircare launched the Hollywood Production Course — a three-day class that pulls back the curtain and teaches hairdressers the looks and lingo of the entertainment industry.

Here's the one thing that makes "Max Payne" comparatively painless: Unlike most movies based on video games — the entire filmography of German director Uwe Boll, for example — it doesn't try to replicate the sensation of playing. It doesn't make you think you're controlling the characters, doesn't place you in the middle of their nausea-inducing world.

Instead, "Max Payne" is just a straight-up action picture, and a rather bombastic, familiar one at that.

Director John Moore ("Behind Enemy Lines") rips off John Woo with endless, hyperstylized shootouts, all in slow motion with shattered glass showering everything in a million little pieces. All that's missing are the strategically placed doves.

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