Thompson on Hollywood

Comic-Con: DreamWorks' 3-D Fright Night, Vampires, Colin Farrell's Career & Underworld Awakening

DreamWorks' Fright Night panel started off with more Twilight bashing as moderator Chris Gore called it the "badass blood-thirsty panel." True vampire fans aren't necessarily Twilight fans, it's clear. Underworld: Awakening screened footage (also in 3-D) before the Fright Night panel, with "Grandmother of Vampires" Kate Beckinsale (she gladly wears the title) talking about her "shiny bottom": no Twilight glitter. The moderator thanked her for appearing naked in the footage. And that's all we'll say about that franchise. Len Wiseman is also directing wife Beckinsale and Fright Night star Colin Farrell in Total Recall, along with Bryan Cranston, John Cho, Ethan Hawke and Bill Nighy.

By Sophia Savage
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July 23, 2011 1:15 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Transformers 3D Holds at Number One; Horrible Bosses Strong at Two

Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3-D extravaganza, the top-grossing movie of the year, stayed on top despite a respectable 52% dip, followed by yet another R-rated raunch comedy at number two, (top ten box office chart, review links and trailers below). Anthony D'Alessandro reports. Paramount’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon remained in full orbit at the weekend box office, earning $47 million and revving its domestic total to $261 million to overtake The Hangover Part II ($250.8 million) as the highest-grossing film of the year.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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July 10, 2011 4:24 AM
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Horrible Bosses Early Reviews: Lazy, Comic Escapism, Middling TV, Sexist, Raunchy, Dark Fun, Mess

If you want to know what the Hangover series hath wrought, see Horrible Bosses, featuring a hapless trio of would-be boss-killers (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis) who are aided by wily scene-stealer Jamie Foxx. Their sinister bosses are played with brio by office bully Kevin Spacey (who's been there before), brunette dentist harasser Jennifer Anniston (joining the I-can-do-raunchy-comedy-too club) and unrecognizable coke-freak Colin Farrell. All are having a fabulous time.

By Anne Thompson and Maggie Lange
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July 6, 2011 5:24 AM
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Summer Preview: Must-Sees on Big Screen, Skippable, Must-to-Avoid

The summer is upon us, with a plethora of viewing choices, many of them utterly avoidable. I lay out the summer movie landscape.

By Anne Thompson
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April 28, 2011 9:46 AM
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Hammer & DiCaprio Join List of Hunks Who Kiss On Screen: See Videos

Armie Hammer says that Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar biopic with Leonardo DiCaprio will feature more than one lip-locking scene. "It's not a kissing scene—it's a ton of kissing scenes," he told E! at the SAG Awards. Hammer plays Clyde Tolson, the alleged secret lover of J. Edgar Hoover (played by DiCaprio). Shooting is set to begin this month, and in true Eastwood style, the boys will be getting down to business without much fussing around. Adds Hammer:"I'm so excited to work with Clint, and from what I hear, he's not the type of director who has a ton of rehearsals and takes. I think we're just sort of thrown in there and have to make it happen…I actually just met [Leo] for the first time Saturday at the DGA Awards. Sure, we talked business. He's a talented actor. I'm not nervous or afraid of it being awkward. The script is great. The scenes are in there for a reason. I'm really excited."

By Sophia Savage
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February 2, 2011 6:20 AM
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Jim Sturgess Talks The Way Back, Heartless, Singing the Beatles

Jim Sturgess was deep in the throes of working on a thriller when he auditioned for Peter Weir's The Way Back. The young Brit felt "a combination of intimidation and awe and desperation" going up for a part in a Weir film. "I had quite a strange entrance into the movie," he recalls, "because when I found out that Peter was casting for the film and wanted to see me, I was in the middle of shooting a film back in London called Heartless, where I was playing a kind of psychotic, delusional, manic-depressive, suicidal character in a comedy, a British rom-com." When he met with Weir, he had been doing two weeks of night shoots and looked terrible, and left feeling disappointed. The actor ended up putting himself on tape and sent Weir a letter. "Thank god I did that," he says now, as Weir offered him the key role of a Polish Gulag survivor who leads a gang of escapees across 4000 miles to freedom.

By Anne Thompson
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January 18, 2011 8:04 AM
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In Development: Knightley and Wright for Anna Karenina, Moses to Rise Again And Again

News to inspire remake support: Keira Knightley could follow in Greta Garbo's footsteps and play the lead in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. The screenwriter is Tom Stoppard and the director is Joe Wright, who arguably gets the best from Knightley (see Pride and Prejudice and Atonement). It's Working Title's project; they expect the script by Christmas. They will then consider, according to London's Daily Mail: "several scripts destined for Wright, including one by Abi Morgan based on The Little Mermaid fairy tale, ‘and we’ll decide what looks like the most sensible thing to do.’" Let's see both!

By Sophia Savage
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November 19, 2010 5:00 AM
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Oscar Talk: The Way Back, Hollywood Reporter Actress Round-Table

On this week's Oscar Talk, Kris Tapley and I range over Peter Weir's The Way Back, which I finally screened, as well as the crazy season which is now heating up. We beg to differ on DreamWorks' Animation's Megamind.

By Anne Thompson
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November 5, 2010 5:09 AM
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Trailer Watch: Peter Weir's The Way Back Gets Oscar Run

"Just keep walking."

By Anne Thompson
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October 9, 2010 2:56 AM
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Telluride Wrap: Best of Fest

One great thing about The Telluride Film Festival: it's all over in four days. So as America gets back to work and school, Tim Appelo wraps up the best of the fest: