Thompson on Hollywood

Oscar News: Marc Shaiman Named Music Director

It's no surprise, given that composer Marc Shaiman worked with co-producer Adam Shankman on the musical Hairspray, that he will do the music director honors for the 82nd Academy Awards. Shankman cited Will Ferrell and Jack Black’s comedy numbers as examples of the hilarity that he hopes Shaiman will bring to the occasion: “He’s a genius! And he’d be the first to tell you!”

By Anne Thompson
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November 23, 2009 5:32 AM
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Oscar Watch: Fest Awards Push Contenders

Along with fall award season pump-primers The Hollywood, London and AFI Fests, another key fest on the award season calendar is the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which takes place at the height of Oscar voting this February, from the 4th through the 14th. (Oscar nominations are announced on February 2.)

By Anne Thompson
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November 23, 2009 5:12 AM
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Brothers vs. Brothers

Beware the cross-cultural remake.

By Anne Thompson
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November 23, 2009 3:45 AM
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Watching 2012 in China

On opposite sides of the world, my 20-year-old college student daughter Nora and I both enjoyed 2012, which was more fun than I was expecting. Director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) crafted a truly global movie, starting off in a mine shaft in India and proceeding to blow up Yellowstone National Park and destroy the world's most revered monuments, from the White House and The Vatican's Sistine Chapel to Brazil's Christ The Redeemer. (Critics were mixed.) After its second weekend, the utterly implausible disaster E-ride has already racked up $268-million worldwide. "#1 Movie in the World!" reads the LATimes ad headline.

By Nora Chute
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November 22, 2009 9:47 AM
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Oscar Talk Episode Eleven: Governors Awards, Tarantino, Holbrook, Docs

In the eleventh installment of Oscar Talk, In Contention's Kris Tapley and I have a go at last weekend's Governors Awards, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, the documentary short list and Hal Holbrook's performance in That Evening Sun. Over at Awards Daily, Sasha Stone assembles a bigger group to grapple with some of these and other questions.

By Anne Thompson
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November 20, 2009 9:31 AM
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Twilight Saga: New Moon Breaks Harry Potter Midnight Ticket Sales Record

Based on the torrid rate of Fandango and MovieTickets.com advance online ticket sales, it's not a huge surprise that The Twilight Saga: New Moon broke the midnight ticket sales record set last summer by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , reports the LAT:

By Anne Thompson
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November 20, 2009 5:59 AM
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Bendinger Launches Screenwriting Contest

Screenwriter Jessica Bendinger (Bring it On) is going interactive to promote the November 24 release of her Simon & Schuster novel The Seven Rays. She's inviting aspiring screenwriters to adapt any portion of the book into a 2-5 page screenplay in order to win an in-depth consultation with her.

By Anne Thompson
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November 20, 2009 3:58 AM
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Avatar Featurette Hypes Hardware

This Avatar international featurette invites viewers to engage with the exotic planet Pandora and the human hardware that James Cameron and Co. designed for this movie. We see Sam Worthington arriving on the hostile planet where scientist Sigourney Weaver and pilot Michelle Rodriguez do their rounds, under the watchful eye of tough-talking macho-security chief Stephen Lang.

By Anne Thompson
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November 20, 2009 2:49 AM
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Sixteen Questions for A Single Man's Tom Ford

Ex-Gucci designer Tom Ford, 48, has David Geffen to thank not only for his old office complex on Sunset, but for advising him to invest in himself. That he did, with his remarkably assured $7-million film debut, A Single Man. It's not surprising that the film has style to spare. But it also boasts the strongest performance of Colin Firth's career. His role as a 1962 college professor grieving the loss of his lover of 16 years won him best actor at Venice and has pushed the British veteran into the Oscar race for the first time. The hottest acquisition title on the fall festival circuit, A Single Man was scooped up by The Weinstein Co., which opens the film December 11.

By Anne Thompson
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November 20, 2009 2:14 AM
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Hillcoat Talks The Road

It's been a long haul for the film adaptation of the 2006 Cormac McCarthy bestseller The Road, which producer Nick Wechsler acquired before it was published. With backing from 2929 Entertainment and distributor The Weinstein Co., he approached Australian director John Hillcoat after he had made the much-admired 2005 western The Proposition, a stylishly gritty take on the genre written by Nick Cave and starring Guy Pearce and Danny Huston as estranged brothers.