Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Andy Garcia had hoped to get his "Hemingway & Fuentes" film starring himself, Anthony Hopkins and Annette Bening before the cameras this year. But as of now, he's still working on getting the financing together for the indie feature he wrote himself and intends to direct, about the possible real-life inspiration for "The Old Man and the Sea." Like countless other filmmakers, Garcia's feeling the effects of the recession.

"It is more difficult now to find funding, yes, but that shouldn't deter the effort," he says firmly. "Even though the money situation could be a little tighter than usual, a quality project will eventually attract it. We can't be complacent or intimidated by a market condition. We're dealing with dreams, and dreams need to be pursued.

"It took me 16 years to get 'The Lost City' made," he reminds, speaking of his 2005 drama set amid the turmoil of late 1950s Havana. "And through all that time, I never lost the dream.

"'City Island' took three years," he adds, referring to his acclaimed dramedy of this year. Garcia plays the corrections officer patriarch of a Bronx family in which every member is keeping secrets — that all begin to unravel. Julianna Margulies, Alan Arkin, Emily Mortimer and Garcia's real-life eldest daughter, Dominik, also star. Garcia is being talked as a dark horse Academy Awards candidate for the feature, written and directed by Raymond De Felitta on which Garcia also served as producer.

According to him, the moviemakers got all their first choices for the cast. He notes that De Felitta "wrote a beautiful script, and you always know great actors will be attracted to great material."

Garcia has made a habit of going back and forth between big studio movies and small labor-of-love independents. He says that patter has grown out of creative desires rather than career design.

"You have stories you want to tell, movies that might come your way, that are not being offered by the studios. You can't really control what the studios are going to want you do to, so I don't really concern myself with them. I create my own opportunities with stories that move me."

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: With "V" returning to the ABC lineup Jan.

4, beautiful Morena Baccarin tells us she's still having an absolute blast playing head alien Anna — but does look forward to mixing things up a little bit with her next role.

"In my perfect world, it would be in a movie — a character who is completely different. Maybe a period piece. Something very, very opposite of futuristic."

For now, she's happy to focus on that bad Anna and her plans for world domination, which can be rigorous. Baccarin admits there've been times when she's worked two or three 15-hour days straight doing green-screen filming "that's very complicated and really technically challenging. It takes having patience, but it's fascinating, always. It's fun to imagine how things will look" — once computer imagery is added. "But a lot of the time when I see the finished scenes, I'm stunned myself to see what they've done."

And as far as her schedule, "The great thing about the show is that it's an ensemble, so we don't all work every day."

HAPPY WITH HER LOT: Swoosie Kurtz tells us that beyond enjoying her role as the dysfunctional mom to Molly (Melissa McCarthy) on CBS's "Mike & Molly," she has other reasons for being happy with her lot on the show. Her studio lot, for one. "Warner Bros. is three and a half minutes from my house. It seems like I've spent half my life at Warner Bros.," she says. Then, too, "The half-hour comedy is like the dream job as far as scheduling. It's my favorite process because it's the most like theater. You go into hair and makeup and wardrobe, and the adrenaline starts pumping. You get all dressed up, then get out there and do it."

INSIDE ASIDE: The shocking news of our longtime colleague, Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen's, murder this week continues to fill our Facebook pages with expressions of sadness and recollections of Ronni from many, many associates and friends. Our hearts go out to her loved ones, including the clients she considered like family. And what an emotional time for Michael Douglas, who lost Ronni — who was working on his "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" Academy Awards consideration campaign — even as he's dealing with throat cancer.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2010 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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