It was a smart move for Fox to hand over the reins to FX whiz Robert Rodriguez on a Predator sequel. He promised to deliver them a $45-million movie—modest, for an action sequel—which he wrote and produced at his Austin Troublemaker Studios (with location shoots in Hawaii) with Nimrod Antal (Kontroll) at the helm. Rodriguez offers studios a one-stop shop on a somewhat smaller scale than Peter Jackson’s Weta operation in New Zealand. The deal is, they leave him alone to deliver the goods. “Do your thing and make it cool and make it a Troublemaker Studios movie,” Fox told Rodriguez. “We’ll release it, but you don’t have to make it a Fox movie.”
Next on Rodriguez’s platter is Spy Kids 4. He just handed the script to the Weinstein Co. It’s set ten years later with a new set of kids. He wants to return to the look and feel of the first Spy Kids, with plenty of practical effects, he said: “That’s my most loyal audience.”
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, Robert Rodriguez, Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Action, Sci-fi, Sequel, Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Video, Trailers on March 17, 2010 at 12:04pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (3)
Monday night I squeezed into the last seat at Fantastic Fest’s midnight surprise screening of Neil “The Descent” Marshall’s Romans vs. Picts epic Centurion at the Alamo Draft House.
The good news: the movie kept me awake and Michael Fassbender and Dominic West are strong leads as the titular centurion and the general of the ninth legion, respectively. The bad news: the movie is a slightly cheesy period B actioner, rife with bloody, gory slo-mo fighting with squibs of gushing red blood and lopping off of heads. Think Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Only straight.
The men are far stronger than the ancillary action babes in fur and anachronistic hair and make-up. Think Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. Fassbender’s girl-interest sub-plot is plain silly.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Action, Independents, Magnolia, Reviews on March 16, 2010 at 10:28am PDT | Permalink | Comments (1)
It doesn’t surprise me that Green Zone is being targeted as a leftie movie. That’s because the film—from Brit Paul Greengrass—wears its politics on its sleeve. To me, the film bears the ring of truth, and made me fighting mad. But politics aside, the exhilarating filmmaking alone makes it a must-see.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Genres, Action, Headliners, Matt Damon, Studios, Universal/Focus Features, Video, Trailers on March 13, 2010 at 4:54am PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
During a public appearance in London last month, Quentin Tarantino told the audience that with Inglourious Basterds, he is now an auteur; he has established a body of work that can be analyzed as a whole and as a product of his unique vision. Recalling his experiences watching the films of Howard Hawks, he said: “My aim is that some kid in 50 years time has the same experience with me and my films.” In this dueling blog, Moviefone’s Jack Mathews and I debate whether QT’s films actually form a body of work or remain a work in progress.
JM —In an essay I wrote for the L.A. Times shortly after the opening of QT’s Pulp Fiction in 1994—a movie I loved, by the way—I cautioned critics and others to lower the volume on their hallelujahs. I wrote: “Whether the 31-year-old high-school dropout and video-store guru has the native intellect and social vision to go the distance as an auteur—whether he has anything, after all, to say—remains to be seen.” Well, QT’s now 45 with five full features behind him (I count the two Kill Bill volumes as one movie, as was originally intended, and Death Proof as a featurette, as it was intended) and while his films are definitely his, I’m still not sure he has anything important to say.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, Oscars, Directors, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Genres, Action on February 8, 2010 at 11:20am PST | Permalink | Comments (18)
The week before the Golden Globes, which happens to coincide with the final days of Oscar balloting, is packed with parties, most of them designed for maximum impact with Academy voters during balloting season. The senior quotient is noticeably higher at these events, where movie stars of yore and character actors mix with current awards contenders.
Sandra Bullock wears wigs.
At the Blind Side Oscar-press party at El Cielo last week, Sandra Bullock was radiant in red velvet. Surrounded by folks wanting their five minutes of chat, Bullock was charming, and genuinely surprised when directors P.J. Hogan and Betty Thomas turned up. (Producer Lynda Obst is more gnome-like than ever.) Bullock explained her longevity and recent winning streak with a strong work ethic instilled by her parents and keeping her blinders on when choosing projects. It’s about doing your homework and not paying attention to what others are doing. Both have served her well.
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by Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, Oscars, Directors, Franchises, Transformers, Genres, Action on January 18, 2010 at 1:56pm PST | Permalink | Comments (1)
Seven movies have made the short list of the Academy Visual Effects branch. They will vote for the final three nominated films on January 21 at the annual bake-off, where 15-minute reels of each film are screened for the VFX voters. I’m always at Sundance for this; I’d love to go one day.
