Thompson on Hollywood

Dangerous Method's S&M, Jolie's Blood & Honey, Soderbergh Killing Oscar Winners & More from EW

We culled the best soundbites from EW's Fall Movie Preview for your pleasure below, from Brad Pitt's struggle to get Moneyball made and Steven Soderbergh killing off Oscar-winners in Contagion to what Mickey Rourke has in common with the animals in Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo.

By Sophia Savage
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August 15, 2011 8:10 AM
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Hollywood Politics: Alec Baldwin Studies for Mayor, Michael Moore Backs Matt Damon for President

“Alec Baldwin is not running for mayor of New York—yet,” reports the NYT. The politically ambitious actor plans to finish his role on critically acclaimed 30 Rock and then enroll in a master’s program in politics and government to learn more about what the job entails. He says that despite his fame, he still has a blue-collar mindset: "There are people who make a lot of money who become rich people, and then there are people who make a lot of money, but they don’t think like rich people do. No matter how much money they have, they are the same from their own upbringing. I would definitely put myself in the latter class."

By Maggie Lange
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August 10, 2011 4:57 AM
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Trailer Watch: Steven Soderbergh's Contagion Stars Damon, Paltrow, Winslet, Law, Fishburne

It looks like Steven Soderbergh is returning to the land of smart mainstream commercial filmmaking with Contagion (September 9), starring Matt Damon as an everyman whose wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) appears to be patient zero in a burgeoning killer bird flu virus sweeping the globe. It is transmitted by touch. Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, John Hawkes and Laurence Fishburne also star.

By Anne Thompson
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July 13, 2011 12:44 PM
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Oscar Watch: Skin I Live In Gets October Date; Carnage Goes to November, Holiday Sked Shapes Up

The earlier a high-prestige art house movie opens in the fall, the less likely that its distributor harbors serious Oscar hopes for it. In other words, if Sony Pictures Classics moves Pedro Almodovar's retitled Skin I Live In from November to October, and slates Roman Polanski's Carnage on November 18, it means the latter is being given the Oscar advantage. Almodovar's kinky thriller starring Antonio Banderas met a mixed reception in Cannes. "This is not a move," asserts SPC co-president Michael Barker. "We never set the date until now. We were always going in the Fall. It is a great date."

By Anne Thompson
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June 27, 2011 1:50 AM
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Sequelitis: Jim Carrey Getting Even Dumber, Mightier? Harvey Weinstein Still Wants Another Rounders

Anyone who thinks the sequel boom is ending soon best hide under a rock for another decade or two.

By Sophia Savage
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June 7, 2011 11:46 AM
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Indie Producer Gary Gilbert Talks Mark Ruffalo, Margaret, Kids Are All Right, New Pics

The movie business is rife with starry-eyed businessmen who bring their wealth to Hollywood with hopes of making good. Most of them last for a few years until they run aground on too many failed opportunities. It takes a mix of grit, acumen, luck and yes, taste, to stay the course. Car salesman James Robinson's Morgan Creek lasted decades before the market caught up with him and he canceled his bankrupt international division's famed Cannes Fest Le Moulin de Mougins distributors brunch. Real estate mogul Bob Yari was riding high on Oscar-winner Crash and sleeper hit The Illusionist before he ran out of cash. Wall Street hotshots Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson acquired the rights to Terminator and put Salvation into production before they wound up on the wrong end of a batch of lawsuits.

By Anne Thompson
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May 26, 2011 5:12 AM
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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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Jeremy Renner Offered Lead in Tony Gilroy's Bourne Continuation: Not as Bourne, Folks

It's confirmed, but no surprise. Writer-director Tony Gilroy has offered Jeremy Renner the lead in his Bourne franchise continuation. But he'd be playing a different assassin, who went through the same training program as Matt Damon's Bourne. (Which leaves open the possibility of Damon's eventual return.)

By Sophia Savage
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April 22, 2011 4:20 AM
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Weintraub Talks His Way: from Presley, Sinatra, the Mafia and Soderbergh to His Two Women

Jerry Weintraub is one of those larger-than-life Hollywood figures who helped to define the image of what a movie producer is. At age 73 he 's enjoying a resurgence of sorts that began with Steven Soderbergh's Oceans Eleven series and continued with his autobiography When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead (back on top of paperback bestseller lists) and now, the entertaining Doug McGrath TV doc His Way, which debuts on HBO April 4.

By Anne Thompson
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April 4, 2011 7:15 AM
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Casting Watch: Hemsworth & Hutcherson Cast In Hunger Games, Renner vs. Evans for Bourne

- UPDATE: The Hunger Games's Jennifer Lawrence now has two male co-stars: Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson have just been cast as characters Gale Hawthorne and Peeta Mellark, respectively. The former is Katniss Everdeen's (Lawrence) hunting partner and the latter is her competitor in the fight-to-the-death televised competition. Hemsworth and Hutcherson were included in THR's March 25 short list of actors being considered. Hutcherson was also on Moviefone's March 8 list of Five Actors Better Than Alex Pettyfer for the Lionsgate franchise. The film adaptation of Suzanne Collins's novels is slated to start shooting with director Gary Ross in late May. Whoever lands these coveted roles will play second fiddle to Lawrence; here are more details on her character.