Thompson on Hollywood

Oscar Watch Q &A: Tom Hooper Talks Long Road to King's Speech

Fest fave The King's Speech, currently the front-runner at Gurus o' Gold, this Saturday blew the roof off its packed Academy screening. The crowd applauded director Tom Hooper, writer David Seidler, Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, cinematography and score. It also nabbed the most effusive reaction so far over five years of showing films at Sneak Previews--the WGA crowd clapped Hooper down the aisle as he settled in for a Q and A. The movie debuted at Telluride (here's TOH's review) followed by audience-award-winning turns at fests in Toronto and the Hamptons. Will anything slow this film's Oscar momentum? (Well, some say it gets its history wrong.) The Weinsteins open the movie November 26--and it could reboot the company.

By Anne Thompson
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November 22, 2010 2:21 AM
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Weekly Wrap: Chasen, Portman, Harris, Ford, Mulligan, DiCaprio, Crowe, Deathly Hallows, Remakes

QUIZThis week we announced Winners and Answers: David Thomson’s Stump-the-Film-Buff 50 Movie Questions Quiz.

By Sophia Savage
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November 19, 2010 9:15 AM
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Oscar Watch: Ed Harris Talks Challenges of The Way Back

The Race thinks Ed Harris has a shot at a supporting actor Oscar for his role as the sole American Siberian Gulag escapee in The Way Back. So do I---as I told Kris Tapley in our recent Oscar Talk (I have now added Harris to my Oscar Predicts Chart).

By Anne Thompson
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November 18, 2010 2:45 AM
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Trailer Watch: De Laurentiis's Barbarella, Starring Jane Fonda

Here's a 1968 trailer featuring the fabulous Jane Fonda, Barbarella, in honor of the death of veteran Italian movie producer Dino de Laurentiis. I last saw him when he attended the inaugural Academy Governor's Ball a year ago as a past recipient of the Thalberg award, to pay tribute to ailing winner John Calley, who was unable to attend. UPDATE: Here's Richard Corliss on De Laurentiis.

By Anne Thompson
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November 12, 2010 9:05 AM
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Weekly Wrap: Award Watch, Production News, Talking to Boyle and League

OSCARS & AWARDS: While Black Swan promotional endeavors impress, the Godard anti-Semitism issue clouds his Honorary Oscar. And as The Hollywood Reporter's new glossy weekly hits the stands with its Actress Roundtable (considered in this week's Oscar Talk), Variety shuffles its editorial deck. Awards are being given to Biutiful star Javier Bardem, The Kids Are All Right's Annette Bening, Cinema Eye helps to anoint award-season documentary frontrunners and Peter Weir's The Way Back kicks off the Museum of Tolerance Film Festival. The King's Speech, with a Gala screening Friday night as part of AFI Fest 2010, leads the Gurus 'o Gold poll along with star Colin Firth and Bening.

By Sophia Savage
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November 6, 2010 3:57 AM
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Tim League Talks Alamo, Four Lions, Badass Digest, Fantastic Fest

Austin exhibitor Tim League came to Los Angeles to promote the November 5 release of rookie director Chris Morris's fest hit Four Lions, the first film to be released by his expanding dinner-theater chain, The Alamo Drafthouse. We talked about the success of the Alamo theaters, the Austin film scene, hiring CHUD's Devin Faraci to create Alamo's new blog, Badass Digest, and why League felt compelled to launch indie distributor Drafthouse Films with a British terrorist comedy.

By Anne Thompson
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November 2, 2010 8:48 AM
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Danny Boyle Talks 127 Hours: Intense Reality, Franco, Crowds, Rahman

In this video interview, Danny Boyle talks about his decisions on 127 Hours, including: how intense should the climactic scene with hiker Aron Ralston (James Franco) be for audiences? He has to hack through his arm's muscle and bone to extricate himself from an unmovable Utah boulder pinning him in a remote canyon, where no one knows his location. Obviously, as there have been repeated instances of audience members fainting during the scene, it is too realistic for some people. And Boyle worries about this: to him it is not a fun marketing ploy. It could in fact keep moviegoers away. But truth is, the movie pushes us to root for the stranded hiker's survival. It is a true story about isolation, endurance, and connection. (Here's the piece I wrote in Toronto, including a flip cam interview with Boyle and Franco.)

By Anne Thompson
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November 2, 2010 8:17 AM
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Oscar Watch: Santa Barbara Film Festival To Give Bening American Riviera Award

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) will bestow the American Riviera Award to The Kids Are All Right star Annette Bening, who has been nominated for three Academy Awards and is considered a top contender for the best actress Oscar this year. She also earned strong reviews for Mother and Child.

By Anne Thompson
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November 1, 2010 5:55 AM
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Lena Dunham Talks Tiny Furniture, Writing for Hollywood, Rudin, HBO

The discovery of this year's SXSW (and best narrative feature winner) was 24-year-old New York writer-director Lena Dunham, who shot her semi-autobiographical micro-budget film Tiny Furniture at her family's Tribeca loft with herself, her sister Grace and her artist mom Laurie Simmons (The Music of Regret) in leading roles, along with indie professionals Jemima Kirke, Alex Karpovsky and Merritt Wever, who she met at SXSW when she debuted her first film Creative Nonfiction there. Dunham's painter father Carroll didn't want to be in the film, she admits during our flip cam interview during LAFF at L.A.'s Four Seasons (below, with trailer). "I was exploring a more female-centric thing." Her family worked their butts off during fifteen days of filming (Jody Lee Lipes is her cinematographer) and are "quite proud of it. We all went through that artistic process together."