* The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has issued an APB for 79 year-old cinema bad boy, Jean-Luc Godard, director of such groundbreaking classics as “Contempt,” “Breathless,” “Weekend,” “Alphaville,” and others that might be just a little bit of work to sit through (but sometimes work is good for you). It seems they want to give him a lifetime achievement award, but when you’ve made a life of flouting cinema conventions and being lauded more than just about anyone in artsier quarters, an Oscar might not be a guy’s greatest craving. If you have information on the whereabouts of the cineaste, please report it in comments forthwith.

* You know that standard sitcom episode where the office prima donna is given a new “assistant” and is terrified the new guy is really just a replacement in waiting? I’m thinking the set of “Mission: Impossible IV” might be just a little bit like that and I’m in now way implying that I think the new guy is a vastly more interesting actor than the other guy. Okay, I am.

* John Cusack will be Edgar Allen Poe in a new film inspired by the great writer’s poem “The Raven.” Something tells me it’ll be a lot less funny than the last movie with that title.

* Oh, brave, brave Dennis Miller, taking on sacred cow James Cameron whom no one has ever made fun of or criticized. (Remember the “king of the world” remark? Remember about a million pre-“Avatar” release blog posts and few million others afterwards?) Is THR’s Paul Bond completely in the thrall of rightwing radio memes?

* The long-awaited conclusion of the ultimate cinephile blogger summit is upon us. Yay.

* Director Neil Marshall is moving from his ultraviolent sword & sandals pic, “Centurion,” to a horror movie about cutting edge cuisine. Hold the fava beans and go straight to the nice chianti.

* RIP Ahna Capri of “Enter the Dragon.” Very sad.

The $60 million guessed at for the entire “five day frame” by jolly Carl DiOrio on Thursday may still be possible” but it’s start to look like it’ll be lucky to hit even that modest number. (The first film in the series earned $57 million in its initial three-day frame.) In any case,everyone really did seem to expect the film to hit #1 and that certainly doesn’t seem to be the case. The present weekend estimate for Warners’ “Sex” according to Box Office Mojo is $32.125 million while the final Shrek film took in $43.345 million.

The pleasant surprise for Dreamworks/Paramount here is that their animated comedy about the world famous fairy tale troll experienced a better than average 38% percent drop from it’s opening — which was a big let down compared to previous films at just under $71 million, but far from disastrous. This may be more evidence that telling a decent story actually counts for something.

The consensus on this “Shrek” is that it’s nothing great (Mike Fleming termed the reviews “mediogre” <yuck, yuck>), but a relatively decent ending to the series with some considering it one of the better entries in the four picture series, so word-of-mouth may be giving it a small boost. There’s also the factor of it in being in nearly a thousand more theaters than the other films and many of those being 3-D with higher ticket prices. The public may be starting to tire of those prices, but enough of them appear to still be willing to pay the added freight to keep the troll on top.

“Sex” on the other hand, which had a $100 million budget — which would only a few years ago have been considered obscene — seems to have been disliked by even some of its biggest fans among the press and was hated, hated, hated by others — not all of them men, by the way. The audience word of mouth (or word of Twitter, Facebook, text, e-mail, etc.) may be almost as bad. The Numbers points out that its grosses declined on Saturday from Friday and it’s expected to decline more today.

“Sex 2” only barely edged out in the three-day frame of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney’s “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.” An attempt at a new “tent-pole” franchise, it was tracking  less than grandly and already expected to do only respectable business. That’s pretty much what happened with its current estimate being $30.17 million. Criticized for its casting, one has to wonder if it really would have done that much worse if they had cast a few relatively unknown actors of South-Asian or Middle-Eastern ancestry. Outstanding young actor and friend of PH (and editor Will Harris) Dileep Rao, I’m sure, would have been willing to talk to Mr. Bruckheimer about the lead role.

