Thompson on Hollywood

Oscar Talk Episode Twelve: Nine, Invictus, The Lovely Bones

In Contention's Kris Tapley and I have actually seen most of the Oscar movies now, and even though we're not supposed to write about all of them yet, we do talk about the sexy musical Nine, Clint Eastwood's Invictus and the mixed reaction to Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. We also get into the rising fortunes of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and the marketing behind the last movie to be unveiled in coming weeks, James Cameron's Avatar.

By Anne Thompson
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November 28, 2009 4:25 AM
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Oscar Watch: Precious, Up in the Air Lead Pre-Holiday Guru Vote

You can assume that most of the voters on Gurus 'O Gold have seen all the movies at this point except The Lovely Bones, Avatar and It's Complicated. So, these press people believe that Invictus (Newsweek's David Ansen reviews it) and Nine are in the race. Here's the new top ten. Keep in mind that in some ways what this list represents is 1) best marketing to date and 2) voting pre-critics groups, National Board of Review, Gothams, Indie Spirits, BAFTA, Golden Globes and Guild nominations and awards. Also, many Oscar campaigns this year are breaking late, for whatever reason. Screeners are just arriving this week.

By Anne Thompson
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November 26, 2009 2:54 AM
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Oscar Watch: The Big Four Are Screening

I've seen Rob Marshall's Nine and Clint Eastwood's Invictus, but I am not allowed to write about them just yet. And I got my screening invite today for Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. They start at the end of the week. I've been reading the Alice Sebold novel, which is as cool as I had heard. So I didn't read Harry Knowles' early review too carefully. I want to make up my own mind. But clearly, he loves the movie.

By Anne Thompson
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November 24, 2009 12:06 AM
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Ten Things I Learned at the Governors Awards

1. The Governors Awards will not be televised. At the orange Grand Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland Saturday night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave out four honorary Oscars at a new annual event on the awards calendar. Academy executive director Bruce Davis, president Tom Sherak, Oscar show producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman, and Oscar-host-to-be Alec Baldwin all attended this relaxed, celebratory black-tie cocktail and dinner party. The ceremony awarding four honorary Oscars to actress Lauren Bacall, producers John Calley and Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis, punctuated by repeated standing ovations, lasted three hours and 18 minutes, to be exact.

By Anne Thompson
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November 15, 2009 8:13 AM
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Oscar Watch: Waiting for The Big Four, Invictus, Lovely Bones, Avatar, Nine

As the deadlines for the Hollywood Foreign Press and film critics voting loom, the studios are finally starting to screen the last four big guns. The HFPA is heading to New York this weekend for the Nine junket. And they're seeing The Lovely Bones and Invictus. Avatar will likely be the last to show--not before December 10, says Fox.

By Anne Thompson
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November 11, 2009 9:13 AM
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Trailer Watch: Damon Stars in Invictus and Green Zone

It is more likely that Matt Damon will score an Oscar nom for Clint Eastwood's Invictus, which slices into Nelson Mandela's 1995 pursuit of the rugby World Cup to unify South Africa, than Steven Soderbergh's offbeat The Informant! which has already faded from the scene. Damon plays the captain of the South African rugby team, Francois Pienaar, and Morgan Freeman inhabits Mandela. Invictus opens December 11.

By Anne Thompson
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October 28, 2009 5:28 AM
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Produced By Conference: Are Boomers Abandoning Movies?

At the Produced By conference on the Sony lot last weekend, which was organized by Gale Ann Hurd and the Producers Guild, some of the best and brightest in the profession complained that nobody wants to fund movies for grown-ups these days. At Peter Bart's panel, Who Does What?, while producers Kathleen Kennedy and producing partners Lucy Fisher and Doug Wick talked about massaging tender egos, movies made to fill studio slots, fractious shoots turning out better movies than happy ones, and on-set disasters, they also complained that they can't make the films they'd like to make.

By Anne Thompson
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June 10, 2009 6:20 AM
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ShoWest: Roger Ebert Honored

After a video montage in which directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, and Oliver Stone paid tribute to Roger Ebert, Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker presented ShoWest's Career Achievement in Film Journalism Award to the Pulitzer-Prize winning critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. "Roger Ebert is the most popular, most respected, most honored, and most eclectic film critic in American history," Barker said, citing Ebert as "one of the few saviors of independent film--films of all shapes and sizes--American independent features, foreign films, documentaries, and animated films. Ask any independent filmmakers who Roger has championed. Errol Morris will tell you Roger gave him his career. Louis Malle used to tell everyone Roger Ebert saved My Dinner With Andre and Atlantic City from disaster, Robert Altman the same with several of his films. Pan's Labyrinth, Memento, Monster, Hoop Dreams, Roger and Me--we would not know these movies in the way we know them if it were not for Roger Ebert. This is fact."

By Anne Thompson
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April 3, 2009 5:42 AM
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Eastwood Scores With Gran Torino

The last time I cried on the way home from a movie was Million Dollar Baby. As I drove, I thought about the movie's battered girl in the hospital bed, surrounded by heartless relatives, and the coach who who loved her like a father. Down came the tears.

By Anne Thompson
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December 11, 2008 9:28 AM
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Eastwood's Changeling: Manna for Adults

I saw Changeling for the second time Thursday night. It's as good as I remember it from last May at Cannes. And it's just the kind of movie that Academy members will appreciate--it played well at the Academy premiere.