Thompson on Hollywood

Ted Turner to Speak at Producer's Guild Conference

The Producers Guild has booked Ted Turner, founder and chairman of the UN Foundation, to speak at this year's Produced By Conference to be held June 4-6 on the Fox lot. Turner will share ways to involve the creative community in important social and cultural causes on Saturday, June 5th at 11:30 AM PST. Participants can register here.

By Anne Thompson
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April 21, 2010 6:42 AM
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Disney Sale of Miramax to Burkle Not Closed, Three Miramax Films Hung Up

It's all in the spin.

By Anne Thompson
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April 21, 2010 2:58 AM
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Cannes Update: Fortnight, Critics Week, Carlos, Tree of Life

The Cannes Film Festival is still in motion.

By Anne Thompson
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April 20, 2010 8:09 AM
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Promo Reel: John Woo's Reign of Assassins

Currently filming Reign of Assassins looks like a robustly commercial action epic for John Woo and co-director Su Chao-Pin. The way to go these days for Woo and producer Terence Chang is to line-up production finding from several Asian countries, as they did on Red Cliff. (Fortissimo Film Sales is selling the world.) This one stars Michelle Yeoh and Jung Woo-Sung, the hunky action star of The Good, The Bad and the Weird and lots of aerial wire combat--one scene is shot in the dark with flaming swords. Yes!

By Anne Thompson
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April 20, 2010 7:04 AM
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Treme Week Two: Read At Your Own Risk!

Spoiler Alert: Tim Appelo and I are so delighted by David Simon's latest HBO series, Treme, that we're going to write about each new episode every week. So read on only if you have seen both episodes one and two at this point, and please join the conversation thread.

By Tim Appelo
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April 20, 2010 5:10 AM
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Newscasters vs. Eyjafjallajökull

Reporting the iceland volcano eruption at Eyjafjallajökull has been a challenge for global newscasters, as this hilarious video proves:

By Anne Thompson
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April 20, 2010 4:07 AM
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Summer Movies: What Can Top Iron Man 2?

It's starting to look a lot like summer.

By Anne Thompson
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April 20, 2010 4:01 AM
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13 Comments

Hollywood Loves Brand Names Like Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

One producer pal is shopping a commercial adventure that happens to be an original script. And nobody's biting, because these days Hollywood is terrified of the original screenplay. Even though Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all time, at this point you have to be James Cameron or Steven Spielberg to greenlight an original--unless it's a low-budget comedy. That's the last refuge of the original idea, because laughs always sell.

By Anne Thompson
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April 20, 2010 2:27 AM
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Kick-Ass Takes Number One After All

For the second weekend in a row, the top two films were in such a neck-and-neck race that the Sunday box office estimates were turned around on Monday. So this weekend, Lionsgate's Kick-Ass, while not scoring the $20-30 million weekend some were forecasting, did win the weekend b.o. derby. UPDATE: According to Box Office Mojo, Thursday night numbers are included in the total.

By Anne Thompson
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April 19, 2010 7:35 AM
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R.I.P. Dede Allen, One of Greatest Movie Editors Ever

We raised a glass to late editor Dede Allen at a Sunday brunch party given by author Cari Beauchamp, and talked about why Allen was such a big deal. Tim Appelo remembered that when John Hughes couldn't come up with an ending for Trains, Planes and Automobiles, he channelled Allen and flipped a few scenes around and constructed the perfect emotional pay-off for his movie.