Thompson on Hollywood

Production News: Bourne Without Bourne, Mad Max Stalls, Eastern Promises 2

- Writer-director Tony Gilroy is trying to have it both ways. He confirms that The Bourne Legacy will be made without Matt Damon - but he contradicts himself. "This is not a reboot or a recast or a prequel. No one's replacing Matt Damon," Gilroy says. "There will be a whole new hero, a whole new chapter…this is a stand-alone project" that happens to be using the title of Robert Ludlum's book, "but will not use the story":"The easiest way to think of it is an expansion or a reveal…Jason Bourne will not be in this film, but he's very much alive. What happened in the first three films is the trigger for what happens. I'm building a legend and an environment and a wider conspiracy...the world we're making enhances and advances and invites Jason Bourne's return [down the road]…Everything you saw in the first three films actually happened, and everyone who got into them will be rewarded for paying attention. We're going to show you the bigger picture, the bigger canvas. When you see where we're going and see what we're doing it'll be pretty obvious."

By Sophia Savage
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October 11, 2010 12:36 PM
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Oscar Talk: Diane Lane vs. Annette Bening vs. Julianne Moore, Inception, Hereafter, The Way Back

There's still a long way to go in the Oscar race. Kris Tapley and I debate whether Secretariat is this year's mainstream Blind Side, Diane Lane is this year's Sandra Bullock, Julianne Moore and Annette Bening will both make it for The Kids Are All Right, and if Chris Nolan's Inception, John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole, Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, Pixar's Toy Story 3, Peter Weir's The Way Back, and Clint Eastwood's Hereafter have a shot at the top ten.

By Anne Thompson
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October 9, 2010 1:39 AM
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Director Watch: Snyder Takes Superman, Gilroy on Bourne 4, Hobbit Inches Closer, Luhrmann Goes Glee

- Superman has a new daddy: Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) will direct Warner Bros' franchise revival, with Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas producing--the dynamic duo that rebooted Batman. Nolan came up with the story; Batman Begins scribe David S. Goyer wrote the screenplay, which brings back villain General Zod. “I feel super awesome,” Snyder told the LAT, while admitting that he lies awake at night thinking of how his Superman - who "has to be a man" - will be recreated. No boys need apply for the job; this is a the "biggest and baddest of them all," Snyder says, "The greatest of them all, right? We all want to know how the next chapter takes shape. I want to know how it will take shape.”

By Sophia Savage
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October 5, 2010 4:45 AM
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2 Comments

The Great Gatsby: Pitt vs. Pitt, Mulligan vs. Portman, Casting Poll

- The rumored Great Gatsby remake isn't that far along, it seems. While Deadline sets the record straight on the project's future--the remake might be Baz Luhrmann's next picture, but so might an original musical at Media Rights Capital--the movie does inspire juicy casting ideas.

By Sophia Savage
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October 4, 2010 8:20 AM
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Trailer Watch: Coens Western True Grit Stars Bridges, Brolin, Damon

True Grit is the 2010 movie I cannot wait to see--and the big unknown for Oscar watchers. We'll all have to wait until Joel and Ethan Coen finish the movie in time for a December 25 release. But the trailer hit today (below).

By Anne Thompson
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September 27, 2010 11:33 AM
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TIFF: Eastwood's Hereafter Debuts in Toronto to Mixed Reaction

One of the things that happens at a fest like Toronto is bad timing: I went to see Barney's Version at Roy Thomson Hall Sunday night with a ticket in my pocket for the later public screening of Clint Eastwood's Hereafter at the Elgin/Visa, a brisk fifteen-minute walk away. But producer Robert Lantos and his team made such a long intro, and the movie was significant enough to stay through to the end, so I missed the Eastwood. I'll see it later. The movie has gotten a "good not great" response here.

By Anne Thompson
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September 15, 2010 6:47 AM
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Miss Universe vs. Men in Lipstick, Cassavetes' Blonde Cast, Mackie for Mission: Impossible 4

Inspired by Louis Bayard of Salon, who argues the death of the beauty pageant, we have a treat for you after the jump. "Even as a gay man," writes Bayard, "I couldn't find joy or fun in last night's monument to wax figurines and Donald Trump." He's referring to the Miss Universe Pageant, which has remained about skin and double-sided tape despite (for-appearances-only?) attempts to refocus the criteria on some kind of merit. Bayard argues that this "carnal philosophy has reaped its reward. Miss Universe is in the pink: stinking with ad revenue, sprawling across a two-hour expanse of network television. The whole enterprise should be neon with triumph, and yet it's every bit as gray as an annual report. For that's exactly what it is. A celebration of a company and the man behind it."

By Sophia Savage
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August 25, 2010 5:30 AM
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Scott Pilgrim vs. Universal and the Matrix

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World's bottom line comes down to the same problem that has faced a long line of Universal projects. It was an indie movie that cost too much to be successful inside the studio paradigm and should have been produced and released on a smaller less ambitious scale at the studio's specialty division Focus Features, which could have nurtured it and sent it into the world on a more limited basis and built on the film's strong word-of-mouth from its narrow base. To them a $12 million gross would have been fine. To Universal, it's less than the film's marketing budget. (A funny mash-up of Scott Pilgrim vs. The Matrix is below.)

By Anne Thompson
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August 23, 2010 11:37 AM
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First Look: Coen Brothers' True Grit

Here's a first look at the Coen Brother's True Grit, which was filmed (along with another western, Cowboys & Aliens) around the Southwest. Paramount has released this still of grizzled Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld as Rooster Cogburn and Mattie Ross, respectively.

By Sophia Savage
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August 19, 2010 6:15 AM
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Manly Movie Stars: Rodrigue Talks the Evolution of Masculinity in Film

Almost two years ago, Anne Thompson asked "Where have the manly movie stars gone?," and investigated the entertainment industry's ongoing search for traditional male leads that aren't borrowed from the UK, Australia or Europe to commandeer Hollywood's most testosterone-needy films. While America lays claim to the boy-men niche with the likes of Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Jake Gyllenhaal and any male in a Judd Apatow film, Hollywood's most- masculine male leads are more often than not played by foreigners; Christian Bale (a Brit) and Heath Ledger (an Aussie) were case-in-point as the stars of 2008's highest grossing film, The Dark Knight.