Thompson on Hollywood

Inception: Nolan's Hand-Drawn Map

Check out what purports to be Christopher Nolan's own hand-written map of Inception's many dream levels.

By Anne Thompson
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December 8, 2010 5:52 AM
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Sony's Pascal Extends Employment Deal

Amy Pascal is sticking with her gig as co-chairman at Sony Pictures Entertainment for the moment.

By Anne Thompson
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December 7, 2010 11:47 AM
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New Godard Font in Honor of 80th Birthday

Download the new Jean-Luc Godard font to commemorate the Oscar-winning auteur's 80th birthday Friday.

By Anne Thompson
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December 4, 2010 1:33 AM
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Eisner's FameTown Will Be Huge

I am as guilty of wasting time playing Flixster movie games on Facebook as anyone else. And I am forecasting here and now that ex-Disney chief Michael Eisner's bet on the new social game FameTown (Napster's Shawn Fanning brought him into the start-up Diversion) will pay off big-time (as it did with Zynga's FarmVille and Mafia Wars). The FameTown game launches on Facebook November 1 and will reap income from selling virtual goods.

By Anne Thompson
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October 19, 2010 7:16 AM
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NBC Universal Chairman Jeff Zucker to Step Down When Comcast Deal Closes

It's official. In a staff memo, NBC Universal chairman Jeff Zucker, 45, announces that he will leave his post when the Comcast takeover of NBC Universal is complete, probably by year's end, reports the NYT. The writing had been on the wall for some time. Zucker admitted that Comcast wants to bring in their own management team. NBC is the only place Zucker has ever worked, for 24 1/2 years. He tells the NYT he's a producer at heart; his happiest time was producing The Today Show. And yes, Zucker is interested in politics.

By Anne Thompson
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September 24, 2010 3:23 AM
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DreamWorks' Katzenberg Packs Animated Pics with Celebs

James Sims reviews Nicole LaPorte's new book The Men Who Would Be King: An almost epic tale of moguls, movies, and a company called DreamWorks and agrees with me that of the founding troica, Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, LaPorte gives the latter the worst appraisal of the three. While Katzenberg came off great just five years ago in James Stewart's book Disney War and in this year's hagiographic insider-documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty which covers the Katzenberg golden Disney years that yielded his career peak, the $700-million-grossing The Lion King, LaPorte and Sims are both more critical. Here's Sims:

By James Sims
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June 4, 2010 6:41 AM
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Disney's Rich Ross Meets the Press

New Disney chairman Richard Ross put on a dog-and-pony show at the Burbank lot Thursday to introduce himself to a group of key entertainment reporters. This is what a new studio chairman does to deal with media requests for interviews and meetings and to alert Wall Street to a strong line-up in advance of an upcoming Disney earnings call. About 20 reporters attended, including the trades. Ross announced the breaking news that Pixar was ramping up a Monsters Inc. sequel for a November 15 2012 release and that Disney was dating their film Brave for June 15, 2012.

By Anne Thompson
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April 23, 2010 4:00 AM
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Ted Turner to Speak at Producer's Guild Conference

The Producers Guild has booked Ted Turner, founder and chairman of the UN Foundation, to speak at this year's Produced By Conference to be held June 4-6 on the Fox lot. Turner will share ways to involve the creative community in important social and cultural causes on Saturday, June 5th at 11:30 AM PST. Participants can register here.

By Anne Thompson
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April 21, 2010 6:42 AM
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Disney Sale of Miramax to Burkle Not Closed, Three Miramax Films Hung Up

It's all in the spin.

By Anne Thompson
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April 21, 2010 2:58 AM
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Survivor Universal Studios: Meyer vs. Zucker

Look for a full-bore game of survival at NBC Universal. What will happen when wily ex-CAA agency head Ron Meyer--who has successfully run Universal Pictures as president and COO through three owners over 15 years, the longest-serving studio chief in Hollywood today-- goes head-to-head with tough NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker? These two alpha males are not chums; it's likely that only one of them will survive the Comcast acquisition. Each one wants to win.