A.R. Rahman’s Directorial Debut ‘Le Musk’ to Premiere at Cannes XR (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Coda producer Pathé has concluded a raft of sales on its Cannes slate including for starry French drama Masquerade, Directors’ Fortnight entry Paris Memories and Penelope Cruz title L’Immensita.

Naman Ramachandran Indian activist filmmaker Pa. Ranjith has revealed an extensive production slate featuring top stars and socially relevant themes.Ranjith was at the Cannes Film Market, where he revealed “Vettuvam”, a linked film and TV series, a co-production between his and Aditi Anand’s Neelam Studios and Golden Ratio Films, the film production arm of Vistas Media Capital.First up for Ranjith is “Natchathiram Nagargirathu,” starring Dushara Vijayan (“Sarpatta Parambarai”), Kalaiyarasan Harikrishnan (“Kuthiraivaal”) and Kalidas (“Paava Kadhaigal”). The film is set against the backdrop of the Tamil-language theater scene and explores different facets of love that go beyond gender, and includes straight and LGBTQ+ romances, Ranjith says.

Naman Ramachandran Indian actor Jackie Shroff (“Sooryavanshi”) will play the lead in Singapore-France-India co-production “Slow Joe,” it was revealed at the Cannes Film Market.Shroff will play the late Indian musician Joseph Manuel Da Rocha, known as Slow Joe, a former heroin addict and drug dealer who was born in Mumbai, was disowned by his family, heartbroken at 50 and who moved to Goa and cleaned up. On a trip to Goa in 2007, Lyon-based French musician Cédric de la Chapelle met Joe, now a frail 64-year-old who was making ends meet as a hotel room broker. Joe, also a poet and musician, sang for de la Chapelle, who was captivated by his voice and recorded some of his a cappella songs.Back in France, de la Chapelle played Joe’s songs for music producer Olivier Boccon-Gibod of Horizon Musiques, who was also entranced.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSpecialty U.S. distributors Uncork’d Entertainment and Dark Star Pictures have acquired Italian director Pasquale Marrazzo’s LGBTQ drama “The Neighbor” for release in North America from Rome-based Coccinelle Film Sales.“The Neighbor” (which is titled “Hotel Milano” in Italy) is about two young men who are in love but get bullied by a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads that makes their life impossible as hatred and intolerance seeps into the rapport between their respective families.It’s the fifth feature written and directed by Marrazzo whose debut “South of the Sun” launched from Toronto’s Discovery section in 2001.

EXCLUSIVE: Italian actress Margherita Mazzucco, best known for her starring role as Elena in HBO and Rai’s My Brilliant Friend, has signed with ICM Partners for representation.

Naman Ramachandran Principal photography has wrapped on “The Storyteller,” directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan (Busan title “Bittersweet”).The film is based on Indian Oscar winner Satyajit Ray’s short story “Golpo Boliye Tarini Khuro.” In the story about originality versus plagiarism, Ray was raising the question: “What is more important – the story or the storyteller?”A restored version of Ray’s “The Adversary” is playing at the Cannes Classics strand of the Cannes Film Festival.The cast includes Paresh Rawal (Amazon Prime Video film “Sharmaji Namkeen”), Adil Hussain (“Star Trek: Discovery”), Revathi (Netflix anthology “Navarasa”) and Tannishtha Chatterjee (Busan title “Roam Rome Mein”).The film is produced by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Studios (Netflix film “Dasvi”) in association with Purpose Entertainment (“Hotel Mumbai”) and Quest Films (Busan Kim Ji-seok Award winner “The Rapist”). Mahadevan said: “As part of the celebrations around the life and work of the legend Satyajit Ray, we are very happy and honored to share our own humble homage to the master storyteller.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“1976,” the awaited first feature of Chile’s Manuela Martelli, has closed first new major territories for sales company Luxbox before its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight later this upcoming week.The film is produced out of Chile by writer-directors Omar Zúñiga (“The Strong Ones”) and Dominga Sotomayor (“Too Late to Die Young”) at auteur-focused Chile-based Cinestación (“Too Late to Die Young”) as well as Alejandra Garcia and Andrés Wood, another celebrated Chilean director (“Violeta Went to Heaven”) at Wood Productions. Nathalia Videla Peña and Juan Pablo Gugliotta at Argentina’s Magma Cine co-produce.“1976” is set, as its title implies, in 1976, one of the bloodiest years of Augusto Pinochet’s hugely bloody dictatorship.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLeading arthouse sales company the Match Factory has acquired the rights to “Bachmann & Frisch,” a biopic about the radical Austrian writer and poet Ingeborg Bachmann, directed by Venice Golden Lion winner Margarethe von Trotta. The film stars Vicky Krieps — who appears in two Cannes Film Festival films this year, “Corsage” and “More Than Ever” — as the poet, and Ronald Zehrfeld (“Barbara,” “Phoenix”) as her partner, the Swiss writer Max Frisch.The pickup follows the international sales success for the Match Factory with Von Trotta’s “Hannah Arendt” in 2012.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNawazuddin Siddiqui, the Emmy-nominated Indian actor, is to take the lead role in U.S. indie film “Laxman Lopez.” The film is a Christmas-themed movie to be directed by Mexico’s Roberto Girault, director of local hits including 2017’s “La Leyenda Del Diamante,” 2015’s “Los Arboles Mueren de Pie” and “El Estudiante” from 2009. The project is led by New York-based Imagine Infinite Productions.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentParis-based company Kinology has secured international sales to “Il Sol Dell’Avvenire,” from Italian auteur and Cannes regular Nanni Moretti. Pic is currently shooting in Rome.The deal between Kinology and Domenico Procacci’s Fandango, which is producing in tandem with Moretti’s Sacher shingle and RAI Cinema, marks the first time Kinology has handled a Moretti pic.

Jason Momoa is apologizing to fans who were offended by his recent visit to the Sistine Chapel, where he snapped photos and shared some to Instagram. People in the comments section noted that regular visitors are not allowed to use cameras inside the church.

An intimate affair! Stassi Schroeder and Beau Clark landed in Italy earlier this week to celebrate their second wedding — but not all of their Vanderpump Rules costars made the trip.

Naman Ramachandran ALTBalaji, the streaming service started by Ekta R. Kapoor, the undisputed queen of Indian television, turned five a few days ago. The streamer is part of Balaji Telefilms, which was started by her and her parents Jeetendra Kapoor and Shoba Kapoor in 1994 and is the single largest television content producer in South Asia.Recently, the hitherto SVOD-only ALTBalaji added an AVOD offering, which caters to 10 million monthly active users.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentReed Hastings made the trek to Rome to open Netflix’s new Italian headquarters in an elegant building just off the Via Veneto of “La Dolce Vita” fame — and the Roman rain gods made sure they knew he was there.Menacing dark clouds interspersed with flashes of sunlight had hovered over the hour-long outdoor presentation of a rich slate of Netflix Italian originals, headlined by a high-end series adaptation of classic Italian novel “The Leopard.” Yet the weather had somehow held up.Right until, that is, a minute after Hastings took the stage.“To start [in Italy] with this facility, with all the creators that we have today, is such an honor, especially as I feel the first drop of rain,” said Netflix’s founder and co-CEO. As it gradually began to pour, Hastings reminisced about the fact that 20 years ago, when his wife and children moved to Rome while he remained in the U.S.

Netflix has opened an office in Italy and unveiled a huge slate of scripted and unscripted series and films from many of the country’s biggest producers, with Co-CEO Reed Hastings detailing the streamer’s roots in the nation.