Thompson On Hollywood

Cannes Day Three: Allen, Moore, Tyson

Mike Jones uses a Qik phone to shoot my brief interview with Michael Moore about his follow-up to Fahrenheit 9/11.

We were supposed to get a photo, interview and video clip and rush back in time to get it into the paper and post onlne: But Moore came to the Carlton too late. We talked to the film's co-financier/distribs--Overture's Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett, and Paramount Vantage's Nick Meyer and Amy Israel--until Moore came. As soon as we split, the filmmaker was thronged by the press.

Both Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and Bono turned up in Cannes to support Sean Penn's The Third Wave.

The Cannes Croisette features a string of hotels, from the Majestic, pres de la Palais, to the Martinez at the other end. The trick is to find the various constantly changing plages that go with the hotels. Wednesday night we were searching for the 3.14 plage, then Friday it was the Plage de Palmes, all the way out by the marina. Bobby Rock, Stephen Raphael and I had to climb over a wet fence to get to the Toronto Film Fest party without having to go all the way around. I have a ritual: asking Noah Cowan what the fest theme is. His answer: "prison films and the aftermath of war." Hunger, Waltz with Bashir, Blindness...hmmm.

I also said hi to Fest honchos Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey. I met Col Needham the founder of IMDB, who was attending his first Cannes, as excited a schoolboy. As I left for the Woody Allen movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I greeted Ira Deutchman of Emerging Pictures and director Whit Stillman. "I made a picture in Barcelona!" he yelled after me.

Miss the line for the jammed Palais press screenings and you lose. You basically have to shove your way in; I got a good seat. It's a good Woody Allen. He's back in comic form, except for a dunderheaded narration. Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem steal the movie from the two callow American girls summering in Spain (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson). Here's Todd McCarthy's positive review. The press seemed to like it as we milled around our press boxes talking amongst ourselves.

Had a lovely dinner at Le Cave and scurried to find a taxi for yet another run at a beach party, this time a fair distance away down the coast. ICM's Jeff Berg and Cannes fest topper Thierry Fremaux (above) hung around for more than an hour waiting for James Toback and Tyson (below). He turned up well after 1:30 AM and said he was "intimidated" by all the cameras on the red carpet. Hard to imagine. He's a big guy with a Maori tattoo on his head. The movie played well; here's Todd's upbeat review.

Cannes Day Two: From Hunger to Tyson

What will happen with James Toback's Michael Tyson doc? It will be seen. It must. It's too revelatory, too dramatic, too juicy not to be widely viewed. It screens Friday night. Here's my talk with Toback.

Here's Variety's review of Steve McQueen's Hunger, which I saw Thursday night. This is a talented new filmmaker, hugely gifted, visual and daring. The story of an IRA hunger strike in a Belfast prison is rough to sit through. McQueen throws everything in your face. But he does it with style. And Michael Fassbender--who appears to come close to really starving himself-- is a new star. He's going to play Heathcliff in a new version of Wuthering Heights. I doubt that anyone in the states will pick Hunger up. This is about discovering new talent. There was a rousing ovation from the press; Brit McQueen may be a strong candidate for the Camera d'Or, the prize for first-time filmmakers. Here's Stephen Schaefer.

After the movie, I repaired to the Kung Fu Panda party at the Carlton Pier, which included yummy Asian food served with chopsticks and a greeting from DreamWorks executrix Stacey Snider. I talked online shop with the LAT's Sheigh Crabtree-- whose cinematographer husband Matt Uhry shot a film, Mexico's Los Bastardos, in Un Certaiin Regard-- and ran into Paramount PR chief Michael Vollman hanging out with my own Variety gang.

Next door on the beach was the Focus International plage party, hosted by Andrew Karpen and Jason Resnick, complete with a pounding disco beat and a real beach. The Blindness gang was on hand, from Miramax topper Daniel Battsek to Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal. The yachts twinkled under a fine moon in the harbor, and the sand felt cold under your feet.

Oscar's Little Brother: Academy Unveils Student Kudos

Posted by Peter Debruge:
While Anne preps her next dispatch from Cannes, I thought I might give a shout out to this year's Student Academy Award winners. The list is alphabetical, as final rankings won't be announced until June 7 (unlike the Oscars, the student categories are given gold, silver and bronze honors). I've added links so you can see the trailers, official sites or, in some cases, the full shorts where available (Simulacra, for example, seems to complement Pixar's upcoming Wall-E). Click through for the goods.

