Just an hour or two before "Doubt" screened before its first industry audience tonight, the America Film Institute announced the news that "Doubt" will replace "The Soloist" as the opening night film of AFI Fest on Oct. 30.

In fact, just moments after the "Doubt" screening concluded in New York where it was shown to its original Broadway cast plus a few dozen journalists and film industry honchos, producer Scott Rudin told Gold Derby the AFI news, adding, "I don't know if the story's broken in the trades yet or will come out tomorrow morning, but I'm very nervous about this. The decision was made to open AFI before we got the first reaction to the film from industry people. It was a big gamble. But I think we made the right decision based on the reactions I've heard so far."

Sources tell Gold Derby that AFI was reluctant to replace "The Soloist" after news broke last week that its release will be delayed till next March, but DreamWorks execs pressed hard for it being swapped out, leading to an initial stand-off. Only when DreamWorks made it clear that it could not guarantee that "The Soloist" stars, who voiced queasiness about such an advance debut, would appear on the AFI red carpet did pressure build on the fest to buckle. Obviously, "The Soloist" would have to be replaced with another prestige film whose stars would agree to last-minute plans be in L.A. next week. Few options seemed to be immediately available, but Scott Rudin rallied his team to meet the challenge. Apparently, that means that stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams will be in attendance.

"It was hard enough to pull everything together in such a short time," Rudin said, "but to do it before we even had the first industry reaction to the film — that was the hardest part. But we did it and I'm glad we did."

Rudin had early confidence in the film based upon two screenings held before test audiences over the past few months, but viewers did not include industry pros. Several film critics who write for long-lead publications were given separate, private screenings, but their verdict is still, well, in doubt because they've not yet published their reviews.

(Miramax)