Thompson on Hollywood

WonderCon Sneak Peeks Inception, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Toy Story 3, Prince of Persia

This weekend, San Francisco played host to a big multi-studio fan press junket at WonderCon, a pint-sized adjunct to July's giant ComicCon in San Diego. Disney imported producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Nic Cage and Jake Gyllenhaal and screened footage from Sorcerer's Apprentice, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Toy Story 3 (which they have now tantalizingly screened in its entirety thrice, at Showest, International YouTube vloggers day and a Pixar screening for long-lead press). They also staged a viral event for Tron Legacy (see video below).

By Anne Thompson
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April 4, 2010 7:13 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Alice in Wonderland Beats Spider-Man and Iron Man Openings

In his first TOH Sunday domestic/international box-office report, ex-Variety numbers analyst Anthony D'Alessandro checks in with the studios behind this weekend's b.o. juggernaut, led by Disney's Alice in Wonderland---which proves yet again why studio marketers keep chasing the perfect match: branded family title + proven visual master + global movie star=blockbuster.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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March 7, 2010 6:07 AM
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Alice in Wonderland: Early Reviews

Post-London premiere, the early review floodgates have opened on Tim Burton and Linda Woolverton's reimagining of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland in 3-D, which is poised to be a box office monster when it opens wide on March 5. (I will report back after I see the movie next Tuesday.)

By Anne Thompson
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February 25, 2010 10:38 AM
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Avatar to Lose 3-D and IMAX Screens, Still Breaks Records

We all know that Avatar has broken all box office records, unseating former king of the world Titanic. The James Cameron sci-fi epic holds the record for domestic ($690 million) and worldwide ($2.5 billion) gross.

By Anne Thompson
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February 25, 2010 1:55 AM
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Film Department, Overture, Apparition, Weinsteins Sell Sizzle In Tough Economy

As Mark Gill and Neil Sacker's Film Department seeks new funding via an IPO, they're announcing that they're plunking down some of their remaining cash on a new script produced by Michael De Luca, the original action-comedy True Memoirs of an International Assassin, written by Jeff Morris. Why telegraph this news?

By Anne Thompson
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February 3, 2010 11:33 AM
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Tron Legacy Producer Sean Bailey Lands Disney Production Gig

Ben Affleck is a happy man.

By Anne Thompson
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January 14, 2010 11:56 AM
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Disney's Aviv Exits as Ross Relies on DreamWorks

It's deja vu all over again. A studio in management upheaval. A new studio head recruited from TV being directed to reinvent the wheel by a boss who is a film biz outsider.

By Anne Thompson
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January 13, 2010 12:22 AM
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Leipzig Out at National Geographic; Battsek in Talks

After six years as president of National Geographic Films, Adam Leipzig is moving into an executive producer role on two films he was shepherding at the company, says David Beal, President, National Geographic Entertainment. The first is HBO's planned ten-hour Lewis & Clark mini-series Undaunted Courage, adapted by Michelle Ashford from the 1996 biography of Meriwether Lewis by Band of Brothers writer Stephen F. Ambrose. The film, set in the early 1800s, is also executive produced by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. The second is writer-director Peter Weir's return to the screen, the World War II drama The Way Back, based on the memoir by Slavomir Rawicz, starring Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan, which is in post-production. It has no distributor.

By Anne Thompson
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January 5, 2010 8:05 AM
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Trailer Watch: Burton's Alice in Wonderland Stars Depp as the Mad Hatter

Tim Burton was born to direct Alice in Wonderland, and Johnny Depp in Tammy Faye makeup isn't bad casting as the Mad Hatter either. Here's the latest trailer. Yes, I know another studio is shamelessly exploiting a brand name. But this "package" I want to see. Burton took elements from both the Lewis Carroll classic and Through the Looking Glass, including lines and imagery from The Jabberwocky. Mia Wasikowska plays Alice, Stephen Fry voices the Cheshire Cat, Anne Hathaway is the White Queen and Michael Sheen is the White Rabbit. On this film, Burton is handling more CG effects and green screen than ever before. He doesn't do much mo-cap, mostly pure animation. Disney releases the film on March 5.

By Anne Thompson
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December 16, 2009 6:50 AM
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Must -Sees: The Last Station, Up in the Air, Bright Star

Must-Sees:Jason Reitman's Up in the Air has been deemed a too-dark marketing challenge. But the movie's strength is the way it skips past conventional genre cliches while deftly taking its characters through romantic escape and isolation--and the tough economy. Paramount Pictures is one of the few studios that can market both big and little movies. Up in the Air may be on its way to some Oscar nominations: it won four awards from the National Board of Review, including best picture of the year. It's tied with Precious for number one on the Gurus 'O Gold. Reviews are stellar: Tomatometer: 84%. Metascore: 81.