Cannes Opening Day

Kung Fu Panda star Jack Black woke up this morning knowing he had to cavort on the Carlton pier with 40 overstuffed pandas. Mike Jones did the honors with his Nikon Coolpix.

At the jury press conference, Sean Penn was mercurial and testy: over-the-top on his shove-it-down-your-throat political agendas, and yet an uncompromising artist, the sort of filmmaker that Cannes embraces. He's an idealist who cares deeply about his work and likes to champion the work of others. But he's not one to hide his feelings. Everything shows. So clearly, it was a long day for him.

First the photo call, the press conference, then the black tie ceremonie de overture, which is a long red carpet affair, where folks in their seats in the Lumiere get to watch the likes of Eva Longoria Parker, Penelope Cruz, Aishwariya Rai, Dennis Hopper, Blindness stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Gael Garcia Bernal, and the skeletal Faye Dunaway twist for the photographers.

Jury member Sergio Castellitto looked familiar: I had just seen him in The Chronicles of Narnia sequel, in which he chews into the role of Prince Caspian's nemesis, King Miraz. (BTW: this one is much better than the first, which I found bland and unbelievable, because the kids were so young. Prince Caspian will do gangbuster biz; the kids are older, the villains are nasty, the Narnia animals and characters are cool and there's more action. My fave scene is the opener, when Caspian speeds through a forest at night on horseback.)

The ritual of the jury lining up in a row on the Palais steps and greeting Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux at the top is always fun. Cannes feted Penn with vet folk singer Richie Havens, who did a foot-stomping rendition of Freedom, which even the cool French gala crowd clapped along with, led by Penn. "We will do our best," Penn told the crowd. "We will be sending home love letters to some of these films."

I slipped out before the film started and lined up at the Salle Bazin to see animator/director Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir, an odd Israeli documentary that is gorgeously and effectively animated. Like the stylized Persepolis, the animation makes palatable scenes that would otherwise be horrific: hallucinatory flashbacks of Israeli soldiers on various campaigns in Lebanon, all leading to one long repressed memory of witnessing a 1982 massacre by Christian militia of Palestinians. The filmmaker makes a journey back into his mind by interviewing people who might remember what he has suppressed. Very strong film. Some of the animated characters' POV have a vidgame feel. Early distrib response is cautious. They'll check reviews and see where it goes.

Miramax's outdoor Blindness party at the Carlton Plage-where Europeans were following Sean Penn's lead and smoking like chimneys--featured a white fogbank entryway. That's where I snapped Danny Glover. I did not see Miramax topper Daniel Battsek, but did spot SPC's Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, the NYT's Tony Scott, the LAT's John Horn, Fernando Meirelles and Gael Garcia Bernal, PR men Jeff Hill and Mark Pogachefsky, Focus Features' Jason Resnick and The Toronto FF's Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey.

UPDATE: Greencine's indefatigable David Hudson is keeping up with all things Cannes. Here's Pete Hammond at Hollywood Wiretap.

Penn Lights Up Jury Press Conference

At the opening day jury press conference, Sean Penn made a pitch for the first-ever jury prexy’s choice screening of the tsunami doc “The Third Wave;” called George W. Bush’s politics “evil,” and said, “film is about art, and art is about love. The brain has a purpose in connecting with the heart. When someone works without a brain or a heart they kill thousands of people around the world.” Admitting that he was “not comfortable in a group of people like this,” Penn asked one journo, “can you get me a drink?” For her part, actress Alexandra Maria Lara was “a little bit shaky”; Natalie Portman felt “big pressure”; and when helmer-scribe Marjane Satrapi lit up a cigarette, Penn and French actress Jeanne Balibar gratefully did the same. They still have 22 movies to go.
[photo above by AFP/Getty Images]

Cannes Watch: Blindness Opens Fest

Fernando Meirelles brings his fourth film, Blindness, to open the Cannes Fest. It's his first competition film. Here's my interview with him.

Cannes' Stinking Badges, Penn's Jury Pulpit

Truth is, one year I had a white badge. It was a lovely fluke--someone above me on the food chain had just left the publication, and his replacement was too new to know any better. I got the badge. I earned it, damn it. But it's not going to happen again any time soon.

