Not for Mature Audiences Only

You’ve heard of the Boys of Summer? Well, this month, Hollywood is rolling out the Gramps of Summer. Warner Bros. has a modest hit going with Clint Eastwood’s “Space Cowboys,” a high-tech adventure with an aging cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner. On Friday, Disney’s Touchstone Pictures will release “The Crew,” a comedy starring Richard Dreyfuss and Burt Reynolds, who lead a group of over-the-hill former wise guys as they hatch a plot to save their Florida retirement home. Directed by Michael Dinner from a screenplay by Barry Fanaro (a former show runner on TV’s “The Golden Girls”), the film co-stars Dan Hedaya and Seymour Cassel. Barry Josephson, who produced the film with Barry Sonnenfeld, said he had a difficult time getting major studios to green light the movie because it flies in the face of conventional Hollywood wisdom that movies must appeal to the 24-and-under crowd. “The movie was set up at Disney, then was put in turnaround, then went to DreamWorks, then put in turnaround again,” Josephson recalled. “Then it changed directors. Eventually, I couldn’t bang my head against any doors anymore, so I had to make it independently. A human being can only take so much.” Josephson said he found his financial backing in former Filmways Chairman George Litto, then went back to Disney. Dreyfuss and Reynolds play roles as senior citizen GoodFellas--complete with receding hairlines, frumpy clothes and heart conditions. Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co., said “Space Cowboys” proves that if a film has a good trailer and tells a good story, audiences won’t care if the stars are over 65. Still, it’s hard to convince the studios to make these movies. “Everyone loved the screenplay,” Josephson said, but then it came down to casting. “They asked, ‘Can you get Ryan Phillippe in this movie?’ ” Josephson recalled. “One studio executive said, ‘Can we get John Turturro and make him up?’ I told him, ‘He’s younger than me!’ ”

At Second Source Awards, Winner Is Hip-Hop

Can the Source, the best-selling music magazine at the nation’s newsstands, become an annual force on television? On Tuesday, some of rap’s biggest names will gather at Pasadena Civic Auditorium for the magazine’s second hip-hop awards. Busta Rhymes hosts, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre will get lifetime achievement awards and performers include Eminem, Wyclef Jean, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg. With a barrage of award shows clogging the airwaves, why care about yet another red-carpet ride? Because among the dozens of trophy galas, the Source’s show remains the only one devoted entirely to hip-hop, a genre that sells millions of albums but gets little camera time on the Grammys, American Music Awards, etc. “When we thought about how many awards shows were already out there, that was actually when we decided to do this,” says Michael Elliot, the show’s executive producer. Last year’s inaugural show delivered UPN its highest Friday night ratings ever and gave the network a rare No. 1 victory in key markets such as New York and Miami. This year’s edition will have more eye candy--its production budget doubled to about $3 million--including a jungle backdrop and caged animals for performers Method Man and Redman. (A less-expensive but clever street-culture touch this year: Instead of envelopes, the winners’ names will be sent to the stage via pagers.) Advertisers are also paying some of the highest rates in UPN history to reach the young-skewing audience--suggesting that the Source Awards may soon see some imitators. “I can’t honestly say that another show and more exposure would be bad for hip-hop,” Elliot says. “But would we be happy to see another show? Well. . . . “ The taped show will be aired Aug. 29 on UPN.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Southern Californians may still be sweating through August, but based on this week’s television lineup, football fans may feel that fall has already arrived. Seven games will air this week, including another prime-time NFL exhibition tonight on ABC and two more on Thursday, on CBS and ESPN, respectively. Another pair of pro games are slotted for Friday night, while the college football season opens this weekend with a trio of “kickoff classics,” including a prime-time BYU-Florida State matchup Saturday and USC’s season opener against Penn State on Sunday, both on ABC. With billions invested in their respective contracts to broadcast football, the networks have no doubt noted that ratings for this season’s exhibition games have thus far been lackluster. It didn’t help, of course, that Dennis Miller’s much-discussed debut on “Monday Night Football” was pushed to a 4 p.m. start time on the West Coast to accommodate the Republican National Convention, and any true test of whether viewers are really ready for some football won’t come until Labor Day weekend. And football-phobes, take note: This year, the football season won’t end after the Super Bowl. The World Wrestling Federation is due to launch its XFL league in February.

--Compiled by Times staff writers