Thompson on Hollywood

Casting Watch: Witherspoon Goes Fluffy, Fishburne is Superman's Perry White, Foster Plays Gotti Jr.

Reese Witherspoon's next project is a Disney fluff piece called Wish List, about a girl whose wishes do not come true because the coin she throws into the well never reaches its bottom. Twenty-five years later, Witherspoon enters as that girl's older self, a careerist who has lost the imagination of her childhood. The coin finally drops, and she is left to deal with the fallout from ten 25-year old wishes being fulfilled en masse.

By Jacob Combs
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August 3, 2011 4:54 AM
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Dark Knight Rises Filming in Pittsburgh, Two New Biopics, Development Arrested

The Dark Knights Rises moved locations this week to start filming in the latest Gotham City stand-in: Pittsburgh, PA. “When you're making a large-scale action film that has to showcase the vitality and size of a large American city," director Christopher Nolan told The Pittsburgh Business Times, "it also involves a certain amount of disruption to that city in order to make the action credible on screen.” The film will pay homage to some Steel City landmarks with a Heinz Field crowd scene at a football game, where mass destruction will likely take place.

By Maggie Lange
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July 29, 2011 5:31 AM
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Franco Back to General Hospital, Howard Won’t Direct Final Dan Brown Movie, Ferguson's Secret Show

Ron Howard won't complete the Dan Brown trilogy, reports Deadline. Howard directed and produced the first two film versions of Dan Brown’s bestsellers, 2006's The Da Vinci Code and sequel Angels & Demons in 2009, which both starred Tom Hanks as symbologist/sleuth Robert Langdon. Since 2001's A Beautiful Mind, which hit the sweet spot by winning four Oscars including best picture, these films have been Howard’s most popular--if not critically hailed.

By Maggie Lange
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July 27, 2011 4:26 AM
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Gosling on Clooney Pranks, Peter Jackson’s Vlog, Scientology’s Mega-Properties

In an interview with Extra, Ryan Gosling exposes prankster George Clooney, who directed him in the political drama The Ides of March, which opens the Venice Fest: "He will come up to you and tell you something very serious ... and then he'll walk away and you realize your pants are wet. He's had like an Evian spray bottle. He's been spraying your crotch the whole time." Gosling's promo duties on his new film Crazy Stupid Love (July 29), with co-stars Steve Carrell and Emma Stone, kept him from attending the Drive panel at Comic-Con.

By Maggie Lange
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July 22, 2011 3:59 AM
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Media Watch: True Confessions on News of the World, Vogue Picks 1000 for Influencer Network

Rupert Murdoch's delicious News of the World scandal just keeps on giving. Needless to say the US media is all over it, from Janice Min's THR to Tina Brown's Newsbeast. Schadenfreude lives!

By Anne Thompson and Maggie Lange
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July 13, 2011 5:20 AM
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Finale: Media Round-Up

It all ends with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2--or maybe not. J.K. Rowling has hinted that she could bring it back; in the meantime she's releasing ebooks of the series at Pottermore. And fan fiction writers will continue to create their own alternative Potter universe, as detailed in Lev Grossman's must-read Time fan fiction feature. Here's our fearless box office forecast, a rave review, and early review round-up.

By Anne Thompson and Sophia Savage
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July 12, 2011 5:32 AM
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Disney and Time Warner Chase AMC, Soap’s Second Life on Internet, Google+ Brand Pages

After AMC Network spun off from Cablevision last week, such buyers as Time Warner and Walt Disney Co. have made a run at purchasing the network, reports AdAge. One fund manager at GAMCO, who oversees some four million AMC shares, says that the network would benefit from a sale because of its current popularity due to acclaimed shows Mad Men, The Walking Dead, and Breaking Bad (pictured). In addition to AMC, AMC Networks also controls IFC, WE TV and the Sundance Channel.

By Maggie Lange
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July 8, 2011 6:43 AM
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Captain America Changes Title Abroad, HBO to Skinny Dip, Spike Lee Might Remake Oldboy

To bridge the translation gap, changing a movie's title abroad is standard studio practice. In the case of Captain America, the reasons are more diplomatic.

By Maggie Lange
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July 6, 2011 3:26 AM
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Spike Lee Can’t Get Funding, Ashton Kutcher vs. Village Voice in Social Media Brawl

Spike Lee can’t get financing for his films, even with Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster joining a follow-up to Lee’s most successful feature, Inside Man. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Lee griped about everything from Do the Right Thing’s Academy snub in 1989 and making a film with LeBron James to his hesitancy about acting and Obama’s reelection. Lee's difficulties acquiring backers are countless, but he's particularly peeved that due to his 2008 financial disaster, the World War II period piece Miracle at St. Anna, even though Inside Man was his most successful film, "we can’t get the sequel made. And one thing Hollywood does well is sequels. The film’s not getting made. We tried many times. It’s not going to happen.”

By Maggie Lange
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July 2, 2011 3:49 AM
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Media Watch: Selling MySpace for a Song, Tina Brown Defends Photoshopping Princess Diana

For $35 million, mostly in stock, Specific Media acquired Myspace, for a "garage sale price," wrote The Wrap. Specific Media, an advertising network, used Justin Timberlake as their hook, said their CEO in an interview. The pop star, actor and modern fedora-wearer agreed to play a “major role” in fostering the creative direction for the company, which he prepped for playing a savvy internet mogul in The Social Network. Specific's new strategy for MySpace will be to organize users around their interests, like music, rather than their social life.