Cannes Docs Discusses Importance for Filmmakers of a Strong Network

EXCLUSIVE: BUCK, one of the animation studios behind the Obamas-produced We the People for Netflix, has signed a trio of staffers including former Cartoon Network Series Exec Mike Rauch.

While Guillermo del Toro has branched out a little bit from his strict horror roots in films such as the recent noir “Nightmare Alley” and the upcoming “Pinocchio” stop-motion animated feature, the filmmaker is coming to Netflix with a new anthology series, “Cabinet of Curiosities,” that will fully embrace his love of terrifying audiences. READ MORE: Guillermo Del Toro At Cannes On “Pernicious” Streaming & Cinema’s Future: “Break The Machine From The Inside” As seen in the teaser for “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” the new Netflix series is an anthology show that will be comprised of eight different stories from eight of the most respected names in horror.

While Guillermo del Toro has branched out a little bit from his strict horror roots in films such as the recent noir “Nightmare Alley” and the upcoming “Pinocchio” stop-motion animated feature, the filmmaker is coming to Netflix with a new anthology series, “Cabinet of Curiosities,” that will fully embrace his love of terrifying audiences. READ MORE: Guillermo Del Toro At Cannes On “Pernicious” Streaming & Cinema’s Future: “Break The Machine From The Inside” As seen in the teaser for “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” the new Netflix series is an anthology show that will be comprised of eight different stories from eight of the most respected names in horror.

A Vancouver-based Indigenous film producer says he was treated like he was “trying to steal something” after being turned away from a red carpet event at the Cannes Film Festival because he was wearing a pair of traditional moccasins.

Manori Ravindran International EditorThe Cannes Film Festival invited eight male directors for an hours-long symposium on the future of cinema on Tuesday — a session that raised uneasy questions for those working with streaming services, and paid no attention to the lack of female filmmakers on the panel.Moderated by Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux and Canal+ correspondent and festival associate Didier Allouch, guests included Guillermo del Toro, Claude Lelouch, Costa Gavras, Gaspard Noé, Paolo Sorrentino, Nadav Lapid, Mathieu Kassovitz and Robin Campillo. The directors were interviewed individually, with Del Toro present on stage throughout.The session — which ran for two and a half hours, with speakers remaining a mystery until the event was underway — is one of two forums about cinema organized by the festival.

EXCLUSIVE: WME has signed filmmaker R.J. Cutler and his production company This Machine, fresh off the announcement of Cutler’s upcoming documentary on Elton John.

th Cannes. “In so many ways, what we have belongs to an older structure. Whether we want it to or not, the future will show up.”But, he added, the change in the movie business is only part of a wider change across society.

Rise Films is nearing the end of what has been a monumental month for the London-based production outfit. Last week, HBO Max launched the company’s two-part documentary George Carlin’s American Dream, which chronicles the life and five-decade career of the comedian with Judd Apatow in the director’s seat.

The rise of streamer content has created anxiety for talent and their reps, because of models that require ownership of a project in perpetuity. Because product starts on a streaming site and then never leaves, there is no chance of backend windfalls. Just look at the creators and cast of Squid Game to see what that can mean: a billion-dollar property for Netflix, embarrassingly tiny paydays for the artists who made it, and little hope of making up the shortfall in subsequent seasons.

Christopher Vourlias Russia may have been cut off from much of the international film community, but here at Cannes, members of the country’s media business are quietly trying to line up deals.Nearly three months into the war in Ukraine, the leadership of the film festival has spent its opening week fielding questions about its stance on Russia. Festival chief Thierry Frémaux, for instance, was grilled over the inclusion of competition title “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” a movie with financial ties to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix might have had a bumpy few weeks, but the streamer is poised to strike the first major Cannes deal on a hot market package.

In 2017, Swedish-Egyptian director Tarek Saleh’s breakthrough film “The Nile Hilton Incident” was the subject of much controversy and was ultimately banned in Egypt due to its in-depth portrayal of police corruption in modern-day Egypt. Five years later, Saleh is back with “Boy From Heaven” (“Walad Min Al Janna“), a transfixing feature tackling the harsh realities that occur in the country, this time exploring the complicated and corrupt relationship between religion and politics.

