Thompson on Hollywood

Box Office: Expendables Holds Off All New Takers on Weak Weekend

It's the dog days of August indeed as the mighty Expendables threw off all new challengers and cheapie Twilight parody Vampires Suck outperformed Eat Pray Love on its second go-round. Anthony D'Alessandro does the numbers. (UPDATED.)

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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August 22, 2010 4:26 AM
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Trailer and Awards Watch: Love and Other Drugs

Twentieth Century Fox is planning an awards-campaign for its R-rated sexy romance Love and Other Drugs, from writer-director-producer Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond). He is that rare studio director who is conversant in both the language of mainstream big-budget moviemaking and intimate drama. He and partner Marshall Herskovitz delivered the acutely-observed TV series Thirtysomething, Once and Again, Relativity and My So-Called Life. So much sweat and tears go into such long-running shows that Zwick can be forgiven for steering toward testosterone action in his movie work.

By Anne Thompson
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August 15, 2010 6:36 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Expendables Pulls Men, Eat Pray Love Gets Women

Both Sylvester Stallone and Julia Roberts marked their best openings in years with a boost from a raft of action stars in The Expendables and femme fans of the Elizabeth Gilbert bestseller Eat Pray Love, respectively. Comic-book youth film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World stumbled out of the starting gate. Anthony D'Alessandro does the numbers:

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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August 15, 2010 4:19 AM
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Eat Pray Love Early Review: A Shallow Guilty Pleasure

Ryan Murphy's film adaptation of Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestseller about the divorced New Yorker's lone odyssey to Italy, India and Bali in search of meaning in her life, delivers an escapist Julia Roberts romance and exotic travelogue. But its pleasures are guilty and skin-deep.

By Anne Thompson
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August 11, 2010 7:23 AM
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Women in Hollywood: Salander vs. Gilbert, Bullock Is Forbes #1, Rom-Com Actresses, Lady Gaga

- Two literary characters--Lisbeth Salander and Elizabeth Gilbert--built huge fan bases of women book lovers well before the characters hit the big screen. Fans eagerly await the news of who David Fincher will cast as Salander in the English-language version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (and subsequent sequels); the Swedish originals starred Noomi Rapace. And author Elizabeth Gilbert is days away from watching herself portrayed by Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love.

By Sophia Savage
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August 4, 2010 5:02 AM
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Bullock and Carell on Abstinence Teacher, Morgan to Replace CNN's King, Cairo Time's Clarkson

-Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (teamed with LMS producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa) are back on board to direct the adaptation of Tom Perrotta's book The Abstinence Teacher. The project had been stalled after Warner Independent Pictures was shuttered. Production Weekly has posted Sandra Bullock and Steve Carell as attached to play a Middle American divorced sex ed teacher and her daughter's born-again soccer coach, respectively. That should help this attractive package to finally get made.

By Sophia Savage
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August 2, 2010 3:48 AM
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Charlie St. Cloud: Early Film Reviews

Charlie St. Cloud opens Friday; early reviews are ice cold on Zac Efron's return to pretty-boy form. The PG-13 weepy is "Lovely Bones Lite," reviewers write, a too-sentimental fantasy.

By Anne Thompson
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July 29, 2010 8:12 AM
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Pattinson Short The Summer House Hits iTunes

It's France, July 1969, as astronauts prepare to walk on the moon. No, it's not Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen in a clinch in a dark room. It's lissome English lass Taluhah Riley (The Boat That Rocked) and Rob Pattinson (pre-Twilight) in a short targeted to women who are on Team Edward. It's just been made available (and already in the top five) on iTunes in the US, plus Canada, UK, France, Ireland and Germany:  US Download; Canada Download; UK Download. See trailer below:

By Anne Thompson
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July 14, 2010 7:16 AM
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Third Twilight Saga Eclipses Midnight Opening Record

The latest iteration of the Twilight franchise, Eclipse, busted the series' own record for midnight box office hauls. The vampire teen film opened last night at 4,000 venues, raking in an estimated $30 million, $3.7 million over New Moon, according to Summit.