Thompson on Hollywood

SXSW Full Line-Up: From Centerpiece '21 Jump Street' to Closer 'Big Easy Express'; Pierson Talks

Festivals

Austin's South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival 2012 has selected its full-lineup (March 9-17), unspooling 130 features over nine days (see below).

By Anne Thompson
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February 1, 2012 3:09 PM
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Trost Brothers' 'The FP' Premiering February 25 at Cinefamily; Drafthouse to Widen Release March 16

News

Alamo's Drafthouse Films will release "The FP" on March 16, following a February 25 red carpet premiere at Los Angeles' Cinefamily's Silent Movie Theater. "The FP" is a "ferocious nod to big-budget studio action fare and underdog sports dramas of the 1980s.

By Sophia Savage
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January 30, 2012 6:46 PM
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SXSW 2012 Opening Night Film Is Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard's 'The Cabin in the Woods'; Lena Dunham To Premiere HBO Series 'Girls'

Festivals

Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's horror production "The Cabin in the Woods" (Lionsgate, April 13) will open the 2012 South by Southwest Film Festival, which runs March 9 – 17, 2012 in Austin, Texas. Whedon will also participate in a key Conversation at the conference on March 10. And SXSW will premiere the first three episodes of SXSW discovery Lena Dunham's ten-part HBO series "Girls" (April) along with a March 13 panel on the series featuring producer Judd Apatow and writer-director-actress Dunham.

By Anne Thompson
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January 12, 2012 3:00 PM
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SXSW 2012 Announces First Round of Panels; Drive Composer Cliff Martinez, Tambor's Acting Workshop

The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival announces the first of its 2012 panels. The festival, in its 19th year, will be held March 9-17, 2012, in Austin, Texas. Among other highlights of SXSW including Jeffrey Tambor's returning Acting Workshop, the fest will feature the requisite DIY filmmaking, VOD, web cinema and scoring panels, plus a Conversation with Drive composer and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Cliff Martinez, whose other credits include many Steven Soderbergh films (sex, lies and videotape, Kafka, The Limey, Traffic, Solaris and Contagion).

By Anne Thompson
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October 26, 2011 7:00 AM
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Breakout Fest Talent: Evan Glodell Talks Bellflower

Talent discovery is what film fests like Sundance and SXSW are all about. Yes, the sales boom that attended Toronto and Sundance continued to the Austin, Texas fest, which is usually not a distributor's market. But agents like CAA's Dina Kuperstock mainly go to Austin to seek and support young clients like Evan Glodell, writer-director of Bellflower.

By Anne Thompson
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March 28, 2011 8:18 AM
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SXSW Panels: Productivity and Distraction, Blogger Ethics in the Online Movie Community

Warning: walking while reading one's smart phone can be hazardous to your health. Tuesday night on my way home from the SXSW Awards party on Austin's dark and crowded 6th Street, I tripped and split my lip on the sidewalk, gushing blood. My BlackBerry was unharmed. I hailed a pedicab to the local ER, where I needed no stitches, but looked like someone had punched me in the face.

By Anne Thompson
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March 19, 2011 1:31 AM
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Weekly Wrap: Hunger Games, SXSW Interviews, Actresses Directing & Producing, Japan, Taxi Driver

PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

By Anne Thompson and Sophia Savage
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March 18, 2011 9:26 AM
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SXSW Video: Jodie Foster Talks Beaver Stars Gibson and Lawrence's Pain, Her Own Split Personality

Jodie Foster had a problem. After completing production on her third feature film, The Beaver, her old pal Mel Gibson, who she had adored since they first worked together in 1994's Maverick, was in terrible trouble. At the end of reshoots on the film, she watched helplessly as he suffered through a career-destroying tabloid crisis of leaked phone tapes during his break-up battle with model Oksana Grigorieva.

By Anne Thompson
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March 18, 2011 9:15 AM
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SXSW: Greg Mottola Talks Paul's Pegg, Frost and Spielberg; Early Reviews

Here's what you need to know about Paul (March 18): It's a Working Title movie, which means that it's smart, tailored to intelligent audiences, and has a British sensibility. Co-writers Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) dreamed up this light fan boy comedy, went on an American research road trip, and lacking their director of choice, Edgar Wright, they turned to Greg Mottola (Superbad and Adventureland), who has been earning mainstream cred as a director of sharp and funny comedies that do not suck.

By Anne Thompson
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March 17, 2011 8:18 AM
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SXSW: Jodie Foster Intros The Beaver, Starring "Beloved" Mel Gibson, to Upbeat Response; See Clips

Jodie Foster took Austin's Paramount stage for the Wednesday night premiere of The Beaver, a dark, moving family drama centered on Mel Gibson, who is well-cast as a tortured man in crisis. (See indieWIRE's review; here's Hollywood Wiretap's round-up).