Thompson on Hollywood

Weekend Recap: TWC Acquires Vampire Franchise, Hathaway Wants More Musicals, Diablo Cody Talks Stripping Double Standard

News

Check out our weekend Hollywood breaking news wrap on what you need to know: stories about Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford, Roman Coppola's love affair with Woody Allen, Diablo Cody on the gender double standard on stripping, Netflix's House of Cards, Anne Hathaway and Melissa McCarthy's future plans, Pyramid of Movie Kids, and more.

By Maggie Lange
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February 11, 2013 12:11 PM
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In The Works: Whedon's 'Much Ado' and Supernatural Romance; Cody's 'Sweet Valley' R-Rated Musical

News

With "The Avengers" (May 4) in the bag, director Joss Whedon has already shot a "Much Ado About Nothing" adaptation. He shot the film in twelve days in "glorious black and white," with "Firefly"'s Nathan Fillion and "a stellar cast of beloved (or soon to be beloved) actors") and now plans a supernatural romance with actress Abigail Spencer ("Mad Men," "Oz, The Great and Powerful"). Spencer tells Vulture: "It’s the most romantic film in the history of time. It’s a supernatural romance."

By Sophia Savage
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January 16, 2012 4:43 PM
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INTERVIEW: Jason Reitman Made Unmakeable Young Adult for $12 Million

Features

Jason Reitman is in a different place than he was during the release of "Up in the Air," when he pushed and pushed to gain entrance into the Oscar club. It crushed him on Oscar night when adapted screenplay went to Geoffrey Fletcher for "Precious." Was Reitman too young, too overexposed? When he jumped into his next feature with "Juno" collaborator Diablo Cody, "Young Adult," he took a witty midwestern plunge to the dark side. Charlize Theron went with him, and could land a Best Actress Oscar nomination. And so could supporting actor Patton Oswalt, the unlikely object of her attention.

By Anne Thompson
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December 5, 2011 1:44 PM
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Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody's Young Adult Reviewed from Minnesota: Juno's Wicked Step Sister

Slowly, Jason Reitman is emerging from his cocoon after his bout with extreme overexposure on Up in the Air, which ultimately did not yield an Oscar win. He's staging table reads at LACMA with pal Elvis Mitchell; he's back on Twitter, and now Young Adult (trailer here and below), his latest collaboration with Juno writer Diablo Cody, starring Charlize Theron, has debuted in Edina, Minnesota. Here is the first review. On Wednesday the Landmark Edina Cinema was the site of the first U.S. audience screening of "Young Adult," the new film from the "Juno" team of Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. The much-anticipated new collaboration shares some stylistic notes with their earlier effort -- a pop-saturated soundtrack, a woman-child stuck between adolescence and adulthood, a droll appreciation of daily life in suburbia. It's also a step in a new direction, both for the creative team and for movies, a mature and humane comedy centered on a misanthropic female antihero.

By Anne Thompson
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October 21, 2011 5:42 AM
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Casting Watch: Witherspoon Goes Fluffy, Fishburne is Superman's Perry White, Foster Plays Gotti Jr.

Reese Witherspoon's next project is a Disney fluff piece called Wish List, about a girl whose wishes do not come true because the coin she throws into the well never reaches its bottom. Twenty-five years later, Witherspoon enters as that girl's older self, a careerist who has lost the imagination of her childhood. The coin finally drops, and she is left to deal with the fallout from ten 25-year old wishes being fulfilled en masse.

By Jacob Combs
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August 3, 2011 4:54 AM
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Mandate Buys Diablo Cody Script Lamb of God for Her to Direct

We need all the good women directors we can get. Oscar original screenplay winner Diablo Cody is jumping into directing via old partners Mandate Pictures and producer Mason Novick, who backed Juno ($227 million worldwide) and the upcoming Paramount film Young Adult. Comedy Lamb of God tracks a conservative religious woman from a plane crash through a sinner's life in Vegas and back to faith. Cody will exec produce along with Mandate president Nathan Kahane; they're planning to start casting.

By Anne Thompson
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June 29, 2011 11:34 AM
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Congrats Diablo Cody: New Baby, Red Band Trailer, Reitman Reunion

Attention-starved screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno, The U.S. of Tara) has plenty of good news. She delivered baby Marcello Daniel Maurio on July 27. And her new traveling talk-show Red Band Trailer, recorded in her Airstream, is playing on YouTube. Her first three shows are below.

By Anne Thompson
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August 3, 2010 1:27 AM
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20 Questions for Up in the Air's Jason Reitman

It's hard to believe that a filmmaker as assured as Jason Reitman is 32 and has made just three feature films, including Up in the Air, which is about to open limited December 4 after earning raves from audiences and critics on the international film fest circuit. Here he talks about his airline obsession, pie chart, directing George Clooney as well as 60 non-actors who had been laid off, and why this was the right movie to make at the right time.

By Anne Thompson
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November 29, 2009 8:46 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Jennifer's Body Horror Tweener

As predicted, Jennifer's Body opened soft at the boxoffice. Fox marketed a horror movie aimed at men, who like Megan Fox. Twentieth Century Fox hung the marketing on the Transformers star, but girls don't want to see her. The studio failed to get women to watch Karyn Kusama and Diablo Cody's angry feminist movie. Thus Jennifer's Body is a classic tweener: neither a horror thriller for men, nor a coming-of-age horror-comedy for women. (It didn't earn strong reviews.) If Searchlight had marketed it, they might have been able to target the right smart crowd. (At a low-end cost of $16 million, the movie should come out ahead in any case.)

By Anne Thompson
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September 19, 2009 9:03 AM
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Toronto Day One: Creation, The Informant!, Jennifer's Body

The reason why film festivals pick movies like Creation for opening night is that they have all the right credentials: respected producer (Jeremy Thomas) and director (Jon Amiel) and two major stars (Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly) willing to show up for the gala TIFF screenings and party. But Creation was DOA tonight.