Thompson on Hollywood

Robert Downey, Jr. Lands American Cinematheque Award: Should Be Fun Fete

Congratulations to Robert Downey, Jr. The 25th American Cinematheque Award will be his. Downey Jr. will be honored at the annual benefit gala on October 14 at the Beverly Hilton. This event could be one of the more entertaining of these award shows, as Downey will lure some of the funniest talent in town to pay him tribute, as Matt Damon did last year: his was more of a roast. Ben Stiller, Jon Favreau, Jaime Foxx, Jude Law, Zach Galifianakis, Steve Coogan, Jeremy Renner, and recent award-winner Samuel Jackson come to mind. Any other likely cronies?

By Anne Thompson and Sophia Savage
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May 5, 2011 4:26 AM
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Summer Preview: Must-Sees on Big Screen, Skippable, Must-to-Avoid

The summer is upon us, with a plethora of viewing choices, many of them utterly avoidable. I lay out the summer movie landscape.

By Anne Thompson
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April 28, 2011 9:46 AM
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Super Bowl Ads: Favreau is Cutting Spot for Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys and Aliens will be one of the upcoming 2011 movies with a Super Bowl TV spot, confirms director Jon Favreau on Twitter (this is his Twitter avatar):

By Anne Thompson
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January 12, 2011 7:33 AM
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Disney and Marvel Pay Paramount $115 Million to Buy Back Iron Man 3 and The Avengers

As expected, Disney Studios, under new chairman Rich Ross, and its subsidiary Marvel Entertainment (bought last year for $4 billion) had no intention of leaving so many of their prized titles behind at Paramount. But they had to pay dearly to get some of them back.

By Anne Thompson
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October 18, 2010 8:00 AM
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Summer Box Office Wrap: Winners and Losers, from Karate Kid to Cats and Dogs

In the final analysis the summer box office doesn't look so bad, writes TOH numbers cruncher Anthony D'Alessandro, who insists that weighing cost vs. return is more important than tallying the grosses or admissions.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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September 8, 2010 7:14 AM
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Super Hero Glut: Will Marvel and DC Projects Get Repetitive?

There are many many comics movies in our future. How many of them will moviegoers be able to ingest? How many will turn out to be any good? Will fatigue set in, as Matthew Vaughn, the director of X-Men: First Class, predicts?

By Anne Thompson
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August 10, 2010 4:54 AM
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Mid-Summer Box Office Wrap: Top Ten Chart, Studio Report Card

At mid-summer, the box office is lagging just behind last year's pace and ticket sales are flat, reports Anthony D'Alessandro, who charts the season's winners, losers and studio market shares so far (as of last weekend). Will red-hot Inception take the number one box office crown from Toy Story 3? Stay tuned, as numbers and rankings will change by Labor Day.

By Anthony D'Allessandro
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August 5, 2010 5:37 AM
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Craig Nails Down Girl with Dragon Tattoo and Sequels

As I watched Daniel Craig at Comic-Con and the footage from Jon Favreau's Cowboys and Aliens, I crossed my fingers that he would play Mikael Blomqvist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And sure enough, Deadline reports that the deal is done.

By Anne Thompson
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July 26, 2010 8:21 AM
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The Avengers Line-Up Wows Comic-Con: Downey, Jackson, Johansson, Ruffalo, Renner

Iron Man star Robert Downey, Jr. took the podium at Hall H-- after the crowd of 6000 fans were duly wowed by Marvel Studios footage from Joe Johnston's Captain America, a 40s period origin myth starring Chris Evans as the mighty hero and Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, and Kenneth Branagh's Thor, starring Australian Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, and Natalie Portman as an earthbound scientist. Downey then brought onto the dais The Avengers crew: Samuel L. Jackson and Nick Fury's two lieutenants, Clark Gregg and Scarlett Johansson, as well as Hemsworth, Evans, Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Mark Ruffalo, who is replacing Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/The Hulk (earlier the fans booed Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige for dumping Edward Norton).

By Anne Thompson
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July 25, 2010 4:17 AM
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Comic-Con: Stabbing Over Seat Delays Universal Hall H Panel, Cowboys & Aliens

There were many delays in Hall H Saturday. One of them came around 4:45 PM when one over-wrought attendee stabbed another in the face, causing what the cops called a minor injury. Here's Variety's report. Six thousand movie fans stood in long lines to get into the packed Hall for the Warner Bros. panel that morning, which unveiled Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern and wowed the crowd with new footage of Part I of the Harry Potter finale.