Mike Cahill

On the Santa Clarita set of "King of California," Michael Douglas is hanging by his neck from a rope attached to a dusty attic chandelier. He struggles, choking, kicking and rotating slowly, until his energy is spent. By the time Evan Rachel Wood enters the room, he is still, the dust settling in the slanted afternoon light, the chandelier clinking a requiem that is only slightly premature. Due in L.A. and New York theaters Friday and expanding on Sept.

"Another Earth" is quietly and movingly out of this world. Director Mike Cahill has woven sci-fi imaginings and quantum physics theories of parallel universes into a provocative meditation on the prospect of rewriting your life history. It is no simple task to spin such abstract notions into smart (versus cheesy) entertainment, but there is such a strong creative voice stirring in Cahill's first feature that it's easy to forgive the shortcomings. The film stars the ethereal young actress Brit Marling, who co-wrote and co-produced with Cahill, and the rock-solid William Mapother (Ethan on "Lost")

Reporting from Park City, Utah ? Every young filmmaker has a story of pulling a tricky guerrilla maneuver to get his or her movie made. But most don't involve a renowned art museum and distracted federal employees, as it did for Brit Marling, Zal Batmanglij and Mike Cahill. "We wanted to shoot in the National Gallery, so we would wait until the guard left the room, put a piece of art on the wall [that the film called for] and just start shooting," Marling recalled of a time she and her two friends made a short while undergraduates at Georgetown University.

It's the rare filmmaker who drops Schrodinger's Cat into everyday conversation. But Mike Cahill, the director and co-writer of the new science-fiction movie "Another Earth," has an affinity for the obscure. Walking the halls of Griffith Observatory on a recent weekday evening, he enthusiastically cited the scientific paradox — a riddle of sorts related to quantum mechanics — to explain a theme in his movie. Then, upon catching sight of one exhibit, he slapped his hands to his face with giddy delight.

"Another Earth" is quietly and movingly out of this world. Director Mike Cahill has woven sci-fi imaginings and quantum physics theories of parallel universes into a provocative meditation on the prospect of rewriting your life history. It is no simple task to spin such abstract notions into smart (versus cheesy) entertainment, but there is such a strong creative voice stirring in Cahill's first feature that it's easy to forgive the shortcomings. The film stars the ethereal young actress Brit Marling, who co-wrote and co-produced with Cahill, and the rock-solid William Mapother (Ethan on "Lost")

It's the rare filmmaker who drops Schrodinger's Cat into everyday conversation. But Mike Cahill, the director and co-writer of the new science-fiction movie "Another Earth," has an affinity for the obscure. Walking the halls of Griffith Observatory on a recent weekday evening, he enthusiastically cited the scientific paradox — a riddle of sorts related to quantum mechanics — to explain a theme in his movie. Then, upon catching sight of one exhibit, he slapped his hands to his face with giddy delight.

Two very different small-budget films — a science fiction love story and a Holocaust drama — debuted in limited release this weekend, but both seemed to resonate with audiences. Fox Searchlight opened "Another Earth" in four theaters, where it collected $78,413, according to the studio. That amounts to a good per-theater average of $19,600 for the film, which premiered to positive buzz at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The movie, which is the feature debut for director Mike Cahill and stars up and-coming actress Brit Marling, will debut in six new markets next weekend.

AT first blush, they sound like deals worthy of a late-night infomercial: "Buy a two-bedroom cabin in the middle of the national forest just two hours from Los Angeles for a mere $169,000!" Chump change for equity-rich Angelenos, right? But the devil, as always, is in the details. The cabins are part of the U.S. Forest Service's Recreation Residential Program, started nearly 100 years ago to encourage use of what was then the fledgling national forest system.

The folks at home hope some holiday cheer will reach Terry Anderson, the Associated Press correspondent who is facing his fourth Christmas as a hostage in Lebanon. A campaign to send him Christmas greetings has attracted more than 7,000 cards from nearly every state and overseas, an organizer said. "We're getting a fantastic response from schools," said Jack LaVriha of Lorain, Ohio, who is directing the card campaign for the Free Terry Anderson Committee. Anderson is a native of Lorain.

Messy and high-spirited, the Excalibur Children's Thea- tre production of "Peter Pan" won't win any awards for professional polish, but its exuberance and audience-friendliness would be hard to match. In the tiny lobby outside the small theater space, upstairs from Studio City's Sports Center, actors in costume greet the audience and slip neckties over the heads of adults of the male gender.

Reporting from Park City, Utah ? Every young filmmaker has a story of pulling a tricky guerrilla maneuver to get his or her movie made. But most don't involve a renowned art museum and distracted federal employees, as it did for Brit Marling, Zal Batmanglij and Mike Cahill. "We wanted to shoot in the National Gallery, so we would wait until the guard left the room, put a piece of art on the wall [that the film called for] and just start shooting," Marling recalled of a time she and her two friends made a short while undergraduates at Georgetown University.

On the Santa Clarita set of "King of California," Michael Douglas is hanging by his neck from a rope attached to a dusty attic chandelier. He struggles, choking, kicking and rotating slowly, until his energy is spent. By the time Evan Rachel Wood enters the room, he is still, the dust settling in the slanted afternoon light, the chandelier clinking a requiem that is only slightly premature. Due in L.A. and New York theaters Friday and expanding on Sept.

In her third annual Halloween visit to Orange County, Madame Guignol has a cheery, bracing adage for us to chew on: "Love turns us all into freaks." The Hunger Artists' 1998 edition of "Madame Guignol's Macabre Theatre: Carnival of the Damned" (subtitled in the spirit of the British Hammer Films studio known for its cheesy horror movies) is situated in a carny freak show.

A story of young love challenged by geography emerged as the big winner at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night. Drake Doremus' "Like Crazy," a romantic drama starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones as a star-crossed couple and Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence as the third wheel, took the U.S. dramatic grand jury prize, the festival's highest honor. The award was the second of the evening for the film; the jury had previously handed a special prize to Jones. The movie centers on the American Jacob (Yelchin)