Alicia Vikander & Michael Fassbender to Star in Thriller 'Hope,' Will Have English-Speaking Roles in the Korean-Language Film

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight has announced the selection for its 55th edition, running May 17 to 26.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Beta at MipTV has unveiled a visually dazzling first trailer for period drama “La Storia” that will be Italian pubcaster RAI’s biggest event show this year. The sweeping eight-episode saga is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference – set during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath in Italy. Dierected by Francesca Archibugi (“The Hummingbird”), the high-end show stars Italian A-list actor Jasmine Trinca – who last year was a member of the Cannes jury – as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution. The cast also comprises Asia Argento (“xXx – Triple X”), Elio Germano (“Leopardi”) and Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”).

EXCLUSIVE: Hyde Park has a big package here heading into the Cannes Market: The feature take of Kevin Barry’s New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year, Night Boat to Tangier starring Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson and Ruth Negga. The Ashok Amritraj studio will be presenting the James Marsh-directed project to global buyers at the Cannes Marche Du Film next month, with the Oscar-winning filmmaker and Fassbender in tow. Barry is adapting the screenplay from his novel.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The anticipation is running high at the Cannes Film Festival’s packed annual press conference on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, where festival chief Thierry Fremaux is expected to unveil the bulk of the Official Selection for the 76th edition. The festival has been teasing cinephiles with splashy announcements about Martin Scorsese returning to the Croisette with “Killers of the Flower Moon,” 38 years after winning best director with “After Hour,” as well as Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” and Pedro Almodóvar’s short film, “Strange Way of Life.” But Fremaux, who is leading the presser with the festival’s new president Iris Knobloch, is expected to have saved a few high-profile surprises, including Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” starring an ensemble cast that includes Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton; Todd Haynes’ “May December” with Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore; Karim Aïnouz’s Henry VIII drama “Firebrand” with Alicia Vikander and Jude Law; and HBO’s “The Idol,” the Weeknd-led series.

Alex Wolff (The Line, Hereditary, A Quiet Place: Day One) has been cast as legendary singer Leonard Cohen in So Long, Marianne, the NRK drama series we first revealed last year.

Emiliano De Pablos Spanish public broadcaster RTVE has struck a VOD deal with Walter Presents to bring noir thriller series “Sequía” (“The Drought”) to the U.S, U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Canada. The suspense series is co-produced by Spanish and Portuguese public broadcasters RTVE and RTP, in collaboration with Atlantia Media and Coral Europa.  “The Drought” is set in a small submerged village on the Spanish-Portuguese border that re-emerges from a huge dam built in the 1990s after a severe drought. Two skeletons are also unearthed, revealing evidence of a bloody crime. 

Naman Ramachandran NTR Jr, star of Oscar- and Golden Globe-winner “RRR,” will feature alongside Hrithik Roshan in “War 2,” one of the future instalments in leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films’ spy universe. “War 2” will be directed by Ayan Mukerji, who previously helmed Disney’s Indian mythological superhero film “Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva.” NTR Jr is currently shooting his 30th film, known by the working title “NTR 30,” with Koratala Siva directing. The actor hails from the South India-based Telugu-language film industry, but the pan-India and international success of “RRR” has seen him transcend boundaries.

EXCLUSIVE: Cameron Britton is the latest name we can reveal to be attached to director Na Hong-Jin’s Korean thriller Hope.

EXCLUSIVE: Waves and Bones And All star Taylor Russell has been cast in buzzy Korean thriller Hope, alongside Squid Game breakout Hoyeon, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.

Kyle Richards is making movies again!

EXCLUSIVE: Annette Bening has been tapped to narrate the documentary War Unfolding from Sypher Studios, with Eliza Bennett, Rachel Bloom, Gary Cole, Abigail Cowen, Laura Dern, Monique Edwards, Michael C. Hall, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Paul Walter Hauser, Thurn Hoffman, Richard T. Jones, Jay Lee, Erick Lopez, Sandra Seacat, Wes Studi and DeWanda Wise among those set to appear in the film from director John B. Benitz.

Mayans M.C. will premiere its fifth and final season on Wednesday, May 24 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX, and streaming the next day on Hulu.

Squid Game‘s breakout star Jung Ho-yeon has been cast in the upcoming Korean thriller film Hope, by director Na Hong-Jin (The Wailing).Jung’s role as a policewoman in the new movie will be her first starring role since her breakout appearance in Squid Game. She will join Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender (2013’s 12 Years a Slave) and Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (2016’s The Danish Girl), who are also husband and wife, in the star-studded cast.“Everything about Ho-yeon aligned with what I envisioned for Sung-Ae,” said Na, per Deadline.

EXCLUSIVE: A hot project just got hotter. Emmy nominated Korean actress and model Hoyeon, who made waves with Netflix’s Squid Game, is set to make her feature debut in director Na Hong-Jin’s Korean thriller, Hope, which we revealed earlier today.

but died in development and the video game-based IP is now set for an Amazon television show.Since then, she has starred in Justin Chon’s “Blue Bayou” and Julie Taymor’s “The Glorias” (as Gloria Steinem) while popping up in small roles in “Beckett” (as John David Washington’s doomed girlfriend) and “The Green Knight.” She starred in Olivier Assayas’ well-received television incarnation of his own 1996 feature “Irma Vep.” She will next be seen in Karim Aïnouz’s “Firebrand.”Fassbender has not been onscreen since “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” in the summer of 2019, but he will star in Taika Waititi’s “Next Goal Wins” for Searchlight and David Fincher’s Netflix thriller “The Killer” later this year. He was pegged to star alongside Scarlett Johansson and Owen Wilson in Nancy Meyers’ “Paris Paramount” before Netflix canceled the pricey rom-com feature film.

It’s been seven years since “The Light Between Oceans” debuted and saw Alicia Vikander act opposite Michael Fassbender. Since then, the duo has married in real life, but they have yet to reconnect on screen.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl) and Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave) have been set for roles in feature Hope, the first project from acclaimed Korean director Na Hong-Jin since 2016 hit The Wailing.

EXCLUSIVE: This won’t come as a big surprise after so much speculation, but we hear that Wes Anderson’s comedy Asteroid City definitely is headed to the Cannes Film Festival.

Game of Thrones alumna Lena Headey has been tapped to headline Kurt Sutter’s Western action drama series The Abandons at Netflix.

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on industry players outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week we’re talking to Heretic co-founder Giorgos Karnavas about the growth of his Athens-based production and sales house he started in 2013 with Konstantinos Kontovrakis. The company played a pivotal role in co-producing Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner and Oscar contender Triangle of Sadness, its first English-language production.