Thompson on Hollywood

MGM Partners with Sony on Releasing James Bond 23 Worldwide

As expected, MGM has closed a worldwide distribution deal with Sony (which released Bond films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace) for Sam Mendes' Bond 23, starring Daniel Craig as 007. Sony will also co-finance the film.

By Anne Thompson
|
April 13, 2011 11:15 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Video: James Bond in Drag

Daniel Craig goes blonde and vulnerable for this promo spot about inequality between the sexes narrated by James Bond boss Judi Dench. Craig, like Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, makes a far less handsome woman than man. In person Craig is a slim, sweet mench of a man. It's cool that he was willing to deconstruct his womanizer/action/hero Bond image.

By Anne Thompson
|
March 8, 2011 2:40 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Old School Action Stars: Few Replacements, Not Expendable

Action heroes come in two categories: New School and Old School. Just last weekend, Liam Neeson, 58, led the box office pack with Unknown, showing 16-year old Justin Bieber and I Am Number Four's 20-year old Alex Pettyfer who's Daddy. Neeson isn't the first, nor will he be the last, older man showing the world how a Hollywood action star should perform, both on screen and in the charts.

By Sophia Savage
|
February 22, 2011 8:39 AM
|
8 Comments

Legend Watch: Shakespeare as Hollywood Screenwriter, Dame Judi as Career Sage

- Ralph Fiennes's Coriolanus marks his directorial debut and reveals his admiration for William Shakespeare. His film is a contemporary retelling of the Bard's political thriller. "I can’t help thinking if he [Shakespeare] were alive and writing today, he’d be writing for cinema. His stories and language are cinematic,” he said at the Berlinale, where the film premiered. Meeting the press, he had his three producers -- Julia Taylor-Stanley, Gaby Tana and Colin Vaines -- stand and bow, wanting applause from “the roomful of film journalists who know how difficult it is these days to get an independent film made.”

By Sophia Savage
|
February 15, 2011 8:59 AM
|
3 Comments

More:

Sony Negotiating MGM Distrib and Financing Deal, Including Bonds

Sony and MGM have been in bed together for some time. One of many investors in the company, Sony has released the last two Bond films, and wants to release the next two as well, reports the the LATimes. Streamlined MGM has been strapped for cash for some time, come through bankruptcy, and now has two new CEOs, industry vets Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber, who are seeking to avoid the risk and expense of marketing and releasing their own movies. They are talking to several studios about a worldwide distribution deal for MGM's films and home video, as well as financing on some films such as Sam Mendes' Bond 23, starring Daniel Craig.

By Anne Thompson
|
February 9, 2011 3:07 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

James Bond 23 Will Shoot in Late 2011 with November 2012 Release Date

EON producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, finally released from the constraints of MGM's bankruptcy, are free to commit to going forward with James Bond 23, which has been stalled while they waited for MGM to come out of its financial quagmire. New MGM co-chairs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum say the movie will start shooting in late 2011 for a worldwide release on November 9, 2012.

By Anne Thompson
|
January 11, 2011 7:50 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Star Watch: Pitt, Penn in Tree of Life Trailer, Winslet on Mendes' Bond, Depp On Jolie and Paradis

- Stay calm, Terrence Malick fans. The LAT says there's truth to the hype. They provide a sneak peak at the film's trailer (which Fox Searchlight is attaching to Black Swan Friday) and debuted several stills. The trailer suggests a "mystical, rich and satisfying film…a big-canvas movie in the best sense, one with both cosmic significance and intimate drama," writes Steven Zeitchik. The shots in the trailer include "visual poetry -- shots of vast landscapes and religious half-light and spinning planets," and declares a resulting "sense of excitement about what Malick has just shown you and a sense of curiosity about what lies behind it."

By Sophia Savage
|
December 3, 2010 7:47 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Weekly Wrap: Award Watch, Production News, Talking to Boyle and League

OSCARS & AWARDS: While Black Swan promotional endeavors impress, the Godard anti-Semitism issue clouds his Honorary Oscar. And as The Hollywood Reporter's new glossy weekly hits the stands with its Actress Roundtable (considered in this week's Oscar Talk), Variety shuffles its editorial deck. Awards are being given to Biutiful star Javier Bardem, The Kids Are All Right's Annette Bening, Cinema Eye helps to anoint award-season documentary frontrunners and Peter Weir's The Way Back kicks off the Museum of Tolerance Film Festival. The King's Speech, with a Gala screening Friday night as part of AFI Fest 2010, leads the Gurus 'o Gold poll along with star Colin Firth and Bening.

By Sophia Savage
|
November 6, 2010 3:57 AM
|
0 Comments

In Production: New Bond Secrets, Damon's Zoo Co-Star, Singh Directs One of Three Snow Whites

- Writer Jeffery Deaver's The Bone Collector was made into a film back in 1999 starring Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington. Now Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. has enlisted him to reinvent James Bond. Project X will be published in May and plot details are hush-hush, but Deaver did reveal to USA Today that the story "is set in the present day, in 2011. Bond is a young agent for the British secret service. He's 29 or 30 years old, and he's an Afghan war vet." Deaver is picking up the story from where Fleming's fourteen novels left off, not from the cinematic adaptations, he says: "I want to stay true to the original James Bond, who many people don't know much about." He acknowledges that while Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig have contributed to the Bond legacy, "the original Bond was [actually] a very dark, edgy character." The first Bond, Connery, came closest to incarnating Fleming's Cold War British spy.