May 15, 2019 4:50PM PT Variety‘s Marc Malkin is on the scene at the Cannes Film Festival. Get the scoop on all the news, parties and more straight from the Croisette below. AmfAR’s upcoming Cannes gala is shaping up quite nicely. Sources tell Variety that the evening will feature performances by Dua Lipa and Tom Jones.
Movies
May 15, 2019 4:32PM PT A droll, entertaining, absurdist fable about spirituality and greed. Beautifully shot and ideally cast, debuting Moroccan writer-director Alaa Eddine Aliem’s “The Unknown Saint” is a droll, entertaining, absurdist fable about spirituality and greed that signals an important new talent. The events unfold near a derelict desert village, where, in a
For Angie Villafane, who grew up in San Jose, Calif., movies were a “weekend ritual with my parents.” For San Jose State library science student Villafane, the Academy Gold internship program was an entree point into the entertainment industry. In 2017, she was one of 69 interns in the diversity and inclusion initiative’s inaugural cohort.
A bloody Brazilian riff on “The Most Dangerous Game,” the sinews of which are girded with so many allusions to local culture and politics, “Bacarau” is that rare movie that probably would have been better if it had been dumber, or at least less ambitious. Set in the sertão — or inland outback that occupies
May 15, 2019 3:01PM PT Seoul-based sales firm Finecut has picked up international rights to the “The Battle of Jangsari,” a Korean-produced war action film starring Megan Fox and the K-pop star Choi Min-ho and star of Netflix film “Illang: The Wolf Brigade.” “Jangsari” is directed by renowned Korean filmmaker Kwak Kyung-taek (“Friend”) and Kim
Saudi Arabia once had grand ambitions to become the movie capital of the Middle East, but the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has cast a dark cloud over those dreams. Amid reports that appeared to implicate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the assassination, media companies that had rushed to embrace the Saudi leader as
Global Screen has sold rights for North America and China to animated movie “Tabaluga,” which previously was picked up by distributors in more than 50 territories. Sony Pictures released the film in Germany, where it grossed $3.82 million. Viva Pictures Distribution acquired all rights for the U.S. and Canada, and Yellow Mountain Studios secured all
May 15, 2019 1:35PM PT Le Pacte, the Paris-based company that has French rights to five movies competing at Cannes, has boarded Jean-Paul Salomé’s “La Daronne,” a crime comedy starring Isabelle Huppert as a French-Arabic translator working for the anti-drug squad in Paris. Based on Hannelore Cayre’s popular novel, “La Daronne” follows the story of
France’s Bac Films has boarded a pair of politically engaged Middle Eastern films from women directors: Sepideh Farsi’s animated feature “The Siren” and Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin.” “The Siren” is produced by Les Films d’Ici, the banner behind “Waltz With Bashir” and “Funan,” and co-produced by Luxembourg’s Bac Cinéma, Germany’s
May 15, 2019 1:33PM PT MK2 has unveiled the trailer for Mati Diop’s “Atlantiques” ahead of its world premiere in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Diop, a French-Senegalese filmmaker, is the first black woman to have a film in competition at Cannes. “Atlantiques” is based on her 2009 documentary short “Atlantique,” which screened
Paramount has high hopes for “Rocketman,” the Elton John biopic starring Taron Egerton as the legendary performer. Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, the film comes on the heels of Fox’s massively successful Freddie Mercury movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” and could capitalize on audiences’ newly discovered interest in rock star stories that transport
Verve Talent and Literary Agency is in preliminary talks with the Writers Guild of America to sign the guild’s code of conduct, sources tell Variety. The guild is believed to have made some modifications to its initial code to make it more palatable to agencies like Verve. If a deal is signed, it would mark
Donald Glover was blown away. “This is the coolest thing I have ever done,” he could be heard muttering into a hot mic after he had put the Millennium Falcon into hyperdrive for the first time on the set of “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” What impressed Glover so much was that the scene wasn’t
May 15, 2019 9:38AM PT Jemaine Clement is joining the cast of James Cameron’s “Avatar” sequels. He will play marine biologist Dr. Ian Garvin. “I’ve loved Jemaine’s work for years and I’m really pumped that he’s joining our cast as Ian Garvin, one of my favorite characters,” Cameron said in a statement. “Avatar 2,” the
May 15, 2019 9:35AM PT Chinese producer, Li Rui (“The Sword Identity”) says that good films need to explore the connections between religion, souls, and human nature. In his “Summer of Changsha,” when a detective and a surgeon get together on a murder case, crime solving is not the only thing on their minds. There
