Thompson on Hollywood

IN THE WORKS: Theron's Career Comeback Includes Horror Remake; The Departed Prequel; Night Train

Don't be surprised if Charlize Theron decides not to interrupt what looks like a promising career revival-- via Young Adult/Prometheus/Snow White and the Huntsman--with an ugly step-sister. It's a remake of Zwart Water, a Dutch horror film about a little girl whose new friend is the ghost of her mother's dead twin, in which Theron (her production company Denver & Delilah bought the rights; they also produced Young Adult) is set to play the mother. Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) will direct. This sounds like the kind of project Hilary Swank would do (see: The Reaping). We're betting that Theron won't end up in the film.

By Sophia Savage
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October 18, 2011 11:25 AM
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Producer Hilary Swank Talks Something Borrowed, May Star in You're Not You, Opposite Jeremy Renner

Like many actresses these days, Hilary Swank has started a production company, 2S, with producing partner Molly Smith. One of their first optioned projects, the Emily Giffin wedding novel Something Borrowed, is the first film out of the gate, starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson and Colin Egglesfield. "The business is ever elusive, always exciting, always frustrating.," she says. "I want to make movies that people talk about. There are only so many stories I can tell as an actor. I wanted to progress to be a producer."

By Anne Thompson
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May 12, 2011 2:49 AM
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The Dallas Buyers Club Joins the Cannes Selling Fray

The big foreign sales companies hawking their wares to Croisette buyers are operating on the assumption that the movies they are selling will get made. Well, some will, some won't. Distributors all over the world are deluged in the weeks before Cannes with scripts--now it's a flood. They have to cut through the sales rhetoric and decipher the template and possible casting--most names are "attached" until something better comes along--for what could be a commercial movie, or not.

By Anne Thompson
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May 11, 2011 11:00 AM
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AFI Lifetime Award to Morgan Freeman: Pitt, Hanks, Mirren, Nicholson, Eastwood To Pay Tribute

The American Film Institute is honoring Morgan Freeman with their 39th Lifetime Achievement Award. The Gala Benefit on June 9 (airing on TV Land June 26) will host the following committee members to play tribute to Freeman: Ben Affleck, Jim Carrey, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Ashley Judd, Helen Mirren, Mike Nichols, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Tim Robbins, Steven Spielberg, Hilary Swank, Denzel Washington and Alfre Woodard.

By Sophia Savage
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April 26, 2011 3:44 AM
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Oscar Talk: Predicts Post-Critics Groups, Globes, SAG

Does Blue Valentine or Another Year or Biutiful still have a shot? Will Winter's Bone or The Town make it onto the Oscar Ten? In Contention's @KrisTapley and @GuyLodge and I read the Oscar tea leaves in the wake of the critics votes, Golden Globes, and SAG nominations. We explain why critics' fave The Social Network isn't necessarily a shoo-in for best picture. And why the SAG Awards count more than the Golden Globes in the Oscar race, and why the HFPA didn't nominate How Do You Know? as a comedy. The guys like Tron: Legacy and Daft Punk a lot more than I do, that's for sure.

By Anne Thompson
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December 17, 2010 5:00 AM
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Screen Actors Guild Surprises: John Hawkes and Hilary Swank; Blue Valentine Shut Out

The Screen Actors Guild nominations--which actually do have some impact on the Oscar race, given that Academy actors are so dominant in the voting--were announced Thursday morning. The SAG equivalent of best picture is the ensemble award; the five nominees could well be considered the top five contenders at the Oscars as well. The King's Speech and The Fighter led the fray with four noms each, followed by Black Swan, The Kids Are All Right and The Social Network. Left off the best cast list but grabbing two acting nominations each were True Grit, which had been ignored by the Golden Globes, and Winter's Bone. Blue Valentine was shut out, with no noms for Ryan Gosling or Michelle Williams.

By Anne Thompson
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December 16, 2010 2:25 AM
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Starry Night at Governors Awards Fete: Coppola, Wallach, Brownlow and Controversial Godard

Walking into the second annual Academy Governors Awards reception, I was gobsmacked by who was milling in front of the photographers at the entrance. 12-year-old Elle Fanning posed with her Somewhere co-star Stephen Dorff and The Ghost Writer's Olivia Williams; George Lucas was chatting up Godfather stars Robert Duvall and James Caan, as Sofia, Francis Ford Coppola and his wife of 48 years, Eleanor, greeted Peter Fonda.

By Anne Thompson
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November 14, 2010 11:18 AM
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Oscar Watch: Director/Picture Splits, Black Swan Promo

- What are the odds of a director winning an Oscar without their film? LAT's new Awards Tracker blog considers the importance of the best director and best picture unity. "Over the past 20 years, the awards for best picture and director split only four times. That's 80% overlap," notes Tom O'Neil, pointing out that being "overdue" is a big factor. Could this happen with Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), Christopher Nolan (Inception) or and Peter Weir (The Way Back)?

By Sophia Savage
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November 5, 2010 3:06 AM
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Oscar Talk Wrap-Up: Never Let Me Go Wanes, Foreign Contenders, Blue Valentine, Harry Potter

During this week's Oscar Talk podcast, Kris Tapley (InContention) and I were joined by indieWIRE's awards expert Peter Knegt and InContention's Guy Lodge, both in London covering the festival.

By Anne Thompson
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October 20, 2010 1:42 AM
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TIFF: Tony Goldwyn Talks Conviction, Betty Anne Waters, Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell

At this year's Toronto Film Fest, indieWIRE interviewed filmmakers and stars at Live at the Lounge every day. In my talk with Conviction director Tony Goldwyn (video below), he admitted, as David Schwimmer had several days earlier with rape drama Trust, that serious dramas are the hardest films to finance.