There's a new Michael Moore being born every minute.

That's at least the way it sounded as filmmaker Robert Altman and "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau talked over lunch about their latest project, "Tanner '04," a Sundance Channel update of their cinema-not-exactly-verite HBO series, "Tanner '88."

(Actually, they talked over our lunch, beamed in via satellite by a nervous Sundance Channel whose reps appeared to be afraid that they'd fail to get the pair up on the bird before reporters finished lunch and scooted off to the next session.)

Anyway, when someone asked if Moore would be one of the real people included in the film, which purports to be about a documentary by Alex Tanner (Cynthia Nixon), the grown-to-be-a-filmmaker daughter of onetime candidate Jack Tanner (Michael Murphy), Altman sounded a little huffy about the "Farenheit 9/11" writer and director, whose movie is currently breaking box-office records.

"I don't think there's a reason to include Michael Moore," he said. "He does what I do."

That said, there probably will be at least one other filmmaker included in the show, which will conclude its action at next week's Democratic convention in Boston.

According to Trudeau, John Kerry's daughter, Alexandra, a documentary filmmaker, may be in the film.

"We're told there are some 40 documentary filmmakers who have been accredited [for the convention]," he said. "So we'll have a pretty good peer group."