“C’est moi, le loi!” screams a bent cop midway through “Les Misérables.” If he’s trying to emulate the comic-book indomitability of Judge “I am the law” Dredd, his shrill, panicked delivery is a dead giveaway to the contrary. In both a practical and a moral sense, being the law counts for less and less as
Having inked a deal with Amazon for the release of the Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones film “The Aeronauts” in Imax theaters, Imax CEO Rich Gelfond said it is open to working more with the streamers – on condition that they respect the theatrical windows and deliver blockbuster content. Imax will release Tom Harper’s “The
In 2008, inspired by the son jarocho music from Veracruz, Mexico, Jorge Castillo, a retired librarian living in Chula Vista, Calif., organized a concert on the Mexico-American border between San Diego and Tijuana. This gathering of musicians, a cross-border jam session known as the Fandango Fronterizo Festival, has been going strong ever since. Taking place
May 15, 2019 8:58AM PT Marion Cotillard has joined Adam Driver In the cast of “Annette,” Leos Carax’s English-language romantic musical, which will start shooting this summer. Charles Gillibert’s CG Cinema, whose credits include Kristen Stewart-starrer “Personal Shopper,” is producing the film. Amazon will release it in the U.S. Cotillard and Driver will star as
May 15, 2019 8:47AM PT Epic Pictures has acquiring U.S. rights to Rob Grant’s horror comedy “Harpoon” for its distribution genre label Dread. The deal was announced at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The movie stars Munro Chambers, who also appeared in Epic Pictures’ “Turbo Kid” in 2015, along with Emily Tyra (“Code Black”), and
May 15, 2019 4:32AM PT Michael Caine is set to star in comedy “Best Sellers,” it was announced by Foresight Unlimited on Wednesday. Foresight is handling international sales on the Canada-U.K. co-production and will introduce the project to buyers at the Cannes Market. The double Oscar-winner will star as a cantankerous, sharp-witted, has-been author whose
Daniel Craig is expected to return to shooting the latest James Bond film “within the week” after suffering an injury during a stunt, it has been reported. According to British newspaper The Sun, which broke the story of Craig’s ankle injury suffered on set in Jamaica last week, which caused a temporary halt to production,
Annie Silverstein’s rough-edged debut, “Bull,” begins the same way her short film “Skunk” did, with an unruly dog chewing on the carcass of the creature it has caught. A teenage girl runs outside to deal with the situation — a half-wild child wrestling to control a rebellious animal — and in the hours and days
May 15, 2019 3:28AM PT New Zealand, which already has some of the most generous financial incentives for film, is to launch a fund to help develop feature international films and TV series. The International Co-Development Fund (ICF) expands the current Co-Production Development Fund for official feature film co-productions. It will include the development and/or
May 15, 2019 3:12AM PT Focus Features has taken international rights to Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse,” ahead of its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Universal Pictures International will distribute the film internationally. The film, which stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, will debut at the festival in Director’s Fortnight on May 19. Eggers
Selena Gomez took a moment at the Cannes Film Festival to lament a culture where everyone lives on their phones. “I think our world is going through a lot,” Gomez said. “I would say for my generation, specifically, social media has really been terrible. It does scare me when you see how exposed these young
Ira Sachs has chronicled the lives, loves, tragedies, and triumphs of New Yorkers in “Love is Strange” and “Little Men.” But in “Frankie,” his upcoming drama about three generations of a family, he leaves the Big Apple behind to shoot in the mountainside town of Sintra, Portugal. The film stars a truly global cast, including
Production company Image Nation Abu Dhabi, exhibitor Vox Cinemas and broadcaster MBC have entered a production partnership that “in essence creates a fully integrated studio” for Middle East film and TV projects, said MBC Studios managing director Peter Smith. The alliance between the trio of Middle East heavyweights, unveiled Wednesday in Cannes, is focused on
May 15, 2019 2:40AM PT Chinese entertainment group Fantawild is at Cannes this year shopping two films: its new animated feature “Realm of Terracotta,” set for its China debut this July, and “Boonie Bears: Blast from the Past,” which came out during the competitive lunar new year holiday period in February and grossed $104 million
May 15, 2019 2:34AM PT Eclipse Films is teaming with independent production company Gospel and specialist documentary distributor Dogwoof for a feature documentary about cricket legend Shane Warne. “Shane” will be produced by Eclipse, the feature arm of Eclipse Global Entertainment, and Gospel with Dogwoof handling worldwide theatrical sales. The three companies announced the project