At Long Last Leo

The Beach is the first role Leonardo DiCaprio chose since achieving super-stardom. In the movie, which opens this weekend, he plays a young American searching for paradise in Thailand.

CBS Anchor Bryant Gumbel and Correspondent Laurie Hibberd discussed The Beach and two other movies opening this weekend, Snow Day and The Tigger Movie.

Ever since DiCaprio signed on to do The Beach, his every step has been well documented in the press. From his near drowning to a conflict with environmentalists, the coverage has been non-stop.

As The Beach finally hits the theaters, it poses an interesting marketing question for 20th Century Fox. What do you do when expectations for a movie are so high, that there is no way your film can live up to them? The audience wants Titanic 2 but what they are getting is a dark film.

Yet, if you look at DiCaprio's body of work, Basketball Diaries, Marvin's Room, and Gilbert Grape, his characters usually do have a dark side, so this role isn't really that much of a departure for him - Titanic was.

DiCaprio says he was looking for a role that would help him grow as an actor. He also wanted to work with director Danny Boyle, who did Trainspotting.

Should an actor feel compelled to take the types of roles that the public expects to see them in? The answer should be no. DiCaprio is a very good actor - he was nominated for an Oscar for What's Eating Gilbert Grape. What he can't expect is to continue to collect $20 million for these films.

Julia Roberts was in this position a few years ago. After years of playing the romantic leading lady in comedies and commercial dramas like The Pelican Brief and Sleeping With The Enemy, she decided to take roles in darker films such as Mary Reilly and Michael Collins. The press wrote that she had lost touch with her audience. She went back to doing the films that the public expected from her: My Best Friend's Wedding, Notting Hill and Runaway Bride. She is now the highest paid actress in Hollywood, earning $20 million per film.

Also opening this weekend are two low-budget family films. Snow Day, starring Chevy Chase, Chris Elliot and Jean Smart, tells the story of how a snow day changes the life of a typical American family. It's being released by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Films.

The Tigger Movie, released by Walt Disney Pictures, follows the adventures of Winnie the Pooh's sidekick, Tigger.