Shah Rukh Khan, Suriya Cameos in R. Madhavan’s Directorial Debut ‘Rocketry,’ Premiering at Cannes Market

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has boarded “Darlings,” headlined by top Bollywood star Alia Bhatt and directed by feature debutant Jasmeet K. Reen.Written by Reen, Parveez Sheikh (“Queen”) and Vijay Maurya (Disney+ Hotstar series “The Great Indian Murder”), “Darlings” is billed as a dark comedy which explores the lives of a mother-daughter duo trying to find their place in Mumbai, seeking courage and love in exceptional circumstances while fighting against all odds.The film is produced by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment and Bhatt’s Eternal Sunshine Productions.

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.

It’s a very big day for Riley Keough!

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:  NEON has taken the North American distribution rights to Mark Jenkin’s horror feature Enys Men, starring Mary Woodvine and Edward Rowe. The deal was hatched before Cannes, ahead of the pic’s world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section.

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.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Argentina’s most bankable star, Adrian Suar, has wrapped his directorial debut “30 Noches Con Mi Ex” (“30 Nights With My Ex”) to which FilmSharks has snagged worldwide rights. The Buenos Aires-based sales and production outfit has already sold remake rights to Conchita Taboada of Spectrum Films for Mexico and to Italian producer Alessandro Usai of Colorado Films.Disney’s Star Distribution holds the theatrical distribution rights for Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, while Cinecolor snapped up rights to Peru, Chile and Colombia.

Lee Jung-jae, who made history with his work on “Squid Game,” is now making his directorial debut with the spy movie “Hunt,” which is premiering at Cannes.Although he’s the first Asian to win the Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild Awards for lead actor drama in Netflix’s dystopian drama, and likely will continue that history as the first to be nominated for an Emmy for a non-English speaking role, he hopes it won’t always be like this.“I hope later on we don’t need to put any boundaries like Asian men and non-Asian men,” he tells Variety. “I hope this boundary just doesn’t need to exist going forward.”While making “Hunt,” Lee described how he used persuasion versus control while working with actors. “Instead of control, I’d say we had a lot of conversations with the actors.

Yard Act have announced their biggest headline show to date and shared the new video for their track ‘100% Endurance’ – you can watch the clip below.The song is taken from the Leeds four-piece’s debut album ‘The Overload’, which arrived back in January.The video for ‘100% Endurance’ was filmed in Blackpool and directed by Yard Act’s longtime collaborator James Slater, with the clip starring the actor David Thewlis. “I’ve told my agent I’m only doing Yard Act videos from now on, though next time on a tropical island or a big yacht,” the Fargo and Harry Potter actor said in a statement.Speaking about the ‘100% Endurance’ video, Yard Act frontman James Smith added: “It was great shooting this video.

EXCLUSIVE: MUBI has picked up U.S. and Canadian rights to Ricky D’Ambrose’s The Cathedral starring Top Gun: Maverick’s Monica Barbaro.

EXCLUSIVE: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry is readying his next project, which will be on sale in the Cannes market with French seller Kinology.

Palme d’Or winning actress Léa Seydoux will star in Happening filmmaker Audrey Diwan’s English-language directorial debut, Emmanuelle, inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel and based on a script co-developed by Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski.

Naman Ramachandran “Le Musk,” the directorial debut of Oscar, BAFTA and Grammy winning Indian composer A.R. Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”), will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Market’s Cannes XR program.The 36-minute film is billed as a cinematic sensory experience incorporating virtual reality, with motion, music and scent integrated into the narrative. It follows heiress and musician Juliet Merdinian, who, 20 years since she was orphaned, seeks out the men who changed her destiny with one powerful memory — that of their scent.Rahman developed the story from an original idea by his wife Saira.

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.

Netflix’s upcoming Indian musical drama The Archies from director Zoya Akhtar has set its cast. The ensemble, who play characters from the iconic Archie Comics franchise, includes emerging talent such as Mihir Ahuja (Bard of Blood), Khushi Kapoor (The Garhwal Rifles) and Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana Khan in a but role.

EXCLUSIVE: Australian sales firm Odin’s Eye Entertainment has acquired Jonathan aux der Heide (Van Diemens Land) film Devil Inside and will launch the Ryan Kwanten-starring picture at 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.

Shah Rukh Khan’s Knight Riders Group has acquired the rights to own and operate Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, a franchise in the United Arab Emirates’ new T20 cricket league.The investment is led by Khan, along with Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta. It is the fourth Knight Riders-owned T20 franchise, after previous team launches in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Caribbean Premier League and Major League Cricket in the U.S.T20 is a quick-play, made-for-TV version of cricket, a sport that is wildly popular in the Indian subcontinent and parts of the Middle East.

David Cronenberg has found his next movie: thriller The Shrouds, which will star his Eastern Promises and Dangerous Method collaborator Vincent Cassel.

Sara Cox has graced our radios and television screens for over a quarter of a century. She has become a regular figure in many people’s daily lives with her variety of shows.