This year, all's right with the world because I got back my pink badge with a yellow dot, the status I had been accorded for years--until last May, when I had just started at Variety. I was happy to be at Cannes, but suddenly I was demoted to a plain pink badge and no cassier, or press box. The Horror! Here's A.O. Scott's musings on Cannes badges. And The Circuit has rounded up a selection of stories on the subject.

The Hotel Carlton has more billboards crammed onto it than ever. Various studios are based there, including Paramount/DreamWorks, which is mounting several Kung Fu Panda events tomorrow--Jack Black and 40 Kung Fu Pandas will pose for photos on the Carlton Pier-- and then Paramount runs Indiana Jones over the weekend.

Sean Penn, this year's jury president, is staying at the Carlton, attended by two press agents, ID-PR's Kelly Bush and Mara Buxbaum, with whom he was hanging in the deserted Carlton lobby Tuesday night--I went over to say hello, not having talked to him since I visited the set of Oliver Stone's U-Turn for Premiere--and two burly security guards, with whom he had lunch today before assembling his first jury meeting. He's sporting an interesting pompadour, which I would show you except that I chickened out on trying to grab his picture. It's Sean Penn!

Penn is on a civic crusade. Not only did he persuade fest topper Thierry Fremaux to show the tsunami doc The Third Wave at Cannes, which is about ordinary citizens making a difference after a disaster, but he was inspired by the film to try and reach other young people who might want to volunteer to help others in need. (Cinetic Media's John Sloss is selling The Third Wave at Cannes.)

Invited to attend Coachella, Penn took the stage to ask for volunteers to ride three biodiesel buses with him on the Dirty Hands Caravan from the music fest over 1800 miles to New Orleans. The Monday after Coachella, 150 kids (all over 18) went on the tour with a tour manager and a cause wrangler making eclectic civic stops along the way. (Penn's agency CAA helped to make it all happen.) The kids talked to anti-Iraq War activist Cindy Sheehan, met a 12-year-old leukemia survivor, went on an AIDS walk in Tucson, and cleaned up parks in Texas. What warms the cockles of Penn's heart is that at the end, after they saw the devastation in the 9th ward of New Orleans, 12 kids elected to stay behind and help.

Here's his speech at Coachella:

Warners Is Clueless About Specialty FIlms

I agree with everything the LAT's Patrick Goldstein writes here. It's a shame that the corporate culture at Warners didn't understand that by giving someone like Mark Gill or Bob Berney true autonomy, they might succeed. They couldn't grasp that concept. And that's why they got out. I will be curious to see what ex-Picturehouse exec Bob Berney puts together.

[Bob Berney and Film Independent's Dawn Hudson at the Indie Spirit Awards]

Summit Negotiating Twilght Sequels

I told you Twilight was a vampire trilogy. Summit is still negotiating a deal to film the next two installments of the Twilight series, which may be filmed back to back, Pirates-style. That's cocky. The first one isn't out until December. But they have every reason to believe that they've lucked into an enormous franchise. They probably wish they'd nailed down all three books in the first place.

Cannes Watch: Waltz with Bashir

One sure sign of a movie that distribs are chasing after is when they tell you why they are not interested. The Israeli animated movie Waltz with Bashir is earning good advance buzz, and Cinemascopian has the first trailer. It's too much like Persepolis, it's an imitation of a hit, etc. is what some buyers are trying to tell me. Pish-posh. I'll check it out Wednesday night. Here's a bit on director Ari Folman.

Cannes Watch: Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Slashfilm has a first look at Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. UPDATE: Here's what the guys are really interested in: a lesbian sex scene between Scarlet Johannson and Penelope Cruz.

Fernandez Goes to THR

Hollywood Wiretap makes a fuss about LAT Scriptland columnist Jay Fernandez going to THR. They wooed him a year ago after an exodus of reporters--but weren't willing to give him enough money at the time. He wasn't on staff at the LAT though, and eventually, it helps to have a paying gig and benefits.

Cannes Watch: Indiana Jones

I saw it coming. Ever since Paramount announced that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would not screen for anyone before its May 18 unveiling at Cannes (in advance of its worldwide launch May 22), I felt that Spielberg and Co. might be setting themselves up. The anticipation of this film is too great, the pressure for information is wrecking havoc on the internet. As the NYT reports, several exhibitor screenings have added to the din surrounding this film. So far the PR strategy has been to dole out interviews to press who have not yet seen it; Vanity Fair, EW, the LAT and others have played ball.

