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Cannes: Roman Polanski’s ‘Weekend Of A Champion’ – Poster
3 hours ago
Roman Polanski‘s 1971 feature documentary Weekend Of A Champion is being sold at Cannes this week after Brett Ratner’s Rat Documentary Films acquired the docu in February as part of a 12-picture deal with Netflix to produce and acquire feature-length documentaries. Never shown in the U.S., Weekend offered up a portrait of legendary Formula 1 champ Jackie Stewart during his victory at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix — it also shows a pair of icons (Polanski and Stewart) at the height of their powers. Pathe is handling international and Submarine is handling all other U.S. rights beside Netflx. Polanski, meanwhile, has just completed filming Venus In Fur, which is here in competition. Here’s the exclusive first look at the poster: »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Update: Toronto Lands World Premiere Of Godfrey Reggio’s ‘Visitors’, With Cinedigm Aboard As Distributor
5 hours ago
Update, 10:55 Am: Cinedigm has just acquired all North American distribution rights to Visitors, with a fall 2013 4K release planned after the Toronto bow. Previous Exclusive, 12:01 Am: : The Toronto Film Festival has set the Godfrey Reggio-directed Visitors to have its world premiere at the festival September 8, in a most splashy manner. The film has an original score by Philip Glass and it is being presented by Steven Soderbergh. While that filmmaker is stepping away from directing features, he’s not done backing them and has been a big supporter of Reggio’s work since Koyaanisqatsi 30 years ago. The Toronto premiere will be presented in 4K digital projection and live accompaniment by members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Michael Riesman. The premiere will be held that Sunday at 6 Pm at the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin Theatre. Said Tiff Director and CEO Piers Handling »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Cannes: Radius-TWC Buys Keanu Reeves’ Helming Debut ‘Man of Tai Chi’
16 hours ago
Exclusive: In its second significant deal at Cannes, Radius-TWC acquired North American rights to Keanu Reeves’ directorial debut Man Of Tai Chi in a low seven-figure minimum guarantee. The film is set in modern Beijing and follows the spiritual journey of a young martial artist (Tiger Hu Chen) whose unparalleled Tai Chi skills land him in a highly lucrative underworld fight club. As the fights grow tougher, he must compromise his own beliefs in order to survive. This is the second deal for Radius, which on Saturday acquired the Directors Fornight film Blue Ruin. TWC-Radius also has the Nicolas Winding Refn-directed Only God Forgives playing here at Cannes, with Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas starring. Reeves, who also stars in the film, met Chen during The Matrix, where Chen was a stuntman and a trainer for Reeves. It’s Chen’s first lead role, and the film also »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Cannes: Fleming Reflects And Finds Talented Trio A Breath Of Fresh Air
16 hours ago
The Cannes Film Festival is over for me, and when I come to a place like this, I find myself asking, where are the next stars coming from? Between Fruitvale Station’s Michael B. Jordan and writer-director Ryan Coogler, and Inside Llewyn Davis’ Oscar Isaac, I feel like I got three answers to that question over the course of a weekend. I come to Cannes primarily to chase deal stories, as I do in Toronto and Sundance. At those other two, the threat of transactions leaves me confined to a hotel room waiting for action. The sporadic action here allowed me see movies and stroll down a rain-soaked Croisette. The drivers here are entirely dangerous in their tiny cars; one driver trying to turn came so close to plowing into my leg that I had to pound his hood with my fist (luckily I didn’t damage my typing finger, »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots Projects With Billy Crystal, Richard Gere
21 May 2013 2:25 PM, PDT
Exclusive: Mike Lobell, the veteran producer whose 14-years of persistence helped make the remake Gambit happen, is getting close on three other projects with strong elements. He has re-teamed with former partner, writer-director Andrew Bergman, on A Film By Alan Stuart Eisner, an ensemble comedy which so far has Project X‘s Oliver Cooper, Shirley MacLaine and Robin Williams attached, with Rob Reiner making a cameo. Lobell reports that the film has added Sienna Miller, Isla Fisher and Audra MacDonald. Eisner is a comedy dealing with a young man making a documentary to learn what happened to his family during WWII. He is out looking for financing. Gambit, by the way, ended up with Michael Hoffman directing a script by Joel and Ethan Coen. Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz and Alan Rickman star and CBS Films is releasing. At the same time, Lobell is getting traction on This Man This Woman, »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
CAA Signs ‘Robocop’ Joel Kinnaman
21 May 2013 10:52 AM, PDT
Exclusive: CAA has signed Joel Kinnaman, the Swedish actor who plays the title role in the Jose Padilha-directed Robocop for MGM. Kinnaman had been repped by UTA. He’s a rising star whose breakout came in the Daniel Espinosa-directed Snabba Cash, and the AMC series The Killing. Kinnaman is in production on Child 44, which Espinosa is directing with Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace for Summit Entertainment, with Scott Free producing. Once he wraps that, he stars with Liam Neeson in Run All Night, the Jaume Collet-Serra-directed thriller for Warner Bros. The Killing returns for Season 3 on June 2. Kinnaman continues to be managed by Shelley Browning of Magnolia Entertainment. Related: Magnolia Manager Vs UTA, Round Two »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Cannes: Fleming Q&A With Steven Soderbergh: Retirement, Liberace, Legacy
21 May 2013 10:46 AM, PDT
