Despite what seems like evidence to the contrary, producers still say that getting a period piece off the ground is extraordinarily difficult unless it comes with the added cachet of a "Geisha" or a "Jarhead," both of which are based on best-selling books.

"I don't think that stuff ever changes," says producer Carol Baum, who is developing "Grace," a biopic about Grace Metalious, the author of "Peyton Place," with Sandra Bullock set to star. "These movies came from (well-established) source material, and when you have source material like that, it makes getting a picture off the ground much easier. But the original material that's out there right now is almost all contemporary, and there are hardly any exceptions."

Even when studios do greenlight period projects, they frequently partner with another major -- or, at the very least, seek outside financing -- in the hope of defraying risk. "Geisha" was made in tandem with Spyglass Entertainment and DreamWorks, which helped defray the film's $70 million outlay with Sony. "Munich" was a joint venture between Universal and DreamWorks, and even the $7.5 million "Good Night" involved Warners, the Todd Wagner/Marc Cuban-led 2929 Entertainment and Jeff Skoll's Participant Prods.

Universal also entered the ring solo for "Cinderella," a vivid portrait of Depression-era boxer Jim Braddock brought to life by director Ron Howard, who had his actors screen a plethora of movies from the '30s to pick up the slang and verbal intonation of the times. That attention to detail, which extended to everything from costumes to music cues, was used to bolster a tale of underdog triumph that Howard feels has timeless resonance -- a key to getting a period film made today.

Studio executives say they are open to period pieces, provided that the subject matter is relevant to a modern audience. "I wouldn't say there is a general reluctance to make period pictures," Warner Bros. production president Jeff Robinov says. "But it is about finding the right story and the right mix of talent. Being a period picture doesn't mean that it doesn't have thematics that apply to today. Ultimately, that is what it is about."

That caveat might explain why so many potential Oscar contenders deal with modern issues: "Good Night" ponders how free speech and free press can flourish amid a conservative political climate; "Jarhead" explores the ravages of war on the human psyche; and a host of films pose questions about the nature of sexuality.

Six years after Hilary Swank won her first best actress Oscar for 1999's "Boys Don't Cry," Kimberly Peirce's film based on the life of transgender teen Brandon Teena, a handful of Academy Award hopefuls center on characters living with issues of sexual and gender identity. Nowhere is this more apparent than in "Mountain," director Ang Lee's adaptation of the E. Annie Proulx short story, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as doomed lovers. The film never shies away from the nature of the characters' relationship, and as such, functions as one of the most high-profile releases in recent years to address homosexuality so overtly.

Of course, "Capote" also features a gay character in the lead, with Philip Seymour Hoffman starring as the "In Cold Blood" author, as does another SPC release, Neil Jordan's "Breakfast on Pluto," starring Cillian Murphy as an Irish transvestite living in London during the 1960s and '70s. And though not a period film, the Weinstein Co.'s "Transamerica" sees Felicity Huffman deliver a nomination-worthy turn as a male-to-female transexual who learns that he might have fathered a son.

But like some in the industry, former Fox chairman Bill Mechanic, who has an executive producer credit on "New World," regards the preponderance of gay-themed pictures as "a confluence" rather than anything more and doesn't see the subject as taboo as it once was. Today's moviegoers are a sophisticated lot, Mechanic reasons, that prizes quality storytelling above all else.

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