Thompson on Hollywood

The Road Will Open November 25

The Weinstein Co. has been moving around the release date of The Road, trying to figure out what it has. Well, post-Venice and Telluride, where the film earned mostly glowing reviews, it looks like Harvey and Bob Weinstein are going for a holiday play after all on a prime awards season spot, November 25. (The movie carries the Dimension label.) TWC was going to go wide with the movie on October 16.

By Anne Thompson
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September 9, 2009 9:36 AM
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Stringray Sam: Coming Soon to Screens of All Sizes

Just as several folks steered me to check out Stingray Sam, the episodic six-part serial musical space-western designed for mobile phones that debuted at Sundance 2009, writer-director-musician Cory McAbee, one of many filmmakers these days taking distribution into their own hands, posted the following:

By Anne Thompson
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September 3, 2009 4:38 AM
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Awards buzz, Indie News, Disney Confab

In Indie news, despite Inglourious Basterds' rousing start, the Weinsteins aren't out of the woods. They weren't taking any chances. They upped their media spend by several millions in the week before the opening, targeting their weakest link, women. It worked. The WSJ explains why the Weinsteins face a long road ahead.

By Anne Thompson
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August 25, 2009 4:00 AM
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Avatar Trailer Update

The response to the Avatar teaser trailer that Fox released Thursday was mixed.

By Anne Thompson
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August 20, 2009 10:14 AM
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Avatar Week: Photo Gallery

I'm obsessed with Avatar. (The movies of James Cameron are moving inexorably up my flickchart.) The question for me is whether Cameron's ambitious mix of 3-D live-action and performance capture --which cost Fox way more than $200 million-- breaks out beyond the Comic-Con faithful. It feels very sci-fi thriller, which is fine for District 9. But Cameron knows how to reach a wide audience. Avatar is also a romance set on the exotic planet Pandora.

By Anne Thompson
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August 20, 2009 2:12 AM
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Portfolio Returns, Hughes' Death Place, Celebs Shill on Facebook

Movieline writer Stu Van Airsdale tracked down the site where John Hughes left this mortal coil.

By Anne Thompson
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August 14, 2009 6:10 AM
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Letter to the Studios: How Not to Market Adult Dramas

Here's the first of a series of pieces (which do not necessarily reflect my POV) by guest bloggers on various aspects of the entertainment industry. Now based in Nampa, Idaho, Mike Kaplan is a veteran filmmaker (Never Apologize) and marketer who has managed campaigns for Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey) and Robert Altman (Short Cuts) among others. More recently, please note, Kaplan helped to introduce Clive Owen to American audiences with the sleeper hit Croupier and You'll Sleep When I'm Dead. Here's his argument for how the studios are killing adult dramas--through misguided marketing. Kaplan came up in a film industry that made producing and marketing films for grown-ups its first priority. That is no longer the case.

By Mike Kaplan
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August 5, 2009 9:34 AM
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Mad Men: Create Your Own Avatar

Join Don Draper's world. That's my avatar, ready to share a few drinks with the dapper Madison Avenue ad exec. If only. You too can create your own Mad Men avatar. They're proliferating over the web like kudzu.

By Anne Thompson
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August 1, 2009 11:18 AM
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The Hangover Beats Up, Universal Loses on Land of Lost

Americans who are cinching their belts and making do with less flocked to cinemas over the weekend to watch a group of grown men exercising no restraint whatsoever. The Hangover was the perfect antidote to a nation on a fiscal diet.

By Anne Thompson
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June 8, 2009 7:15 AM
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Fans, Friends & Followers: Playbook for the Social Media Age

Cinematech blogger Scott Kirsner drank the digital Kool-aid some time back. So the author of 2007's The Future of Web Video and 2008's Inventing the Movies decided that he had to self-publish his newest book, Fans, Friends and Followers. "If I was writing that artists had to be their own entrepreneur," he says, "then I had to do it too."