Thompson on Hollywood

First Award Screeners Start Arriving in Voter Mailboxes

The first award screeners are starting to arrive in voter mail boxes. The first ones mailed include Chris Weitz's L.A. illegal immigrant drama A Better Life (out on Summit DVD), starring well-reviewed Mexican actor Demian Bichir in a moving performance, and Sony Pictures' Classics' Take Shelter (in its second week of limited release), starring well-praised Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. Both were box office disappointments. Both need the extra boost of guild and year-end critic support to gain traction, so mailing early screeners was a smart move.

By Anne Thompson
|
October 17, 2011 1:06 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Review: Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: Secret Of The Unicorn

Reviews

Our London film critic Matt Mueller reviews The Adventures Of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, which left him out of breath. The film opens overseas starting on October 26; you'll have to wait until December 21 stateside.

By Matt Mueller
|
October 16, 2011 5:08 AM
|
5 Comments

More:

Oscar Talk: Spielberg's War Horse, My Week with Marilyn's Michelle Williams, Scorsese's Hugo

In this week's Oscar Talk Kris Tapley and I debate Simon Curtis's My Week with Marilyn, which I saw at the New York Film Festival and the Weinsteins have moved to Thanksgiving. "You see a lot working behind those eyes," says Tapley. We agree Williams will make the top five for best actress.

By Anne Thompson
|
October 14, 2011 4:12 AM
|
6 Comments

More:

First Look: Director Sarah Smith Talks Aardman's Arthur Christmas: Exclusive Photos

Brit animated powerhouse Aardman (Wallace & Gromit) takes another stab at CG with Sony-backed Arthur Christmas. Here's a first look: At a time when Christmas movies are box office poison and Santa's been done to death, leave it to Aardman to re-animate the holiday spirit and freshening up old Saint Nick with Arthur Christmas (November 23). It's a far cry from Flushed Away, their first frustrating attempt at CG, in which DreamWorks pushed too hard for a domestic blockbuster instead of letting Aardman be Aardman. Based on the first 30 minutes, the new partnership with Sony Pictures Animation seems a better fit, as the Bristol, England-based creators of Wallace & Gromit have figured out a better way of handling CG without compromising their famed British wit and fractured sensibility. In other words, Aardman was given the freedom to craft and design the movie in their inimitable way, while SPA and Sony Imageworks supplied the CG artistry and rendering power to bring the hyper real world to life and populate it with Aardman's wacky characters.

By Bill Desowitz
|
October 14, 2011 3:33 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Tarantino's Django Unchained Cast Shaping Up for Fall Shoot; Washington Joins Foxx, DiCaprio, Waltz

The latest actor to board Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (December 25, 2012) is Don Johnson (TV's Miami Vice, Nash Bridges; Bucky Larson, Machete, Tin Cup). The actor is in negotiations to play plantation owner Spencer Bennett. He would be joining Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell. UPDATE: Kerry Washington is now confirmed to be playing Django's wife, Broomhilda. The synopsis is below.

By Sophia Savage
|
October 13, 2011 5:48 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Sundance May Not Be Big Factor in This Year's Oscar Race

Even with Sony Pictures Classics behind it, Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter, which has earned raves for Michael Shannon, failed to lure audiences this weekend. Hopefully it will build strong word-of-mouth and critics group votes at year's end. But even though Sundance has launched multiple Oscar nominees of late--15 in 2010 alone--will other Sundance fave raves Win Win, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Like Crazy and Another Happy Day meet that same fate?

By Anne Thompson
|
October 10, 2011 2:59 AM
|
1 Comment

More:

Weekend Box Office: Real Steel Clobbers Ides of March; Dolphin Tale, Moneyball and 50/50 Show Legs

DreamWorks delivered another hit to distributor Disney as Real Steel dominated its weekend box office rivals. George Clooney's political drama The Ides of March, in fewer theaters, got off to a solid start. Meanwhile, holdovers Dolphin Tale, Moneyball and 50/50 all showed good legs. Kinsey Lowe reports.Real Steel hammered to the top of the weekend fight card with an estimated $27.3 million and boosted Hugh Jackman with a rare hit outside the X-Men and Wolverine franchises. The movie performed more strongly than had been expected going into the weekend thanks to a 27% Saturday bump from Friday's gross.

By Kinsey Lowe
|
October 9, 2011 4:55 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Agnieszka Holland's In Darkness Gets Oscar Qualifying Run in December

Sony Pictures Classics is giving Agnieszka Holland's Polish holocaust drama In Darkness, which played well at both Telluride and Toronto, an Oscar-qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles from December 9-15. The Polish Oscar submission should be a strong contender for the foreign film Oscar. Holland has been nominated twice, for Europa, Europa and Angry Harvest. She also co-wrote mentor Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors: Blue and directed 1993's The Secret Garden as well as some of the best shows on cable: HBO's The Wire and Treme (for which she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing) and two episodes of The Killing.

By Anne Thompson and Sophia Savage
|
October 3, 2011 9:49 AM
|
0 Comments

More:

Weekend Box Office: Dolphin Tale Overtakes Moneyball in Second Inning

While it looked like Moneyball would assert its dominance over the weekend box office, another second weekender took the prize: Dolphin Tale. Again, the family movie pulled a bigger niche audience than too many competitors aimed at males and adults. Anthony D'Alessandro reports:Another flood of wide entries fragmented Fall moviegoers this weekend. Warner Bros./Alcon's heart-tugging crowd-pleaser Dolphin Tale yipped up $14.2 million in its second session, overtaking Sony's well-reviewed Moneyball, which fielded $12.5 million. Both films generated warm buzz throughout the week, especially on Rosh Hashanah last Thursday when some schools were off.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
|
October 2, 2011 4:33 AM
|
8 Comments

More:

Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Lebanon Official Oscar Entry Where Do We Go Now?

With Almodovar's The Skin I Live In out of the foreign Oscar race (Spain chose Black Bread instead), as I had suggested, Sony Pictures Classics has indeed picked up U.S. rights to its fourth foreign language Oscar submission, Lebanon's Where Do We Go Now?, directed by Nadine Labacki, which played at Cannes and beat out considerable competition to win the audience award at Toronto.