Tag Archives: Cannes Film Festival 2014

Winter Sleep wins Palme D’Or at Cannes 2014 and Edgar Wright leaves Marvel’s Ant-Man

Our biggest stories usually report exciting announcements and mega-castings or lift the curtains on brand new trailer or poster It’s rare that we have to give the scoop on some horribly frustrating bits of news. For unclear reasons, British director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, The World’s End, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs The World) has quit Marvel’s sci-fi action Ant-Man, coming as a huge shock as Wright has been working on the script for almost a decade. The most common suggestion is that the film’s various rewrites had spoiled Wright’s original vision and so he walked.

It’s possible that the original script’s focus had been sidelined by Kevin Feige’s plans for the developing universe, Wright began his work before the MCU was established. Similar events transpired in the development of Iron Man 2 – director Jon Favreau claims that his original vision had been scrapped in order to give screen time to the building up of the Avengers, leaving Whiplash a devastatingly dull villain. It’s possible that Wright had similar quarrels.

We may not get solid reasons for the departure for a long time but I’d be glad if Marvel took time to hire a new director (Richard Ayoade – The Double, Submarine -, Joe Cornish – Attack the Block -, Phil Lord and Chris Miller – 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie – and Jonathan Levine – Warm Bodies, 50/50 – reportedly in the mix) instead of rushing to a release date with an amateur (looking at you Brett Ratner/X-Men: The Last Stand).

The decision to quit has divided opinion among filmmakers but we certainly know where Geek king Joss Whedon (Firefly, Serenity, Dollhouse, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Much Ado About Nothing, Toy Story, Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, The Avengers) stands. Brownie points to the first person to comment the reference.

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The film is still set to star Paul Rudd (Achorman, Knocked Up), Michael Pena (End of Watch, Million Dollar Baby), Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Corey Stoll (House of Cards, Midnight in Paris), Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring, Watchmen), Matt Gerald (Escape Plan, Avatar) and two time Oscar winner Michael Douglas (Wall Street, The Game).

Also today, 200 minute drama Winter Sleep has won the highly coveted Palme d’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Festival. The film, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, follows in the footsteps of Apocalypse Now, Barton Fink, Taxi Driver, The Pianist, The Tree of Life and Blue is the Warmest Colour and beat the likes of Maps to the Stars, Two Days One Night, Jimmy’s Hall and Foxcatcher

Ant-Man – July 17th 2015

Winter Sleep – later this year

Grace of Monaco to open Cannes, Ant-Man’s release brought forward and Cuaron victorious at Directors Guild Awards

Ant-Man will possibly be one of the biggest hits of next year but one of the potential problems of it would be it getting swamped by the other, more well known, superhero releases of 2015, e.g Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Fantastic Four and Batman vs. Superman. B vs S flicked Ant-Man from June to August but you’ve probably picked up that the former project was delayed into 2016. With producers comfortable that director Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Shaun of the Dead) and stars Paul Rudd (Anchorman’s Brian Fantana) and Michael Douglas (Wall Street’s Gordon Gecko) are ready to go ahead, Marvel’s Ant-Man has scurried in for the June release.

Above is one of the the stills from Grace of Monaco, a film that’s now been confirmed to be opening the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, following in the footsteps of Up, The Great Gatsby and The Da Vinci Code. The biopic of Oscar winning, 1950s Hollywood star Grace Kelly stars Nicole Kidman and Tim Roth and is directed by Oliver Dahan (La Vie en Rose, a film that won Marion Cottilard an Oscar). We can expect the rest of the line up to be announced soon.

Finally, the results of the Directors Guild Awards have been announced and are as follows:

Best Directorial Effort in a Motion Picture:

Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity

Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips

Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave

David O’Russell – American Hustle

Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Directorial Effort in a Documentary:

Jehanne Noujaim – The Square

Zachary Heinzerling – Cutie and the Boxer

Joshua Oppenheimer – The Act of Killing

Sarah Polley – Stories We Tell

Lucy Walker – The Crash Reel

In TV, Breaking Bad, Behind the Candelabra, 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live all won one award each.

Grace of Monaco – May 14th at Cannes Film Festival, France

Ant-Man – July 17th 2015

Batman vs. Superman – May 6th 2016