And at Cannes, select press are being invited to do interviews before the official press screening at 1 PM on May 18. This will add more pressure to the press conference that day. UPDATE: Paramount is also not throwing a party, instead sticking to a small exclusive film dinner. That's not winning them any popularity contests.

Sony learned the hard way the power of a roomful of 4000 critics waiting to find a movie wanting at Cannes with the Da Vinci Code. Moviegoers ignored their complaints and made the film a worldwide blockbuster. But the filmmakers had hoped to score a prestige win at Cannes. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer left Cannes with their egos badly bruised.

Spielberg, who is staying in one of the big yachts in the harbor, may be hoping to return to the site of his early career triumphs with Sugarland Express and E.T., which was such a huge smash at Cannes that it burnished Spielberg's profile as a star director with a special place in filmgoers' hearts. Indiana Jones is a favorite franchise returning after 18 years. It may fulfill all that is hoped for; it will certainly score a huge global opening. That's not the issue. It will be fascinating to see if Cannes gives back to Spielberg what he may be hoping to get from it.

If the audience skews older, as I suspect it will, I wonder if Paramount might not have lured more of the key younger demo by waiting to open the film after they get out of school. It's early summer days yet.

Cannes Watch: Blindness, Synecdoche, New York, Che, Two Lovers

Four much-anticipated Cannes pics are opener Blindness, an indie Fernando Meirelles drama acquired by Miramax, and three pics which distribs are hovering over: Steven Soderbergh's epic Che double feature, Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, and James Gray's Two Lovers. Rope of Silicon has early Cannes stills.

UK newspaper The Independent deplores the decline of the world's leading film fest. And The Guardian lays out the directors in the race for the Palme d'Or.

Cannes Watch: Donnie Darko Sequel in Works

[Posted by Jeff Sneider]
UK-based sales company Velvet Octopus will be selling a sequel to Richard Kelly's 2001 cult hit Donnie Darko at next week's Cannes Film Festival.

Titled S. Darko, pic is set seven years after the original Jake Gyllenhaal-starrer and will follow Donnie's sister Samantha (Daveigh Chase) as she is plagued by bizarre visions while on a roadtrip to L.A. with her best friend Corey (Briana Evigan, star of Step Up 2: The Streets). Other cast members include Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick and War of the Worlds' Justin Chatwin. Although neither Jake nor sister Maggie Gyllenhaal will return, there is no word yet on Frank the Bunny.

Chris Fisher will direct the $10 million film, with which Kelly is not officially involved.

Fox has already snapped up North American rights to the sequel, which starts shooting May 18.

Weekend Boxoffice: Iron Man vs. Speed Racer

Iron Man and Speed Racer will duke it out for the top spot this weekend as advance ticket sales for Indiana Jones 4, Narnia 2 and Sex and the City heat up. (Sex and the City's tracking is fascinating; its awareness and want-to-see are strong with women and off the charts terrible for men, especially those under 25: 3 % definite interest! Which makes this a two and a half quadrant movie targeted at women and gay men. Here's Peter Bart on the subject of chick flicks.)

The LAT analyzes Speed Racer's presumed boxoffice weakness: why does this movie have to be number one and be a blockbuster? Why can't it just open? Family movies tend to last longer in the marketplace. Just asking. It didn't land good reviews: 36% on the Tomatometer (Rotten). It looks like I like Speed Racer better than most, along with Richard Corliss, who says it's the future of movies. UPDATE: Some critics just didn't get the movie at all. It's for kids! Salon's Stephanie Zacharek writes:

"Andy and Larry Wachowski's "Speed Racer" is so bereft of intelligence, style and excitement that I can't figure out who in the world it's supposed to appeal to: baby boomers nostalgic for the old Japanamation cartoon on which it's based? Parents who want to cultivate ADD in their kids?"

Fantasy Moguls has its own take on on why Speed Racer may struggle this weekend. Steve Mason calls it the "death slot." The second weekend of the summer is where you don't want to be.

In 8 of the past 10 years, the movie that signaled the start of Hollywood’s most lucrative season went on to win the next weekend. This weekend on the release schedule has included full-on disasters, like 2006’s Poseidon, medieval action film A Knight’s Tale in 2001and 2000’s horrific laugher Battlefield Earth.

