Cannes Market Celebrates Decades of Legendary Parties, Deals and More

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Lendarys,” a big-budget family adventure animation film that is currently in production, scored a handful of pre-sales during the Cannes Market. Rights sales are handled by Hong Kong-, Paris and Los Angeles-based All Rights Entertainment.With a production budget of $30 million, the film is the directorial debut of Philippe Duchene and Jean-Baptiste Cuvelier.

Cannes Film Festival that the pace of deals was almost as glacial as the amount of time it takes to get your check at a restaurant in the south of France.But then, sacré bleu, Netflix struck, shelling out more than $50 million for the rights to “Pain Hustlers,” a conspiracy thriller that unites Emily Blunt with Harry Potter director David Yates, and the move has started to accelerate deal-making up and down the Croisette.This year’s market has been a litmus test for film sales as the U.S. and key international markets emerge from the worst of the pandemic.

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: NewFilmmakers Los Angeles today announced the winners of its 10th annual Best of NFMLA Awards.

EXCLUSIVE: Here is the first trailer for movie Peter Five Eight, marking the first footage released at a market for a Kevin Spacey project in almost five years.

Audrey Diwan’s planned English language directing debut, the erotic tale Emmanuelle starring Lea Seydoux, has buyers buzzing as much as any Cannes Market package being shopped this week on the Croisette. But her last film Happening (which didn’t make the cut as France’s choice for Best Foreign Language Film, though many felt it would have won) might have the most lasting impact. The film is just released in the U.S. smack in the middle of revelations that the Supreme Court plans to overturn Roe V Wade.

Naman Ramachandran For acclaimed Indian actor R. Madhavan ( (“Alai Payuthey,” “Tanu Weds Manu”), making his directorial debut, “Rocketry: The Nambi Effect,” literally required an understanding of rocket science.In addition to directing, Madhavan plays the role of Indian scientist, Nambi Narayanan, a former Indian Space Research Organization scientist and aerospace engineer known for developing efficient liquid fuel engines and who became embroiled in a spy scandal.The director attached to the project had to drop out at the last minute due to scheduling conflicts and Madhavan who had a deep understanding of the script having written it himself after conversations with Narayanan had to take up the mantle.

EXCLUSIVE: A feature about legendary Hollywood director Sam Peckinpah’s wild plan to finance his final film with backing from Colombia’s Cali Cartel is being sold in Cannes.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefHong Kong-based sales firm Golden Network has picked up international rights to Jackie Chan’s upcoming film “Ride On.”The feature has recently wrapped production and is scheduled to be released on Dec. 31 in time for what is normally a peak cinemagoing period in China and elsewhere.Asian films are currently struggling to achieve pre-sales in international markets, but “Ride On” could be an exception.

EXCLUSIVE: The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman star Jake Hoffman, whose father is Dustin Hoffman, is creating and directing coming-of-age romcom The Problem With Poets.

EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off their Oscar nominations for drama The Lost Daughter, Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) and Chernobyl star Jessie Buckley are set to reunite on comedy Wicked Little Letters, which will be a hot project at the Cannes market.

EXCLUSIVE: Ian McKellen is among the stars of Ken McMullen’s Hamlet Within, a part-documentary feature investigating the mythology around the Shakespeare play, which is headed to the Cannes Market.

EXCLUSIVE: Academy Award-winning writer and director Emerald Fennell has lined up her cast for her next film, Saltburn with Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan attached to star in the project from MRC Film. Deadline recently broke that Rosamund Pike will also co-star with  principal photography set to begin this summer in the UK. The pic will be produced by Fennell and LuckyChap Entertainment’s Josey McNamara, Tom Ackerley and Margot Robbie.

The Hating Game star Lucy Hale is to reunite with director Peter Hutchings in rom-com Which Brings Me To You.

Another hot project is hitting the Cannes market as Emily Blunt is attached to star Pain Hustlers with David Yates directing. Wells Tower penned the script with Lawrence Grey producing through his Grey Matter Productions banner along with Wychwood Pictures

EXCLUSIVE: Here is the hot project for international buyers for next week’s Cannes Market. Sony Pictures has preemptively acquired US rights to Miramax’s Here, a film adaptation of the celebrated Richard McGuire graphic novel that will reunite the Forrest Gump team: Academy Award-winners director Robert Zemeckis, screenwriter Eric Roth and star Tom Hanks, with Robin Wright also starring. It’s the quartet’s first time back together since the 1994 film classic, which won six Oscars including Best Picture.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (Thelma & Louise), Oscar nominee Bette Midler (The First Wives Club) and Emmy winner Megan Mullally (Will And Grace) are attached to star in The Fabulous Four from director Jocelyn Moorhouse (The Dressmaker).

EXCLUSIVE: Galway Film Festival winners Andy & Ryan Tohill (The Dig) are set to direct up and comers Levi Miller (Kraven the Hunter), Solly McLeod (star of upcoming ITV series Tom Jones), Isabella Pappas (Finding Alice), Lou Llobell (Foundation), and Izuka Hoyle (Mary Queen of Scots) in Beach Boys. Scripted by Malachi Smyth, the film will be repped at the Cannes Market by Hyde Park International.

Ralph Fiennes has signed up to lead conspiracy thriller feature Conclave, with John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini also joining the cast and Edward Berger helming. FilmNation Entertainment will launch international sales at the upcoming Cannes Market and is co-repping US rights with CAA Media Finance.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Sarah Paulson (12 Years A Slave), Gotham Awards winner Anthony Mackie (Captain America), BAFTA winner Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), and triple Emmy winner Uzo Aduba (Orange Is The New Black) will star in feature Clybourne Park, which is a hot package launching for the Cannes market.