Russell Crowe To Star In Action-Thriller ‘Bear Country’; Higher Standard Launching Sales For Cannes Market

Naman Ramachandran Raven Banner Entertainment has launched sales at the Cannes Film Festival‘s market on the reboot of Roger Corman‘s cult sword and sorcery film series, “Deathstalker,” which is currently shooting in Canada. Daniel Bernhardt (“John Wick,” “The Matrix Reloaded”) stars as the titular character in this reimagined instalment, directed by Steven Kostanski (“The Void,” “Psycho Goreman”). Bernhardt plays a barbarian cursed by a magical talisman, leading him into conflict with a malevolent wizard and monstrous assassins.

Adria Arjona and Edgar Ramirez have been announced to co-star in Jayro Bustamante’s dystopian thriller El Sombreron as The Match Factory launches worldwide sales on the project in Cannes, with CAA Media Finance representing North America.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent German actors Elisa Schlott (“Das Boot” TV series), Max Riemelt (“Sleeping Dog”) and Alma Hasun (“Corsage”) are set to star in Italian director Silvio Soldini‘s drama “The Tasters,” which reconstructs the untold true story of the women conscripted to be Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. Shooting is set to start on Friday in Italy’s northern Alto Adige region on the Nazi-era drama, which is being pre-sold at the Cannes Marché du Film by Rome-based Vision Distribution, headed by sales agent Catia Rossi.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korea’s Barunson E&A has picked up world sales rights to Vietnamese horror-comedy “Don’t Cry Butterfly.” Sales will be launched this week at the Cannes Market. Written and directed by Duong Dieu Linh, the Hanoi-set film follows a housewife who uses voodoo to try and get her cheating husband fall back into love with her, but instead invites a mysterious presence into the house.

EXCLUSIVE: The starry packages keep on coming at the Cannes market.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Bob Yari’s startup mini-major Magenta Light Studios has found its first in-house film production in “Summerhouse,” a period drama set against the anxiety of the Vietnam War. “Bombshell” and “Halloween” star Malcolm McDowell will lead the project with Jacob Ward, an up-and-comer who made his debut in Ray Romano’s 2022 film “Somewhere in Queens.” Ed Kaplan (“2 Graves in the Desert”) will write the script and direct, with Shelly Jonson (“Greyhound,” “Captain America: The First Avenger”) as director of photography. Production will begin in Connecticut this month.

EXCLUSIVE: Highland Film Group is launching international sales on the action film Alarum starring Sylvester Stallone, Scott Eastwood, and Willa Fitzgerald, which has just wrapped principal photography. 

Naman Ramachandran The film adaptation of popular comic strip “Natacha (Almost) Air Hostess” boasts an all-star cast. The cast includes Camille Lou (“Anthracite”), Vincent Dedienne (“We Can Be Heroes”), Fabrice Luchini (“The Empire”), Didier Bourdon (“Cocorico), Elsa Zylberstein (“Coup de Chance”), Isabelle Adjani (“Wingwomen”) and Baptiste Lecaplain (“Meet the Leroys”). The film is loosely based on the comic strip of the same name created by screenwriter François Walthéry, which was published by Editions Dupuy, and which comprises 23 albums and has sold more than five million copies.

The Pope’s Exorcist starring Russell Crowe has been given a sequel according to the film’s producer.Directed by Julius Avery (Samaritan), the supernatural horror film saw Crowe play real-life figure Father Gabriele Amorth, a Catholic priest who claimed to have performed thousands of exorcisms over his career.The film was based on Amorth’s books, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, released in 1990 and 1992 respectively. Other cast members included Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe and Franco Nero.The film became an unexpected box office success at the cinema, making $76.9 million (£61.25million) from a budget of $18million (£14million).Now, producer Jeff Katz, took to X, formerly Twitter, to say a sequel had been green lit.“I just got the call,” he wrote in a post, adding that “it’s officially happening.”He continued: “ Thank you to the amazing #ThePopesExorcist fans.

EXCLUSIVE: Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) has signed on to star in My One and Only, a psychological thriller from writer-director Wayne Kramer (The Cooler) that’s being presented for worldwide sales at Cannes by Film Bridge International.

EXCLUSIVE: Natalie Portman has joined the voice cast for French director Ugo Bienvenu’s upcoming animated feature Arco about a boy who uses rainbows to travel through time and his adventures as he gets stuck in the wrong era.

The Last Of Us and Game Of Thrones star Bella Ramsey is taking on a challenging and provocative role as they have been set to play the British terrorist Sherafiyah Lewthwaite, aka the White Widow, one of the West’s most wanted terrorism suspects.

EXCLUSIVE: London-based sales outfit Rapt Films International has acquired worldwide sales rights to Benjamin Howard’s debut US film Riley and will launch sales at the upcoming Cannes Market. 

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Mathew Rhys has been an “unabashed” fan of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas for as long as he can remember. He cemented his love of the writer — best known for his poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” — when he portrayed him in the 2008 biopic “The Edge of Love.” “When you tell most English people that you love Dylan Thomas, they go, ‘Grrr,’ because it’s such a cliché,” Rhys says. “But I’m unabashed that I’m a lifer.” He’ll play Thomas once again on May 14 in a one-night only stage reading of “Dear Mr.

EXCLUSIVE: Lizzy Greene (A Million Little Things) is set to star in and executive-produce High Tide, a survival thriller that strands a group of friends on a swiftly submerging tidal island deep in the Pacific, where they are soon hunted by the ocean’s greatest predator.

Alex Ritman Samuel L. Jackson and Henry Golding are set to lead the cast of psychological sci-fi thriller “Head Games,” to be directed by Anthony Mandler (“Surrounded,” “Monster”) from a script by Colin Liddle (“Penny Dreadful: City of Angels”) Range Media Partners’ Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger will produce with Brillstein Entertainment Partners’ Josh Glick and Everlast Pictures’ Adonis Tountas.

Naman Ramachandran Raven Banner Entertainment will launch international sales at the Cannes Film Market for Steven Kostanski‘s latest feature “Frankie Freako.” Kostanski’s previous feature “Psycho Goreman” premiered at SXSW in 2020 and gathered a cult following worldwide. Reviewing the film for Variety, critic Owen Gleiberman described the film as “‘The Toxic Avenger’ remade by the Robert Rodriguez of ‘Spy Kids.'” “Frankie Freako” is described by Raven Banner as Kostanki’s homage to the practical-FX-driven monster horror-comedies of the 1980s like “Gremlins 2” and “Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies Go to College.” It tells the story of workaholic yuppie Conor Sweeney (“The Editor,” “Father’s Day”) whose perfect life is turned upside down when he accidentally unleashes a trio of tiny trouble-makers into his home, led by the maniacal rock-n-roll party monster Frankie Freako.

EXCLUSIVE: Director Haifaa Al Mansour is returning to her native Saudi Arabia for the shoot of crime feature Unidentified, exploring the reality of women amid the current period of immense social change in the country.

Brent Lang Executive Editor FilmNation and Charades are teaming up to present “Alpha,” the new film from Julia Ducournau, to buyers at Cannes. It’s the same place where Ducournau caused a sensation with 2021’s “Titane,” her subversive and divisive body horror film, which won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top award.

Louis Leterrier (Fast X) will direct and produce 11817, a sci-fi horror film scripted by Matthew Robinson (The Invention of Lying) that is being presented to buyers at Cannes by Rocket Science.