Thompson on Hollywood

YouTube Commercial Kings Rhett and Link Talk New TV Show

Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings, a new television show premiering tonight on IFC, plots two best friends as they journey across the United States to understand the country--via advertising.

By Maggie Lange
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June 24, 2011 10:23 AM
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Trailer Watch: Salvation Boulevard Stars Kinnear, Brosnan, Connelly, Tomei, Harris, Gaffigan

Salvation Boulevard premiered at Sundance--one of the funnier pictures on display there-- and was picked up by IFC. Check out the new trailer below. George Ratliff directs and co-wrote the adaptation based on Larry Beinhart's 2009 book (Beinhart also wrote American Hero, upon which 1997's Wag the Dog is based). Here is IFC's trailer for the religious comedy, starring Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Connelly, Marisa Tomei, Ed Harris, Isabelle Fuhrman and Jim Gaffigan.

By Anne Thompson
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May 24, 2011 4:03 AM
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Cannes: Sleeping Beauty Intros Director Leigh, Keeps Audience at Bay, Bought by Sundance Selects

Walking on the Croisette, I ran into Jane Campion, who was in town to support Australian novelist-turned-director Julia Leigh. Campion said that her "challenging" film Sleeping Beauty would never have gotten made if she hadn't agreed, when approached by Screen Australia, to "mentor" the project. Campion believes in this brainy writer-director, who came up with a fascinating way to confront moviegoers' comfort zone around female sexuality and prostitution.

By Anne Thompson
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May 16, 2011 1:02 AM
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Cave of Forgotten Dreams' Herzog Likes All-Purpose Title for All His Films: Gazing into the Abyss

In this AV Club Cave of Forgotten Dreams Q & A, director Werner Herzog admits that the title Gazing into the Abyss would work for just about any of his films. It's true. Here's our exclusive clip from Cave.

By Anne Thompson
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April 27, 2011 11:09 AM
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Berlin Dealbook: EFM's Satisfied Buyers, Headshot, Blind Bastard Club, Stake Land, Happy (UPDATE)

Berlin market dealmaking continues, while reaction to the quality of the fest pics is mixed.

By Sophia Savage
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February 17, 2011 6:29 AM
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Cold Weather's Katz & McFadden Talk Characters, Genre, Free Collaboration

TOH's Sophia Savage flip-cammed Cold Weather writer-director Aaron Katz and writer-producer Brendan McFadden. Here's her report; video is below):Cold Weather opens in Los Angeles February 11 at Laemmle's Sunset 5. This genre-bender is a meditation on human relationships dressed as a mystery-thriller. The film plays by its own rules, refusing to be rushed by short attention spans or pressured by mainstream expectations. The 2010 SXSW hit reminds us that any budget when combined with the will to get a great film made is better than a big budget and the will to fit in. Plus, collaboration is not only free -- it's a recipe for indie success. Here is indieWIRE's review and a scene explained by Katz.

By Sophia Savage
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February 10, 2011 6:31 AM
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Trailer Watch: IFC's Peep World

Check out the trailer for Peep World, from director (and Coming to America, The Nutty Professor and SNL writer) Barry Blaustein. The film got picked up by IFC in Toronto last September. À la Little Miss Sunshine or Running with Scissors, the story follows a day in the lives of a dysfunctional family forced to come to terms with their intimate secrets, newly exposed with the publication of the youngest siblings's novel. Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson, Ben Swartz, Judy Greer, Kate Mara, Taraji P. Henson and Ron Rifkin star...

By Sophia Savage
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January 28, 2011 2:00 AM
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White Material: Denis Dissects Black and White in Africa

Claire Denis' White Material is no Out of Africa. Take away the Hollywood studio gloss, the romance, the carefully framed vistas at magic hour. None of that. This is another look at Africa, up close and personal, a stripped down movie that manipulates you by withholding information and playing with your sympathy toward beautiful French actress Isabelle Huppert. White Material often frustrated me while I was watching it--who's that? What is their relationship? Is he/she crazy?

By Anne Thompson
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January 4, 2011 2:50 AM
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IFC to Release The Other Woman, Starring Pregnant Natalie Portman

Just as we are all trying to get used to the idea of wraith-like Natalie Portman as a pregnant soon-to-be new mom, she turns up pregnant in a movie filmed two years ago that was recently picked up by IFC, The Other Woman. Written and directed by Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex) and produced by Marc Platt (Wanted), The Other Woman stars Portman as a woman trying not to be a wicked stepmom. See the trailer below.

By Anne Thompson
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December 28, 2010 10:26 AM
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Carlos: IFC's Long-Form Experiment, Embraced by Critics, Globes

As movies become tougher and tougher to finance and release, more and more filmmakers are turning to long-form TV. One of the titles that has been a surprisingly strong winner in year-end voting is critic-turned-filmmaker Olivier Assayas's Carlos, a five-hour French/English viewing marathon which was financed and shown by Canal Plus in Europe and Sundance Channel in the U.S. and released in theaters stateside by IFC Films, which also distributed Assayas's Summer Hours and learned some lessons from another long-form experiment, Steven Soderbergh's Che, which sold out the Ziegfeld in New York for a week. "There's an audience out there for event films," says IFC chief Jonathan Sehring. Until Michael Winterbottom's thriller The Killer Inside Me, Che was IFC's most successful theatrical/VOD release, totaling between $3 and 4 million.