Thompson on Hollywood

Orci & Kurtzman Pact with Universal as DreamWorks Scales Back; Will Snider Go to Disney?

News

Screenwriter-producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (K/O Paper Products) couldn't be much hotter ("Transformers," "Star Trek," "Spider-Man" sequel, "Ender's Game") and they've just signed a two-year first-look production deal at Universal Pictures to revitalize their horror film library.

By Anne Thompson
|
May 2, 2012 7:34 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Adorable: Chris Pine Reads 'The Man in the Moon' at Milk + Bookies to Promo "Rise of the Guardians"

News

In a marked switch from his macho turn as Captain Kirk in "Star Trek," Chris Pine reads "The Man in the Moon" by William Joyce aloud at the third annual Milk + Bookies at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. "The Man in the Moon" is the inspiration behind DreamWorks Animation's "Rise of the Guardians" (November 21).

By Maggie Lange
|
April 18, 2012 7:19 PM
|
1 Comment

More:

Immersed in Movies: DreamWorks Teases 'Rise of the Guardians,' 'Madagascar 3'

Features

Well, if the surprising box office success of "The Lorax" ($132.1 million in two weeks) signaled the beginning of the Oscar race for animated feature, then DreamWorks struck back with a sneak peek on Wednesday of its likely contender, "Rise of the Guardians."

By Bill Desowitz
|
March 17, 2012 8:30 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

IN THE WORKS: Studios Raid Hitchcock Files, First 'Rebecca,' Now 'Suspicion'

News

Joan Fontaine was nominated for the Oscar for two back-to-back Hitchcock masterpieces, 1940's "Rebecca" and 1941's "Suspicion," and won for the latter. In the space of a week it looks like two studios are prepping remakes of those films. Of course, Working Title/DreamWorks and Montecito/Paramount insist that they are returning to the source, Daphne Du Maurier and Francis Iles ("Before the Fact"), respectively. (UPDATE: For more on these Hitchcock films, read Dave Kehr's latest NYT DVD column.)

By Anne Thompson
|
February 13, 2012 9:41 PM
|
0 Comments

More:

Del Toro Exec Producing DreamWorks Feature Adaptation of Creepy Short Film: Alma

Guillermo del Toro, who executive produced Puss in Boots, will work again with DreamWorks Animation on Alma, another animated film based on a the popular short film (below) by Rodrigo Blaas. The former Pixar animator will also helm the feature, which is being written by Megan Holley (Sunshine Cleaning). Alma is adorable, but the vibe is wonderfully creepy--we hope (perhaps futilely) that DreamWorks keeps it that way--not to mention the gap in her teeth. A potential animated franchise with a female lead who isn't a princess? Yes, please, we need more of those!

By Sophia Savage
|
October 31, 2011 6:35 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Media Watch: Twitter Proves People Are Happiest on Weekends, Netflix vs. Amazon

Looking at a catalogue of real-time updates from Twitter, scientists at Cornell University were able to track mood changes throughout the day and week, and found confirmation of the obvious: people are happiest on their days off. Cornell University analyzed over 500 million Tweets from 2.4 million people, from 84 countries and using a computer program to look at words indicating positive or negative moods, found that positive attitudes peaked early in the morning and then again around midnight. Moods dipped in the middle of the workday and peaked on weekend mornings.

By Maggie Lange
|
September 30, 2011 6:19 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Spielberg's Tintin Opens in Europe First; Director Talks Robopocalypse, Lincoln

With the Tintin comics much more well-known in Europe than stateside, the plan was always to open the Peter Jackson/Steven Spielberg collaboration The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn overseas first, in late October, followed by a December holiday-friendly release in North America. (Trailer below.)

By Anne Thompson
|
September 29, 2011 5:38 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Honor Roll: Producers Guild Recognizes Steven Spielberg

The Producers Guild of America will honor Steven Spielberg with the 2012 David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures. The guild will bestow the producer, director, writer and Principal Partner of DreamWorks Studios with the award at the 23rd Annual Producers Guild ceremony on January 21st at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

By Anne Thompson and Maggie Lange
|
September 21, 2011 5:36 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Oscar Watch: Rango Honored by Hollywood Film Festival

In a shrewd bit of Oscar positioning, Rango is the first non-Pixar film to receive The Hollywood Film Festival's animation award, which will be presented by Starz Entertainment at the 15th annual ceremony on Oct. 24 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The festival is deployed by many Oscar campaigners as a promotional event on the road to the Oscars.

By Bill Desowitz
|
September 6, 2011 10:36 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Oscar Watch: Mid-Year Top Animation Contenders in the Year of the Sequel

Awards

As we head into the fall awards season, Bill Desowitz looks at where the animation Oscar race is heading: it's so far a weak field The good news is that the Oscar race for best animated feature is wide open -- the widest, in fact, since Happy Feet beat Cars in 2006 (the last time Pixar lost the Oscar). And, lo and behold, here we are again with Happy Feet 2 competing against Cars 2 in the Year of the Sequel. Thanks to a new policy, a maximum of four films can now be nominated if 13-15 qualify. In the past, anything under 16 qualifiers meant three Oscar nominees. So expect either four or five nominees this Oscar season. The bad news, of course, is that there's a dearth of originality -- at least thus far. In fact, DreamWorks's Katzenberg told Fortune that it's the worst year for movies overall that he can remember.