HOT TOPIC: MEN WRITE 70 PERCENT OF REVIEWS PUBLISHED IN AMERICA'S TOP 100 DAILIES... Shocked? Read more
FEATURED: "Frozen River" (star Melissa Leo and director Courtney Hunt on set, pictured above)
Anne Thompson is the Deputy Editor of Variety.com, where she writes a weekly column that appears online on Fridays and in print on Sundays, and blogs daily under the title Thompson On Hollywood. Before joining Variety.com, she was Deputy Film Editor and handled the influential Risky Biz blog for The Hollywood Reporter.
I watched the six episodes two at a time, three nights running. (I had admired Fox’s 80s doc Beirut: The Last Home Movie.) I was fascinated. Fox took five years of her own life and turned it into the narrative through-line for a survey of women and their life choices in different cultures. Read more>>
Well, I’ve seen Roland Emmerich’s latest pixel-fest 10,000 B.C., and it’s no Quest for Fire. Would that it had been silent! Read more>>
Finally, the long-in-the-works “American Teen” deal went down late Tuesday night, marking the fourth movie to sell at Sundance in the last two days. Paramount Vantage acquired all world rights (excluding the U.K.) for $1 million to Nanette Burstein’s Indiana high school cinema verite doc. After the A & E Indie Films documentary screened Friday night, Fox Searchlight made a bid which later expired; Sony Pictures Classics also pursued a deal but pulled out Tuesday afternoon, leaving the pic to Vantage, which is promising a significant P & A commitment. Sellers were Cinetic and CAA.
Sheila Nevins’ HBO documentary unit has acquired North American rights to Marina Zenovich’s Polanski: Wanted and Desired, the hot buzz title of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Read more>>
My class ate up Juno like it was strawberry ice cream. Read more
Gone Baby Gone is a tough piece of gritty entertainment. What Miramax will be able to wring out of the boxoffice is anyone’s guess. Read more
Lars and the Real Girl is one of those movies that walks a tightrope between laughs and genuine emotion. Read more
When Stacey Snider left Universal to run DreamWorks’ movie division a year ago, she transitioned seamlessly without losing valuable momentum, leading the Paramount division to box office gold, reports Anne Thompson on Variety.com. read more .
In her Variety column, Anne Thompson surmises that Premier Magazine’s demise signals the death of long-form entertainment journalism: Read the rest of this entry »
In THR’s Risky blog, Anne Thompson trumpets Diane Keaton for the star power that earned “Because I Said So” a $13-million opening, despite generally poor reviews. Read the rest of this entry »