Alicia Vikander rumoured for Bourne, first look at Martian and Dheepan wins at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival sometimes foretells the winners of the next awards season. The prestigious Palme D’or prize has predicted success for The Third Man, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, Pulp Fiction, The Pianist and The Tree of Life but neither of the two previous winners managed to match the same standard as both Blue is the Warmest Colour and Winter Sleep went Oscar-less. The winners of this years festival have been announced and at the 2016 Oscars we should be looking out for Dheepan, Chronic, Son of Saul, The Assassin and Carol. The jury included The Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading), Guillermo Del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth), Sienna Miller (America Sniper, Layer Cake) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Brokeback Mountain).

Palme D’or:

Dheepan

Grand Prix:

Son of Saul

Best Director:

Hou Hsiao-hsien – The Assassin

Best Screenplay:

Michel Franco – Chronic

Jury Prize:

The Lobster

Best Actress:

Rooney Mara – Carol
Emmanuelle Bercot – Mon Roi

Best Actor:

Vincent Lindon – The Measure of a Man

Alicia Vikander is one of the biggest rising stars of the moment. The Swedish star has been acclaimed in period drama A Royal Affair and sci-fi thriller Ex Machina and is seen in this summer’s spy action The Man From UNCLE. She’s now in talks for two more upcoming blockbusters. Firstly, she’s in talks for the fifth Bourne film which is directed by Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, United 93, Green Zone) and stars Matt Damon (The Departed, Good Will Hunting, Ocean’s Eleven) and Jeremy Renner (The Avengers, The Hurt Locker, The Town). She’s also set to join the cast of video game adaptation Assassin’s Creed with Macbeth director Justin Kurzel and stars Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, X-Men: First Class, Prometheus) and Marion Cotillard (Inception, Rust and Bone, Two Days One Night).

Some of Ridley Scott’s recent work has failed to hit the mark: The Counsellor flopped while Prometheus and Exodus remain extremely divisive. His upcoming sci-fi epic The Martian is looking significantly more promising from the first still from the film. Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Blade Runner, American Gangster, Alien) directs the cast of Matt Damon (Saving Private Ryan, The Departed), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Children of Men), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar), Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Black Swan), Kate Mara (House of Cards, Transcendence), Jeff Daniels (Looper, The Newsroom) and Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones).

The Martian – November 27th

Bourne 5 – July 29th 2016

Jenkins is Wonder Woman director, Gosling in Blade Runner and Cannes lineup revealed: Woody Allen! Pixar! Mad Max?

Warner Bros suffered a major setback on their highly anticipated fantasy reboot of the DC hero Winder Woman. Director Michelle MacLaren, behind some of the best episodes of Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, pulled out of the film leaving a gap to fill but the replacement has been announced as Patty Jenkins (Monster) is hired. Jenkins was in fact connected to Marvel’s superhero sequel Thor: The Dark World, long before the Edgar Wright/Ant–Man split, and left based on creative differences. Gal Gadot (Fast & Furious) is the Israeli star who’ll bring the new Wonder Woman to the screen.

Gladiator’s Ridley Scott sadly passed on the new Blade Runner sequel but BAFTA nominated director Denis Villeneuve (Enemy, Incendies, Prisoners) is taking his place. Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, The Fugitive) is confirmed to be reprising his role as the futuristic detective Rick Deckard but some new castings are now poised to be made. The latest report shows that Ryan Gosling (Drive, The Ides of March, Crazy Stupid Love, Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines) is in talks for a a so far unspecified role but you can’t deny some likeness to the original’s Rutger Hauer.

Festivals like Cannes are now major platforms for indie films to get the platform they need to campaign their way to the Oscars and the following list might show some early awards favourites, considering last year the films included Foxcatcher, Mr Turner, Two Days One Night, Maps to the Stars, Leviathan, The Homesman, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Force Majeure but also included the massive flop Grace of Monaco. Here’s this years selection, which’ll each be scrutinised by the jury (led by Fargo and No Country For Old Men directors Joel and Ethan Cohen) for the prestigious prize of Palme D’Or.

