Thompson on Hollywood

Development Watch: Arterton for Gretel, Jolie's Cleopatra Director, Clooney's Monster of Florence

- Jeremy Renner's Hansel has found his Gretel. Gemma Arterton will star alongside the rising Hurt Locker and Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol star in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, which sets the fairy tale duo fifteen years later, chasing witches. Despite having suffered three less-than-stellar films in 2010 (Tamara Drewe, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Clash of the Titans), Brit Gemma Arterton beat out Diane Kruger, Eva Green and Noomi Rapace to fill these fairy tale shoes. Director Tommy Wirkola wants to shoot in Berlin starting March 7. Let's hope this fairy tale update rises above the pack.

By Sophia Savage
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January 5, 2011 6:29 AM
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Flickchart Top 20 of 2010 Led by Inception, Scott Pilgrim

Flickchart is a film buff's addictive time-waster that's a best-to-avoid for me. Sure enough, I'm lured to check out the site's Top 20 of 2010 chart, compiled from some 49 million rankings from Flickchart users all over the world. Surprise: Inception is number one, followed by Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. (They also have a best animated films of 2010 chart, which does not include The Illusionist in its top ten. Humph.)

By Anne Thompson
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December 29, 2010 6:05 AM
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Four Rising Stars of 2011: Jessica Chastain, Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Hall, Tom Hardy

Jessica Chastain, Tom Hardy, Rebecca Hall and Michael Fassbender are four hot-as-flapjacks actors who have given Hollywood reason to expect great things. They are, so far, actors known better for their roles than their celebrity, and while 2010 was a year packed with noteworthy performances--including theirs-- we expect that their best work is yet to come. Casting directors and filmmakers are throwing parts at these rising stars: here's a preview of their 2011 slates (from flailing indies to franchise prequels, we've got the available stats) and why we care:

By Sophia Savage
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December 24, 2010 8:15 AM
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Toronto Film Festival's Essential 100 List

OK cinephiles. Who among you has seen all 100 on the Toronto International Film Festival's Essential 100? The full list is pasted below. True confession: I have seen all but the following 11, which I shame-facedly reveal below:

By Anne Thompson
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December 17, 2010 8:50 AM
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Pink Panther Director Blake Edwards Dies at 88, Video Clips

I grew up on the films of Blake Edwards, who has died at age 88. He is yet another example of a director whose kind we will not see again. Just as wife Julie Andrews was schooled in vaudeville, he possessed a range of skills that few can match today. Most impressively, he knew how to get a laugh from slapstick: the well-timed pratfall, the double take. No one else could have delivered the zany laughs in the best of the long-lived Pink Panther series, A Shot in the Dark. Edwards worked with the brilliant Peter Sellers to create the unforgettable klutz Inspector Clouseau, complete with clotted French accent and killer assistant, Cato, who could pounce on him at any moment, and with composer Henry Mancini, who scored almost all of Edwards’ films.

By Anne Thompson
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December 16, 2010 5:46 AM
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Beauty Watch: Theron vs. Roberts as Evil Queen, Portman and Cassel Talk about Women

We've been tracking the rival Snow White projects since September, and the latest is that Charlize Theron and Julia Roberts are both being wooed to play (beautiful) Evil Queens. Theron is in negotiations for Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman, with director Rupert Sanders (Michael Fassbender is currently rumored to be in the lead for the Huntsman, and four unknowns for Snow White, including The Tempest's Felicity Jones), while Roberts is Relativity's choice for The Brothers Grimm: Snow White, to be directed by Tarsem Singh. No word on whether Natalie Portman is still Relativity's choice for Snow White, or if Disney's Snow and the Seven is still planned (our guess is no).

By Sophia Savage
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December 14, 2010 5:05 AM
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Helen Mirren Talks The Tempest, RED, The Debt, Shakespeare

On Friday, I conducted a Q & A with Helen Mirren after an opening night showing of Julie Taymor's The Tempest at the Arclight. Dame Mirren earned a rousing round of applause at the packed house.

By Anne Thompson
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December 14, 2010 1:30 AM
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Taymor Talks Shakespeare's "Tempest," Stars Mirren as Prospera: "It's more powerful with a woman"

While director Julie Taymor has been getting a lot of ink about her $60-million musical Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark, which is finally opening on Broadway with Bono and Edge's music, less attention is being paid to her Shakespeare movie The Tempest, which opens Friday. Alas, this defiant art film is getting lost in the year-end deluge as Ron Tudor's deal to buy Disney's Miramax specialty label finally closes, and Disney pays more heed to the fate of bigger-budget entries such as Tangled and Tron: Legacy. "It needs to get seen," Taymor says of the $20-million period drama in iambic pentameter. "You don't have to get every word."

By Anne Thompson
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December 10, 2010 11:30 AM
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Trailer Watch: Two in the Wave, Godard/Truffaut Documentary

"I always thought the cinema was great but lacked sincerity and we ought to do it better," said Francois Truffaut.

By Anne Thompson
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November 27, 2010 11:04 AM
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In Development: Knightley and Wright for Anna Karenina, Moses to Rise Again And Again

News to inspire remake support: Keira Knightley could follow in Greta Garbo's footsteps and play the lead in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. The screenwriter is Tom Stoppard and the director is Joe Wright, who arguably gets the best from Knightley (see Pride and Prejudice and Atonement). It's Working Title's project; they expect the script by Christmas. They will then consider, according to London's Daily Mail: "several scripts destined for Wright, including one by Abi Morgan based on The Little Mermaid fairy tale, ‘and we’ll decide what looks like the most sensible thing to do.’" Let's see both!