Thompson On Hollywood

Oscar Watch: No Country Wins Producers Guild award

No Country for Old Men's road to the Oscars is looking inevitable: the Coen brothers picture won the PGA too, after winning DGA and SAG awards.

Here's how Miramax kept the slow fire burning.

Silverman vs. Kimmel Via Damon

Check out this Defamer video from Sarah Silverman, who says she is fucking Matt Damon. Damon confirms.

Writers Guild Talks Making Progress

There's been some progress in the Writers Guild talks, reports Variety and the NYT.

Williams Breaks Silence on Ledger

Michelle Williams, breaking her silence on the death of Heath Ledger, says that he will live on inside their two-year-old daughter.

Super Bowl Movie Ads Include Iron Man and Jumper

On Super Bowl Sunday the studios are set to air ten ads costing about $2.7 million per 30-second spot. The New England Patriots vs. New York Giants event is expected to attract as much as 100 million viewers. Here's USA Today's lineup of Super Bowl ads.

Disney will likely show either both the Pixar comedy Wall E orand the next Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian; Fox will sell Doug Liman's sci-fi adventure Jumper; New Line Cinema will likely promote Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell; Paramount will showcase Robert Downey, Jr. as comic-book superhero Iron Man; Universal will show Leatherheads, Wanted and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins; and Sony Pictures will flog You Don't Mess With the Zohan, starring Adam Sandler. I'll be curious to see if Warners throws up a Dark Knight ad in the aftermath of Heath Ledger's death. UPDATE: Movie Marketing Madness has more details.

Friday Reviews: Hannah Montana, The Eye, Over Her Dead Body

Here are Friday review rankings from Rotten Tomatoes, one surprisingly fresh, two predictably rotten:

Hannah Montana & Riley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert: 82%. Reviewers liked this one for parents and kids. Wow. That's better than I ever would have predicted.

The Eye: 38%. Jessica Alba isn't earning raves for her acting ability.

Over Her Dead Body: 13%. Not that funny.

Trailer Watch: John Woo's Period Epic Red Cliff

John Woo's bid to deliver his own epic period adventure on a Kurosawa-scale is the $75-million Red Cliff, his first Asia-shot film since 1992's Hardboiled. Set in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, the epic was filmed over four months in mainland China.

This trailer took my breath away. My only regret: that Chow Yun-Fat, fresh from working on a Jerry Bruckheimer-scale Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, couldn't work things out with his former director. (Woo and producer Terence Chang weren't willing to meet his sky high perk demands.) Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Gengyi star in this pan-Asian production which has backers from Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Woo filmed two two-hour films to be released separately in Asia in July and December 2008, with a two and a half hour cut going out in the rest of the world. (I wonder what will show in Cannes?) Summit is selling international rights at Berlin.

The Orphanage handled the VFX.

Check out Woo's trademark white dove.

Weekend Boxoffice: Femmes Rule

On Super Bowl weekend, Hollywood leaves the boxoffice to the girls. Thus it's a 3D Hannah Montana concert movies vs. Jessica Alba in The Eye this weekend.

Diary of the Dead Horror Shorts Contest

From January 30 through February 29th, MySpace Film members who submit their horror shorts via the Diary of the Dead MySpace profile can try to win a spot on George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead DVD. Visitors to the Diary of the Dead MySpace profile can vote for their favorite short films; the top ten will be judged by Romero, who will pick the five best for inclusion on the DVD. (The film, which was reviewed out of Toronto, hits theaters on February 15.)

Summer Comedies: Religulous Stars Maher

Here's the one-sheet for the upcoming comedy Religulous, which has been described as "the nonfiction film about the greatest fiction ever told." This anti-religious interview doc springs from the fevered brows of producer-star Bill Maher and director Larry Charles. Lionsgate opens it in NYC and LA on June 20 and nationwide on July 2.

Statements from filmmakers Bill Maher and Larry Charles are on the jump:

Oscar Shorts Program

Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International are partnering for the third year in a row to screen the ten Oscar-nominated short films (live-action and animated) in U.S. theatres on February 15th prior to the 80th Academy Awards ceremony on February 24.

