Thompson on Hollywood

Answering Questions about Lost, Assuming You Are Caught Up

From the very beginning with Lost, you hang onto the characters and Oscar-winner Michael Giacchino's score for dear life and suspend disbelief. It never did make any sense! (The NYorker profiles Oscar-winner Giacchino; see clip below.)

By Anne Thompson
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May 25, 2010 11:49 AM
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Trailer Watch: Spielberg and Abrams' Super 8

If you object to camcorder trailers, don't watch this trailer for Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams' upcoming homage to filmmaking, Super 8--go see it in front of Iron Man 2. For the rest of you, here it is:

By Anne Thompson
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May 7, 2010 3:12 AM
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Spielberg and Abrams Team on Super 8 At Paramount

The puzzling part of Steven Spielberg producing director J.J. Abrams' Super 8 is that Spielberg is still not happy with Paramount. But he's willing to produce this movie with Abrams' Bad Robot, even though it will go through that studio deal. The two men dreamed up the homage to their Super 8 filmmaking youth together, so that is how it goes. Abrams' Super 8 trailer will run in front of Iron Man 2, starting tonight; MTV and Vulture have more details, while The Playlist describes the trailer:

By Anne Thompson
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May 6, 2010 8:00 AM
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Oscar Watch: Visual Effects List of Seven Led by Avatar

Seven movies have made the short list of the Academy Visual Effects branch. They will vote for the final three nominated films on January 21 at the annual bake-off, where 15-minute reels of each film are screened for the VFX voters. I'm always at Sundance for this; I'd love to go one day.

By Anne Thompson
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January 6, 2010 7:17 AM
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Producers Go Sci-Fi: Avatar, District 9 and Star Trek Make Top Ten

District 9 and Star Trek join awards front-runner Avatar in the Producers Guild of America's top ten for the Darryl F. Zanuck award in theatrical motion pictures.

By Anne Thompson
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January 5, 2010 3:12 AM
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Oscar Watch: Will Academy Voters Take Sci-Fi Seriously?

One of the big questions this Oscar season surrounds the chances of such sci-fi genre fare as Avatar, Star Trek and District 9 to land on Oscar's best-picture Top Ten List. I dig into that question here and come up with some surprising answers.

By Anne Thompson
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December 10, 2009 7:30 AM
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Weekly Oscar-Talk Podcast Debut

I am happy to announce the debut of a weekly Friday kudo-podcast with In Contention's Kris Tapley. Here's the first Oscar Talk. We discuss the awards hopefuls so far and likely contenders coming out of upcoming fests; Meryl Streep’s remarkable emergence as a 60-year-old movie star; how the ten best picture slots could effect the Oscar race; new indie distribs Overture, Summit and Apparition; changing trends in Oscar campaigns; Paramount pushing Shutter Island to 2010; how Avatar Day went; and a Toronto preview.

By Anne Thompson
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August 28, 2009 6:22 AM
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Summer Movies: Drag Me to Hell, Away We Go

Every once in a while I am reminded that my taste is not the same as the mass audience. I can usually call a blockbuster like 300 or Star Trek--in other words, I ignore the tracking and opening weekend predictions to insist--THIS MOVIE IS SO GOOD IT WILL DO BUSINESS. Sometimes, thank God, word-of-mouth counts for something, so that a movie becomes A MUST-SEE.

By Anne Thompson
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June 5, 2009 8:16 AM
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Star Trek Opens Strong; Kurtzman and Orci Talk

You can look at tracking all you want, and listen to studio marketers downplaying expectations. But truth is, if a movie plays as well as Star Trek does, the word gets out. The movie opened to an estimated $31 million on Friday (including Thursday night numbers), and we know that the WOM will be strong. So it's going to do a lot better than those $50-65 million estimates. UPDATE: It grossed an estimated $76.5 million for the weekend but scored only 35% under 25. Of course the core demo skewed older. Paramount has been spending the big bucks on luring the younger demo--which will likely expand on upbeat WOM.

By Anne Thompson
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May 9, 2009 6:45 AM
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Star Trek Will Open Huge: $100 Million?

Star Trek will open huge, and some prognosticators are heralding the year's first $100 million weekend. That's not what the advance tracking shows, which is trending toward older males, or what Paramount wants anyone to believe. But word travels fast. And I will bet that the movie will outpace expectations. Even if the "brand"--everyone's favorite word these days--is damaged. Admittedly, my own daughter-of-a-Trekkie, Nora, 19, is not the slightest bit interested in plunking down her ten bucks.