It’s early days at the Cannes Film Festival, so awards prognostication might seem a little premature, but still, it’s hard to imagine that the phenomenal performance given by Swedish-Lebanese actor Fares Fares in Tarik Saleh’s searing political thriller Boy from Heaven will go entirely unnoticed by this year’s jury. Topping the work he did in Saleh’s 2017 Sundance hit The Nile Hilton Incident, Fares commands the screen from the moment he arrives, playing a character whose disheveled appearance conceals a ruthless efficiency, a laser-focused mind and an entirely pragmatic concept of morality.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIn February, Carla Simon’s “Alcarràs” walked off with Spain’s first Berlin Golden Bear in nearly 40 years as Spain notched up its biggest main competition presence at the Berlinale since 1997.This May, Spain has four movies selected for Cannes – Albert Serra’s Competition entry “Pacifiction”; Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” in Premiere; Elena López Riera’s Directors’ Fortnight bow “The Water”; and José Luis López Linares’ “Goya, Carrière and the Ghost of Buñuel,” a Cannes Classics doc feature. That reps a Cannes presence roughly on par with recent standout years such as 2018 and 2019.With Netflix launching “Through My Window” in February, three of the streaming giant’s five most-watched non-English language movies are from Spain.

EXCLUSIVE: Brad Anderson, the multi-hyphenate behind the iconic Christian Bale thriller The Machinist, has signed with Paradigm for representation.

If you’re a fan of the music and video creations by singer-songwriter Jeymes Samuel — performed under his stage name The Bullitts — you’ll recognize that same enthusiasm, precociousness and ambition directed into his feature directorial debut, The Harder They Fall. Spurred by his love for the genre and the lack of diversity in old Hollywood westerns, Samuel recruited a veritable who’s who of Black actors — Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield and Jonathan Majors, among them — to play infamous gunslingers of color who somehow eluded the attention of previous storytellers. The film began its journey as the 2013 short They Die By Dawn, which he broadened into a Netflix feature seen around the world. A rare talent in that he not only writes, directs and produces but also scores his films — he has a silky singing voice reminiscent of his brother, Seal — Samuel’s versatility is outshone only by his irresistible and infectious enthusiasm for cinema, from its history to a future he is determined to be part of. Now, he’s ready to unveil his next film, this one with Stanfield and set in the Bible era.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentEight years after “Maps to the Stars,” David Cronenberg is coming back to the Cannes Film Festival with what looks to be a big bang. Weaving together equal parts body horror and dystopian panache, “Crimes of the Future” instantly became one of the most buzzed-about competition films after Neon dropped the trailer on April 14, the day of Cannes’ press conference. The lushly-lensed film, which reunites Cronenberg with his muse Viggo Mortensen (“A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises”) along with Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux, could prove as divisive as the Canadian master’s 1996 cult film “Crash” which went on to scoop Cannes’ very first Special Jury Prize for “its audacity, daring and originality.” Ahead of the start of the festival, Cronenberg sat down with Variety in Paris to talk about the long-gestating “Crimes of the Future,” the making of the picture, its underlying themes, while speaking candidly about the difficulty of financing challenging films, as well as his stance on streamers and  U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has your first look trailer at Cannes competition title Nostalgia, directed by Italian helmer Mario Martone.

Every year around this time – Saturday Night Live’s finale is May 21 – the rumor mill starts as to how the venerable comedy variety series will look next year.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeIt felt like a TV bloodbath like no other. Thursday’s rapid-fire succession of primetime bullets took down “Magnum P.I.” and two Chuck Lorre comedies at CBS; Ted Danson’s “Mr. Mayor” and Kenan Thompson’s “Kenan,” plus freshman drama “The Endgame” at NBC; and a large chunk of the lineup — including “Legacies,” “Charmed,” “Dynasty” and “Roswell, New Mexico” — at The CW.And that’s not even the entire list of this week’s axed shows.