Keanu Reeves, Reese Witherspoon Sci-Fi Romance 'Passengers' Acquired by the Weinstein Co.
May, 21, 2013 11:33 am | Comments On #MoviesThe Weinstein Co. has acquired the rights to “Passengers,” an upcoming sci-fi film starring Keanu Reeves and Reese Witherspoon, according to multiple individuals with knowledge of the deal. The movie won't begin filming for at least a few months, and TWC plans to release it next year.
Reeves will star as a passenger on a spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant planet. Due to a malfunction in a sleep chamber, he awakens years before anyone else. All alone on the vessel, he decides to wake up another passenger (Witherspoon).
The concept and script have been popular for a few...
Read More'Behind the Candelabra' Review: Sex, Lies & the Closet at Cannes
May, 21, 2013 9:03 am | Comments On #Behind the Candelabra, Cannes, cannes film festival, film festivals, HBO, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Movies, Steven SoderberghMichael Douglas hits a career high with Steven Soderbergh’s masterful “Behind the Candelabra,” the love story about Liberace and Scott Thorson slated for an HBO debut on Sunday.
One of the best films to play in Cannes so far, it's really about the lengths gay men had to go in decades past to have a relationship that equaled marriage and the difficulty for an icon like Liberace to even admit he was gay at all..
Soderbergh has made his best film in years, an honest rendering of a passionate, sometimes silly love affair between Liberace and the much younger Scott Thorson.
Plucked from obscurity when he was just 18, Thorson was...
Read MoreGood Morning, Cannes: The Festival Has Female Troubles, Again
May, 21, 2013 6:10 am | Comments On #A Castle in Italy, as I lay dying, Cannes, cannes film festival, film festivals, James Franco, Movies, Shield of Straw, Takashi Miike, Valeria Bruni TedeschiIt wouldn’t seem like a real Cannes Film Festival without the question coming up: Where are all the women directors?
One film directed by a woman, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s “A Castle in Italy” (“Un Chateau en Italie”), is screening in the main competition. That’s one more than was chosen in 2010 or in 2012.
Only once in the last four years did the Cannes competition have a significant female presence; that happened in 2011, when Naomi Kawase’s “Hanezu,” Julia Leigh’s “Sleeping Beauty,” Maiwenn’s “Polisse” and Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” were chosen.
In 2010, the complete absence of women directors prompted a petition that gathered more than 1,000 signatures. Last year, the same lack of representation led to an open letter that stated...
Read MoreCannes Review: Without the Blood Lust, Takashi Miike’s 'Shield of Straw' Draws Boos
May, 20, 2013 12:30 pm | Comments On #Cannes, cannes film festival, film festivals, Movies, Shield of Straw, Takashi MiikeDevotees of Japanese director Takashi Miike’s violent, cult-horror style will go to “Shield of Straw” hoping for something other than what Miike has in mind. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The worst thing a filmmaker can do is stagnate, relying on the same formula. There is no danger of that happening with Miike, who has often dipped into different styles throughout his prolific career. His latest, in competition at Cannes, is another step in a new direction. It could leave viewers less than satisfied as it adheres to its objective, refusing to give his audience the blood lust it seeks.
“Shield of Straw” is about a police security team hired to protect a loathsome criminal who is in custody for brutally raping and killing a seven-year-old girl. Disgusted, the girl’s grandfather offers a bounty to anyone who...
Read MoreGood Morning, Cannes: The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow
May, 20, 2013 6:39 am | Comments On #MoviesThe first five days of Cannes have ended, with the rain and the Coen brothers dominating the conversation. But the six days of competition screenings that remain promise to bring a full slate of interesting movies – and, with a little luck, a few more films to give the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” and Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past” some competition for the Palme d’Or.
And maybe the weather will even cooperate and make getting to see the movies less of a mess.
