How Does It Feel to Be 60, Bob?

Bob Dylan and the ‘60s--it’s a familiar tandem, but this time around the calendar number is a reference to the man, not the turbulent decade when he became a folk-rock icon.

Dylan celebrates his 60th birthday Thursday and shows no signs of knockin’ on retirement’s door.

The legendary songwriter took home his first Oscar this year for “Things Have Changed” (from the film “Wonder Boys”) and this month pops up on the new soundtrack collection from “The Sopranos” with a quirky version of the Dean Martin hit “Return to Me.” Dylan also has plans for a European tour next month.

And while no new studio projects have been set, the fascination with Dylan and his body of work is never on hiatus. Patti Smith, Tracy Chapman and Sam Shepard were among the scheduled speakers Saturday at a New Yorker Festival panel discussion of Dylan’s influence, and Rolling Stone recently ran a lengthy article on the rabid brand of scholarship devoted to the folk hero’s music.

A new tribute album from Red House Records, “A Nod to Bob: An Artists’ Tribute to Bob Dylan on His Sixtieth Birthday,” marks the singer’s personal milestone with various folk singers offering their versions of such tunes of his as “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” “It Ain’t Me Babe” and “Boots of Spanish Leather.” And VH1 airs an hour of Dylan videos at midnight Wednesday so die-hard fans can ring in the birthday right from the first moment.

The Little Movies That Could

There’s a movie coming out over the long Memorial Day weekend featuring a star-studded cast set against the backdrop of World War II.

No, it’s not “Pearl Harbor.” This little film is called “The Man Who Cried” and it is being released Friday on only 10 screens by Universal Pictures’ art-house label, Universal Focus.

Directed by Sally Potter (“Orlando”), the movie stars Christina Ricci as a Jewish singer in Paris on the eve of the war. The film also stars Cate Blanchett, John Turturro and Johnny Depp.

Normally, this type of film might seem better suited for the autumn, when the summer blockbuster season is a fading memory and audiences are conditioned to watch character-driven movies. But with competition intensifying among independent films, Universal Focus has decided a good strategy is to send “The Man Who Cried” out at the height of the summer movie season.

“If I had a small film without a cast of well-known actors, I might not be able to do this,” said Claudia Gray, executive vice president of Universal Focus. “But we have four great actors who everybody knows and we have a film that is very appealing. Just the cast alone grabs people’s interest. I think I have a shot.”

Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co., said there are so many independent films in the marketplace these days that “if you crammed them all in the fall, there would be too many.”

Dergarabedian noted that when “The Mummy Returns” debuted May 4 on 3,401 screens, there were eight other little films opening in fewer than 50 theaters. A week later, when “A Knight’s Tale” opened on 2,980 screens, nine smaller films also opened, but none in more than 125 theaters.

“What they’re doing is, they are taking advantage of the same thing that blockbusters take advantage of,” Dergarabedian said. “People are thinking of movies in general since it’s the summer season. From that, you can have success in smaller films.”

--Compiled by Times staff writers