Thompson on Hollywood

Oscar Nominations Led by King's Speech with 12; Winter's Bone Makes Top Ten, Bardem Lands Actor Nod

With the announcement of the Oscar nominations, momentum shifts toward The King's Speech, which led the fray with twelve nominations, including best picture, actor, supporting actor and actress, director and original screenplay. The Coen brothers western True Grit followed with ten nominations, including picture, actor, supporting actress, director and adapted screenplay. Producer Scott Rudin is grinning as he produced both True Grit and The Social Network, which earned eight nominations, including picture, actor, director, and original screenplay. Chris Nolan's Inception also earned eight, but while the writer-director landed a nomination for original screenplay (his second), he didn't get director, which is a sign that the film was not in the top five of the ten slots, and is unlikely to land best picture. Ben Affleck's The Town was shut out of contention except for Jeremy Renner, last year's discovery for The Hurt Locker, who nabbed his second nomination.

By Anne Thompson
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January 25, 2011 2:04 AM
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Weekend Box Office: No Strings Attached Wins Top Spot; Proves Portman's Star Power

Proving that Natalie Portman is a movie star with marquee value, romantic comedy No Strings Attached opened to an estimated $20.3 million at the weekend box office, reports Anthony D'Alessandro:This weekend, Natalie Portman was America’s Sweetheart as Paramount’s R-rated No Strings Attached plucked $20.3 million while her best actress- buzzed Black Swan rose past the $80-million mark. When Paramount launched its viral trailer campaign for the film in November, cine-bloggers feared that Strings might tarnish Portman’s award season odds.

By Anne Thompson
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January 23, 2011 6:40 AM
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Behind the Visual Effects on Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan is one of those movies that is creepy, scary, believable and psychologically taut partly because he deploys 250 visual effects shots to such good effect. They aren't obvious, or on a big-budget scale. While we probably figured out that Nina morphing into a Black Swan at the film's finale is a visual effect (the most complex in the film), most of the film's effects are far more subtle.

By Anne Thompson
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January 19, 2011 9:05 AM
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Golden Globe-Winning Actors: What's Next for Portman, Firth, Leo, Bale, Bening, Giamatti

Heat rises when an actor enters the awards fray. Look at how Helen Mirren (The Queen), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and Melissa Leo (Frozen River), particularly, parlayed Oscar attention into serious careers. Take a look at the slates (including soon-to-be-released, rumored, in-production and in-development projects) lined up for this year's Golden Globe-winning actors Natalie Portman, Colin Firth, Melissa Leo, Christian Bale, Annette Bening and Paul Giamatti. We start off with Portman, who has so much lined up that she risks overexposure:

By Sophia Savage
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January 19, 2011 6:35 AM
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No Strings Attached Reviews: "Shockingly Good," "Zero Charisma," "Reversal of Gender Roles"

Who can blame moviegoers for being wary of any studio romantic comedy? While Fox Searchlight successfully subverted the genre with 500 Days of Summer and Disney's The Proposal proved that it is still possible to deliver the goods with smart filmmakers and stars, they are the exception that prove the rule: rom-coms usually suck.

By Anne Thompson
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January 19, 2011 5:50 AM
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BAFTA Nominations Analysis: The King's Speech Reigns

The BAFTA Awards, the British equivalent of the Oscars, have announced their nominations, dominated, natch, by Tom Hooper's The King's Speech with fourteen. The film presumably has already made a strong showing on Oscar ballots which were due last Friday.

By Anne Thompson
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January 18, 2011 5:30 AM
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The Social Network Scores Top Awards at Golden Globes, Gervais Ignites Uproar

The Social Network is sweeping all the awards shows. The film won best drama, director, screenplay and score at the Golden Globes Sunday night. The King's Speech won the expected award for best actor drama Colin Firth, but could have used a best drama win going into the real Oscar race for best picture.

By Anne Thompson
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January 17, 2011 3:56 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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Actress Watch: Dark Knight Rises Tests; Coppola and Portman's Dior Ad; Williams Gives Sage Advice

Christopher Nolan is checking out the ranks of Hollywood's starlets to join Christian Bale and Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises. Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement), Anne Hathaway (Love and Other Drugs), Jessica Biel (The Illusionist, The A-Team), Kate Mara (127 Hours, Iron Man 2), Charlotte Riley (fiance of Hardy and his co-star in the UK's Wuthering Heights TV mini-series) and Gemma Arterton (Prince of Persia, and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters) are all scheduled to test. Scheduling seems to be an issue for Naomi Watts and Eva Green, who were previously mentioned. Two roles need to be filled: a love interest and a villain. Who would you like to see in The Dark Knight Rises? Vote in our poll below.