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Back in 1998, at the Ifp Film Market, Thomas Ethan Harris, then the director of the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, strongly recommended an unknown film called Aberdeen.  I followed his advice and was startled.  Where most of the market films were by-the-book attempts to replicate commercial formulas, Aberdeen was a distinctive comic vision that followed none of the rules and managed to weave together wild abstraction and documentary observation as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

I assumed I'd hear about Aberdeen soon, but I never did.  I don't know what adventures the film had after the Ifp market, but it never received a public screening, and no one but me (and the vigilant Mr. Harris, whom I never saw again) seemed to know anything about it.  Good films often fall through the cracks, but this was an extreme case.

Somewhere over the years, the filmmakers,...

Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini are joining Diane Lane in HBO Films' "Cinema Verite." The project is slated to go in to production this summer in Los Angeles.

Written by David Seltzer, the film is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the groundbreaking documentary "An American Family." When it premiered on PBS in 1973, it was the first of its kind to show a real-life family dealing with problems including struggles divorce and sexual identity.

Robbins and Lane will play parents Bill and Pat Loud, respectively, and Gandolfini will portray documentary producer Craig Gilbert.

Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini are directing. Executive producers are Gavin Polone and Zanne Devine.

Tim Robbins, repped by UTA, is shooting "Green Lantern."

Gandolfini, repped by CAA, has several upcoming features including "Welcome to the Rileys," opposite Kristen Stewart; "The Last Kiddie Ride," with Famke Janssen; and "Mint Julep."...