Speed Racer will not be a disaster. This may be remembered as a disappointment domestically, but, especially with the presence of Asian music superstar Rain, the film will perform well overseas, particularly in Japan, South Korea and China where he has a huge following.

Fandango Five – Ticket Sales (as of 5/9/08 10:00 a.m. PT)

Movie Fandango User Rating % Fandango Sales

Iron Man “Must Go” 33%

Speed Racer “Go” 32%

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull “Must Go” 11%

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian “Go” 7%

Sex and the City “Go” 6%

Fandango Weekly Poll (as of 5/9/08 10:00 a.m. PT)

Iron Man's now playing everywhere. Among previous comic book/graphic novel movies listed below, which one is your favorite?

Batman Begins 29%

Spider-Man 22%

X-Men 18%

300 17%

Superman Returns 8%

Sin City 6%

Segal Takes Over New Muppet Movie

One of my USC students tipped me to something I didn't register on: because of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, actor/writer Jason Segel is now writing a Muppet movie. Segal worked with Henson's Creature Shop on Sarah Marshall's Dracula puppet rock opera. Segel pitched the Hensons his Muppet movie idea, and he's now writing a script.

Cannes Watch: Projection Sked Posted

Here's the Cannes official screening schedule. Here's my column on one of the most anticipated films, Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York. UPDATE: Here's Variety's Fest Central Cannes page, which features all breaking news, reviews and Mike Jones' fest blog The Circuit.

I won't be posting as I travel to France over the weekend. I'll arrive at my rooms behind the Carlton Hotel Sunday night, ready to bank some early stories for Wednesday's first of ten Variety show dailies. Once in Cannes I will blog like mad, tracking the buzz on the North American acquisitions, and trying to see as many movies as possible. Which won't be as many as I'd like. It gets crazed. Adrenaline kicks in and you go from dawn til the wee hours. It's supposed to be rainy next week. I will pack my umbrella.

Miller Blogs Spirit

Frank Miller of Dark Knight, Sin City and 300 fame is blogging about his directorial debut The Spirit. And there's a possibility he will direct a Buck Rogers movie, reports IGN.

Twilight MySpace Teaser Trailer Clicks Over 2 Million Views

Summit Entertainment is doing cartwheels. That's because they're already in production on a movie, Twilight, based on the first book in a trilogy vampire saga by book phenom Stephenie Meyer.

The 34-year-old Mormon author just landed a takeout in Time Magazine calling her the new queen of fantasy with the head: The Next J.K. Rowling? The article praises Meyer's books for being about the "erotics of abstinence." She "rewrites stock horror plots as love stories."

She's basically the young adult Anne Rice, because Twilight is a romantic 17-year-old Romeo and Juliet with vampires and humans. Rising star Kristen Stewart (discovered by Jon Favreau in Zathura, Panic Room) plays a girl who falls for a handsome guy (Robert Pattinson, of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) who turns out to be a vampire. But he's a good vampire who has renounced sucking human blood. He and his mother coven feed on animals. His virtue--his psychological struggle against his lust for blood--makes him interesting. The movie, directed by thirteen's Catherine Hardwicke, is due December 12.

Vampires have fed Hollywood since its infancy, from Bram Stoker's Dracula and Nosferatu to Rice's Interview with a Vampire, Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Underworld series. But this series has femme appeal.

When Summit slapped a teaser trailer up on MySpace on Monday at 11 AM, it pulled 1 million views in 36 hours and has now passed 2 million. The teaser will premiere on E.T. Friday, and will run in front of family-friendly Speed Racer (maybe that will boost its ticket sales). "I would have been happy with 500,000," says Summit chief Rob Friedman, who scooped up the rights to Twilight when it had sold 10,000 copies just after he started Summit's new production/distrib arm. Paramount had the option and let it go. Since then the first three Twilight books have sold over 6 million copies in the U.S. "I knew the book had a fan base but it's always good to see it's bigger than you think," says Friedman, who has a potential franchise on his hands. This is what any new company lusts after.

UPDATE: Wired is also tracking this. The trailer could break the current record of 4.1 million views in one week set in March by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The internet fan buzz on this is so intense that Summit marketing may want to consider pulling back a tad.

Here's the HD teaser trailer:

Twilight in HD

[Illustration for Time by Anita Kunz]