Thompson on Hollywood

Director Watch: Nichols and Hoffman Do Salesman, Aronofsky for Wolverine 2, Affleck and Morel

Philip Seymour Hoffman will play Willy Loman on Broadway next fall in Tony and Oscar winning director Mike Nichols' take on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. It's a role Hoffman has been lusting after, Nichols told the NY Times. The pair, who worked together in 2001 for a Central Park production of The Seagull, have been planning the production for months and agreed upon Linda Emond to play across from Hoffman as Linda Loman. Nichols is not worried about Hoffman's 43 years vs. Loman's 60-something, "what matters is finding the right man to play the part." Brian Dennehy played the part in 1999 when he was 60 and Dustin Hoffman played the role at 47 in 1984.

By Sophia Savage
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October 20, 2010 8:03 AM
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Superheros Send Wrong Image to Boys, Kristen Bell's Indie Role, Edie Falco on Sopranos Movie

-The identity of the American male is in flux and current superhero movies are sending the wrong image to boys, say researchers at the 118th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. There's a difference between today's movie superheros and the past's comic book heros, says Sharon Lamb, PhD: "Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence, he's aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men, like Ironman, exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns." Past comic book heros were characters that boys could "look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes," she adds, "they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities."

By Sophia Savage
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August 16, 2010 9:30 AM
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Super Hero Glut: Will Marvel and DC Projects Get Repetitive?

There are many many comics movies in our future. How many of them will moviegoers be able to ingest? How many will turn out to be any good? Will fatigue set in, as Matthew Vaughn, the director of X-Men: First Class, predicts?

By Anne Thompson
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August 10, 2010 4:54 AM
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Casting News: Bullock, Pike, Mikkelson and My Idiot Brother

On the casting front: - Post-Oscar, post-James and post-MTV kiss, Sandra Bullock may be committed to Most Wanted down the line, reports the LAT, but given that the script is still in development, CAA agent Kevin Huvane sent out a statement clarifying that Most Wanted is not the next film Bullock will do. She is considering several projects, but Huvane assures: "The next project that will follow her Oscar will be chosen carefully and with a great deal of thought."

By Sophia Savage
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June 9, 2010 8:50 AM
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McAvoy Joins X-Men, Polley's Take This Waltz, Newsweek's New Look

- Director Matthew Vaughn has cast Wanted star James McAvoy to play the role of the young Charles Xavier (created by Patrick Stewart) in Fox's next X-Men installment, the origin story X-Men: First Class. We like The Playlist's casting suggestion of Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) to play Xavier's evil opposition, Magneto (originally Ian McKellen).

By Sophia Savage
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May 28, 2010 4:12 AM
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Oscar Talk Summer Edition: Pre-Cannes Season Survey

In Contention's Kris Tapley, refreshed after a sojourn from his labors, and I reconvene for a summer edition of Oscar Talk. We cover the lacklustre spring season, look forward to Cannes and the summer, and dissect Iron Man 2.

By Anne Thompson
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May 8, 2010 5:13 AM
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News Update: Studios Step Up Security, Iron Man Hits Web, Tony Noms, Vaughn Helms X-Men: First Class

L.A. County sheriffs have stepped up security around movie studios in response to the foiled bombing attempt in New York's Times Square. The LAT reports that the bomb's proximity to Viacom headquarters has led to speculation that the company was targeted because of a recent South Park episode on Comedy Central involving the prophet Muhammad. Viacom owns Comedy Central as well as the MTV network. At MTV and Lionsgate offices in Santa Monica, guards have been checking vehicle trunks since the incident, among other precautions.

By Amy Dawes
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May 5, 2010 1:31 AM
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Wolverine: Multiple Endings

Magazine editors know that movie fans will buy multiple collectible covers. On that principle, Marvel has added different endings at the end of the credits to Wolverine so that fans will sample all the versions of the film, director Gavin Hood told one L.A. press screening on Friday night, reports Alex Billington of First Showing. UPDATE: Make that two endings.

By Anne Thompson
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April 25, 2009 7:44 AM
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Fox Fires Friedman for Reviewing Pirated Wolverine

What was Fox News 411 columnist Roger Friedman thinking? It's hard to fathom what was going on in his mind when he downloaded the pirated early edit of Fox's Wolverine and reviewed it. He was out of line on several fronts, along with being just plain self-destructive. Yes, he was showing how easy it was to view a bootleg movie online. But you don't go ahead and review an early version of a movie that is a big-budget summer tentpole--from his employer. Well, not surprisingly, Fox has let the freelancer go, reports Nikki Finke. UPDATE: Over the weekend, Friedman told Variety he was still employed, but the separation was official after a Monday confab. The studio has been one of the most ardently anti-piratical of all the majors.