• Jeffrey Wells calls “Love & Other Drugs” Edward Zwick’s best film yet. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• Peter Knegt assesses the Gotham Award nominations. [indieWIRE]
• Nathaniel Rogers hearts Sam Rockwell in “Conviction.” [Tribeca Film]
Tag: Tom Rothman
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OFF THE CARPET: All Globed out
As it turned out, the only celebration I made it to last night was Fox’s Globes after-party at Craft in Century City. Given that “Avatar” and “Crazy Heart” were two of three films to win more than one Globe (the other being Pixar’s “Up”), it kind of felt like the place to be.The early part of the evening was dominated by the “Crazy Heart” crew. I came in with Ryan Bingham and Scott Cooper, the latter dumbfounded at how certain celebs were getting his number to send well-wishes and praise for his little film. Bingham, meanwhile, told me he was at the bar when the Best Original Song category was announced, which explains why T Bone Burnett accepted solo. “Sorry for partyin’,” Bingham told me. “Story of my life.”
Burnett, it turns out, will be producing Bingham’s next album.
Meanwhile, you could follow the bursts of applause to locate Jeff Bridges, who took down the Best Actor in a Drama trophy when many thought George Clooney would register with the, shall we say, star-friendly HFPA. Then again, whoever said Bridges wasn’t a star? And judging by the standing ovation, his second of the weekend (everyone was on their feet Friday, too), you can expect his steamroll through the season to continue next weekend at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and then, ultimately: the Oscar. Interesting to note his lawyer advised him not to take the part, I assume thinking it wasn’t high enough on a scale of exposure.
And yet here we are.
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Fox tries to explain the ‘Wolverine’ fib
Okay, so last week when junketeers got their first look at “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” many (especially the AICN crowd) were quick to dog-pile the studio for having the gall to “lie” when the film leaked earlier this month. Fox honcho Tom Rothman, at the time, said the completed version of the film contained 10 minutes of footage not seen in the leaked workprint.As it turns out, this was reported as false (albeit through the heavy glaze of snark). But that didn’t stop the studio from going on the record with Patrick Goldstein today to clarify:
Fox’s senior vice president of corporate communications, Chris Petrikin…explains that he was probably the person who told Rothman that 10 minutes were missing from the pirated version of the film. He stressed that the studio was under enormous pressure after the piracy as it attempted to sift through a host of often wildly speculative Internet reports about the theft.
“There was no ‘fibbing’ involved — that would imply that we were so on top of things that we anticipated having one of our biggest films of the year stolen and had time to concoct a plan to purposefully ‘spin’ wrong information,” Petrikin told me. “Remember, Tom gave this [Entertainment Weekly] interview a day after we learned of the theft. A lot of information and misinformation was flying back and forth then, and there was no way to sort it out quickly or definitively. In fact, I think I told Tom that there might be 10 minutes missing from the stolen version, based — obviously — on misinformation I was given or misinterpreted. The real issue is the scale of this crime and that the film was not finished when it was stolen.”
Eesh. I might have just embraced the old adage “Mum’s the word.” Pieces like this seem to be making more of a mess of things.
Anyway, I’ll get into why “Wolverine” doesn’t suck near as bad as I thought it would tomorrow.
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‘Watchmen’ talks show silver lining at the Globes
Michael Cieply, one of the best entertainment reporters in the business for my money, filed this one-off from last night’s Golden Globe festivities at The Carpetbagger:From where this reporter sat at the Golden Globes last night, that sure looked like Tom Rothman of Fox and Alan Horn of Warner Brothers down among the superstar seats, smiling and back-patting — each other, not the superstars — just before the show began. A public display of affection between studio chiefs, along with those pricey “Watchmen” ads on the National Football League playoff games this weekend, would add up to a message as big as the Hollywood sign: The talks between hitherto warring Fox and Warner over a settlement of Fox’s lawsuit over rights to “Watchmen” must be on track.
Fox, remember, had claimed rights to the film and was trying to block Warner’s release of it on March 6 — a breach of the usual etiquette in Hollywood, especially with a movie that costs $130 million. A hearing scheduled for 3:30 this afternoon with Judge Gary A. Feess of the federal court here should tell more.
Boy I hope this thing settles itself.