In rural Mississippi, Lazarus, a former blues musician who survives by truck farming, finds a young girl nearly beaten to death near his home. She’s the white-trash town tramp, molded by a life of sexual abuse at the hands of her father and verbal abuse from her mother, who seems to delight in reminding Rae of her mistake in not aborting her. Lazarus, who is also facing personal crisis at the dissolution of his marriage, nurses Rae back to health, providing her with gentle, fatherly advice as well as an education in blues music. Rae’s boyfriend, Ronnie, goaded by the man who nearly beat Rae to death, misunderstands the relationship between Lazarus and Rae, and vows to kill him. Lazarus, exhibiting a street-smart understanding of violence and its motives, calls Ronnie’s bluff, senses that he is as troubled as Rae, and becomes a guiding force in the young couple’s resurrection. Written by Joe Jurca

In 2006, in Red River, Tennessee, a teenager has frequent nightmares. Her mother reads an old letter from 1817 written by her ancestor, Lucy Bell. After a dispute of lands judged by the church, her husband John Bell is cursed by his opponent Kathe Batts, who has a fame of being a witch. From this moment on, an entity threatens John and her daughter Betsy Bell, attacking the girl during the nights. With the support of Betsy’s school teacher Richard Powell, who tries to find rational explanations for the manifestation; her brother John Bell Jr.; and their friend James Johnston, who unsuccessfully tries to exorcize the entity from the house, the family does their best to protect Betsy in the haunted house. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay launched a full out attack on moviegoers on May 25th. “Pearl Harbor” exploded onto the big screen with an impressive publicity campaign that had fans, websites, and other media outlets, counting down the days until its Memorial Day Weekend release. “Pearl Harbor’s” approved budget of $145 million made it the biggest movie budget ever to get greenlit. The approved $145 million had to be knocked down to $135 after Joe Roth left Disney to run Revolution Studios. Bay and Bruckheimer waived their front-end salaries to squeeze in under the new budget, and Ben Affleck agreed to work for the low upfront salary of $250,000, and a share of the profits - if there ends up being any. Moviegoers will ultimately determine whether the $135+ million budget was spent wisely, and whether the film is a rip-off of America’s history or a fitting tribute to the men and women who served our country during wartime.

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Lt. John Dunbar is dubbed a hero after he accidentally leads Union troops to a victory during the Civil War. He requests a position on the western frontier, but finds it deserted. He soon finds out he is not alone, but meets a wolf he dubs “Two-socks” and a curious Indian tribe. Dunbar quickly makes friends with the tribe, and discovers a white woman who was raised by the Indians. He gradually earns the respect of these native people, and sheds his white-man’s ways. Written by Greg Bole {bole@life.bio.sunysb.edu}

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Mort Rainey (Depp), a writer just coming off of a troublesome divorce with his ex-wife, Amy (Bello), finds himself stalked at his remote lake house by a psychotic stranger (Turturro) who claims Mort stole his best story idea (changing just the ending)… (Hutton plays Bello’s new boyfriend; Dutton plays a private investigator hired to make Turturro’s character leave Mort alone.)