Thompson on Hollywood

Liman and Fletcher Team for Attica

Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) will direct the 70s prison movie Attica, to be written by Geoffrey Fletcher, who temped as he wrote the screenplays that prepared him for the Oscar-nominated adaptation Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire.

By Anne Thompson
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February 16, 2010 11:54 AM
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Oscar Watch: T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham Talk Crazy Heart

After the Academy Nominees luncheon Monday at the Beverly Hilton, I repaired downstairs to do a couple of interviews pool side--along with a few other media. I flip-cammed Crazy Heart's T Bone Burnett, the tall and famous music supervisor who was instrumental in making the movie as good as it is. First, the movie wouldn't have been made without him. Burnett told old pal and jam-mate Jeff Bridges that if he would make Scott Cooper's movie, so would he. Second, Burnett insisted that the movie's backers raise enough money to do the music properly. The hand-crafted songs that fit Bridges' Bad Blake persona like a glove are what make Crazy Heart work so well. Burnett brought along songwriter Ryan Bingham, who wrote Oscar best original song front-runner "The Weary Kind."

By Anne Thompson
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February 16, 2010 9:56 AM
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Berlinale 60 Day Four: La Bocca del Lupo, Once a Gangster, I Am Love, In the Food for Love

In her fourth posting from the Berlin Film Festival, foreign correspondent Meredith Brody reveals her other profession: food critic.

By Meredith Brody
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February 16, 2010 5:39 AM
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Sandra Bullock Talks Blind Side, Oscars, Career Choices

After the Oscar nominees' lunch at the Beverly Hilton, I went down by the pool to interview The Blind Side best actress nominee Sandra Bullock with my flip cam. She didn't know at the start of her career, she said, that "being funny was going to be my greatest joy." She learned as she went along that comedy parts for men were better written than the ones for women, so she'd transcribe Jerry Lewis and Carol Burnett skits and perform them in front of her own home video camera. If you want women to come to box office, she warns, you have to make the movies good. "We're not going to the movie on the first weekend if they're crap," she says. "That's the difference between men and women."

By Anne Thompson
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February 16, 2010 5:21 AM
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Things I Learned at the Oscar Nominee Mixer

I pulled into the Beverly Hilton for the annual Academy Nominees lunch alongside Quentin Tarantino (pictured with Academy president Tom Sherak). At the press table, an Academy staffer asked me turn the handle to spit out a ball telling me where I'd be sitting.

By Anne Thompson
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February 16, 2010 3:13 AM
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Daily Read: Shutter Island Reaction, Tarantino Goes West, Smith Fights Southwest

In case some of these stories got past you, Amy Dawes rounds up the day's industry news: While confessing to some fatigue at its length, Screen's Tim Grierson generally raves about the pulpy thrills of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, which premiered out of competition Saturday at the Berlin film festival and opens Feb. 19 stateside. But New York Magazine's David Edelstein calls it a long slog, and Emanuel Levy finds it similarly overwrought. In case you've somehow avoided it, here's the trailer.

By Amy Dawes
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February 16, 2010 2:33 AM
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Berlinale 60 Day Three: Spur der Baren (Trace of the Bears), New York Memories, Waste Land, Howl

Meredith Brody files Berlin Day Three:

By Meredith Brody
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February 15, 2010 5:42 AM
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Editors Guild Awards Up, The Hangover, The Hurt Locker, The Cove

Up, The Hurt Locker and The Cove just keep on winning. Sunday night they won Eddies from the Editors Guild for best animated feature (Kevin Nolting), best feature film drama (Bob Murawski & Chris Innis) and best documentary (Geoffrey Richman), respectively. The Hangover won best feature comedy or musical (Debra Neil-Fisher). The Hurt Locker beat Avatar again, as it did with the Producers and Directors, but lost the Screen Actors Guild ensemble to Inglourious Basterds.

By Anne Thompson
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February 15, 2010 5:41 AM
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Art Directors Go with Avatar, Hurt Locker, Sherlock Holmes, Beatty

One thing I love about this year's Oscar race is the way lower-budget movies like The Hurt Locker hold their own against the big-budget behemoths. At the crystal-themed Art Director's Guild awards on Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton, The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow, taller than ever in high high heels, presented the period film award to Sherlock Holmes, which beat out best-picture Oscar nominee Inglourious Basterds.

By Anne Thompson
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February 14, 2010 10:19 AM
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Shahrukh Khan Hits America, Berlin, Meets Leo DiCaprio

Shahrukh Khan is everywhere these days. He gave an interview for NPR on his recent swing through America to promote his latest, My Name is Khan, which Fox Searchlight opened strongly this weekend as it debuted in Berlin. The big question is whether this Bollywood superstar will ever make the move to star in a Hollywood movie. While the studios are chasing him, like fellow star Aamir Khan, he's got it pretty good back home, where Bollywood's insular filmmaking community is a family affair.