Thompson on Hollywood

Cannes Photo Call: The Stars Pose for "Cosmopolis," "Hemingway & Gellhorn"

Festivals

Our continuing coverage of the Cannes photo calls shows more strutting, posing, and co-star clutching. Today we have Robert Pattinson and David Cronenberg in what appears to be a real moment of affection, Kirsten Dunst and Kristen Stewart.

By Maggie Lange
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May 25, 2012 2:57 PM
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Mercurial Sacha Baron Cohen Takes on Freddie Mercury: Performance or Impersonation?

News

Trying to take the measure of Sacha Baron Cohen, who has played a Kazakh journalist visiting the US in "Borat," an Austrian fashionista voguing in "Bruno," a North African dictator demoted to ordinary US immigrant in "The Dictator." His Halloween parade of beards and costumes and accents makes it hard to tell if he’s an actor or an impersonator...

By Carrie Rickey
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May 25, 2012 1:23 PM
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IN THE WORKS: Sean Durkin Takes 'Exorcist' to TV, Swank Goes HBO, Wasikowska Travels Aussie Desert & Cronenberg Sticking with Pattinson

News

By Sophia Savage
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May 24, 2012 4:20 PM
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Career Watch: Jennifer Lopez - Still Real?

Features

Tracking the highs and lows of Jennifer Lopez's career is complicated. As her star power goes up, the quality of her acting goes down. She got serious attention with "Selena" and "Out of Sight," and pop stardom followed. She became a celebrity, an icon, an empire, a brand. She now hosts "American Idol," has a Latin talent show ("Q'Viva: The Chosen") with ex-husband Mark Anthony, and just returned to the big screen with "What To Expect When You're Expecting." But the serious acting potential that she revealed in the late nineties seems to have become irrelevant. Is it too late for her to revive it?

By Sophia Savage
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May 22, 2012 8:06 AM
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IN THE WORKS: 'Blade Runner' Sequel, Blanchett-Wasikowska Lesbian Romance, Paltrow for Picasso & Dujardin's Next

News

Ridley Scott has an idea for a sequel to his classic 1982 film "Blade Runner," and the original's writer Hampton Fancher is in talks to put it into action on paper. Scott and Alcon Entertainment say only that the story would pick up "some years after the first film concluded."

By Sophia Savage
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May 18, 2012 6:23 PM
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In The Works: Scorsese Producing Rolls Royce Love Story; Roach, Downey Jr. & Cruise Wanted for 'El Presidente'

News

Jay Roach ("Game Change," "The Campaign") is in negotiations to direct "El Presidente," from "Parks and Recreation" writer Dan Goor. The Warner Bros. comedy follows an overzealous secret service agent who is relegated to guarding America's worst former president. The plan is to offer Tom Cruise the role of the agent, and Robert Downey Jr. the role of the sleazy ex-president. Vulture has the scoop.

By Sophia Savage
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May 14, 2012 8:02 PM
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'Being John Malkovich' from Criterion: The Actor, The Geek, His Wife, and Her Lover

Reviews

Puppetry is control. So are acting, filing, and pet care. Each in its own way signals an attempt to make sense of the chaos that is lived experience, to grab hold of it and make it do what you want. And each, in "Being John Malkovich," director Spike Jonze's and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's exhilarating mind-meld, fails spectacularly.

By Matt Brennan
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May 14, 2012 12:53 PM
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Trailer Watch: Ben Affleck's 'Argo' Features Sarcasm, Hollywood Fakes, Aerosmith & '70s Hair

Video

The trailer for Ben Affleck's third film as director, "Argo," has arrived. Based on the true story of the CIA pretending to make a movie in order to rescue diplomats from Tehran following the 1979 Iranian revolution, the film stars Affleck, Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Kyle Chandler, Richard Kind, Scoot McNairy, Clea DuVall, Chris Messina, Michael Parks and Taylor Schilling. Check out the trailer (and compare it to Affleck's "Gone Baby Gone" and "The Town") below.

By Sophia Savage
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May 8, 2012 12:28 PM
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Career Watch: Scarlett Johansson, Beyond the Black Bodysuit

Features

Scarlett Johansson's role as Black Widow in "The Avengers" would be unnecessary if the superhero rulebook didn't require at least one buxom babe in black spandex. Thus secret agent Johansson plays a distant fiddle to Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans et al's super-human powers. Although her assassin has no superpower--other than outsmarting, interrogating and shooting and beating people to death ("looking puzzled or confused")--thanks to Joss Whedon's box office hit, attention is back on Johansson the kick-ass action babe rather than Johansson the nude-photo-hacking-scandal babe. But is Black Widow the best Johansson can do?

By Sophia Savage
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May 7, 2012 3:40 PM
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Schwarzenegger Will Be Back with Open Road's 'Ten'; David Ayer to Direct

News

Arnold Schwarzenegger will star in "Ten," with directer David Ayer at the helm. Open Road takes US distribution rights to the film, which will be finance by QED International. The action thriller is penned by Skip Woods ("X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), and follows an elite DEA task force that deals with drug cartels.