Thompson on Hollywood

Venice Opens with Aronofsky's Black Swan: Too Intense?

The opening night selection of the sexy R-rated violent thriller Black Swan was something of a gamble for Fox Searchlight and the Venice Fest, which landed loyal fan Darren Aronofsky--after rousing Venice receptions for both The Fountain and The Wrestler, which won the Golden Lion. He talked Searchlight into accepting the opening night invite--and now has to work Telluride and Toronto as well.Why the risk? Well, Searchlight covered their bets by making sure some stateside critics timed their early reviews--which were largely positive--with Venice.

By Anne Thompson
|
September 2, 2010 9:18 AM
|
5 Comments

More:

TIFF Adds 44, Last Night Closes Fest, Eastwood Debuts Hereafter, Let Me In Opens Fantastic Fest

The fall fest shuffle continues as first Venice, then Telluride, Toronto, New York and finally London all lay in their programming. There's plenty of overlap among the new titles (as opposed to recycled Cannes fare, much of it from Sony Pictures Classics and IFC), but basically Venice gets to unveil their opener, Darren Aronofsky's ballet thriller Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) which then proceeds to Telluride (which never announces its program, which most folks respect, but THR has published its "unofficial" list) and Toronto. UPDATE: Here's the new trailer.

By Anne Thompson
|
August 17, 2010 3:16 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Salander Role Up for Grabs for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Everyone is waiting for the news to break on which of the young actresses in the wings will land the role of punk hacker Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's English-language film of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. According to producer Scott Rudin, EW's story positing that Natalie Portman is back in the running because the studio is skittish about casting an unknown in such a pivotal recurring role is "not true."

By Anne Thompson
|
August 8, 2010 8:26 AM
|
8 Comments

More:

Venice Fest Preview: Early Art

Here is some early art for several of the movies coming up at the Venice Film Fest. (I arrive there August 31 by train after spending two days in Rome; I leave September 8 for the Toronto Film Festival.) I'll write up early coverage of opener Darren Aronofsky's ballet drama Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel as a tough ballet master (modeled after Georges Balanchine), who I interviewed Monday. That film will likely show in Telluride as well as Toronto.

By Anne Thompson
|
August 5, 2010 12:59 PM
|
1 Comment

More:

Venice Line-up Heavy on Americans: Coppola, Schnabel, brothers Affleck

Venice has announced the rest of its line-up. Besides Darren Aronofsky's opener Black Swan (in competition) and the closer from Julie Taymor, The Tempest (out of competition), the fest is world premiering a number of North American titles. As expected the competition entries include Sofia Coppola's Somewhere, Julian Schnabel's Miral, and Richard Lewis's Barney's Version, a rare debut for a Canadian film in Venice.

By Anne Thompson
|
July 29, 2010 3:55 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

The Avengers Line-Up Wows Comic-Con: Downey, Jackson, Johansson, Ruffalo, Renner

Iron Man star Robert Downey, Jr. took the podium at Hall H-- after the crowd of 6000 fans were duly wowed by Marvel Studios footage from Joe Johnston's Captain America, a 40s period origin myth starring Chris Evans as the mighty hero and Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, and Kenneth Branagh's Thor, starring Australian Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, and Natalie Portman as an earthbound scientist. Downey then brought onto the dais The Avengers crew: Samuel L. Jackson and Nick Fury's two lieutenants, Clark Gregg and Scarlett Johansson, as well as Hemsworth, Evans, Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Mark Ruffalo, who is replacing Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/The Hulk (earlier the fans booed Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige for dumping Edward Norton).

By Anne Thompson
|
July 25, 2010 4:17 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Halle Berry Does Comedy, Bill Murray Speaks

- Though she has several projects in the pipeline, Halle Berry has been absent from the big screen for a few years. Her last movie was 2007's largely unnoticed, yet well-reviewed Things We Lost In The Fire, from Danish director Susanne Bier (Brodre). Berry played a grieving widow drawn to her late husband's drug addict friend, played sympathetically by Benicio del Toro.

By Sophia Savage
|
July 22, 2010 5:00 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Black Swan Opens 67th Venice Biennale; American Films Expected; Where's Margaret?

Not completed in time for Cannes, Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan will make its world debut as the opening night film at the Venice Film Festival, which runs on The Lido from September 1 through September 11. This means that while I will see it there, Black Swan will likely not play the other fall fests.

By Anne Thompson
|
July 22, 2010 2:20 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Girl with Dragon Tattoo: Will Fincher Cast Stewart? Or Unknown?

David Fincher's next directing gig will be Sony and producer Scott Rudin's English-language version of Stieg Larsson's global bestseller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Playlist confirms. The movie is on the fast track with Steve Zaillian writing.

By Anne Thompson
|
March 31, 2010 9:14 AM
|
8 Comments

More:

Girl with Dragon Tattoo: Who Should Play Salander?

As the Swedish global hit opens stateside and the English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo gets under way, screenwriter Steve Zaillian plans to place tough, bisexual hacker/sleuth Lisbeth Salander front and center, recognizing that she's the star of Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy. So who should play her?