Film: Dheepan
Director: Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone)
Starring: Vincent Rottiers, Marc Zinga
Premise: The story of a Sri Lankan Tamil warrior who flees to France and ends up working as a caretaker outside Paris.
Nation: France

Film: Marguerite et Julien
Director: Valerie Donzelli (Declaration of War)
Starring: Anais Demoustier, Frederic Pierrot
Nation: France

Film: The Tale of Tales
Director: Matteo Garrone (Gamorra)
Starring: Salma Hayek (Frida), Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), John C Reilly (The Aviator), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Nation: Italy

Film: Carol
Director: Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There)
Starring: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Rooney Mara (The Social Network), Kyle Chandler (Super 8), Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story), Cory Michael Smith (Gotham)
Premise: Set in 1950s New York, a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life falls for an older, married woman.
Nation: United States

Film: Nie yin niang (The Assassin)
Director: Hsiao Hsien Hou (Three Times)
Starring: Qi Shu, Chen Chang, Satoshi Tsumbuki
Nation: Taiwan

Film: Shan He Gu Ren (Mountains May Depart
Director: Zhangke Jia (Still Life, A Touch of Sin)
Starring: Tao Zhao
Nation: China

Film: Out Little Sister
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows, Still Walking)
Starring: Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa
Nation: Japan

Film: Macbeth
Director: Justin Kurzel (Snowtown)
Starring: Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave), Marion Cotillard (Inception), David Thewlis (The Theory of Everything), Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby), Sean Harris (Prometheus), Jack Reynor (What Richard Did), Paddy Considine (The World’s End)
Premise: Macbeth, a duke of Scotland, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
Nation: United Kingdom, France, United States

Film: The Lobster
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth)
Starring: Colin Farrell (Minority Report), Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Colour), Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas), John C Reilly (The Aviator), Olivia Colman (Tyranasour)
Premise: In a dystopian near future, single people are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days or are transformed into animals and released into the woods.
Nation: Greece

Film: Mon Roi
Director: Maiwenn (Polisse)
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Louis Garrel
Nation: France

Film: Mia Madre
Director: Nanni Moretti (The Son’s Room)
Starring: Margherita Buy (The Caiman), John Turturro (Barton Fink)
Nation: Italy

Film: La giovinezza (The Early Years)
Director: Paolo Sorrentino (This Must Be the Place)
Starring: Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Michael Caine (Batman Begins), Jane Fonda (Coming Home), Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs)
Premise: Fred and Mick, two old friends, are on vacation in an elegant hotel at the foot of the Alps.
Nation: Italy

Film: Louder Than Bombs
Director: Joaquim Trier (Oslo August 31st)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Amy Ryan (Birdman), Rachel Brosnahan (House of Cards), David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck)
Nation: Norway, France, Denmark, United States

Film: The Sea of Trees
Director: Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting)
Starring: Matthew MacConaughey (Interstellar), Naomi Watts (King Kong), Ken Watanabe (Letters Form Iwo Jima)
Premise: A suicidal American befriends a Japanese man lost in a forest near Mt. Fuji and the two search for a way out.
Nation: United States

Film: Sicario
Director: Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Incendies)
Starring: Emily Blunt (Looper), Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men), Jon Beranthal (Fury), Benicio Del Toro (Traffic)
Premise: A young female FBI agent joins a secret CIA operation to take down a Mexican cartel boss, a job that ends up pushing her ethical and moral values to the limit.
Nation: United States

Films not competing:

Film: Mad Max: Fury Road
Director: George Miller (The Road Warrior)
Starring: Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), Charlize Theron (Prometheus), Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class)
Premise: In a post-apocalyptic world, in which people fight to the death, Max teams up with a mysterious woman, Furiousa, to try and survive.
Nation: Australian, United States

Film: Irrational Man
Director: Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Midnight in Paris, Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Starring: Emma Stone (The Help), Joaquin Phoenix (Her)
Premise: On a small town college campus, a philosophy professor in existential crisis gives his life new purpose when he enters into a relationship with his student.
Nation: United States

Film: The Little Prince
Director: Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda)
Starring: Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes), Mackenzie Foy (Interstellar), Paul Giamatti (Saving Mr Banks), James Franco (127 Hours), Marion Cotillard (Inception), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Benicio Del Toro (Traffic), Albert Brooks (Finding Nemo), Ricky Gervais (The Office)
Premise: A pilot crashes in the desert and meets a little boy from a distant planet.
Nation: France

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.

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