Thompson on Hollywood

Golden Globe-Winning Actors: What's Next for Portman, Firth, Leo, Bale, Bening, Giamatti

Heat rises when an actor enters the awards fray. Look at how Helen Mirren (The Queen), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and Melissa Leo (Frozen River), particularly, parlayed Oscar attention into serious careers. Take a look at the slates (including soon-to-be-released, rumored, in-production and in-development projects) lined up for this year's Golden Globe-winning actors Natalie Portman, Colin Firth, Melissa Leo, Christian Bale, Annette Bening and Paul Giamatti. We start off with Portman, who has so much lined up that she risks overexposure:

By Sophia Savage
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January 19, 2011 6:35 AM
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BAFTA Nominations Analysis: The King's Speech Reigns

The BAFTA Awards, the British equivalent of the Oscars, have announced their nominations, dominated, natch, by Tom Hooper's The King's Speech with fourteen. The film presumably has already made a strong showing on Oscar ballots which were due last Friday.

By Anne Thompson
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January 18, 2011 5:30 AM
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The Social Network Scores Top Awards at Golden Globes, Gervais Ignites Uproar

The Social Network is sweeping all the awards shows. The film won best drama, director, screenplay and score at the Golden Globes Sunday night. The King's Speech won the expected award for best actor drama Colin Firth, but could have used a best drama win going into the real Oscar race for best picture.

By Anne Thompson
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January 17, 2011 3:56 AM
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Golden Globes: Christian Bale Wins Expected First Globe

"It's going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking or as Charlie Sheen calls it, breakfast," says Gervais. "Everything is 3-D except the characters in The Tourist." That's a Globes-nominated movie--the audience reacts. They also don't like Gervais's suggestion that the Globes accepted bribes to nominate The Tourist.

By Anne Thompson
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January 17, 2011 12:57 AM
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At the Critics' Choice Awards: Winners Are Social Network, Inception, Firth, Portman, Leo, Bale

Paramount had a good night at the Broadcast Film Critics Associations's Critic's Choice Awards Friday night, winning three prizes for The Fighter, including best ensemble, supporting actress (Melissa Leo) and supporting actor (Christian Bale), a young actress award for Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit and doc prize for Waiting for Superman.

By Anne Thompson
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January 15, 2011 6:18 AM
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Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards Favor Kids Are All Right, Social Network

The Kids Are All Right landed seven awards from The Alliance of Women Film Journalists, including best original screenplay, best ensemble and best actress (Annette Bening), while The Social Network scored four, including best film, director, adapted screenplay and score. Winter's Bone collected two prizes, including best woman director (Debra Granik) and best breakthrough performance (Jennifer Lawrence); Granik also won outstanding achievement for a woman in the film industry in 2010. Black Swan earned four nods.

By Anne Thompson
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January 10, 2011 9:38 AM
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Dancers on Black Swan's Lesbian Action/Horror, Critiquing The Fighter, Exit Through The Gift Shop

- It was inevitable that Black Swan would be divisive inside the ballet community. The Guardian pre-screened Black Swan for some of Britain's finest dancers. Here's a taste of their reactions:Tamara Rojo, The Royal Ballet: "I really have a problem with this film using an actress, not a dancer, to play Nina: the director seems to think that, in a few months, you can learn a profession that it takes years just to understand, let alone be good at. And in the film, Nina is supposed to be awesome."

By Sophia Savage
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January 7, 2011 8:20 AM
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Lousy Christmas Weekend Box Office: Little Fockers Beats True Grit, Best Coens Opening Ever

At a horrendous Christmas weekend---which saw a 44% three-day drop in grosses over last year (flush with Avatar)---sequel comedy Little Fockers beat out adult western True Grit, the best--and widest--opening ever for a Coen brothers movie. It's likely that the well-reviewed oater will have longer legs, however, as it settles in for the long Oscar haul.

By Anne Thompson
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December 26, 2010 7:03 AM
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Alliance of Women Film Journalists Nominees

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists has posted its nominees for the 2010 AWFJ EDA Awards (full list is below). Nominated for Best Film are Black Swan, Inception, The King's Speech, The Social Network and Winter's Bone. Oddly, The Kids Are All Right received 16 nominations-- but not best picture. Helen Mirren (RED) got five.

By Anne Thompson
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December 22, 2010 11:23 AM
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Production Watch: Bale in Nanjing Heroes, Dark Knight Rises; Stone & Garfield In Spiderman(s)

- China's premiere director Zhang Yimou (Hero, the Beijing Olympic Games) has named Christian Bale to star in Nanjing Heroes. The $90 million period epic tells the story of the Nanjing Massacre, when Japanese troops killed thousands of Chinese in the capital city (1937). Bale will play an American priest who assists citizens in escaping impending death. Zhang also announced the hiring of special effects house Dark Side FX (The Dark Knight). The film will mix English and Mandarin (40/60), he said. No Chinese film or director has ever taken home an Academy Award in a major category. (Zhang himself had back-to-back Oscar nominations for Ju Dou in 1990 and Raise the Red Lantern in 1991.) "It's the overall strategy for Chinese cinema to approach the world and broaden its influence," Zhang told THR. The casting of Bale was not a box office ploy, but rather "a coincidence because the script happened to have an English-speaking part in the lead." Shooting Nanjing Heroes will begin shooting January 10. Bale will be due on The Dark Knight Rises set May 2011.