Also read: Cannes Diary: In the Downpour, the Coens Connect but Market Can’t Get Traction
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Read MoreCannes Diary: In the Downpour, the Coens Connect but Market Can't Get Traction
May, 19, 2013 7:10 pm | Comments On #MoviesCan someone please stop the rain? After two days of constant moisture, the misery quotient at the world’s leading international film festival in Cannes – waterlogged feet, trampled gowns, canceled screenings, interrupted parties, fickle umbrellas and overcrowded lobbies – has hit a peak.
“I hope this isn’t the new normal,” commiserated one film executive, picking her way through the puddles on the rue d’Antibes after noting that this is the second year in a row of constant downpours.
The sun finally broke through on Sunday, leaving grumpy paparazzi and pushy police in its wake, part of the ritual Cannes experience. Still, when people travel this far to stay in $500/night hotel rooms for weather this bad, the movies had better be worth it.
Thus far? A mixed bag.
See Photos:...
Read MoreCannes Deals: Sundance Selects Buys Dardenne Brothers’ ‘Two Days, One Night’ Starring Marion Cotillard
May, 19, 2013 12:56 pm | Comments On #Cannes, cannes film festival, MoviesSundance Selects has acquired domestic distribution rights to “Two Days, One Night,” Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s upcoming film starring Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard.
The Dardennes, Belgian brothers who have won two Palme d’Ors at the Cannes Film Festival, will write and direct the film, which is in pre-production.
Cotillard will star as a woman who spends two days and a night hunting for colleagues who will sacrifice bonuses so she can keep her job.
"After a terrific experience working with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne on their last film, ‘The Kid with a Bike,...
Read MoreAsghar Farhadi's Cannes Drama 'The Past' Has a Future at Sony Classics
May, 19, 2013 12:42 pm | Comments On #Cannes, cannes film festival, MoviesSony Pictures Classics has acquired U.S. rights to Asghar Farhadi's family drama "The Past," which stars Berenice Beho ("The Artist") and Tahar Rahim ("A Prophet").
Sony Classics has a strong relationship with Iranian filmmaker Farhadi, having released his earlier film "A Separation," which went on to win the foreign-language Oscar in 2012.
"The Past" premiered in competition on Friday night, drawing strong reviews. Sony Classics chiefs Michael Barker and Tom Bernard plan to release the film before the end of the year to position it as an awards contender.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of the purchase.
Read MoreCannes Review: 'Borgman' Makes No Sense - in a Good Way
May, 19, 2013 12:23 pm | Comments On #Alex van Warmerdam, Borgman, Cannes, cannes film festival, film festivals, MoviesYou have to appreciate a film festival that would put a movie as strange as Alex van Warmerdam’s “Borgman” in main competition. Though it often feels as if the cast and director are making it up as they go along, it does have some memorable moments that are ultimately hard to shake.
“Borgman” aims to position itself as a kind of Occupy-ish revenge fantasy on the upper class. We first meet the title character (Jan Bijvoet) at his starting point, which is literally a hole he’s dug in the ground. But if you think that somehow is the key to everything, it isn’t. Perceptions are quickly formed and just as quickly dispelled about who Borgman and his wrecking crew really are.
They might even be dogs for all we know. Yes, dogs. (Coincidentally or not, the Dutch director also runs a theater group called the Mexican Hound.)
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Read MoreGood Morning, Cannes: The Coen Brothers Make People Forget About Their Wet Socks
May, 19, 2013 9:58 am | Comments On #Arnaud Desplechin, Benicio del Toro, Cannes, cannes film festival, Coen Brothers, Ethan Coen, film festivals, Inside Llewyn Davis, Jennifer Lawrence, Jimmy P., Joel Coen, MoviesJoel and Ethan Coen didn’t even have to show up at Cannes to make a big impression.
The Coen brothers’ new movie, “Inside Llewyn Davis,” was the talk of the Croisette on Saturday, even though it doesn’t have its public premiere until Sunday at the Grand Theatre Lumiere. On a day when Arnaud Desplechin’s “Jimmy P.” and Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s “Like Father, Like Son” debuted in competition, all eyes were on the press preview of the Coen’s film about the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s.
“The Coens have made what is likely to be one of the best films of the year, and certainly among their own...
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Description
All the latest doings from the South of France.
