James Bond may be in hock, but that doesn’t mean screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade aren’t doing their usual globetrotting.

The “Quantum of Solace” and “Casino Royale” co-writers have been hired by Parkes MacDonald/Imagenation to pen an original action thriller based on a concept from Michael Lieber and Walter Parkes. Parkes, Lieber and Laurie MacDonald are producing the project.

The story takes place among the nomadic Taureg tribes of West Africa, an area rich with uranium that has become a focal point for both energy companies and terrorist states. An American anthropologist is thrust Into this geopolitical mess when he must travel back to the Sahara to help a former research subject who has been accused of a terrorist attack.

“At its heart, this is an action movie set within a world that is morally complex, alluring and completely real -- which is why Robert and Neal, whose work spans James Bond to John Le Carre, are uniquely suited to bring a project like this to life,” said Parkes.

Parkes/MacDonald Prods. exec Marc Resteghini is overseeing the film for the company.

As usual, the Telluride Film Festival is steadfastly refusing to release its official program until the fest opens Sept. 3. But given the high-altitude, low-intensity fest's growing reputation for having a kudos-christening golden touch, it's tempting to speculate on what festivalgoers are likely to see there. (And then see again, after the New Year, swimming in nominations.)

In the last few years, festival programmers have cannily slung one or two last-minute surprises into the mix that ended up skating on to awards-season attention. "Slumdog Millionaire" is the most noteworthy example; the film was slipped in as a last-minute premiere in September 2008 on its way to eight Oscars, including best picture, five months later.

But award-heavy films "Juno" (2007), "The Last King of Scotland" (2006), "Walk the Line" (2005) and "Brokeback Mountain" (2005) all got their start at the Colorado mountain fest too. Last year's surprises included "Up in the Air," Jason Reitman's follow-up to "Juno" that landed six Oscar noms; John Hillcoat's "The Road"; and Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" -- plus a little horror indie called "Paranormal Activity."

So what's climbing the mountain to this year's 37th edition?

I happen to think Paul Haggis made a truly great film with "In the Valley of Elah." It used genre elements to tell an unexpected and devastating story about the disturbing consequences of war on simple human beings.

This trailer, for the Lionsgate thriller "The Next Three Days," comes off like nothing but genre conventions. It also gives away the entire storyline, and the final shot is just plain ludicrous. Sigh ...

Let's hope it's better than it looks. It hits theaters Nov. 19.

Oh, boy.

So here it is, the teaser for Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix's "I'm Still Here." And it's ...

Well, it's hard to describe. Or understand. Or watch.

But again, maybe that's what they're going for. A look at the credits shows that the production company for this enigmatic enterprise is They Are Going to Kill Us Prods. Is that a prediction about audience reaction? Or are they admitting that they made the film to pay off a mob debt?

Check it out:

The boxoffice results this weekend played out as many expected, though I gave the geek crowd more credit than they apparently deserved in terms of supporting "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World." But preliminary results matched the Risky Bullseye from Thursday fairly closely.

"The Expendables" trampled the competition with $35 million, though I put my prediction up at $40 million. Admittedly, I may have gotten swept up in the exuberance of supporting Stallone's renewed triumph there.

I predicted that Julia Roberts and Ryan Murphy's "Eat Pray Love" would come in around $25 million, with strong legs behind it. It opened at $23.7 million. Hold your applause.

Now, "Pilgrim's" activity was comparable to "Love's" on late Wednesday, so I guessed an opening just under $20 million. But poor Scott ended up at a measly $10.5 million. I think when it came down to it, a good portion of those potential viewers found something else to do or ended up heading for the Sly-fest down the hall instead. Either way, I pooched that one pretty good.

Interest in "The Other Guys" in its second week stayed strong, so I put it well above the holdover haul for "Dinner for Schmucks" the week before. "Guys" hit $18 million, well above "Schmucks'" $10.5 million from the previous week.

This coming week, we'll have the latest Regency spoof, "Vampires Suck," sneaking into theaters early on Wednesday from Fox. And then "Piranha 3D," "Nanny McPhee Returns," "The Switch" and "Lottery Ticket" opening wide Friday. As always, I'll take the new-release temperature Thursday afternoon, so you'll get an up-to-the-minute reading of the tens of millions of Flixster users sizing up their imminent film options.

A report came flying out of the U.K. today that Angelina Jolie would be playing Marilyn Monroe in a new movie project. Apparently, George Clooney would also appear as Ol' Blue Eyes in an adaptation of the book "The Life And Opinions Of Maf The Dog, And Of His Friend Marilyn Monroe" from author Andrew O'Hagan.

The source? Andrew O'Hagan.