The Oscar Shorts program will open in about 50 cities on February 15 and will expand in the following weeks. This year’s Oscar Shorts program will also be digitally shown by co-sponsor RAIN Network.

The nominated Live Action Shorts are:

AT NIGHT; Denmark, Oscar Nominees: Christian E. Christiansen & Louise Vesth. Three young women share their problems while spending the holidays in a hospital cancer ward.

IL SUPPLENTE (THE SUBSTITUTE); Italy, Oscar Nominee: Andrea Jublin. The arrival of an unusual newcomer galvanizes the students in a high school classroom.

LE MOZART DES PICKPOCKETS (THE MOZART OF PICKPOCKETS); France, Oscar Nominee: Philippe Pollet-Villard. A pair of unlucky thieves find their fortunes have changed when they take in a deaf homeless boy.

TANGHI ARGENTINI; Belgium, Oscar Nominees: Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans. A man who must learn to dance the tango in two weeks asks an office colleague for help.

THE TONTO WOMAN; United Kingdom, Oscar Nominees: Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown. A cattle rustler meets a woman who is living in isolation after being held prisoner for eleven years by the Mojave Indians.

The nominated Animated Shorts are:

I MET THE WALRUS; Canada, Oscar Nominee: Josh Raskin. In 1969, fourteen-year-old Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room with his tape recorder and persuaded him to do an interview.

MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI; Canada, Oscar Nominees: Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. A timid woman boards a mysterious night train and has a series of frightening experiences.

MEME LES PIGEONS VONT AU PARADIS (EVEN PIGEONS GO TO HEAVEN); France, Oscar® Nominees: Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse. A priest tries to sell an old man a machine that he promises will transport him to heaven.

MY LOVE (MOYA LYUBOV); Russia, Oscar Nominee: Alexander Petrov. In nineteenth-century Russia, a teenage boy in search of love is drawn to two very different women.

PETER & THE WOLF; United Kingdom & Poland, Oscar Nominees: Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman. A young boy and his animal friends face a hungry wolf in Prokofiev's classic musical piece.

For a complete list of opening cities and theatres, visit Magpictures.com.

Online Community Trusted Opinion's Top-Ranked Movies of 2007

Trusted Opinion, the free online community where users make social recommendations on movies, DVDs, and TV shows, has posted its list of top-ranked 2007 movies, as ranked by its 500,000 members. Trusted Opinion's users range across 150 countries, with top-ranking movies skewing differently than movies ranked by U.S. residents. They tend to be younger; 83 % are under 34.

1
Freedom Writers
The Bourne Ultimatum

2
American Gangster
Hitman

3
I Am Legend
Live Free or Die Hard

4
Pirates of the Caribbean 3
In the Land of Women

5
High School Musical 2
Pirates of the Caribbean 3

6
Ratatouille
Superbad

7
California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit)
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

8
4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile
The Simpsons Movie

9
Stomp the Yard
I Am Legend

10
88 Minutes
American Gangster

Trusted Opinion's most popular films of 2007 based on the most ratings:

1. Pirates of the Caribbean 3

2. Spider-Man 3

3. Shrek the Third

4. Ghost Rider

5. Bridge to Terabithia

6. Transformers

7. Live Free or Die Hard

8. Ratatouille

9. Next

10. The Bourne Ultimatum

Trusted Opinion’s platform also drives recommendations and interest in movies from back-catalogs:

Watchmen and V for Vendetta Creator Alan Moore Talks

Here's a documentary interview with Watchmen and V for Vendetta creator Alan Moore. Very cool.

Juno Passes $100 Million

After just eight weeks in release, Juno is the first Fox Searchlight movie to cross the magic $100 million milestone. The previous record, $71.5 million, was set by Sideways in 2004. Juno is also the first platformed Searchlight movie to go into such wide release in 2534 situations. Juno has been among the top ten highest grossing movies for six consecutive weekends.

