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Miramax is keeping the peace.
Posters for the studio’s “Buffalo Soldiers” showed Joaquin Phoenix, dressed in military fatigues, flashing a peace sign under the words, “Steal All You Can Steal.” The movie studio was deluged with calls from irate supporters of the war in Iraq who interpreted the poster as anti-war or unpatriotic. The outcry was so intense, that the studio was mulling plans to scrap the posters and print up more innocuous ones in time for the flick’s July 25 opening. But when that news leaked, the studio was swamped with pro-peace sign callers. “People were outraged that a peace sign has turned into something obscene that should be banned,” says one source. “Some people were also outraged with what they saw as a squelching of first-amendment rights.” “We heard from people who were both for and against the poster,” says a Miramax spokesman. “And while we respect the opinions of both parties, we’ve decided to let Joaquin flash his peace sign.”

Buffalo Soldiers

What's the big deal? Moral issues (or, rather, morale issues) aside, are U.S. audiences eager to sit through an unsparing critique of the military's institutional character?

(AMRY OF ONE Phoenix does more bad than good as a drug-dealing military clerk)

''A friend of mine asked me if I would even do the film now. And I don't know if I would.'' So says Scott Glenn of this pitch-black, military satire about rogue U.S. soldiers in 1989 Berlin using their base as a front for illegal activities. The movie premiered at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival and sold to Miramax -- on Sept. 10. Unsurprisingly, it's taken a long and bumpy route to theaters since then. A screening at January's Sundance festival signaled that the film's thematic underpinnings -- that peace is boring and people will find ways to fill that void with conflict -- have become no less controversial. ''There were people at the screening who called the film unpatriotic,'' recalls Glenn, who plays an unstable sergeant bent on bringing down Joaquin Phoenix's drug-dealing batallion clerk. ''They called me a redneck. That's fine. I am. A liberal redneck. When Stravinsky first played 'The Rite of Spring,' there was a riot outside the theater. Better to get a reaction.'' No problem there: One incensed Sundancer even lobbed a water bottle at the screen.

''I guess she wasn't bored,'' says Australian director Gregor Jordan (whose first major film, ''Two Hands,'' starred Heath Ledger). ''That woman somehow represented a movement of ignorant, belligerent people in America and throughout the world. These are people who don't want truth. They want a myopic, distorted version of the facts. These people are scary.''

*SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2003
This Week at the Seattle International Film Festival
Buffalo Soldiers, Just Walking Home, and more.

Buffalo Soldiers
9:30 p.m. Sat., June 7 at Egyptian
4 p.m. Sun., June 8 at Egyptian
Buried by its studio (Miramax) after its Toronto Film Festival debut the week following Sept. 11, Soldiers is wholly out of step—and wholly welcome—in the new Bush II era of superpatriotism. It's set in 1989, during the Bush I era of collapsed Cold War patriotism, as punch-drunk superpowers teeter exhaustedly in the ring, waiting for the Berlin Wall to fall. On a U.S. Army base in Stuttgart, supremely cynical supply clerk Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) is a smack-dealing, black-marketing Sammy Glick figure who observes how his fellow enlistees in the all-volunteer army are "criminals and dropouts." For Elwood, the service is a wildly profitable scam until his racket is threatened by a hard-ass sergeant (Scott Glenn) with a babely daughter (Anna Paquin). Compared to this amoral dark comedy (where you root for the crooks over the cops), M*A*S*H makes the armed forces seem almost wholesome and respectable. Some may not want to see GIs shooting up, then shooting one other, but I suspect Soldiers—based on Robert O'Connor's 1993 novel—is a movie Anthony Swofford (Jarhead) would approve of. BRIAN MILLER

03-06-This year it will be 10 years that River passed away. We ( Helene, Debbie, Scott & I) made a site as tribute for River Phoenix. A site where you can add poems, letters and songs you wrote to River & art that you made. Beautyriversoul

31-05-Brother Bear Official site is open :) with an exclusive preview ( the teaser trailer) Funny to see a bear with Joaq his voice :), it also say Coming only to Theaters November 7

Piece out of the article: A deal for the twentysomething Howard to join the cast was reached last weekend, shortly after Shyamalan saw her perform in the Public Theater production of "As You Like It" in New York. Her film debut will likely see her starring opposite Ashton Kutcher and Joaquin Phoenix, who were also in talks to join the cast of the Disney project.

'Gladiator' and 'Signs' star JOAQUIN PHOENIX is teaming up with JOHN TRAVOLTA for 'Ladder 49,' a true-to-life drama about the brave Baltimore, MD, fire department. Tonight on ET, our own MARK STEINES is on the set for all of the fiery action!

"The bottom line is [the real-life firefighters] have no choice," John tells Mark. "They couldn't live with themselves if they didn't go in [to battle a blaze], and that explains a lot about why they're so heroic. I feel honored to have learned what I've learned, but they really do it. We're just playing at it."

In the film, Joaquin stars as Jack Morrison, a fireman who begins to reassess the physical toll and low pay his high-risk job requires due to his wife and kids. Despite the encouragement of his mentor and chief (Travolta), he can't shake the feeling that something's not right. When Jack's caught in the worst blaze of his career, it's up to his brave brothers in arms -- and his own resourcefulness -- to save his life before it's too late!

In order to accurately portray these real-life heroes on-screen, the gear for the movie is completely authentic and the cast trained together as a unit at the Fire Academy.

"[They taught us] the fundamentals of firefighting," explains Joaquin. "First you learn the signs of fire and fire behavior and how materials burn. And then you do rappelling and working with ladders, understanding the tools, and then how to find your way out of a building if you get lost, how to follow a hose out. ..."

"They put you through a maze that is so claustrophobic you don't know where you are at any time," elaborates John, "and you're in full equipment -- mask, air gloves, helmet and everything, which is, what, 60 pounds we're talking here? Oh, easily. And you have to twist and turn to get through nooks and crannies like a rat would through a maze."

Directed by JAY RUSSELL ('Tuck Everlasting') and also starring MORRIS CHESTNUT, ROBERT PATRICK and BALTHAZAR GETTY, 'Ladder 49' is set to light up theaters next year.

24-05-I have Updated my Rain & Summer Site, new Summer article from The Telegraph UK & some clips from Rain & her band The Paper Cranes

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - After mining cornfields for thrills in last year's "Signs," M. Night Shyamalan will turn his attention to "The Woods" for his next feature, with Ashton Kutcher, Kirsten Dunst and Joaquin Phoenix in talks to star. Read more HERE

Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) will make a supernatural thriller film, The Woods, for Disney, the first film in a new two-picture deal, Variety reported. The Woods stars Ashton Kutcher, Joaquin Phoenix and Kirsten Dunst. Scott Rudin and Sam Mercer will produce, and shooting will begin in October in Philadelphia for a summer 2004 release. Set in 1897, The Woods tells the story of a close-knit community with a mythical race of creatures residing in the woods around them, the trade paper reported

Today's Variety reports that Shyamalan will direct The Woods with stars Ashton Kutcher and Kirsten Dunst – with his Signs co-conspirator Joaquin Phoenix also signing up for the cast. Set in the late 19th century, the film tells the story of a rural community whose surrounding woods are home to a 'mythical race of creatures'.

File photo / ... Joaquin Phoenix in 1998's Clay Pigeons, the crazy mixed-up teenager has been a steady part of popular culture. There's a reason: the development of teens' brains may temporarily make them virtually insane, according to new research

*I have Updated my Rain & Summer Site