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Up in the Air Heads to Toronto

Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, will launch at the Toronto Film Fest (where loyal Canadian Reitman debuted Thank You for Smoking and Juno). This is classic pre-Oscar positioning.

By Anne Thompson
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August 19, 2009 5:40 AM
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1 Comment

Each day brings more news of a troubled company needing debt restructuring or a management overhaul. The Weinstein Co. and MGM are just the latest examples. All the studios face pressure from their corporate parents in a grim recession amid declining ad and DVD revenues. Sales are down across the board, including classic rereleases, and less precipitously, specialty titles.

By Anne Thompson
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August 18, 2009 7:43 AM
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3 Comments

Paramount Dumps Stiller Picture, Marc Pease Experience

Paramount will open The Marc Pease Experience on a contractually minimal ten-market release outside of New York and L.A. on August 21, sources close to the movie confirm. Todd Louiso's orphaned indie film starring Ben Stiller and Jason Schartzman is a casualty of the demise of Vantage--and the departure of ex-Vantage chief John Lesher. "Their business model changed completely," said one source. "They have no specialty marketing division. The company doesn't exist."

By Anne Thompson
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August 11, 2009 4:19 AM
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2 Comments

What a difference a year makes. With Iron Man and an Oscar nom for Tropic Thunder behind him, A-list movie star Robert Downey, Jr. had a good Comic-Con. Backstage after Iron Man 2, he suggested that he's uncomfortable marketing movies, although he knows he has to do it, and that he hated the whole Hall H thing. If that's true, it doesn't show. He works the crowd better than anyone. He was hawking not only Iron Man 2, which had a stellar reaction--probably the best of the annual comics confab--but he genuinely adored playing the character Sherlock Holmes.

By Anne Thompson
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August 4, 2009 9:18 AM
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0 Comments

Paramount Scores Orci and Kurtzman Project

It's not surprising that new Paramount production head Adam Goodman took advantage of his DreamWorks insider status and nabbed a high-profile project, License to Steal, from the super-hot screenwriter-producing team Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. This buy of an overtly commercial Salon feature about globe-trotting Repo men chasing luxury planes and boats was pursued by several top directors and producers. It signals that an inside-Hollywood pro is back in charge, and the once-quiet studio is back in buying mode. When Paramount put into turnaround projects such as John Carter of Mars and Twilight , that sent another signal: the studio didn't recognize potential franchises.