The Life and Legs of Hank Greenberg

If a ballplayer is referred to as having legs, he’s a speedster. If a movie has legs, it indicates long-term performance at the box office. “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg,” the documentary on the great Detroit Tigers slugger of the 1930s and ‘40s, definitely has legs. After opening in New York in January, the $1-million-budgeted film has steadily built an audience the old-fashioned way: excellent reviews and word of mouth. With virtually no advertising budget, the movie last week crossed the $600,000 mark. Written, produced and directed by Aviva Kempner, “Greenberg” opened May 19 for one week at Landmark’s Nuart. It then moved to the Cecchi Gori Fine Arts in Beverly Hills for another week, and has since enjoyed four successive weeks at the Westside Pavilion in which it has actually increased its weekly gross. New York-based Cowboy Booking International is the film’s distributor.

Intelligence Report

Reconnaissance recently spotted Steven Spielberg and crew in Little Tokyo scouting locations for his next film, “A.I.” The movie, which deals with artificial intelligence, returns the director to the science-fiction genre. It had been a longtime dream project of the late Stanley Kubrick, and the two filmmakers had discussed collaborating. Kubrick had waited 18 years for the technology to catch up to his vision for the film. Spielberg committed to make it his follow-up to “Saving Private Ryan” after the much-delayed “Minority Report” was put on hold again. “A.I.,” to be distributed by Warner Bros. in the U.S. and DreamWorks internationally, stars Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment, and begins production July 10.

Viva Le Documentary

In the 1977 film “Annie Hall,” Woody Allen’s character, Alvy Singer, said Marcel Ophuls’ four-hours-plus documentary, “The Sorrow and the Pity,” was a good date movie. Now, Ophuls’ award-winning film about France during the Nazi occupation is being rereleased by Milestone Film for a one-week engagement beginning Friday at the Regent Showcase in Hollywood; Allen serves as the film’s presenter.