Thompson on Hollywood

Twilight Stars Hit Media with Remember Me, Yellow Handkerchief, Runaways, Oscars

One of the dangers of hitting big in a franchise like Twilight is that that every blessed indie movie that can't get arrested suddenly gets a release. And everyone wants you to do press. Poor Kristen Stewart! After opening Twilight: New Moon last November, she hit Sundance like a freight train in January with the hard-edged drama Welcome to the Rileys and The Runaways, in which she stars as rocker Joan Jett opposite Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie.

By Anne Thompson
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March 2, 2010 11:54 AM
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Vanity Fair's Latest Young Actresses Cover: Stewart, Cornish, Mulligan

A swatch of pale loveliness, here are this year's Vanity Fair photos of Hollywood ingenues. I believe the mag has done Kristen Stewart (Twilight) and Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!), at least, before. Last week, Stewart was in Sundance supporting The Runaways and Welcome to the Rileys; Rebecca Hall stole Nicole Holefcener's Please Give at Sundance; Mia Wasikowska was also there, starring as one of the Kids Are All Right. She plays the title role in Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland, which should break her out even more.

By Anne Thompson
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February 1, 2010 5:46 AM
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#Sundance: Jett, Currie, Stewart, Fanning Talk Runaways

The Runaways hit Sundance like a freight train, thanks to the combined star power of Twilight stars Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning and the characters they play in the musical biopic, "wild and braless" Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, who toured as teenagers with the first all-girl rock band in the 70s.

By Anne Thompson
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January 26, 2010 7:47 AM
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#Sundance: Stewart's Welcome to the Rileys, Keener's Cyrus, Hoffman's Jack Goes Boating

Two of this year's Sundance it-girls are women of a certain age: Catherine Keener, who rocks in both Please Give and Cyrus (as John C. Reilly's ex-wife), and Melissa Leo, who stars in both The Dry Land and Welcome to the Rileys. The straight-forward Jake Scott drama is well-written by Ken Hixon (executive produced by Steve Zaillian) and executed by Kristen Stewart as a damaged stripper-prostitute and James Gandolfini as a lonely man still recovering from the teen death of his daughter. Leo is his equally wounded wife. It will be fascinating to see how distribs navigate the distance between Stewart's younger Twilight fanbase and this hard-R drama. This is also an issue for Apparition's The Runaways.

By Anne Thompson
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January 24, 2010 7:30 AM
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Trailer Watch: Sundance-Bound The Runaways Stars Stewart and Fanning

The trailer is up for Sundance-bound rocker The Runaways starring New Moon co-stars Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie. The advance interest in this edgy indie at Sundance is huge.

By Anne Thompson
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December 17, 2009 9:03 AM
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Stewart, Jett Hit Sundance with Apparition's The Runaways

It's no surprise that Apparition picked up all U.S. rights to Kristen Stewart vehicle The Runaways, which was fully financed by River Road and produced with Linson Entertainment. It's the first Apparition/River Road theatrical collaboration (Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, due in 2010, will be their second). The deal closed two weeks ago.

By Anne Thompson
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December 14, 2009 8:21 AM
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Twilight Saga: New Moon is a Franchise, People

A lot of people are scratching their heads over the whole Twilight phenomenon. When I made a fuss about it before Comic-Con in 2008, many fan boys didn't have a clue. By July 2009 there was a raging Twilight backlash at the male-dominated Con. Even last week, I was amused by all the clueless Dads at the Twilight: New Moon premiere who'd rather be shot than admit to reading one of the books. Why were they there? To check it out.

By Anne Thompson
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November 23, 2009 7:40 AM
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Twilight Saga: New Moon Breaks Harry Potter Midnight Ticket Sales Record

Based on the torrid rate of Fandango and MovieTickets.com advance online ticket sales, it's not a huge surprise that The Twilight Saga: New Moon broke the midnight ticket sales record set last summer by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , reports the LAT:

By Anne Thompson
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November 20, 2009 5:59 AM
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The Twilight Saga: New Moon Disappoints

When new distributor Summit left behind Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke in its rush to push through the second film in their windfall franchise, they took a calculated risk. Abandoning a silly Twilight script that had been passed on by Paramount, Hardwicke and writer Melissa Rosenberg went back to the heart-pounding first-person intensity of the Stephenie Meyer original, which wound up selling 70 million copies worldwide. The dream that inspired Meyer--chapter thirteen in the first book--is a scene in a rain forest between a lovelorn young girl and a sparkling 109-year-old vampire who is restraining himself from biting and killing her. That tension is the heart and soul of the Twilight series.

By Anne Thompson
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November 18, 2009 8:37 AM
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The Twilight Saga: New Moon Premiere

The hot ticket in Hollywood Monday night was the Twilight Saga: New Moon premiere in Westwood. While diehard fans camped out all weekend for the chance to win tickets to the event, Hollywood dads scored tickets to win points with their daughters. One father after another scratched his head over the movie, but their teenagers were all smiles. The Mann Village in Westwood was packed with young girls. Director Todd Field flew in from Maine with his daughter and a pal; also spotted with their kinder were Larry David, Jim Stern and Kevin Smith, who said, "Now I know how clueless my parents felt when they took me to see The Empire Strikes Back."