Thompson on Hollywood

In Time Star Justin Timberlake Invites Photographers To Make Every Second Count

Justin Timberlake is trying--still trying--to parlay his well-earned celebrity status into a movie career.

By Anne Thompson
|
September 28, 2011 10:24 AM
|
2 Comments

More:

Weekly Wrap: Oscar Talk, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Moneyball, Gordon-Levitt Interviewed on 50/50

WEEKEND PREVIEW:

By Maggie Lange
|
September 23, 2011 10:29 AM
|
0 Comments

Geeking Out with Cameron at the 3D Summit: Titanic, Avatar, Theme Parks

This week, in his Immersed in Movies column, Bill Desowitz talks to James Cameron at the 3D Summit. Don't try to convince James Cameron that 3-D is faltering. He's still a true believer, despite some recent 3-D blowback. He laughed if off as growing pains and negative media spin at the 3D Entertainment Summit this week at the Hollywood & Highland Center, but said it's nothing that can't be fixed with a change of perception and better 3-D authoring and presentation.

By Bill Desowitz
|
September 23, 2011 5:14 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Another Trip to the Moon with Méliès: Behind the Digital Restoration of VFX Landmark

While waiting for Hugo (Nov. 23), Martin Scorsese's 3-D valentine to Georges Méliès, TOH columnist Bill Desowitz writes a fascinating account of how digital advances made possible the painstaking restoration of the first movie blockbuster from the father of special effects, A Trip to the Moon (1902). The new version of the landmark 14-minute short, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, will screen at Telluride this weekend and at the Academy's Goldwyn Theater on Tuesday. What a way to mark the 150th anniversary of Méliès's birth.

By Bill Desowitz
|
September 2, 2011 3:35 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Ridley Scott: From Alien Reboot Prometheus to Blade Runner Sequel

The highlight of Comic-Con, bar none, was Ridley Scott's Prometheus footage. While Fox and Scott are downplaying the sci-fi space thriller's relationship to the original Alien and the kick-ass James Cameron sequel Aliens, there's no question this movie is grown from the same DNA; Scott admits it. The movie is a further exploration of that future world produced with the scale and scope that new technology makes possible. And its ultimate goal is "to scare the living shit out of you," Scott said via satellite from Iceland. Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, and Noomi Rapace star in the film due in June, 2012.

By Anne Thompson
|
August 18, 2011 5:37 AM
|
3 Comments

More:

Torchwood: Miracle Day, Episode 6, The Middle Men, Recap and Review

In the sixth episode of sci-fi series Torchwood: Miracle Day, writes David Chute, the series turns mystical. “If schemes and conspiracies are being plotted,” says Stuart Owens (Ernie Hudson), an executive at PhiCorp (big pharma personified), “they must be seen only as patterns, waves. Shifts that are either too small or too vast to be perceived. Someone is playing the system right across the planet with infinite grace.”

By David Chute
|
August 15, 2011 4:10 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Oscar Watch: Critics, Academy, Men, Women: The Help vs. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

It's not surprising where @spikelee falls on The Help. He's retweeting the articles that support his views, from indieWIRE's Eric Kohn to Michael Phillips in The Chicago Tribune. UPDATE: And The Association of Black Women Historians also disapproves.

By Anne Thompson
|
August 15, 2011 3:56 AM
|
4 Comments

More:

Weekend Box Office: Apes Dominate For Second Week as The Help Rises

August summer box office showed some breadth, as studios battled for weekend dominance with pictures appealing to a range of audience segments, from women (The Help) to tweens (Glee) and holdover prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes, reports Anthony D'Alessandro.Neither a 3-D bridge disaster, Gleek, nor bomb-strapped buffoon could topple Fox's Rise of the Planet of the Apes in its second session as it grossed $27.5 million. Meanwhile, Disney/DreamWorks' critically acclaimed chick-lit feature The Help posed a formidable foe, taking second place with $25.5 million from Friday to Sunday.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
|
August 14, 2011 5:05 AM
|
4 Comments

More:

TV Roundup: NBC Remakes Munsters, Jeff Garlin's New Show, PBS Clarifies Bert and Ernie’s Status

Confirming that television has officially run out of new ideas, NBC has signed on to remake The Munsters, just after their announcement of a Frankenstein remake and CBS’s new Bewitched. NBC passed on a revamp of the 1960s show last year, but asked Bryan Fuller, the creator of Pushing Daisies, to make a second attempt. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Fuller wants to make his hour-long version of the Munster's edgier, darker, and character-focused.

By Maggie Lange
|
August 12, 2011 8:20 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Guillermo Del Toro Talks Pacific Rim, Chasing Tom Cruise, Landing Idris Elba: "Rodin Sculpture"

Some of us got a welcome dose of Guillermo del Toro in Hall H at Comic-Con. London TOH correspondent Matt Mueller sat down with him one on one.Currently locked in “crazy, active” pre-production on Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro took time out yesterday to chat about the epic monster movie he’ll direct next for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. at the New York City press junket for scary creature feature Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark. Although he shepherded the latter from conception through to release, it’s Pacific Rim that will mark Del Toro’s belated return to the director’s chair for the first time since 2008 and Hellboy II. And he says he’s chomping at the bit, particularly after coming so close earlier this year with At The Mountains Of Madness, before Universal pulled the plug on his big-budget H.P. Lovecraft adaptation.