Thompson on Hollywood

Now and Then: In 'Contagion' and 'Children of Men,' Disaster Runs Cold and Hot

Reviews

The opening minutes of "Contagion" are all surface, literally. A bowl of peanuts on the bartop, a swiped credit card, an elevator button, the human hand: each is a vector of death itself, a pandemic already in motion. With the rasp of a cough, a title card tells us we're in "Day 2." It's terrifying.

By Matt Brennan
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January 9, 2012 11:02 AM
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FIRST LOOK: 'Bourne Legacy' Reboot, Jeremy Renner is Aaron Cross

News

Universal Pictures has released the first images from the reboot "Bourne Legacy": a photograph of Jeremy Renner in the role of an American super-spy, and an austere poster flashing Renner's moniker under the tagline "Prepare for the unexpected."

By Maggie Lange
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January 8, 2012 12:23 PM
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Matt Damon Talks Bourne, Gilroy's Career-Ender and Hurt Feelings

News

GQ's Amy Wallace went to the zoo with Matt Damon. But they don't talk much about Cameron Crowe's "We Bought a Zoo." Instead they dig into the "Bourne" franchise, as Damon explains the script play-by-play on the three installments, "The Bourne Identity," "The Bourne Supremacy," and "The Bourne Ultimatum."

By Sophia Savage
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December 15, 2011 10:28 AM
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Fox Sneaks We Bought A Zoo; Early Reviews

Reviews

With theatrical box office more important than ever, the studios have gone back to a tried-and-true method of building word-of-mouth for movies they believe in--sneak previews. Disney has sneaked "War Horse" twice now, and Paramount threw "Young Adult" into key markets as well. Saturday, Twentieth Century Fox booked Cameron Crowe's bid to escape movie jail, "We Bought a Zoo," on 800 screens nationwide in advance of its December 23 release. I checked out the movie at L.A.'s Arclight.

By Anne Thompson
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November 27, 2011 2:53 PM
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IN THE WORKS: Damon & Affleck Together Again for Bulger; Bana as Elvis; Akira Casting

It's about time. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will work together again along with Casey Affleck to bring life to the story of Whitey Bulger at Warner Bros. Bulger was a New England mob boss and subsequent 16-year fugitive before being caught in Santa Monica, CA, last June. Affleck will direct as well as co-produce and co-star with Damon, who will play Bulger. Neither of the Affleck brothers' roles are confirmed. It gets better: Boardwalk Empire writer and creator Terence Winter is writing the script, which will track the mobster's youth in Alcatraz, his rise to the top of the crime world and his secret involvement as an FBI informant.

By Sophia Savage
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October 24, 2011 11:04 AM
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IN THE WORKS: A-Listers Lining Up Projects: Damon, Krasinski, Mulligan, Zeta-Jones, Cooper

- Matt Damon will be known as director soon, with both Father Daughter Time: A Tale of Armed Robbery and Eskimo Kisses (at Warner Bros.) and a newly announced drama which he co-wrote with John Krasinski, who developed the idea with writer Dave Eggers (this project is also at Warner Bros.). Krasinski and Damon will also star in the film, and while plot details are few we know Damon will play a salesman whose life changes when he arrives in a small town.

By Sophia Savage
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October 21, 2011 5:39 AM
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IN THE WORKS: Theron's Career Comeback Includes Horror Remake; The Departed Prequel; Night Train

Don't be surprised if Charlize Theron decides not to interrupt what looks like a promising career revival-- via Young Adult/Prometheus/Snow White and the Huntsman--with an ugly step-sister. It's a remake of Zwart Water, a Dutch horror film about a little girl whose new friend is the ghost of her mother's dead twin, in which Theron (her production company Denver & Delilah bought the rights; they also produced Young Adult) is set to play the mother. Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) will direct. This sounds like the kind of project Hilary Swank would do (see: The Reaping). We're betting that Theron won't end up in the film.

By Sophia Savage
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October 18, 2011 11:25 AM
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Soderbergh's Liberace Goes to HBO with Douglas and Damon

Milk's Sean Penn and James Franco, J. Edgar's Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer, now add Michael Douglas and Matt Damon to the list of Hollywood actors playing romantic leads. And yes, yet another high-profile filmmaker and project are finding a safe harbor at HBO Films. Steven Soderbergh will direct Douglas as the flamboyant lounge pianist Liberace and Damon as his lover Scott Thorson in a movie adapted by Richard LaGravanese from Thorson's memoir Behind the Candelabra in this long-in-development biopic. HBO plans to sell the movie to theatrical distributors overseas via film festivals, but it will air on HBO in North America.

By Anne Thompson
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October 11, 2011 6:17 AM
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Contagion Holds Strong at Box Office; Burns Talks Script, Viral Power of Bloggers

Steven Soderbergh has a solid commercial double in his disease thriller Contagion, which is holding strong at the box office in second place this weekend, with $44.2 million to date. Part of the credit goes to screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant) who helped to supply what Soderbergh calls "an ultra-realistic feel about a pandemic."

By Anne Thompson
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September 19, 2011 2:37 AM
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Film in the Decade Since 9/11: From Superheroes to Westerns, What Came After

This week's “Now and Then” column started out comparing and contrasting two movies about assassins — Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011) and Léon: the Professional (Luc Besson, 1994)—and ended up ruminating on 9/11. Trailers below:Life and culture are too messy to be divided into easy categories like “Before” and “After,” but for all the continuities in the way films are made and viewed, a long view of the last decade reveals some important, if subtle, shifts. Watching the network news coverage of September 11 to prepare for this column, I was reminded of how much we didn’t know that day, how much our fear stemmed from no longer being able to control the course of events.