Steven Soderbergh tonight unveils what he says is his final feature film Behind The Candelabra. The film explores the secret father/son/lover relationship between Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his valet Scott Thorson. It’s playing in competition here at Cannes, even though HBO will premiere it in the U.S. on Sunday before it gets a traditional overseas theatrical release. If that seems complex, it fits Soderbergh, a true maverick who has always been up for putting himself on the line for disruptive, groundbreaking fare. That began with sex, lies, and videotape. The movie won the Audience Award at Sundance and the Palme d’Or at Cannes before grossing nearly $25 million in 1989 and earning him an original screenplay Oscar nom. It is viewed as the picture that turned indie film into a viable business. “He is the father of this movement,” said Harvey Weinstein, who distributed the film. “Before him, »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic ‘Passengers’ In Splashy Deal
21 May 2013 9:23 AM, PDT
Exclusive: The Weinstein Company has won the bidding for the Keanu Reeves-Reese Witherspoon sci-fi romance movie Passengers. I’m hearing the distributor has committed to a multi-million dollar minimum guarantee and a P&A commitment in the $25 million range for a wide release in 2014. I understand FilmDistrict and Open Road were in the mix here in Cannes for the project, which was written by Prometheus scribe Jon Spaihts and will be directed by Game Of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire helmer Brian Kirk in his major feature film debut. Wayfare Entertainment is financing and producing the pic. The plot: A spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant colony planet has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, a single passenger (Reeves) is awakened 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he eventually decides to wake up a »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
DreamWorks Eyes January For ‘Glimmer’ And Dylan O’Brien For Lead
20 May 2013 3:40 PM, PDT
Exclusive: DreamWorks is firming up a January production start for Glimmer, and a big reason for that is so that it will allow some scheduling room for Dylan O’Brien to play the lead. O’Brien is busy starring in Maze Runner for Fox, but he’s in talks for the lead, I hear. He’s repped by Wme. He’s also in the TV series Teen Wolf, and the schedule was moved so he could complete the season of that show before going off to do feature work. Ringan Ledwidge directs the sci-fi thriller about a group of teenagers who discover a portal to the past. When one of them changes history, the effects start to snowball with tragic consequences. Josh Schwartz and Carter Blanchard wrote the script. Madhouse’s Adam Kolbrenner and Ryan Cunningham produce with Mark Sourian. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Cannes: Relativity Sets ‘Hunger Games’ Liam Hemsworth For ‘Aurora Rising’
20 May 2013 10:59 AM, PDT
Exclusive: Relativity Media has set The Hunger Games‘ Liam Hemsworth to star in Aurora Rising. Scripted by A Man Apart‘s Christian Gudegast, the film is produced by Emjag Productions’ Alexandra Milchan and Film 360’s Scott Lambert and Guymon Casady along with Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh. Antonio Moura Santos Jr. will executive produce. Hemsworth will play a Southern California surfer turned military fighter pilot who, after acing a complicated and messy first combat mission, gets recruited to be part of an elite team to test the next generation of aircraft. This happens just as an international conflict begins to escalate. Roar, Wme and Morris And Yorn rep Hemsworth. Gudegast is repped by Wme and Management 360. This is his second project with Relativity where he will also script and direct the bank heist drama Den Of Thieves. Relativity’s Jason Barhydt will oversee the project for the studio. On »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Cannes: Park Chan-wook’s ‘Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance’ Getting Remake
20 May 2013 9:07 AM, PDT
Exclusive: Silver Reel and Lotus Entertainment have partnered with di Bonaventura Pictures and Cj Entertainment for an English-language remake of Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance. The script is written by Broken City scribe Brian Tucker, based on the first film in Park Chan-wook‘s Vengeance Trilogy. The film centers on two men who are bound by their common sense of loss and headed on a collision course of revenge. The other installments in that trilogy are Oldboy and Lady Vengeance. A remake of Oldboy will be released in October by FilmDistrict, directed by Spike Lee and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Brolin and Sharlto Copley. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian are producing and Claudia Bluemhuber, Bill Johnson, Jim Seibel, Jacob Pechenik and Gero Bauknecht are executive producers. D.J. Gugenheim is co-producer and will oversee for the financiers while Ed Fee does the same for di Bonaventura Pictures. Cj’s Miky Lee »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves Full’
20 May 2013 8:49 AM, PDT
Exclusive: Wall Street and W scribe Stanley Weiser has optioned the Jamie Mason novel Three Graves Full, and he plans to write the script himself. The book, published by Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books, follows a mild-mannered guy who happens to kill somebody he wishes he’d never met, and buries the body in his backyard. Just as he’s learning to live with the undeniable reality of what he’s done, police unearth two bodies on his property – neither of which the hapless killer buried. His sanity threatens to unravel, snagged on the agendas of a colorful cast of characters. Weiser, represented by Dan Halsted at Manage-ment, optioned the book through Mason’s reps Amb Literary Management’s Amy Moore-Benson and Liza Wachter at Rwsg. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
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