Thompson on Hollywood

Inglourious Basterds: Tarantino Adds One Minute, Thinks Prequel

Quentin Tarantino comes back to Michael Fleming with details on his final cut of Inglourious Basterds--one minute longer, or 2:32 including end credits--reminds that he had final cut up to 2:48, admits he listened to Universal's David Linde and TWC's Harvey Weinstein, who are both under pressure to deliver hits, but took his own course. As he told me in Cannes, he added a scene with the Brit soldiers played by Michael Fassbender and Mike Myers before the sequence at La Louisiane. He's not worried about adult films pulling audiences, and cites Public Enemies' strong opening as a positive sign. (Let's see the second weekend drop.) And Tarantino is seriously considering doing a Basterds prequel, with support from Brad Pitt. (That will require that audiences do show up to see the World War II flick, which has an unusual promo partner for a smart-house movie, Ultimate Fighting Championship.)

By Anne Thompson
|
July 9, 2009 8:07 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Cholodenko Lesbian Drama

I had heard about Lisa Cholodenko's new movie, The Kids Are All Right, which she cowrote with Stuart Blumberg. (Michael Fleming runs the official start of production announcement here.) It's a great story: Julianne Moore and Annette Bening are long-time partners; each mothered a kid with sperm from the same anonymous donor. Doctor Bening has a brainy achiever girl (Mia Wasikowska), while designer Moore's son is a jock (Josh Hutcherson). He wants to meet his father (Mark Ruffalo) and talks his 18-year-old sister into getting permission to approach him. The father doesn't mind. But complications ensue when he gets involved with his son's mother.

By Anne Thompson
|
June 30, 2009 5:22 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Blog Watch: Hudson Leaves IFC

David Hudson is departing his daily obsessive IFC blog. This leaves a hole, especially at film fests, when he'd aggregate all the best reviews on any given film. (He used to write the GreenCine daily blog). But he's planning something and it makes sense that the brainy Berlin-based blogger and cinephile wouldn't want to do that forever. All best to him. I feel the online cinelandscape shifting. So does IndieWire's Eugene Hernandez.

By Anne Thompson
|
June 30, 2009 2:29 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Tarantino Tweaking Basterds, Says Weinstein

My initial story was correct: Quentin Tarantino is not cutting the shit out of Inglourious Basterds. GQ grills Harvey Weinstein about the final cut:

By Anne Thompson
|
June 24, 2009 6:29 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Overture Ups Ante

As Overture Films lines up their 2009/2010 slate--hoping for a breakout--Wednesday they announced development of Celeste & Jesse Forever, a divorce rom-com co-written by and co-starring Rashida Jones (I Love You Man, Parks and Recreation) and Will McCormack (Must Love Dogs, Syriana). Team Todd (Austin Powers, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland) is producing. (It's odd that Overture announced without a director in place.)

By Anne Thompson
|
June 17, 2009 7:11 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Indie Studio Combine Announced

There's a new producer/distrib/foreign sales combine in the works. DF Indie Studio is led by finance experts Mary Dickinson and Charlene Fisher, who are raising coin. Two years ago they first met with Ted Hope, one of several indie-prods lined up to supply future product for which there is guaranteed U.S. distribution, potentially supervised by consultant Ira Deutchman; ex-Focus and Weinstein Co. foreign sales maverick Glen Basner is set to handle foreign sales. Having domestic release assured would make it easier for producers to raise foreign funding. That's been the scary factor for producers in recent years, as studio specialty distribs have decreased, and even existing ones often refuse to sign on to projects before they are complete.

By Anne Thompson
|
June 15, 2009 7:27 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Weinstein Co. Up Against the Wall

The real problem with The Weinstein Co. isn't the economy or debt restructuring issues, although that does not help. The Weinsteins are running out of time, because since they launched TWC in 2005 with plans for investor Goldman Sachs & Co. to raise $500 million in equity and $500 million in debt, they've been following an out-of-date business model. When Harvey says "we invented it," he's right. But that doesn't mean that the old Miramax model still works.

By Anne Thompson
|
June 8, 2009 7:10 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Fans, Friends & Followers: Playbook for the Social Media Age

Cinematech blogger Scott Kirsner drank the digital Kool-aid some time back. So the author of 2007's The Future of Web Video and 2008's Inventing the Movies decided that he had to self-publish his newest book, Fans, Friends and Followers. "If I was writing that artists had to be their own entrepreneur," he says, "then I had to do it too."

By Anne Thompson
|
June 8, 2009 6:44 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Cannes: Winners and Losers

Who came out ahead and behind on their Cannes jaunt this year?

By Anne Thompson
|
May 31, 2009 3:02 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Inglourious Basterds: Tarantino Talks

As Cannes wound down, writer-director Quentin Tarantino sat down for an interview about his long-awaited World War II opus, Inglourious Basterds. We talked about issues of structure, length and purpose: