Richard Gladstein

In bringing a sprawling novel to the big screen, surely the last thing a filmmaker would want is for the book's author to adapt the material. Novelists work alone and aren't used to collaborating about characters and plot points or to whittling their prose. But producer Richard Gladstein said condensing the best-selling 800-page novel "The Cider House Rules" into a 136-page screenplay during a five-year collaboration with celebrated author John Irving was anything but gut-wrenching.

In bringing a sprawling novel to the big screen, surely the last thing a filmmaker would want is for the book's author to adapt the material. Novelists work alone and aren't used to collaborating about characters and plot points or to whittling their prose. But producer Richard Gladstein said condensing the best-selling 800-page novel "The Cider House Rules" into a 136-page screenplay during a five-year collaboration with celebrated author John Irving was anything but gut-wrenching.

Lifetime seaman and union activist Harry Bridges--the legendary and controversial voice of the longshoremen's rank and file--chalked up his life's work to "being around at the right time." Asked what led him into union work, Bridges replied: "Simple. I wanted to be a worker with a good job, decent wages, a house, medical care. I figured it would be best if everybody had this."

And the best picture nomination goes to -- well, we'll get back to you. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the year's five best picture nominees. But it hasn't yet resolved who will be credited with producing three of them. In an effort to curtail the pileup of producers swarming the stage to collect the top Oscar, the academy now limits the number of people who can claim to have made the film to three.

The deal Actress Jessica Biel options the film rights to Edgar-nominated writer Megan Abbott's "Die a Little," a Los Angeles noir novel set in the 1950s with an intriguing character twist. The players Biel (recently in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry") and her producing partner, Michelle Purple, sign an option for a film set up at United Artists that also includes screenwriters Geoffrey and Marcia Blake and producer Richard Gladstein.

The Scene: Monday's premiere of Miramax's "54." The tale of Manhattan's late-'70s hothouse of hedonism--the Studio 54 disco--screened at Mann's Chinese theater.

POP/ROCK Starting the Comeback Trail?: Michael Jackson will reunite in concert with his brothers in the Jackson 5 for the first time since the 1980s during a Sept. 7 all-star Madison Square Garden show that will be taped for broadcast as a two-hour TV special. Jackson, who hasn't performed live in the United States in 15 years, will perform solo, in duets with Whitney Houston and Britney Spears, and with his brothers Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Jermaine and Randy, producer David Gest said.

YOU'D have to clone yourself to catch all the movies screening tonight: two classics, a cult comedy in the making and a glimpse at the underbelly of life in Lisbon from one of Portugal's leading filmmakers. Richard Gladstein, producer of the Oscar-nominated best films "The Cider House Rules" and "Finding Neverland," presents David Lean's multi-Academy Award-winning 1957 epic "The Bridge on the River Kwai" as part of the Skirball's Cinema Legacy series.

Regarding "A Chat With Mr. Mayhem," by Hilary de Vries (Sept. 11): How unfortunate it is to read that Quentin Tarantino sees himself as a maker of "great films," yet he knocks Oliver Stone for attempting to inject some much-needed social resonance into the tired veins of his original script for "Natural Born Killers." If one cuts out what Stone contributed to the film, all that's left is a droll one-act journey of cult film iconoclasm. Then Tarantino tries to tell us that Americans can't tell stories anymore.

Sean Penn brings the same visceral intensity and raw emotionality to writing and directing as he does to acting, and while that may sound like a good thing, it finally isn't. "The Crossing Guard," Penn's second film behind the camera, is a troubling, troublesome movie whose makeshift structure cannot contain the powerful flood of passions that he and his cast have poured into it.

Robert Altman's 1975 masterpiece "Nashville" is finally making its DVD debut (Paramount, $30). And this sprawling dark comedy about America is just as sharp and provocative today as it was 25 years ago. Written by Joan Tewkesbury, "Nashville" follows the intersecting lives of 24 people in the country music capital over a five-day period, culminating at a rally for a third-party presidential candidate.