Thompson on Hollywood

Casting Watch: Quvenzhané Wallis for 'Annie,' Saoirse Ronan Joins Ryan Gosling's Directorial Debut, Jennifer Aniston in for Bogdanovich's Latest

News

Quvenzhané Wallis, the live-wire best actress nominee from "Beasts of the Southern Wild," is in contention to star in a remake of "Annie," directed by Will Gluck ("Easy A"), produced by Will Smith and Jay-Z.

By Maggie Lange
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February 11, 2013 2:58 PM
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Post-Apocalyptic Trailer Watch: Tom Cruise's 'Oblivion' & Will Smith's 'After Earth' UPDATE

Video

As Criticwire's Matt Singer humorously points out, the Hollywood pipeline currently holds two sci-fi films about lone survivors on post-apocalyptic Earths -- and both star Scientologists...

By Beth Hanna
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December 10, 2012 3:02 PM
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Career Watch: Will Smith, Still on His Throne?

Features

Music-TV-film superstar Will Smith did not mark his return to the box office (after a four year hiatus) with a bang, but it wasn't a crash either. "Men in Black III" knocked "The Avengers" off its top spot, and while it's no disaster, it finished the weekend short of expectations. It's better than expected, but only because the bar with "MIB2" had been set so low. While the landscape has changed and movie stardom doesn't mean what it once did, it's undeniable that Smith is one of our last remaining beloved stars, with a string of successful dramas, comedies, action movies and thrillers. He's been in the public eye for the majority of his life, and has yet to dance on Oprah's couch. Does anyone not love Will Smith?

By Sophia Savage
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May 29, 2012 4:22 PM
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Immersed in Movies: Tripping Out on the Cartoon Reality of 'Men in Black 3'

Features

The "Men in Black" franchise has always been a live-action "Looney Tunes" cartoon, a wacky mix of old school and new school. The "Alienbusters" premise is totally unique and practically imitation-proof, as director Barry Sonnenfeld reminds us...

By Bill Desowitz
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May 24, 2012 3:49 PM
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'Men In Black III' Reviews: Better Than The Second, But Still Irrelevant

Box Office

The arrival of "Men in Black III" on May 25 is exciting mostly because Will Smith hasn't been on the big screen since 2008's "Seven Pounds." Bill Desowitz also finds it's 3-D a revelation for the comedy genre...

By Sophia Savage
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May 22, 2012 1:46 PM
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Immersed in Movies: Talking 3-D with 'Men in Black 3' Director Barry Sonnenfeld

Features

I recently sat down for a private 3-D demo of "Men in Black 3" with director Barry Sonnenfeld, and the first thing that dawned on me was that there haven't been any noteworthy 3-D comedies during this current renaissance. It's all been shock and awe so far.

By Bill Desowitz
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April 21, 2012 12:19 PM
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Theron, Reitman, Cody Talk Young Adult: Go-for-Broke Screenwriting, Assholes Don't Change, C Word

After the sixth and final pop-up screening of Jason Reitman's Young Adult Tuesday night at Los Angeles' New Beverly, Reitman, writer Diablo Cody and stars Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt and Elizabeth Reaser did a Q & A. TOH! guest blogger Beth Hanna reports highlights from the conversation. Paramount is releasing the film December 16.

By Beth Hanna
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November 2, 2011 5:44 AM
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IN THE WORKS: Independence Day Sequels Want To Take Your Money, Even if They Don't Pay for Smith

Fox will make not one but two Independence Day sequels, fifteen years (and counting) after the original Will Smith pic raked in $800 million across the globe. It's not a new idea -- the studio had wanted to green light a sequel for some time, but both Smith and director Roland Emmerich demanded huge paychecks. So Fox focused on developing scripts and declared that the franchise could proceed with or without them.

By Sophia Savage
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October 27, 2011 6:09 AM
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Fiction Vs. Non-Fiction Death Match

POV blogger Tom Roston (@docsoupman), an old colleague from Premiere, loves documentaries--in fact, he blogs about them. And while I enjoy digging into The Interrupters as much as the next cinephile, I love fiction films even better. So Roston challenged me to pit five fiction films, "whether they’ve been produced in Hollywood, New York or Bombay, against their poor, bedraggled step-siblings, non-fiction films, in a death match." Naturally, Roston thinks his docs are going to win hands-down, but that's part of the fun.

By Anne Thompson and Tom Roston
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August 23, 2011 4:00 AM
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This is What Money Looks Like II: Hollywood's Best-Paid Actors; DiCaprio King of World

In the last year (May 2010 through May 2011) the top-earning actors (and sometime producers) were Leonardo DiCaprio ($77 million), Johnny Depp ($50 million), Adam Sandler ($40 million), Will Smith ($36 Million), Tom Hanks ($35 million), Ben Stiller ($34 Million), Robert Downey Jr. ($31 million), Mark Wahlberg ($28 million), Tim Allen ($22 million), Tom Cruise ($22 million), Jim Carrey ($20 million), Daniel Craig ($20 million), Robert Pattinson ($20 million), Brad Pitt ($20 million) and Matt Damon ($18 million).