Thompson on Hollywood

Cannes 2012: Peggy Siegal Earns Her Press Badge, Hangs with Stars and David Geffen, Chases Yachts and Clients

Features

New York press agent/party thrower/Oscar publicist Peggy Siegal flew into Cannes this May on "Mud" producer Lisa Marie Falcone's private jet; they barely squeezed in all their luggage and designer frocks.

By Anne Thompson
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June 15, 2012 7:22 PM
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In the Works: Joe Cornish Attached to Adapt Neal Stephenson's Cyber Thriller 'Snow Crash'

News

Joe Cornish, director of last year's badass alien-invasion-social-problem hybrid "Attack the Block," is now attached to write and direct author Neal Stephenson's 1992 thriller "Snow Crash," which Time lists as one of the all-time best English-language novels since 1923. The novel has long been considered unfilmable.

By Beth Hanna
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June 15, 2012 4:27 PM
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Best of the Week: LA Film Fest Premieres, Reviews, Interviews, In-the-Works and More

News

This week on TOH, we offer 10 important takeaways (some courtesy of Chris Nolan) from the Produced By Conference 2012, both Woody Allen's underwhelming "To Rome with Love" and Pixar's "Paperman" had premieres at LA Film Fest, modern Gothic screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith talks "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" and more!

By TOH!
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June 15, 2012 4:24 PM
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Bigelow's Likely Oscar-Contender 'Zero Dark Thirty' Adds Unknown Ricky Sekhon as Osama bin Laden

News

Though details on Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow's in-producton project "Zero Dark Thirty" have been scarce, one major piece of news broke today. Ricky Sekhon, a British actor with two IMDB credits to his name, has been cast in the role of mastermind terrorist Osama bin Laden.

By Beth Hanna
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June 15, 2012 4:21 PM
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Director Peter Weir on Directing, 'Witness,' the Birth of the Australian Film Industry and More

News

Australian Peter Weir is one of our great living directors, having given us such primal and unsettling classics as "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "The Last Wave," "Witness," "The Truman Show" and "Master and Commander," to name only a few. In this excerpt from ex-Screen editor Mike Goodridge's book FilmCraft: Directing, Weir discusses his methods and stresses that the hardest challenges in directing a film are always "fundamentally creative."

By Beth Hanna
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June 15, 2012 3:22 PM
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Review Roundup: 'To Rome with Love' Not Wooing Critics

Reviews

Woody Allen's "To Rome with Love" had its stateside debut last night at the LA Film Fest, and American critics seem slightly more wooed by the director's latest loveletter to a foreign city than the Italians, but not by much. Review round-up below.

By Anne Thompson
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June 15, 2012 3:03 PM
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New Screen Editor Wendy Mitchell Talks Future Challenges for the Venerable Brit Trade

News

Sure enough, Brit entertainment trade Screen International went in-house and promoted Head of Content Wendy Mitchell to succeed Mike Goodridge as editor. Mitchell, who started at the trade publication as a UK reporter in 2005, is Screen's first woman editor, and will run both monthly print magazine Screen International and ScreenDaily.com.

By Anne Thompson
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June 15, 2012 1:44 PM
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Producers Line Up to Do 'Fifty Shades of Gray': Let the Best Woman Win

News

Finding the right producer to shepherd bestselling erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" to the screen is crucial for Brit author E.L. James. She and her lit agent Val Hoskins made the first decision, to let Universal Pictures (co-chairman Donna Langley was crucial) and specialty label Focus Features finance and release the film project.

By Anne Thompson
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June 14, 2012 7:48 PM
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Fox Searchlight and Red Flag Debut Busy Duplass Bros' 'The Do-Deca-Pentathlon' On VOD

News

Writer-directors Jay and Mark Duplass headed into SXSW with an unusual distribution deal for their long-in-the-works micro-budget brother comedy "The Do-Deca-Pentathlon." They set it up at both Fox Searchlight, which released "Cyrus," and indie Red Flag Releasing. The VOD release date is June 26, and a theatrical release follows July 6.

By Anne Thompson
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June 14, 2012 7:21 PM
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Unknown James Hamrick Joins Atom Egoyan's West Memphis Three Drama 'Devil's Knot'; Joins Firth, Nivola, Enos, Witherspoon

News

Atom Egoyan ("The Sweet Hereafter") is directing "Devil's Knot," based on the true story of the West Memphis Three (Damien Wayne Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr.), who were recently released from Death Row and featured in both HBO's "Paradise Lost" doc trilogy (Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky) and Amy Berg's "West of Memphis."