"Unforgiven" screenwriter David Peoples will receive the Distinguished Screenwriter Award at the Austin Film Festival in October. The scribe, who also co-wrote "Twelve Monkeys" and "Blade Runner," joins a list of previous honorees that includes Steven Zaillian ("Schindler's List"), James L. Brooks ("Terms of Endearment") and Horton Foote ("Tender Mercies").

Peoples will be honored at the fest's awards luncheon Saturday, October 23, at the Austin Club. David Simon ("The Wire") is set to receive the Outstanding Television Writer Award at the luncheon, as well. Still to be selected is the recipient of the Extraordinary Contribution to Film Award (previously handed to Danny Boyle and Oliver Stone, among others).

A former film editor, Peoples will also participate in several panels during the four-day screenwriting conference that runs in tandem with the beginning of the film festival, which is happening October 21-28.

Sadly -- and no offense meant to Peoples -- this continues the unbroken AFF streak of choosing only men for its awards. Out of 28 recipients since the fest's launch in 1994, exactly zero of them have been female writers and/or filmmakers.

I know this is Texas, but come on.

The conference panels and seminars are well represented by women each year, but surely there's a living female screenwriter that has earned enough of a reputation to deserve this kind of elevated recognition. It's possible that fest organizers have asked women like Nancy Meyers and Nora Ephron or Susannah Grant and Audrey Wells and that they have declined the honor, but I don't know how likely that is.

Or perhaps it's a function of the skewed history of an industry that has kept opportunities for women screenwriters both minimal and undervalued when delivered on. Whatever the case, as much as I love and champion the Austin fest's unique focus on the industry's writers, I hope to see some variety up on the podium in years to come.

Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to Dana Adam Shapiro's "Monogamy," starring Chris Messina, Rashida Jones and Meital Dohan. The indie distributor plans an early 2011 release in theaters.

The drama involves a strange triangle as a bored wedding photographer (Messina) on the verge of marrying his fiance (Jones), starts taking jobs snapping surreptitious photos of clients as they go about their daily lives. When an exhibitionist (Dohan) hires him, his growing obsession with her threatens to derail his relationship at home.

"Monogamy" had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and won the best New York narrative award. Shapiro, who co-wrote "Monogamy" with Evan M. Wiener, was nominated for an Oscar for co-directing the documentary "Murderball" in 2005.

Ving Rhames and “NYPD Blue” star Henry Simmons have been cast in Gyre Entertainment’s indie sports drama “From the Rough.” "Harry Potter" regular Tom Felton is in negotiations to join the film, as well.

Pierre Bagley is producing and directing the project, which stars Taraji P. Henson as Cassandra Turner, a women’s swim coach at an African American university who gets a shot at rebuilding the men’s golf team. The real-life story is inspired by Dr. Catana Starks, the first female head coach of an NCAA Division I men’s team, as the golf coach at Tennessee State University.

Simmons will play the upper-class director of the school’s athletic department that bumps up against Turner’s blue-collar approach. Rhames will play Roger, a veteran maintenance man at the college who knows everything about everyone on campus. And Felton, who is an avid golfer in real life, will play Edward, a British golf hustler whom Turner recruits for the team.

Michael A. Critelli wrote the screenplay and will be an executive producer along with Kevin E. Hooks. The film is scheduled to begin filming in New Orleans in early October.

Columbia pushed its first trailer for James L. Brooks' "How Do You Know" out to Yahoo Movies today.

Fox has released the first trailer for its fall release "Love & Other Drugs," starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Writer-director Ed Zwick is back in the romantic comedy zone for the first time since "About Last Night ...," which was released 24 years ago. And without taking away from films such as "The Siege," "Defiance" and "Glory," it seems clear that this is the genre in which he does his most natural work -- something he's relegated to his television series ("thirtysomething," "Once and Again") since 1986.

If the Bullseye for the Aug. 13 weekend sends a message, it's that this year's late summer calendar is a lot more interesting than usual. Every kind of movie possible -- spoof, horror, grindhouse, thriller, action comedy, romance, action, comic book, family film, dance, black comedy, romantic comedy, urban comedy, heist caper and B-movie horror in the form of deadly fish (in 3D!!) -- is available to the discerning cineaste looking for a night out in the dark.

The wide openers pit Lionsgate's testosterama "The Expendables" against Columbia's lady-porn "Eat Pray Love," while Universal's geektastic "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" plays for the youth dollars.

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In the holdover department, Columbia's "The Other Guys" looms large over the center of the Bullseye, while Disney's "Step Up 3D" retains surprising activity (if not commitment). Meanwhile, genre newbies "Resident Evil: Afterlife" from Screen Gems and "Machete" from Fox came out swinging.

Sony Pictures Classics has the indie crowd pretty much to itself when it unleashes its grand jury prize-winning Sundance drama "Animal Kingdom."

Here’s Carl DiOrio's boxoffice preview and the Bullseye for the weekend of Aug. 6, plus my Monday follow-up, for added context.

Comments and observations after the jump: