Thompson on Hollywood

Career Watch: Prince of Persia Setback for Rising Star Gyllenhaal

No question that summer disappointment Prince of Persia marks a rare setback for Jake Gyllenhaal. Critics assailed his attempt to carry a Jerry Bruckheimer sword-and-sandal action tentpole, but the actor remains on Hollywood's list of go-to rising stars. Here's a taste of my latest Inside Movies Career Watch column:

By Anne Thompson
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June 7, 2010 11:03 AM
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PBC: Top Producers Dish on Lousy Filmmaking Present, Death of Drama and Cable Future

Amid the general doom and gloom for studios and indies alike, at this weekend's Produced By Conference, producers Mark Gordon, Marshall Herskovitz, Richard Zanuck, Larry Gordon, and Mark Johnson marked some cautious upbeat notes, reports Amy Dawes:

By Amy Dawes
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June 7, 2010 8:41 AM
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Bullock Reunites with Reynolds on Action Comedy Most Wanted

Sandra Bullock knows what she's doing. Tired of all the crazy tabloid crap, she's moving the conversation on to kissing Scarlett Johansson on MTV and possibly co-starring with her husband Ryan Reynolds on a new comedy, Most Wanted. Looks like she's following my career advice and getting back to work. This is not only good news for Bullock and Reynolds, but for Universal Pictures' beleaguered current management team.

By Anne Thompson
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June 7, 2010 8:03 AM
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Same-Sex Kissing, Jamie Bell for Spider-Man? Kutcher's Katalyst, Swank Gets Toothy for Carpenter

-Rumors are swarming that Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell is Sony's choice for Marc Webb's Spider-Man reboot. The young Brit is already the face of Tintin in Sony's Spielberg directed/Jackson produced CGI The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which comes out December 2011. Could Bell really be both Tintin and Spider-Man? Sony PR refuses to comment on such casting speculation.

By Sophia Savage
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June 7, 2010 8:00 AM
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MTV Movie Awards: Bullock Should Have Kissed Betty White, Eclipse Clip, Cruise and JLo Dance

As I've said, most awards shows are about people promoting themselves. Wouldn't it be a great idea to get the three stars to intro the Twilight: Eclipse video? (It's below, along with clips from the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Last Airbender, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.) Let's have lovable wise-ass Betty White and hunk Bradley Cooper give embattled star Sandra Bullock an MTV Generation award and everyone will give her a standing ovation and then Bullock will kiss Scarlett Johansson (who has continued working out since she made Iron Man 2). I would have preferred Bullock to kiss White, who quipped, "Honey, don't you ever wear that dress backwards."

By Anne Thompson
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June 7, 2010 6:59 AM
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Producers Conference: Nuts and Bolts Survival Tools for Trying Times

Last summer's Produced By Conference was a huge risk for the Producer's Guild, which had no way of knowing ahead of time if the PBC would make any money--like most of the projects its members produce. I attended several packed panels on the Sony lot, where producers from Kathleen Kennedy to filmmaker Clint Eastwood shared info in a helpful and candid way.

By Anne Thompson
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June 7, 2010 5:13 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Summer Fizzle Leaves Shrek 4 On Top

Last weekend's horrific box office numbers continued into this weekend, which returned animated family film Shrek Forever After--in its third week--to the top of the fray, the only film to crack the $20-million mark! The lucrative summer season is when the studios send their surefire top guns to do battle. So far, the summer of 2010 is a fizzle. Anthony D'Alessandro reports:

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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June 6, 2010 4:37 AM
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Produced By Conference: Ted Turner Talks TV, Energy, Bisons and Saving the World

Ever-quotable media mogul Ted Turner did not disappoint when he turned up to speak at this weekend's Produced By Conference (sponsored by the Producers Guild of America) at the Twentieth Century Fox studios. In a wide-ranging conversation, he talked about getting his billions and millions "mixed up," the role of television, operating on gut instinct, raising 55,000 bison, and the paramount importance of saving our endangered planet. "I don't watch much TV," he said. "I'm too busy trying to save the world." His secret of success: "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise." Amy Dawes reports:

By Amy Dawes
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June 6, 2010 3:59 AM
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Women in Film Crystals: Off with Stilettos, On with Mentors

The Women in Film Crystal Awards are like many other Hollywood awards shows--the folks who nab prizes are the ones who have enough studio backing to pay for some ads and a table, and everyone is there to sell something, whether it's their own brand, future employment or legacy.

By Anne Thompson
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June 5, 2010 3:21 AM
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Cameron Talks to Hardball About the Oil Spill

James Cameron talked to Hardball about the oil spill--and cleared up the "morons" out-of-context issue. He started out thinking that BP didn't know what it was doing, and came to the conclusion that what they were dealing with was "an amazingly complex problem" down in the formation inside the well, 13,000 feet beneath the ocean floor. Doing the wrong thing could make things a lot worse.