Among limited releases, I deserve to have a body part (let’s make it a toe) eaten for failing to mention the twenty theater release of the latest from cannibal-zombie inventor George Romero, “Survival of the Dead.” I’ve got to remember to check sources other than Box Office Mojo, which seems to ignore certain random films from smaller distributors — and that’s why the next series of numbers comes from, where else, The Numbers.

Anyhow, apparently I wasn’t the only one who failed to realize Romero’ latest was in theaters, because it didn’t exactly gorge itself on box office flesh. It earned only $43,000 in twenty theaters though, as Mr. Romero mentions in this interview (thanks to BKS for sending this), his films are very inexpensive and sell very well on home video. Also, that take maybe really isn’t bad at all, however, when you consider that it’s already been available on VOD for nearly a month. Romero’s most loyal fans have, undoubtedly, largely already seen it.

The much more heavily promoted magic-realist slapstick/action comedy, “Micmacs,” from French cult fave Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Amelie,” “The City of Lost Children”) made more in four theaters than Romero’s film made in twenty. In fact, it had this anemic weekend’s biggest per-screen average, earning $12,175 on four screens. That’s good but absolutely nothing special for a limited release. The most famous and historic — but not the best (try “Weekend” or “Contempt”) — movie made by an even more distinctive French cineaste, Jean-Luc Godard, did pretty well for a fifty year old film. “Breathless” starring two very different film legends, dashing, Bogey-esque, Jean-Paul Belmondo and tragic Jean Seberg, earned $8,175 on four screens.

In fact, the film is already doing rather well, as it opened early to get a jump on the long Memorial Day weekend, making $3 million on Wednesday night/Thursday morning midnight shows for the R-rated comedy from Warner Brothers. Both jolly Carl DiOrio and Anne Thompson’s b.o. guy, Anthony D’Alessandro, are bullish. Jolly Carl is talking about $60 million. I have no clue except that every “Sex and the City” fan will want to see it — once, anyway.

Nevertheless, as someone who managed to avoid the original show almost completely, it is a bit of shock to see this kind of vituperation directed against a property that was once a well-reviewed award-winner. I wasn’t too surprised when the first film got mixed reviews, since the show did have more than it’s share of detractors, but the 14% “fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics as a whole, and devastating 7% from 26 “top critics” so far is a bit of a movie cold shower. The bad reviews even inspired a bottom 10 list at Salon. Matt Zoeller Seitz, like our own Jason Zingale, notes the film’s lengthy sequence in Abu Dabi — which he terms “product placement for a country” (even though it was shot elsewhere) and titles his review: “Ladies and Gentleman, THIS is Why They hate us.” That’s about as positive as his review gets. He’s almost loving compared to the brilliant review by Lindy West:

SATC2 takes everything that I hold dear as a woman and as a human—working hard, contributing to society, not being an entitled cunt like it’s my job—and rapes it to death with a stiletto that costs more than my car. It is 146 minutes long, which means that I entered the theater in the bloom of youth and emerged with a family of field mice living in my long, white mustache.

That one of the nicer parts. I suggest, no, I implore that you read every word.

The consensus is there’s absolutely no there there or, as per Matt Seitz, what’s there is actually so materialistic and shallow, it’s actually somewhat depraved and viciously out of touch with the fact that millions of us struggling right now, even in the richest country on earth. Seitz mentions that, in a way, the “Sex and the City” franchise is like “Star Wars” for adult women. I suspect that even some of the show’s most dedicated fans may get that same sick feeling I did when the end credits rolled on “The Phantom Menace” that fateful winter’s day in 1999. It’s not fun to see something you love become something you sort of tolerate and, eventually, kind of loathe. My hunch is that at least some “Sex and the City” lovers, feeling cheap and used, may find new outlets for their passion.

The other major release this week is Disney’s PG-13 fantasy-adventure flick, “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” starrring Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Atherton. It’s not wowing critics, but it isn’t generating cat-calls either, which is actually kind of neat trick given it’s yet another film drawn from a video game and has generated a bit of arguably justified dissing from South-Asian groups since, in case you weren’t sure, Gyllenhaal and Atherton are not Persian names.

