Thompson on Hollywood

Q & A: How Willimon Runs Fincher's 'House ...

Oscar Predictions

2014 Predictions Chart

Monthly Archives

Twilight's Pattinson Flogs Indie How to Be

While Brit first-timer Oliver Irving's micro-indie How to Be may not be high art, because it stars Twilight star Rob Pattinson, it has a target audience. The flick about a sadsack guitar player who moves back in with his parents after his girlfriend dumps him had been seeking a distrib since its Slamdance debut in January, 2008. I asked Pattinson about How to Be in a Twilight interview back in November (Flip Cam video below), which was seen by IFC Films buyer Arianna Boccho, who tracked down How to Be and bought it one week later for IFC Festival Direct.

By Anne Thompson
|
April 28, 2009 7:00 AM
|
0 Comments

SnagFilms Docs on YouTube

">YouTube has gone live with long-form feature content. One of the charter partners on the new deal is SnagFilms, which now has a YouTube channel featuring full-length feature documentary films selected from SnagFilms' online library. Their long-form feature collaboration launches April 17.

By Anne Thompson
|
April 17, 2009 7:38 AM
|
0 Comments

Trailer Watch: The Hurt Locker

Summit picked up Kathryn Bigelow's riveting, intense Iraq thriller The Hurt Locker out of Toronto, and has posted the latest trailer here. Jeremy Renner, who stars in the new TV series The Unusuals, could break out with this movie, which is set for June 26 release.

By Anne Thompson
|
April 15, 2009 8:35 AM
|
0 Comments

Will W Hit Zeitgeist?

Lionsgate threw a party at the Landmark in Westwood Monday night for Oliver Stone's W, which was basically an intimate L.A. premiere for Stone and his cast; the movie will also premiere in New York and the Austin Film Fest. Josh Brolin soaked up the applause, flanked by his father and uncle; everyone agreed that he did a helluva job as George W. Bush, from Yale frat-party boy to reformed drunk and born-again Christian and one of the worst presidents in United States history. James Cromwell also scored big as Bush, Sr. in the father-son drama. Cast members Richard Dreyfuss, Scott Glenn, Ioan Gruffudd, and Noah Wyle were also on hand, along with producers Bill Block and Moritz Borman.

By Anne Thompson
|
October 7, 2008 7:38 AM
|
0 Comments

Bergstein's ThinkFilm Faces Uncertain Future

ThinkFilm faces an uncertain future. While David Bergstein, the embattled financeer also behind Capco, Capitol Films in London and foreign sales company ThinkFilm International, has been expecting to close a bridge loan with Britain‚Äôs Aramid Entertainment Fund, ThinkFilm prexy Mark Urman is weathering a storm of negative PR from angry vendors and filmmakers who have not been paid and have gone public with lawsuits.

By Anne Thompson
|
June 26, 2008 7:25 AM
|
0 Comments

The Visitor: Exclusive Film Clip and McCarthy

Actor-writer-director Tom McCarthy (who played the ambitious young reporter on The Wire), took some time after his last film, The Station Agent, to travel in the Mideast with the film--sponsored by the U.S. State Dept. Inspired by some of the people he met in Beirut and Oman, he started writing a script with two main characters, a closed-down professor and a Syrian illegal alien who plays African drums. "I leave time for writing to develop organically," McCarthy says. "I start with characters first, who I haven't seen before."