Thompson on Hollywood

TCA: Lennon Hearts New York in Upcoming PBS Doc

John Lennon’s passionate attachment to New York City during the last years of his life is among the themes of LENNONYC, a new PBS doc that will debut Nov. 22 as part of the public broadcaster’s American Masters series. Amy Dawes caught Yoko Ono's introduction at the television critics association press tour in Beverly Hills.

By Amy Dawes
|
August 6, 2010 10:56 AM
|
2 Comments

More:

Rourke Talks Expendables on Tonight Show

Mickey Rourke is doing great work in movies these days--he and Sam Rockwell saved Iron Man 2--but the 57-year-old actor is looking stranger than ever, as this bizarre makeup job on his appearance Thursday night on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno attests.

By Anne Thompson
|
August 6, 2010 6:49 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Trailer Watch: Burlesque Stars Cher, Tucci, Aguilera

Never underestimate Screen Gems topper Clint Culpepper. More than most studio execs, he gets to put together an eclectic range of projects under Sony's low-budget Screen Gems label because he's got that magic gut instinct for what audiences want and how to sell it to them. Since 1999, Culpepper has figured out which pictures to make without stepping on the toes of big Columbia and little Sony Pictures Classics: horror, urban and teen flicks like the Underworld, Hostel and Resident Evil franchises and Dear John.

By Anne Thompson
|
August 6, 2010 4:51 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Venice Fest Preview: Early Art

Here is some early art for several of the movies coming up at the Venice Film Fest. (I arrive there August 31 by train after spending two days in Rome; I leave September 8 for the Toronto Film Festival.) I'll write up early coverage of opener Darren Aronofsky's ballet drama Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel as a tough ballet master (modeled after Georges Balanchine), who I interviewed Monday. That film will likely show in Telluride as well as Toronto.

By Anne Thompson
|
August 5, 2010 12:59 PM
|
1 Comment

More:

Never Let Me Go Opens London Film Festival

Fox Searchlight is parceling out its fall line-up across various festivals. Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan is opening Venice and will likely play Telluride as well as Toronto. Now we learn that Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go is opening the the 54th BFI London Film Festival on October 13.

By Anne Thompson
|
August 5, 2010 12:08 PM
|
0 Comments

More:

Scott's Life in a Day Gets 80,000 Submissions, Final Film To Premiere Sundance 2011

The YouTube/Ridley Scott global film experiment, Life in a Day will result in a feature length film directed by Kevin Macdonald (State of Play, Last King of Scotland). He closed the door for submissions on July 31 for home videos of peoples' lives all recorded on the same day, July 24, 2010. The 80,000 submissions come from 197 different countries in 45 languages. Macdonald has a team of 20 editors to manage the laborious task of weeding through the footage to narrow it down to 100 hours. The final film is set to premiere at Sundance 2011 (and simultaneously on YouTube). Macdonald calls the task "a mountain, but we're eager to climb it.”

By Sophia Savage
|
August 5, 2010 6:50 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Mid-Summer Box Office Wrap: Top Ten Chart, Studio Report Card

At mid-summer, the box office is lagging just behind last year's pace and ticket sales are flat, reports Anthony D'Alessandro, who charts the season's winners, losers and studio market shares so far (as of last weekend). Will red-hot Inception take the number one box office crown from Toy Story 3? Stay tuned, as numbers and rankings will change by Labor Day.

By Anthony D'Allessandro
|
August 5, 2010 5:37 AM
|
5 Comments

Casting News: Adams On the Road, Grace and Pearce, Tony Scott does Grisham, Road To Purgatory

- Amy Adams is building up quite a resume of juicy roles. She's joining Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Kristen Stewart in Walter Salles' Jack Kerouc adaptation, On the Road; she plays the junkie-mother-of-two. Her other roles include: a bartender who dates Mark Wahlberg in David O. Russell's The Fighter, a manic depressive in the upcoming adaptation of Jacki Lyden's novel Daughter of the Queen of Sheba, and an attorney-turned-housemaid in the comedy The Undomestic Goddess (based on the Sophie Kinsella bestseller).

By Sophia Savage
|
August 5, 2010 5:29 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Early Reviews: The Expendables

The two trades are split on the new action flick The Expendables, which I have been avoiding like the plague--clearly I am not in the target male demo. Interestingly, THR's Sheri Linden finds the testosterone fest worthwhile, while Variety's Peter Debruge does not. UPDATE: Time Out London does not mince words:

By Anne Thompson
|
August 4, 2010 7:57 AM
|
4 Comments

More:

3-D Stats are Trending Down

Hollywood would like to think that 3-D cures all ills. But the stats don't lie, as a discerning public picks and chooses the 3-D movies that are clearly worth paying a premium for. Check out The Wrap's analylsis of 3-D performance. The studios may want to reconsider throwing good money after bad when they try to buttress their returns on a bad B-movie with retrofitted 3-D. I quickly started to tune out Step Up 3-D, which actually had some good dancing, which I would much rather have seen in good old-fashioned 2-D. The intrusive 3-D wore out its welcome real fast. (Variety's Justin Chang disagrees.)