03/03/2014
Veteran film reporter Thompson provides insight into the movie industry through the prism of one year, by chronicling the Hollywood successes and failures as they occur in the year 2012. She chats with director Benh Zeitlin on the collaborative nature the Sundance favorite Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Bradley Cooper on working with the "demanding" director David O. Russell on Silver Linings Playbook. At Cannes, Thompson speaks to Wes Anderson about Moonrise Kingdom and Michael Haneke on casting Amour. Thompson notes Hollywood's extreme risk aversion that results in a clinging to tent-poles and franchises while comparing the Disney marketing disaster John Carter to Lionsgate's wildly successful Hunger Games. Other subjects include the arduous production process of Life of Pi, Tony Kushner's struggles with the Lincoln screenplay, and Quentin Tarantino's inspiration for Django Unchained. Thompson also explains the newest models of acquisition and distribution including video-on-demand, independent self-releasing and technological switches to digital and 3-D. Finally, she takes readers to the Oscars and reviews the night's winners and losers. Thompson's insider perspective makes this a shrewd study of Hollywood's mechanics and challenges, as well as a nice celebration of the industry's best. (Mar.)
Nobody reports on the movie business with greater savvy or a sharper eye than Anne Thompson. In this valuable book she explores an entire year’s worth of events, clarifying the Big Picture while revealing insider details along the way. What a juicy read! — Leonard Maltin, author of Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen
The $11 Billion Year combines insight, intelligence, and irony. Whether Anne Thompson explains the growing importance of film festivals like Telluride, or dissects how a marketing strategy worked, she gives us ‘2012: A Movie Odyssey.’ — Annette Insdorf, Director of Undergraduate Film Studies, Columbia University
I loved it! The $11 Billion Year is both a wonderful read and an informative one. Not always the same. Anyone who is interested in movies, business, or American culture should read this book. You could make a movie about this book about making (and marketing) movies! — David Black, award-winning film & TV screenwriter and author of An Invisible Life and Like Father
The $11 Billion Year makes you feel like a Hollywood insider. No matter how much you think you know about the movie industry, you’ll learn more from Anne Thompson. She lives and breathes the business. — Nora Rawlinson, co-founder and editor Early World, former editor of Library Journal and editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly
Ace Hollywood analyst Anne Thompson not only knows where the bodies are buried—she digs them up for you! — Peter Rainer, author, Rainer on Film: Thirty Years of Film Writing in a Turbulent and Transformative Era
Anne Thompson (her name is spelled correctly, and she has never suggested we are related) has for several years run one of the liveliest movie websites done with characteristic flair and aplomb. I am amazed by her cheerfulness, but I love hearing her give voice to it. — David Thomson, author of The Biographical Dictionary of Film and Moments that Made the Movies
Mixing behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the most notable films of 2012 with keen observations about the changing nature of the business, Thompson has crafted a page-turning look at the moviemaking industry that is bound to appeal to film buffs. — Booklist
An in-depth analysis of the changing business of filmmaking . . . Thompson also provides personally gleaned insights from the directors and stars of the major 2012 vehicles. Why didn’t the prestigious “Lincoln” win Best Picture? Read and learn. — New York Daily News
Mixing behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the most notable films of 2012 with keen observations about the changing nature of the business, Thompson has crafted a page-turning look at the moviemaking industry that is bound to appeal to film buffs.
An in-depth analysis of the changing business of filmmaking . . . Thompson also provides personally gleaned insights from the directors and stars of the major 2012 vehicles. Why didn’t the prestigious “Lincoln” win Best Picture? Read and learn.
Ace Hollywood analyst Anne Thompson not only knows where the bodies are buried—she digs them up for you!
The $11 Billion Year combines insight, intelligence, and irony. Whether Anne Thompson explains the growing importance of film festivals like Telluride, or dissects how a marketing strategy worked, she gives us ‘2012: A Movie Odyssey.’
Anne Thompson (her name is spelled correctly, and she has never suggested we are related) has for several years run one of the liveliest movie websites done with characteristic flair and aplomb. I am amazed by her cheerfulness, but I love hearing her give voice to it.
Nobody reports on the movie business with greater savvy or a sharper eye than Anne Thompson. In this valuable book she explores an entire year’s worth of events, clarifying the Big Picture while revealing insider details along the way. What a juicy read!
The $11 Billion Year makes you feel like a Hollywood insider. No matter how much you think you know about the movie industry, you’ll learn more from Anne Thompson. She lives and breathes the business.
I loved it! The $11 Billion Year is both a wonderful read and an informative one. Not always the same. Anyone who is interested in movies, business, or American culture should read this book. You could make a movie about this book about making (and marketing) movies!
Mixing behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the most notable films of 2012 with keen observations about the changing nature of the business, Thompson has crafted a page-turning look at the moviemaking industry that is bound to appeal to film buffs.
An in-depth analysis of the changing business of filmmaking . . . Thompson also provides personally gleaned insights from the directors and stars of the major 2012 vehicles. Why didn’t the prestigious “Lincoln” win Best Picture? Read and learn.
2014-02-16
A yearlong chronicle of 2012's major films—from Sundance to Oscar night—highlighting the many challenges currently dogging the industry. It might be self-evident to point out that the film industry has not remained immune to the stark changes presented by digital technology. In Thompson's (Film Criticism/Univ. of Southern California) dissection of the film year, she provides an interesting case study for the future of the industry. After all, 2012 was a banner year for Hollywood, as her title suggests. However, the old model is being challenged by digital encroachment in a variety of ways. Therein lies the paradox of the new paradigm: Digitization is at once propelling the industry to untold revenues, while at the same time making it more difficult for the industry to stake out easy gains in a rapidly shifting and unpredictable landscape. More than ever, consumers have nearly limitless choices, further pressuring Hollywood to produce safe bets like gigantic, CGI-filled action flicks to pad out the bottom line. This type of stratification is not exclusive to Hollywood either, and a case could be made that Hollywood's problem is really a symptom of the larger, systemic problems with our technology-crazed economy. In her examination, Thompson tracks films, from fledgling indies, like Beasts of the Southern Wild, vying for distribution contracts on the festival circuit to major "tent-pole" summer blockbusters—both the successes, like Marvel's franchise juggernaut The Avengers, and flops, like Disney's disastrous John Carter. While the author undoubtedly understands the prevailing industry trends and how they are changing, she remains a reporter at heart. Rich with anecdotes and gossip, Thompson presents Hollywood as a living, breathing community. From executive firings and hirings to the stories behind films that almost never made it to the screen, Thompson's journalistic flair makes her analysis of the film industry a compelling and page-turning read. An insider investigation into the ways in which Hollywood is changing that will certainly prove invaluable in the coming years.