That this particular movie is doing so well is not a surprise, given its entertainment value ; it plays like a broad family comedy. And obviously, Searchlight mounted a canny marketing campaign; now that the pic has four Oscar noms, it's a must-see. And the Oscar noms clearly fed the Juno soundtrack's climb up the Billboard charts. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart.

Warners Ponders How to Market Dark Knight and Ledger as Joker

What will Warners do to market Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight in the wake of Heath Ledger's death? After all, the studio was already rolling out the first phase of the campaign, focused on Ledger's The Joker. The studio will now have to shift focus to phase two: Aaron Eckhart as district attorney Harvey Dent/Two Face.

This tricky wicket would be daunting for any studio to confront, but it will prove especially challenging for the new WB marketing team under Jeffrey Robinov's leadership. Yes, moviegoers will want to check out Ledger's performance. But Warners has to tread very carefully in how they sell, promote and try not to exploit Ledger's role. Any misstep over the line could be very harmful. Here's Kim Master's story in Slate on this issue.

Paste's Art-House 100

I've never read Paste magazine, but nonetheless they're already publishing their third Annual Art Powerhouse 100, which "celebrates those who make the independent film industry possible." The list is pretty predictable. It would make more sense to do this a tad earlier, when the list might have some influence on the awards season. It now seems somewhat after the fact.

PASTE Magazine’s 3rd Annual Art House Powerhouse 100
Our Favorite Actors
Viggo Mortensen
Laura Linney
Forest Whitaker
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Naomi Watts
Cate Blanchett
Evan Rachel Wood
Natalie Portman
Don Cheadle
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Juliette Binoche
Daniel Day-Lewis
Josh Brolin
Christian Bale
Cillian Murphy
Parker Posey
Jack Black
Ryan Gosling
Nicole Kidman
Javier Bardem
Jake Gyllenhaal
Johnny Depp
Ellen Page
Casey Affleck
Emile Hirsch
Paul Dano
Jason Schwartzman

More Paste favorites on the jump:

SXSW Watch: Stop-Loss to Play Fest

It's not official until the SXSW line-up is announced February 5, but word is, Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss will play the fest. Paramount and producer Scott Rudin must feel that debuting a film in Austin is a good-luck charm: PTA's There Will be Blood drew its first raves after it snuck into the Fantastic Fest in Austin. Last year, Judd Apatow's Knocked Up came out of SXSW (which runs this year from March 7 - 15) with plenty of strong buzz.

In other news, Stop-Loss star Channing Tatum will play Duke in Par's upcoming G.I. Joe.

Weinsteins Acquire Woody's Next

The Weinstein Co. has acquired another Woody Allen film--despite the meager returns so far on Cassandra's Dreams. (Here's Variety's story.) No Country for Old Men Oscar nominee Javier Bardem talks about his role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona here.

UPDATE: There's much Internet debate on the pic's title, which does seem like a mouthful.

The full release is on the jump.

Hannah Montana Makes Top Ten Internet Movie Pre-Sales

According to MovieTickets.com, the 3D chick flick concert movie Hannah Montana, starring Miley Cyrus, has broken into their top ten list of advance pre-release ticket sales:

1. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

4. The Matrix Reloaded

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

7. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

8. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour

9. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

UPDATE: The movie ticketing service Fandango reports a similar pattern: Hannah currently accounts for 91% of all ticket sales, with over 1000 sold-out shows during prime-time hours. "It’s the best-selling concert movie in Fandango’s seven-year history," writes spokesman Harry Medved. Exhibitors are adding extra Thursday midnight shows and Friday morning shows (as early as 8:00 a.m.).

Fandango Five – Ticket Sales (as of 1/30/08 10:00 a.m. PT)

Movie Fandango User Rating % Fandango Sales

Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert “Go” 91%

U2 3D “Must Go” 2%

Rambo "Go" >1%

Cloverfield “Go” >1%

27 Dresses “Go” >1%

Sundance Watch: More Wraps

Here are some more Sundance wrap-ups:

Critic B. Ruby Rich in The Guardian.

John Clark on docs at Premiere.com.

Kim Voynar on Sundance women at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.