Thompson on Hollywood

English Teacher Starts in NY, Lily Collins joins Julianne Moore, Greg Kinnear, Nathan Lane

One of the recurring themes of this weekend's Film Independent Forum was the growing fluidity of television and indie film. For example, TV director Craig Zisk (The Big C, Nurse Jackie, Weeds) is making his film debut with indie comedy The English Teacher, which starts filming in New York this week. He has just added Snow White star Lily Collins to his cast, which includes Julianne Moore, Greg Kinnear and Nathan Lane. As indie film remains a labor of love for most participants, it makes sense to work for hire in quick-form television, and return intermittently to longer form indie production.

By Anne Thompson
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October 24, 2011 12:57 PM
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Cowboys & Aliens, Crazy, Stupid, Love & Indies The Future, The Guard, Interrupters, Life in a Day

Cowboys & Aliens gets the prize for most literal title, if nothing else. While Andrew O'Hehir writes: "The movie never makes much of a case for its own existence; it's a mediocre western clumsily welded to a mediocre alien shoot-'em-up," and Roger Moore concludes: "A perfectly serviceable B-movie in the modern mold -- lots of money, lots of stars, lots of explosions and lots of credited screenwriters," TOH!'s review was somewhere in the middle, considering both the good (Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig), the bad (Olivia Wilde) and the ugly (the aliens).

By Sophia Savage
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July 28, 2011 4:48 AM
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Crazy, Stupid, Love Reviews: Refreshingly Upscale, Contrived, Genial Messy Comedy, Real Actors

Each time a studio presents a new romantic comedy I face it with dread, unless Judd Apatow is involved. He works hard at finding some grain of truth about how men and women relate to each other. (Check out this candid KCRW podcast interview.) I'm allergic to fake studio gloss, and was surprised by the skill applied to Crazy, Stupid, Love (July 29), which could easily have gone south--the degree of difficulty was high. The top-flight cast delivers on this one.

By Anne Thompson
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July 26, 2011 10:45 AM
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HBO's Game Change Starts Filming with Moore as Palin, Harris as McCain: Cast Pictures, Palin Tweets

Julianne Moore stars as Sarah Palin in HBO's Game Change, while Ed Harris plays running-mate John McCain, Melissa Farman (Temple Grandin) plays Bristol Palin, Larry Sullivan plays Palin's deputy chief of staff Chris Edwards and Jamey Sheridan plays McCain's speechwriter/campaign advisor Mark Salter (complete photo mash-up below, actors in said order on the right).

By Sophia Savage
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April 27, 2011 4:32 AM
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Trailer Watch: Is Crazy, Stupid, Love Gosling's Crazy, Stupid Sellout?

We hope Ryan Gosling isn't selling out. But judging from this trailer, it looks like he has abandoned his usual dark indie depths for pretty-boy womanizing. The pairing of Gosling and Steve Carell and co-stars Julianne Moore and Emma Stone may in fact be the best-looking rom-com since...a really long time ago. The film, from directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You, Phillip Morris, Bad Santa), comes out July 29.

By Sophia Savage
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April 6, 2011 7:31 AM
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In Development: Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges For Seventh Son; Pablo Ferro's "Genius" Titles

Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges are pairing up for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures's exorcist flick The Seventh Son. The project started out as an adaptation of Joseph Delaney's young adult trilogy, The Last Apprentice. The story takes place in the 1700s, about a young man training to be an exorcists who is tricked to use his abilities to unleash Mother Malkin (Moore), the most evil witch in the world. The young man's exorcist teacher is Master Gregory ("Spooks"), to be played by Bridges. Roles were offered to Alex Pettyfer and Jennifer Lawrence, but both are out--Lawrence's schedule just became dominated by her own franchise, The Hunger Games. Sergei Bodrov (Mongel) is directing The Seventh Son from Max Borenstein's screenplay. Production kicks off September in Vancouver.

By Sophia Savage
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March 21, 2011 7:32 AM
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Oscar Watch: Bening Could Beat Portman, Exclusive The Kids Are All Right Video, Tribute Q & A

Annette Bening is a classy theater actress who came late to movies--she was almost 30 when she took her first lead role in Milos Forman's Valmont. She went on to work for future husband Warren Beatty on Bugsy and Love Affair, and had three Oscar-nominated roles, in Stephen Frears' The Grifters, Sam Mendes' American Beauty and Istvan Szabo's Being Julia before landing a fourth for Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right.

By Anne Thompson
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February 10, 2011 3:55 AM
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At the Critics' Choice Awards: Winners Are Social Network, Inception, Firth, Portman, Leo, Bale

Paramount had a good night at the Broadcast Film Critics Associations's Critic's Choice Awards Friday night, winning three prizes for The Fighter, including best ensemble, supporting actress (Melissa Leo) and supporting actor (Christian Bale), a young actress award for Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit and doc prize for Waiting for Superman.

By Anne Thompson
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January 15, 2011 6:18 AM
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Oscar Talk: Late December Openings, Frontrunners, WGA and Oscar Music, DGA Predicts

In Contention's Kris Tapley and I weigh the impact of year-end releases on the Oscar race. Will Another Year's Lesley Manville squeak into best actress contention, is Nicole Kidman hurt by the weak performance of Rabbit Hole? And what about frontrunner Natalie Portman's new pregnancy? What would it take to push Biutiful's Javier Bardem or I Am Love's Tilda Swinton into the race?

By Anne Thompson
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December 31, 2010 5:11 AM
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Oscar Watch: Kids Are All Right Faces Academy Males

Oscar campaigners call them the Steak Eaters. The Academy is full of them--they're red-blooded males (not just American--Europeans and Aussies too), often directors, writers and craftspeople. They're the guys who voted for The Silence of the Lambs, Braveheart, Gladiator, Avatar and yes, Crash over Brokeback Mountain. "They vote for big movies that make big money, good solid moviemaking with great actors and good storytelling," says one veteran Oscar campaigner. "True Grit is for them."