True, there aren’t huge numbers of bankable American actors from anywhere remotely close to modern day Iran, but then how is that ever supposed to happen if the studios refuse to cast ethnic people, other than a few African-American and Latino superstars, in leading roles? It’s a definite chicken/egg problem requiring a bit of bravery from Hollywood to solve and “bravery” and “Hollywood” are not words that  often go together. On the other hand, it’s worth mentioning that third-billed Ben Kingsley is actually half-Indian and half Jewish which, genetically speaking, may be fairly close to being a Persian.

On the other hand, producer Jerry Bruckheimer did make an interesting choice in hiring English director Mike Newell, best known for such character/dialogue driven pieces as “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Donnie Brasco.” I have this wild and crazy idea that things like character and dialogue matter in action films. Maybe Bruckheimer has gone nuts, too. Nah.

In any case, “Prince of Persia” is not, we’re told, tracking terribly well. (Perhaps, I suggest again, video games aren’t the greatest source material for movies.) It’s expected to come in third, after “Shrek Forever After,” which will need some strong legs of its own to recover from its below-par opening last week.

As for limited releases, two notable films from France are opening in just a few theaters this weekend. The 50th anniversary restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s genuinely groundbreaking, ultra-influential “Breathless” opens at four theaters on the coasts. Also, Jason Zingale loved “Micmacs” by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, while I’m less enthralled with it despite Jeunet’s visuals and soulful star Danny Boon’s knack for physical comedy.The slapstick comedy with a serious message, a la Chaplin, opens in a few theaters in New York, I believe, this weekend and will be opening in several more U.S. cities the following weekend. There will be more here on “Micmacs” and the filmmaker behind such acclaimed hits as “Amelie” and “The City of Lost Children” before long, unless I get hit by a bus or something.

Other than the very sad and disturbing passing of David Carradine, very well noted by Will Harris a bit earlier (I’ve got more at my own bloggy digs, Forward to Yesterday), it’s kind of a slow news day in the movie world…

* In a bit of very inside baseball, with his upcoming “Avatar” 3-D extravaganza already getting a lot of ink many months before its X-Mas release, James Cameron has broken with his past practice and has signed with an agency. And not just any agency, but the mighty CAA. I know, your life will never be the same. Variety has the scoop, such as it is.

* 79-year-old lifelong cinema enfant terrible Jean-Luc Godard (“Breathless,” “Contempt” — a great film you really ought to see) is looking to do a film inspired by a Holocaust memoir, says THR. I know, your life will really never be the same, but this is interesting. Godard, a truly radical leftist, criticized Israel implicitly in his 1967 comic masterpiece, “Weekend,” when the middle-east nation’s battles were still very much a liberal cause. I’m not at all one to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, but the film itself, and the worldwide response from Jewish groups, should be worth watching for those of us interested in this kind of thing.

* And finally, Nikki Finke devoted all of 24 words this morning to the passing of David Carradine (and turned off comments for some reason), but after adding that she doesn’t “do geek,” she did find time to devote some space to covering Total Sci-Fi‘s “25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi” list, with a definite emphasis on bad-ass mofo type females. It was topped by Sigourney Weaver‘s Ripley from the “Alien” franchise (including “Aliens” from the aforementioned J. Cameron). The list also covered fantasy for whatever reason and #2 on the list was Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Geller) of “Buffy” fame. (My personal Buffsession, Willow Rosenberg, aka Alyson Hannigan, came in at #21.) With the possible exception of the first choice, which I really can’t argue with as long as you’re talking about actresses and not, say, writers, my list would be entirely different — if I didn’t tend to avoid lists. Since we really do “do geek” here at Premium Hollywood, allow me to link to fan site Whedonesque‘s comment thread on the topic, where the discussion eventually includes the terrific SF (not “sci-fi”!) writer, Roger Zelazny. Now that’s geek.