Thompson on Hollywood

Rango, Adjustment Bureau, Beastly, Take Me Home Tonight, I Saw the Devil: Blockbuster Weekend?

2011 is due for its first blockbuster weekend. From Johnny Depp's animated Rango and Matt Damon and Emily Blunt's The Adjustment Bureau to teen flick Beastly, 80s throwback Take Me Home Tonight and Korean horror film I Saw the Devil, all the demographic bases are covered. We recommend Damon and Blunt's effortless on-screen chemistry, the wondrously imaginative Rango, and indie festival favorites Abel and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Film details, reviews and trailers are below.

By Sophia Savage
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March 4, 2011 8:30 AM
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Meek's Cutoff Early Reviews: "Beckettian Harshness," Williams Is "Show-Stealingly Brilliant"

Kelly Reichardt's austere western Meek's Cutoff hits theatres April 8. A roundup of early reviews is below.

By Anne Thompson
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March 3, 2011 6:25 AM
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The Adjustment Bureau Early Reviews: Damon & Blunt Own It With Heart-Fluttering Chemistry

Hollywood has a good track record when it comes to adapting California sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, who was praised by Adam Gopnik for his "mixture of mordant comedy and wild metaphysics."

By Anne Thompson
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February 25, 2011 9:00 AM
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Oscar Watch: Tim Burton and VFX Master Ken Ralston Talk Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland presented a high degree of difficulty for veteran VFX master Ken Ralston and director Tim Burton, who tends to prefer live action FX to digital ones. He clearly wrestled with the huge volume of CG effects—the film used far more green screen than he’s ever dealt with. “It starts freaking you out after a while,” he said at Comic-Con, admitting that Alice in Wonderland was “the most difficult” movie he’s ever done. Burton insisted on avoiding motion-capture as much as possible (the effects team did mo-cap some actors, for reference). Burton wound up favoring “pure animation and using actors in mysterious ways,” he said.

By Anne Thompson
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February 11, 2011 9:29 AM
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Sacha Baron Cohen Follows Up Borat and Bruno with Saddam Hussein Adaptation The Dictator

Sacha Baron Cohen, of Borat and Bruno fame, will next star in Paramount's The Dictator, hitting theaters worldwide on May 11, 2012. Borat (Twentieth Century Fox) and Bruno (Universal) director Larry Charles is re-teaming with Cohen. The Dictator is based on Saddam Hussein best-selling novel, Zabibah and The King, and is described as "the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed." Brings tears to our eyes already.

By Sophia Savage
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January 20, 2011 4:51 AM
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Sony Pictures Classics Milks Globes Attention, Bier Heads to Sundance

Because the wily operators at Sony Pictures Classics, co-presidents Tom Bernard and Michael Barker, have thrown countless movies into the awards season market over the decades, they have mapped out what works best for lower-profile films. They are well-positioned now, for example, to take full advantage of the boost that Paul Giamatti's Golden Globe best actor comedy win gives Canadian dramedy Barney's Version. After a qualifying late December week's run, SPC opened the film this holiday weekend and did decent business. "I hope people will go to see it now," said Giamatti at the HBO Globes party.

By Anne Thompson
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January 18, 2011 12:11 AM
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Anticipating the Best of 2011: Malick, Spielberg, Scorsese, Fincher and More Sequels

- With 2010's disappointments behind us, The Daily Beast looks forward to the best prospects of 2011. They include The Hangover Part !! and The Muppets as well as Terrence Malick's The Tree of LIfe, which will be the among the first on the list (May 27) to go head-to-head with its own expectation-building anticipation. It's also the only completely original story on the TDB list.

By Sophia Savage
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January 3, 2011 9:15 AM
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A Nightmare on Elm Street Remake Takes $32 Million, Furry Vengeance Flops

The Nightmare on Elm Street remake grabbed a hefty $32.2 million at the weekend box office. How to Train Your Dragon and Date Night still have legs, while The Back-Up Plan took a second-week dive and Brendan Fraser flopped in Furry Vengeance. Anthony D'Alessandro crunches the numbers:

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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May 2, 2010 3:55 AM
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TCM Classic Film Festival is Hit, and is Coming Back

Last weekend's TCM Classic Film Festival in LA was such a hit that it's coming back in 2011. TCM targeted an aging demo starving for classic movies and created an event feel, with Q & As and panels, from Danny and Anjelica Huston honoring their father and grandfather in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (which holds up really well, fresh as a daisy) and the Complete Metropolis accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra, which judging from the interest I'm gauging will do some business. (Leonard Maltin covered the fest like a blanket.)

By Anne Thompson
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April 27, 2010 7:29 AM
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How to Train Your Dragon Roars Past The Back-Up Plan

How to Train Your Dragon came roaring back at the weekend box office, proving that fab word-of-mouth trumps familiar old-hat formulas every time. Jennifer Lopez rom-com The Back-Up Plan came in second, and DC comics movie The Losers was a disaster, coming in fourth behind Date Night. Anthony D'Alessandro dissects the numbers.Never dis a dragon – even at the box office. Paramount-DreamWorks 3D toon How to Train Your Dragon continued to flap its legs, err wings in a murky April weekend session, earning $15 million at 3,665 theaters. Dragon slipped 23% in its fifth weekend raising its domestic cume to $178 million. Overall, weekend receipts counted an estimated $95 million, off 10-15% from a year ago. Distribs account the drop to the lack of film product in the market, particularly with Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps moving out of the month.