Thompson on Hollywood

First Look: Jennifer Lawrence in 'House at the End of the Street' and the Next Four Steps for 'Hunger Games' Star

News

Relativity is just one of several distributors looking to capitalize on the new stardom of "Hunger Games" it-girl Jennifer Lawrence.

By Maggie Lange
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March 23, 2012 5:01 PM
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Paramount and Bad Robot Extend First-Look Deal to Late 2015

News

Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Productions are extending their exclusive first-look agreement through the end of 2015. Why wouldn't they? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

By Jacob Combs
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February 22, 2012 8:46 PM
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Pixar's 'La Luna,' Timeless Coming of Age Fable from Director Enrico Casarosa

Here's a first look at Pixar's latest short film, La Luna, which premiered at the Annecy International Animation Festival, running June 6-11. The short's director and Head of Story, Enrico Casarosa, began with Pixar in 2002, working as a story artist on Cars, followed by Ratatouille and Up.

By Anne Thompson
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February 1, 2012 8:52 PM
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First Look: Ari Folman's 'Bashir' Follow-Up 'The Congress,' Starring Robin Wright, Due in 2013

News

Ari Folman has given Israeli film blog Cinemascope an update on his "Waltz With Bashir" follow-up, "The Congress," his liberal reworking of the 1971 Stanislaw Lem sci-fi novel, "The Futurological Congress." In the animated film Robin Wright plays herself as an aging actress who has sold Hollywood digital rights to her younger likeness. (Trailer below.) The film mixes present-day live action with an animated future, and take the character forward 20 years. Folman wanted to cast an actress who was willing to play herself in the role; he considered Nicole Kidman, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Jason Leigh and others. Folman is doing most of the work on this Israeli/Polish/French coproduction from his Jaffa studio, where he made "Bashir." Writes Folman:

By Anne Thompson
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December 22, 2011 2:55 PM
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Trailer Watch: First Look at Andrew Stanton's John Carter

Video

Check out the new poster--better than the last one--and first trailer from "John Carter," Pixar writer-director Andrew Stanton's over-budget live-action/performance capture epic based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel about a Civil War vet who winds up on Mars and discovers the planet is inhabited by giant green barbarians. It opens March 12. (See full-sized poster here.)

By Jacob Combs
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December 1, 2011 12:42 PM
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First Look: Cianfrance's Place Beyond the Pines Stars Badass Ryan Gosling and Cop Bradley Cooper

Check out the leading men of Blue Valentine writer-director Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines, currently in post. Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper co-star as a motorcycle-badass/bank robber and a cop/politician, respectively. Their lady loves are played by Eva Mendes and Rose Byrne. Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom) and Ray Liotta also co-star. It almost sounds too good to be true, but Gosling's hair brings us down to reality.

By Sophia Savage
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October 28, 2011 5:00 AM
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Trailer Watch: Christian Bale's Flowers of War Is Not Delicate Film, Looks Gorgeous, Horrifying

TOH! caught twenty minutes of gorgeous, horrifying footage of Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War (formerly Heros of Nanking) at Toronto, along with every distributor in town. It's China's most expensive movie to date, and will open there and across Asia on December 16, and is rumored to be near a deal for US distribution. The film stars Christian Bale, with what looks like a strong performance, as a mortician in wartorn 1937 Nanking who steps up to protect a group of schoolgirls and prostitutes taking shelter at the Winchester Cathedral. Adapted by Liu Heng from the novel by Geling Yan, it is inspired by true events during the Rape of Nanking. Here's more from Toronto. The film is China's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

By Anne Thompson and Sophia Savage
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October 20, 2011 8:14 AM
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NYFF Vito Poster Exclusive, Jeffrey Schwarz Talks Gay Activist Vito Russo

Growing up in the New York film community, I knew Vito Russo, and read his influential 1981 landmark book about gay images in the media, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in Movies, which was revised in 1987 and has never fallen out of print. Russo travelled the world with his Celluloid Closet presentations.

By Anne Thompson
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October 13, 2011 11:37 AM
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New Stills from My Week With Marilyn: Seduction of the Media Begins with Gorgeous Michelle Williams

We just got a peek at the trailer, and now Moviefone has a few new stills from My Week with Marilyn. Star Michelle Williams may not be a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe, but she's channeling something that rings true. The synopsis and more photos of Williams' co-stars Eddie Redmayne and Kenneth Branagh are below. The film premieres October 9.

By Sophia Savage
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October 7, 2011 4:22 AM
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Poster Watch: Eastwood's J. Edgar Features Angry Multi-Colored DiCaprio

New word on Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar from someone who has seen it: Leonardo DiCaprio is even better as the old J. Edgar Hoover than he is as the young one. The movie, written by Milk Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black, cuts back and forth between the beginning and the end of Hoover's stellar five-decade FBI career, and suggests the tragedy of a hidden romance between the FBI chief and his longtime assistant Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). And yes, DiCaprio gives an Oscar-worthy performance. "To me, it's really a story of how absolute power corrupts absolutely," the star told EW. "He was always an outsider."