Thompson on Hollywood

Cannes News: Music Box Snags Competition Mikkelsen Starrer 'Michael Kohlhaas'

News

Ahead of its first Cannes market screening, Chicago-based Music Box Films has picked up all US and Canadian rights to Arnaud des Pallières' competition title "Michael Kohlhaas," starring Mads Mikkelsen and adapted from the 1811 Heinrich von Kleist classic Romantic novel. Films du Losange is selling the film, which is Des Pallières' fourth feature, at Cannes.

By Anne Thompson
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May 17, 2013 2:24 PM
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Weekend Preview: 'Frances Ha' Delights, 'Star Trek' Relentlessly Entertains, 'Pieta' a Bloody Must-See

Reviews

Moviegoing prospects looks good this weekend, as J.J. Abrams' well-reviewed "Star Trek Into Darkness" continues its opening weekend after a Wednesday debut, and a slew of appealing limited release titles hit screens. One of these is Noah Baumbach's critical darling "Frances Ha," starring likable muse Greta Gerwig in a drifting, French New Wave Lite tale of twentysomething ennui and platonic breakups.

By Beth Hanna
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May 17, 2013 1:45 PM
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Drink Like Don Draper and Philip Marlowe (If You Dare) with the Cocktail Chart of Film and Literature

News

Popchart Labs is highlighting a ridiculously fun bit of wall decoration: The Cocktail Chart of Film and Literature. The crisp light blue poster features the signature drinks (and recipes!) of some of our favorite literary, film and television (anti-) heroes and heroines. A few highlights include Don Draper's Old Fashioned, Philip Marlowe's Gin Gimlet, Daisy Buchanan's Mint Julep and, er, Hannibal Lechter's Chianti.

By Beth Hanna
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May 17, 2013 1:41 PM
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WATCH: Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Renner in First Clip from James Gray's Cannes Competitor 'The Immigrant' (VIDEO)

Video

Check out this first brief clip from James Gray's Cannes competition title "The Immigrant," starring Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner, which centers on a woman's turbulent immigration from her native Poland to New York City. In the clip, Renner's character offers some advice to Cotillard's troubled Ewa, who is bedecked in a 1920s embellished headband and frock.

By Beth Hanna
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May 17, 2013 12:22 PM
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Casting Watch: Blunt Joins Depp, Streep, Pine and Gyllenhaal for Disney's Sondheim Musical 'Into the Woods' UPDATE

News

UPDATE: Emily Blunt has nabbed the lead female role of the Baker's Wife in Broadway musical choreographer-turned-director Rob Marshall's ("Chicago") screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece "Into the Woods." She joins a knockout cast of Meryl Streep, who will play the Witch, Johnny Depp as the Wolf, Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Pine as two princes and James Cordon ("One Man Two Guvnors") as the Baker.

By Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
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May 17, 2013 11:51 AM
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Trailers from Hell: Joe Dante on Peter Bogdanovich's Directorial Debut 'Targets'

Video

Bullets Don't Argue! week concludes at Trailers from Hell with director and TFH creator Joe Dante introducing Peter Bogdanovich's harrowing directorial debut, "Targets."

By Trailers From Hell
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May 17, 2013 11:29 AM
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Cannes Virgin Festival Diary 1: From 'Gatsby' to 'Heli' and Back

Festivals

The first indication that things at Cannes weren’t going to be quite as I imagined them to be – red carpet and champagne, rinse and repeat – was the crush trying to get on the express bus from the Nice airport. The bus was 20 minutes late in arriving from Cannes, and there was a lot of jockeying going on, which is a nice way of saying butting in line, except there were no real lines, not to mention not enough seats. As the harried driver pulled away a woman in the back began yelling for him to stop, exclaiming, “You didn’t take my husband or my bags. I need both.” The driver stopped and the woman exited to general laughter.

By Tom Christie
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May 16, 2013 8:56 PM
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Weinstein Co. Green Lights 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' Sequel with Michelle Yeoh

News

Without Ang Lee or Sony, the Weinstein Company is starting production on a sequel to the Oscar-winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which earned six Oscar nominations including best picture and grossed $213.5 million worldwide. Its $128 million stateside gross made it the highest grossing foreign-language film in American history. The Weinsteins have done well in the past with such Asian films as "Hero" and "Iron Monkey," which was directed by famed martial arts choreographer and director director Yuen Wo Ping, who will direct a returning Michelle Yeoh and star Donnie Yen (Silent Wolf) in the "Crouching Tiger" sequel.

By Anne Thompson
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May 16, 2013 4:56 PM
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Cannes Exclusive! Jim Mickle Talks Smart Horror Remake 'We Are What We Are'

Interviews

Just three years after Jorge Michel Grau's 2010 Mexican film "We Are What We Are" played at the Cannes Festival market (see trailer below), Jim Mickle's American remake, which debuted well at Sundance, is playing in the festival proper, in the Director's Fortnight, which sometimes welcomes smart well-made horror films such as this one. EOne will open the elegantly shot, well-acted film--which deals with a small town religious family maintaining their long tradition of ritual cannibalism-- this September.

By Anne Thompson
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May 16, 2013 4:29 PM
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WATCH: New 'Pacific Rim' Trailer Gives Us More Kaiju Monsters vs. Robots

Video

A new trailer for Guillermo del Toro's "Pacific Rim" has arrived, with Charlie Hunnam grimly narrating the epic fight between the sea-emerging Kaiju monsters and the human-created Jaeger robots. "In order to fight monsters, we created monsters of our own," he says. Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Ron Pearlman also star in the Warner Bros. tentpole, due in theaters July 12. Watch below.