The films are:
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“Star Trek”
“Terminator Salvation”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
“2012”
The three nominees will be announced on February 2, and the winner (Avatar, hello) on March 7. What will the nominees be? Avatar, Revenge of the Fallen, 2012? It’s competitive! Star Trek could get in there. And Half-Blood Prince was magnificent, but will probably be taken for granted. I’m glad District 9 was appreciated for its seamless CG character animation within a live-action environment: what Jackson, Blomkamp & Co. did on a modest budget is competitive with the monster budgets of the other VFX. But it probably won’t make the final three.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, Oscars, Directors, J.J. Abrams, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Franchises, Avatar, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Transformers, Genres, Action, Sci-fi on January 6, 2010 at 11:17am PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
Yet again, a London premiere sparked early London reviews of a big movie, which in turn released the trades and others to post their reviews. While Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey, Jr. as the pipe-smoking detective and Jude Law as his sidekick Dr. Watson, won’t open stateside until December 25, as of Tuesday, Rotten Tomatoes was counting six reviews at 83%.
The Guardian calls the Guy Ritchie film “high-end hack work,” while The Hollywood Reporter says that as ill-fitting an adaptation as the movie is, its pyrotechnics will score at the box office. Variety agrees that this “flagrant makeover of fiction’s first modern detective into a man of brawn as much as brain” may please action audiences, especially Iron Man fans. The Independent tracks the changing face of Sir Arthur Canon Doyle’s iconic creation.
by Anne Thompson, posted to Genres, Action, Studios, Warner Bros./New Line on December 15, 2009 at 4:30pm PST | Permalink | Comments (21)
John Woo’s historic epic Red Cliff is one of the best films of the year. Already a huge hit in Asia, which financed the original two-part $80-million five-hour war film (the most expensive movie ever produced in China), the two-and-a half-hour western cut of Red Cliff launched stateside last week in New York without much fanfare, and opens on 30 screens in 15 markets including L.A. this holiday weekend. The reviews are strong (Tomatometer 86%, Metascore 73.)
What gives? Well, indie distributor Magnolia was shocked at how easily they landed the movie against no other bidders for a low upfront fee. Part of the problem is that the movie had already played in Asia, where piracy is rampant. Anyone can pick up a pirated DVD for nothing. No foreign Oscar bid was possible because China did not submit the first part for consideration in 2008, nor the second in 2009. At first Magnolia was led to believe that the film was eligible for a Golden Globe, but eventually the HFPA said that no, the 148-minute version had to be the same as the one released in the country of origin. That was the end of that idea.
A concentrated Oscar bid for direction, cinematography, production design or costumes could be persuasive, but the Academy screening committee didn’t see fit to book it for their members. (They probably had no idea what it was.) At this point, the VOD (Amazon and Xbox Live) and theatrical release are aimed at hawking the eventual March 30 launch of both the long and short versions on DVD and Blu-Ray, with extras. “There has to be a groundswell out there,” said Magnolia’s Eamonn Bowles of his plans for an Oscar campaign, “a level of enthusiasm for us to get behind.”
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Awards, Golden Globes, Oscars, Genres, Action, Period, Independents, Reviews, Video, Interviews, Trailers on November 25, 2009 at 6:12am PST | Permalink | Comments (4)
Roland Emmerich’s disaster movies Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow are guilty pleasures. I want to see 2012 (November 13) but Sony is hiding it from me.
That hasn’t stopped them from letting me know that Sony is making its first deal with D-BOX motion technology on 2012. Here’s the deal: D-BOX builds special chairs in select theaters so that you shake, rattle, and roll along with the film. Disney’s G-Force was one of the first movies to do this (I tried it out at ShoWest). 2012 is perfect for it, obviously, as Emmerich sets about to noisily destroy the world, rippling highways and bridges, toppling towers and capsizing ocean liners. (He did restrain himself from obliterating the Kaaba inside the Grand Mosque in Mecca.)
Here’s how the D-BOX works: motion designers create motion effects (MFX) frame by frame in sync with the onscreen action for each movie. Moviegoers can adjust adjust their D-BOX intensity settings to heighten or decrease the MFX, which strengthen during action sequences but quiet down during dialogue scenes.
Check out the trailer mash-up of 2012/Collapse on the jump.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Genres, Action, Studios, Sony/Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Classics, Video, Trailers on November 3, 2009 at 12:50pm PST | Permalink | Comments (1)
Weekend Box Office Winners
Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are led the weekend box office. While an estimated $32.4 million was a studio record for October (the movie was on some 3700 screens), the number wasn’t as big as some expected after its stellar Friday. The studio aimed the PG-rated film at a general, not family audience. But will the $90-million movie make its money back? Finally, Warners backed filmmakers working outside of the box, and that’s a good thing.
While I may have underestimated WTWTA a tad, I was right to be optimistic about F. Gary Gray’s Law Abiding Citizen, starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. Its robust action trailer pulled in males to the tune of about $21.3 million. That was good news for The Film Department which financed the film, and for Overture which badly needed a hit. As Overture sits on the edge of its future, key backer John Malone will be glad to see the mini-major score its biggest opening to date.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Box Office, Fall, Genres, Action, Horror, Independents, Thriller, Headliners, Keira Knightley, Independents, Overture, Studios, Warner Bros./New Line on October 18, 2009 at 11:05pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (10)
Anne Thompson does more than just break news; she provides an insider’s clear-eyed analysis of a business that defines culture at home and abroad.
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