Sophie Cookson & Lucien Laviscount Underway On Rom-Com ‘This Time Next Year’; Protagonist Launching For Cannes Market

EXCLUSIVE: The Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film has unveiled a new exclusive event, bannered the Cannes Investors Circle, aimed at connecting high-caliber, global feature film projects with private investors.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Los Angeles-based sales agency MultiVisionnaire Pictures has acquired worldwide rights, outside of Japan, to “Samurai Ninja Onimanji.” The picture is a gory-fantasy-action film by Japanese VFX master, artist, and director Nishimura Yoshihiro. Nishimura is a prolific special effects artist with over 100 film credits ranging from effects work to writing and directing. Credits across the J-sploitation genre include “Tokyo Gore Police,” “Meatball Machine Kodoku” and the recent “Tokyo Dragon Chef.”

EXCLUSIVE: Tom Hiddleston (Thor franchise) and Mark Hamill (Star Wars) are set to star in new Stephen King adaptation The Life Of Chuck, which will be a hot package at the upcoming Cannes market.

EXCLUSIVE: Peter Sarsgaard (Dopesick, The Batman) and Mackenzie Davis (Station Eleven, Terminator: Dark Fate) have signed on to star in The Damning Of A Country Merchant, a horror pic from Anonymous Content, Two Independent Eyes, and Anti-Worlds, who have partnered to produce.

EXCLUSIVE: LA-based firm Jackrabbit Media is launching international sales on Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries) comedy Sick Girl ahead of the Cannes market.

Joseph Fiennes made an impression on TV viewers as Gilead’s nefarious Commander Fred Waterford on “The Handmaid’s Tale”, and he’s now playing an even more villainous role in “The Mother”, an upcoming Netflix movie starring Jennifer Lopez as a former assassin who is forced out of retirement when the life of her daughter is threatened.

Here is another hot package set to hit the Cannes Market later this month as Sebastian Lelio has set Voyagers as his next film at FilmNation Entertainment with Andrew Garfield attached to play astronomer Carl Sagan and Daisy Edgar-Jones attached to play Ann Druyan.

With the start of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival now only two weeks away, sales at the Cannes Market this year begin to trickle out. And there’s already been some intriguing movies announced for the market already, like “Andorra,” “One For The Money,” and “The Invite.” Add another to the list: Deadline reports that FilmNation has an action thriller starring Dave Bautista for sale on the Croisette this year titled “Cooler.” “Hotel Artemis” director Drew Pearce is on board to direct.

EXCLUSIVE: Amid simmering unease over the impact of the writers’ strike, the upcoming Cannes market is getting a shot in the arm with the arrival of Guy Ritchie’s next project, a big-budget untitled action movie which will star Henry Cavill (Man Of Steel), Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Spider-Man: Far From Home) and Eiza González (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw).

EXCLUSIVE: Seann William Scott (The Wrath Of Becky, American Pie franchise) has signed on to star in The Last Bachelor, a romantic comedy from director Luke Greenfield (The Girl Next Door, Something Borrowed).

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International A long-anticipated adaptation of the 2003 bestselling novel “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi is hitting the Marché du Film at Cannes this month. Directed by award-winning director Eran Riklis (“Lemon Tree”) and written by Marjorie David, the film stars an ensemble cast led by Golshifteh Farahani (“Pirates of the Caribbean”), Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (“Holy Spider”) and Mina Kavani (“Red Rose”). Set in post-revolution Iran as extremism took hold, Nafisi’s book tells the autobiographical story of a fearless teacher who secretly gathered seven of her female students to read forbidden Western classics.

Iranian-American writer Azar Nafisi’s classic memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran has been adapted for the big screen with an ensemble cast led by actors Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson) and Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (Holy Spider).

EXCLUSIVE: Liev Schrieber (Ray Donovan) is in negotiations for the lead role in action-thriller The Guns Of Christmas Past, which will be directed by Xavier Gens (Gangs Of London).

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman), Tom Basden (After Life) and Tim Key (Love Wedding Repeat) are set to star in comedy One For The Money, which Bankside Films is launching for world sales ahead of the Cannes market.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based sales and production company Charades and London-based production and financing studio Anton are partnering on the worldwide sales of Oscar-winning Australian director Adam Elliot’s upcoming stop-motion drama Memoir Of A Snail.

Naman Ramachandran Isla Gie (“The Sandman”) will star alongside Martin Freeman (“Sherlock,” The Hobbit”) in the upcoming feature film adaptation of the New York Times bestselling novel “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery.” Protagonist Pictures is launching international sales on the title and will introduce to buyers at the upcoming Cannes film market. CAA Media Finance are handling North America. Adapted by Susan Coyne (“Daisy Jones and the Six”), the film will follow the adventures of 11-year-old Flavia de Luce (Gie), who is both an amateur detective and a master poisoner. When she discovers a dead body in her family’s decaying British manor house and her father is accused of the murder, Flavia launches her own investigation to uncover family secrets and bring the true murderer to justice.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-winner Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) will star alongside Oscar-nominee Kate Hudson (Glass Onion) and actress and model Kaia Gerber (Babylon) in psychological thriller Shell from director Max Minghella (Teen Spirit).

Sony is determined to bring moviegoers back to comedies in theaters and they just dated their Will Gluck directed Anyone But You for Dec. 15.

The recently launched Toonz Feature Film and China’s Golden Valley Films have struck a co-production and co-financing deal for six animated pictures over the course of the next three years.

Christina Hendricks (Mad Men, The Neon Demon) has signed on to lead the psychological thriller Reckoner, written and directed by Nissar Modi (Z for Zachariah) in his feature directorial debut.