Thompson on Hollywood

Anticipating the Best of 2011: Malick, Spielberg, Scorsese, Fincher and More Sequels

- With 2010's disappointments behind us, The Daily Beast looks forward to the best prospects of 2011. They include The Hangover Part !! and The Muppets as well as Terrence Malick's The Tree of LIfe, which will be the among the first on the list (May 27) to go head-to-head with its own expectation-building anticipation. It's also the only completely original story on the TDB list.

By Sophia Savage
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January 3, 2011 9:15 AM
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1 Comment

Spielberg Casts Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln

Steven Spielberg has found his Lincoln. Ultra-picky Daniel Day-Lewis, 53, with two Oscars behind him, seems picture-perfect for the role of the iconic 16th president of the United States, who lead the country through the bloody Civil War. Liam Neeson was in line for the role at one point, but dropped out of the running, citing his age, 58 (Lincoln was 56 when he was assassinated). Said Spielberg:

By Anne Thompson
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November 19, 2010 6:54 AM
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Career Watch: Harrison Ford

Media folks reveling in the decline of Harrison Ford are missing the point. He was terrific in Morning Glory and he wasn't the star. Rachel McAdams has to take the bullet for not being a ready-for-prime-time player. Supporting actors Ford and Diane Keaton actually pulled in older moviegoers, where McAdams didn't score with her age demo. (WOM could still kick in. Yes, it's a familiar story, and it's no Broadcast News, but it's well-done.) And now that Ford, at age 68, is out of the running for those $20 million leads, he's free! He can do whatever he wants. He doesn't HAVE to carry studio tentpoles anymore. Here's a sample from my latest AOL Moviefone Career Watch column.

By Anne Thompson
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November 16, 2010 8:53 AM
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Forbes Top Entertainment Earners: Women vs. Men

- Check out Forbes' annual list of Hollywood's highest-grossing women in entertainment. For one thing, points out THR, there aren't any female directors among the top ten women. James Cameron dominates the men's list, along with George Lucas and Michael Bay, but Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow isn't on the list at all.

By Sophia Savage
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November 12, 2010 7:07 AM
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Cameron To Direct Avatar 2 & 3; Who Will Direct Cleopatra?

James Cameron has made up his mind. He can't get Avatar out of his head. And he's doing the right thing, shooting two sequels to Avatar (possibly back to back), because he's going to give audiences more of what they want. (Reminder: Avatar grossed $ $2.8 billion worldwide, bolstered by premium 3-D prices, and tops Blu-ray sales records.) And he'll plow some of the huge R & D that went into the cost of Avatar back into the sequels (presumably making them less expensive--although you know he'll want to up the VFX ante). And he will remind us of what top-of-the-line 3-D can be. Immersive. Engrossing. Welcoming us into another world, in this case, Pandora. Don't you want to go back there? Holiday 2014 and 2015 seem very far away. But now Cameron knows what he is going to do next.

By Anne Thompson
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October 27, 2010 4:49 AM
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Peter Morgan Talks Clint Eastwood's Hereafter, James Bond, Freddy Mercury, 360, and Tony Blair

Screenwriter Peter Morgan is unusual: a Brit based in Vienna, he's a prolific writer of self-generated screenplays, and not so often a writer-for-hire. (He's been nominated for two Oscars, for The Queen, an original, and Frost/Nixon, adapted from his play.) Hereafter is an unusual original, even for him, written in a "disgracefully short period," he says. After Steven Spielberg flirted with it, Clint Eastwood scooped it up and shot it without making any changes. Morgan still isn't sure how he feels about it. Would he have liked to work on it more, or is the movie as good as it is because it's idiosyncratic, not polished, and emotionally raw? (The movie opened well this weekend; Metacritic rates it at 56.) The script weaves together three stories about people trying to reach the hereafter--or in the case of the character played by Matt Damon, avoiding it.

By Anne Thompson
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October 24, 2010 11:48 AM
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Spielberg Takes On Robopocalypse

Steven Spielberg is committing to direct Daniel H. Wilson's futuristic novel Robopocalypse for DreamWorks. Spielberg plans to begin principal photography in January 2012 for release by Disney’s Touchstone in 2013. DreamWorks acquired the unpublished manuscript in November 2009; Drew Goddard adapted the dystopian story about a robot rebellion against humans. Doubleday plans to publish the novel in June 2011. Spielberg's next two films, War Horse (Touchstone) and The Adventures of Tintin (Sony/Paramount) are both coming out in December.

By Anne Thompson
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October 22, 2010 6:16 AM
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Oscar Watch: Reeves Talks Let Me In--Not an Oscar Contender

Let Me In is one of those strange tweener movies that is neither fish nor fowl. It was a fall festival hit, but movie audiences like their movies to fit into neat and tidy categories, and this one defiantly refuses to do that. Here's why.

By Anne Thompson
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October 13, 2010 10:32 AM
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DreamWorks and Disney Update Release Schedule: Spielberg's War Horse Joins Tintin for Holiday 2011

DreamWorks and Disney have finalized release dates for five films on their slate. After a confab in London last week with Disney's international and domestic marketing managers and DreamWorks brass--who showed footage from five films including Steven Spielberg's World War I epic War Horse, which is currently filming in England--Disney moved the DreamWorks slate onto new dates. (DreamWorks' films go out through Disney's Touchstone label.)

By Anne Thompson
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October 13, 2010 5:51 AM
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Ranking Stanley Kubrick: Top Ten Directors, Top Twenty Flickchart Movies

My most recent online time-waster (along with Flickchart) is Formspring, which asks you questions and posts your answers on various social media. For example, when asked to name my top ten directors of all time, I came up with this list: