Andrew Garfield-Florence Pugh, James McAvoy Movies, and ‘Animal Kingdom’ Lead Studiocanal Cannes Sales Bonanza (EXCLUSIVE)

McKinley Franklin editor UTA has acquired executive search firm James & Co.  Founders Michele James and Roysi Erbes will co-lead the company as a new division within UTA. The acquisition continues the expansion of specialities that UTA ’s brings to clients across entertainment, sports and business. UTA’s growth and expansion strategy has also included partnering with sports representation firm Klutch, in addition to acquisitions including MediaLink, Curtis Brown Group and Fletcher & Co.  “Over the past two decades, James & Co. has gained enormous trust and respect from high-level clients across the worlds of sports, entertainment and more,” said Andrew Thau, COO of UTA and co-head of UTA Sports. “Michele and Roysi are a great fit with UTA’s collaborative and entrepreneurial culture, and their expertise is unrivaled. It’s exciting to welcome them and their team to UTA as we help even more clients find and empower their most important assets – their people.” 

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Duncan Heath’s legendary London agency Independent Talent Group is coming off the sales block. Variety understands that the U.K. company has secured a private equity buyer, and that a due diligence period is currently underway. The specific private equity firm involved in the deal isn’t currently known, though sources indicate that a well-known and respected entertainment executive is involved in the outfit. Sources tell Variety that CAA was at one point talking to Independent Talent, but that the U.S. agency — which acquired ICM Partners for $750 million last year — pulled away from a sales conversation in recent months. Other interested parties that have been in the mix in the last year are believed to include WME and Wasserman.

Sarah Jessica Parker’s son, James Wilkie Broderick, is a little lost when it comes to watching his mom’s show, “And Just Like That”.

Jon Hamm is a not-so-secret Vanderpump Rules stan! And this impersonation was SPOT ON!

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Wes Anderson announced in an interview with IndieWire that his upcoming Netflix movie “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on Roald Dahl’s 1977 short story collection, will only be 37 minutes long. The film is Anderson’s second Dahl adaptation after “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley. Notably, “Henry Sugar” marks Anderson’s first Netflix original. He told IndieWire that collaborating with the streamer was more out of necessity than personal preference. “In my case it’s a little bit of a weird thing,” Anderson said about partnering with Netflix. “I knew Roald Dahl since before we made ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ I met Lindsay Dahl, his widow, when we were shooting ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ like 20 years ago. For years I wanted to do ‘Henry Sugar.’ They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them. Lindsay kind of handed the torch to Luke, Dahl’s grandson. So I had this waiting for me. But I really couldn’t figure out the approach. I knew what I liked in the story was the writing of it, Dahl’s words. I couldn’t find the answer, and then suddenly I did. It’s not a feature film. It’s like 37 minutes or something. But by the time I was ready to do it, the Dahl family no longer had the rights at all. They had sold the whole deal to Netflix.”

Daniel Albaladejo Robles Growing up on the island of Tenerife at a time when pursuing a career in animation and film was out of bounds, Albaladejo moved to Madrid to study both subjects at the Madrid Film School. His first jobs were on children’s series “Jelly Jamm,” “Pocoyo” and “The Amazing World of Gumball.” His VFX credits include “Game of Thrones” and “A Monster Calls” at El Ranchito in Madrid. “For the past few years, I have focused on storyboarding or animation, working as a freelancer for various studios, including Las Palmas-based Amuse,” he says. He recently worked on animated docu pic, “Mariposas Negras,” and is now collaborating on a U.K. series under wraps. AMDLF

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Forest,” an Italian eco-themed animation film about deforestation, has scored some strong pre-sales for Rome-based True Colours at the Cannes Marché du film. The still-in-production 3-D animation feature – the protagonist of which is a young mushroom named Fey – has been picked up for roughly 20 territories by Top Film Distribution which will distribute “Forest” in Ukraine, CIS, the Baltics, and Eastern European countries including former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, and Hungary.  Helmed by Luca Della Grotta and Francesco Dafano, the film is produced by Italy’s AI One, the same team that previously spawned 2020 similarly themed animation feature “Trash” that sold in more than 30 countries. 

wearing flip-flops on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival last month, Jennifer Lawrence is setting the record straight about the fashion statement that had the internet abuzz.«Ok, thank you for bringing this up. I would really like to straighten this out,» Lawrence told ET's Nischelle Turner while promoting her new film,  alongside co-star, Andrew Barth Feldman.

Tamra Judge turned lemons back into an orange. «You know, like a good ex that drops you, they came back,» Tamra cracks of her  comeback, two years after producers fired her following a 12-year run on the show. The years she took off proved challenging for ; COVID hit just as season 15 found its footing, forcing filming to shut down.

Auditions are apparently underway for the next James Bond film, and Rebel Wilson may be a part of it.

Rebel Wilson has revealed that she auditioned for the next James Bond film.The Pitch Perfect star shared the news at Cannes Film Festival while promoting her directorial debut The Deb, a big screen adaptation of the Australian musical comedy.Speaking to Variety at the festival, Wilson revealed that she was asked to audition for a role in the upcoming Bond movie after producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson saw her host the 2022 BAFTAs.The actor explained that she had to clear a number of Bond-related jokes with the producers ahead of the awards, which put her in direct contact and ultimately led to an audition.“What was really cool was getting to audition for Bond,” said Wilson, who stressed that she wasn’t going for role of James Bond, but rather an undisclosed character.

Kandahar is the latest from director Rick Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen, Greenland), starring frequent collaborator Gerard Butler, along with Travis Fimmel, Navid Negahban, Ali Fazal, and Bahador Foladi in an action drama that lacks imagination. With the script penned by Mitchell LaFortune, these particular types of stories often suffer from narrative sameness: westerner travels to the Middle East, things go boom, westerner saves the day, the end. 

Florence Pugh has reflected on Hollywood’s beauty standards, recalling the time she was told that she “needed to lose weight” for an acting role.The 27 year old stars on the cover of Time magazine’s Next Generation Leaders issue and spoke about being drawn back to Los Angeles for the WWE film Fighting With My Family opposite Dwayne Johnson, after a producer for a pilot show that never aired had allegedly criticised her physical appearance the last time she had been in Hollywood. In the interview, Florence said she was happy to land the role and what it represented for her appearance, as it came after a previous boss had allegedly criticised her appearance.

CANNES – For someone who is notoriously media-shy, Wes Anderson was in a delightful mood at the press conference for his new film, “Asteroid City.” And considering the star power alongside him on the dias, he dominated the conversation. Maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise considering the power of his cinematic brand.

Moviemaking isn’t always magical. Florence Pugh opened up about how the vibe on set could affect the entire movie.

Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.The actor joined the MCU as Yelena Belova in the 2021 film Black Widow, before later starring in Disney+ series Hawkeye. She’s set to reprise the role in upcoming superhero team-up film Thunderbolts, opposite Sebastian Stan and David Harbour.Speaking in an interview with Time about juggling indie projects with the MCU, Pugh said: “So many people in the indie film world were really pissed off at me.

Vanderpump Rules star Raquel Leviss is not pregnant, ET has learned. Over the weekend, a TikTok user posted a video stating she got a message from someone who claimed to know Leviss' sister and that the 28-year-old was in fact pregnant. The speculation set social media on fire, having many users assuming Leviss was pregnant with Tom Sandoval’s child, amid the two having a months-long affair that ultimately ended the bar owner's nine-year relationship with Ariana Madix. The TikTok user also claimed that Leviss has «been hiding out» at her grandmother’s home in Tucson, Arizona. Numerous sources tell ET that «Raquel is not pregnant.»One source adds, «People need to stop listening to unknown people on social media. Raquel has been away seeking help at a mental health treatment facility, not in hiding.»Last month, ET exclusively reported that Leviss had checked into a mental health treatment facility.

Hailee Steinfeld is reflecting on her personal and professional life.

Florence Pugh knows certain people weren’t impressed when she made her move into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.