Elizabeth Banks & John C. Reilly Thriller ‘Dreamquil’ Pre-Sells To Paramount’s Republic Pictures; HanWay To Continue Sales In Cannes With Filming Underway

Christopher Vourlias After making waves on the festival circuit with a pair of heralded short films, Somali filmmaker Mo Harawe makes his auspicious feature debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with “The Village Next to Paradise,” which premieres May 21 in the French fest’s Un Certain Regard section — the first feature from the African nation ever to screen on the Croisette. An intimate family drama set in a windswept Somali fishing village, “Paradise” follows Mamargade (Ahmed Ali Farah), a single father working odd jobs to provide a better life for his son, Cigaal (Ahmed Mohamud Saleban). They’re joined by his sister, Araweelo (Anab Ahmed Ibrahim), who comes back to live with the duo after her divorce.

EXCLUSIVE: Following a multi-buyer tug of war, horror movie The Monkey, the adaptation of the Stephen King short story, is heading to Neon for domestic here at the Cannes market.

Annika Pham Unspooling May 18 as part of an overall Swiss Focus at the Marché du Film, Solothurn Film Festival Goes to Cannes marks the first collaboration between the long-standing Swiss festival and the Cannes market, but also a first for many of the talents and producers carefully picked for the event. Two of Switzerland’s top documentary filmmakers Jacqueline Zünd, winner of a 2019 Crystal Bear nominated for “Where We Belong,” and Nicholas Steiner, director of “Above & Below”, ranked among Variety reviewer Peter Debruge’s Top 10 films of 2015, are set to attract buyers, sales agents and programmers’ attention with their star-stubbed fiction debuts.

Nicolas Cage was having fun as his new psychological thriller, “The Surfer,” scored a six-minute standing ovation at a Cannes Film Festival midnight screening on Friday night. Cage appeared to be having a ball, beaming from ear to ear and waving across the room as cheers erupted around the Palais.

Tatiana Siegel An iconic woman needs an apt setting. So, to mark its 100th anniversary, Columbia Pictures has teamed with the Municipality of Cannes to put the studio’s instantly recognizable Torch Lady and roster of legendary actresses on full display as part of a free photographic exhibit in the historic city’s town square, just off the Croisette and with the Palais and Mediterranean Sea serving as a backdrop.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buenos Aires-based production, sales and distribution company FilmSharks has picked up all worldwide rights to the new crime thriller by Argentina’s Sebastian Schindel, “A Silent Death” (Una muerte silenciosa”), to which it has sold Latin American theatrical rights to Disney’s Star Distribution, slated for release later in the year. Said FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud: “This is likely to become one of the biggest Latin American films of the year.

Before making Joachim Trier’s 2021 hit The Worst Person in the World, Renate Reinsve was about to jack it all in. Three years later — after A Different Man, with Sebastian Stan, Another Life, with Gael García Bernal, and Handling the Undead, a chiller from Let the Right One In writer John Ajvide Lindqvist — she now finds herself not just back in Cannes but doing double duty at the Sundance, Berlin and Tribeca film festivals (“It’s a running joke that I have two movies everywhere”). Reinsve takes the lead in the Swedish drama Armand, directed by Ingmar Bergman’s grandson Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel.

The most awaited film this year at the Cannes Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, had its world premiere Thursday night, with the dystopian epic decades in the making landing a seven-minute standing ovation.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” went wild for his latest high-octane action film, showering the movie with a six-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday night. Taylor-Joy blew kisses into the camera as the clapping continued at the end of the credits, performing a theatrical bow. Hemsworth looked teary-eyed at the rapturous response.

Jamie Lang International sales and distribution outfit Pink Parrot Media has closed several key deals for Doce Entertainment and Mr. Miyagi Films’ animated kids and family feature “Hanna and the Monsters.” Agreements have been made with World Visions for CIS, Boxoo for South Korea, Front Row for the Middle East, GPI for the Baltics, Cinetel for Hungary, Wediacorp for Turkey and Movie Company for Benelux.

Omnes Films has a goal. “Our mission is to fill a void in modern cinema,” says its website. “Our films are passionate, ambitious works made by friends that favor atmosphere over plot and study the many forms of cultural decay in the 21st Century. Whatever the subject or genre, we seek projects that are original in conception and feel like they’ve never been made before.” It sounds wildly ambitious, and maybe it is, but Cannes audiences will be the judge of that when two of its films — Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point by Tyler Taormino and Eephus by Carson Lund — premiere in Directors’ Fortnight.

Naman Ramachandran Tarf Media has acquired worldwide sales rights, excluding North America, for “Lonesome Soldier” and will represent the film at the Cannes Film Market. The film is directed by Nino Aldi (“Who Killed Copper Dunn?”), stars John Ashton (“Gone Baby Gone”), Allison McAtee (“The Haves and Have Nots”), Steve Monroe (“Promising Young Woman”) and Patrick Y. Malone (“The Tomorrow War”) and introduces actor-writer Alexander Randazzo.

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the Cannes market, Lionsgate has taken North American rights off the table on one of the bigger-budget new packages that’ll be on sale next week: that’s action-thriller Mutiny, which will star action evergreen Jason Statham (Fast & Furious) and be directed by Jean-François Richet (Plane).

EXCLUSIVE: To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures, the municipality of Cannes will present a free photographic exhibition titled “Lighting the Way: From the Torch Lady to Leading Ladies.” The photos will be on display for the general public on Cours Félix Faure in Cannes from May 13 to June 10.

Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Roy Lee and Steven Schneider’s genre label Spooky Pictures have set the third feature under their multi-picture slate deal with sci-fi horror Menace. Directed by Randall Okita (See For Me), the film stars Isabel May (1883) who also serves as an executive producer via her banner Una Vaca Productions.

Juliette Lewis has boarded Alex Prager’s alternative reality debut feature DreamQuil alongside the previously announced Elizabeth Banks and John C Reilly. Also confirmed as joining the project are Kathryn Newton and Sofia Boutella. The futuristic psychological thriller commenced principal photography in Los Angeles this week. 

EXCLUSIVE: Production has wrapped in Wales on boxing crime-drama Salvable, starring Toby Kebbell (For All Mankind), Shia LaBeouf (Fury) and James Cosmo (Game Of Thrones). Above is a first-look image.

EXCLUSIVE: Production, finance, and sales company Panorama Motion Pictures will make its Cannes market debut with a slate of projects from Catalyst Studios and other independent producers.

EXCLUSIVE: Rising Brit actor Harry Lawtey (Industry), who will have a key role in upcoming sequel Joker: Folie A Deux, has been set to star as a young Richard Burton in UK feature Mr. Burton, which will also star BAFTA winner Toby Jones (Mr Bates vs. The Post Office) and Oscar nominee Lesley Manville (The Crown).

Actress and filmmaker Judith Godrèche, who has been at the forefront of a fresh #MeToo wave in France this year, has been invited by the Cannes Film Festival to world premiere short film Moi Aussi in Official Selection.