Greta Lee & Kingsley Ben-Adir In Negotiations To Star In Louis Leterrier’s Sci-Fi Horror ‘11817’ — Cannes Market Hot Project

EXCLUSIVE: Goodfellas has acquired world sales rights for Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa’s Tokyo-set drama Renoir ahead of the project’s presentation in the Investors Circle event at the Cannes Marché du Film on Sunday.

EXCLUSIVE: Katie Holmes (Woman In Gold), Toby Kebbell (War For The Planet Of The Apes) and Oscar winner Al Pacino (The Irishman) have joined thriller Captivated, which International Film Trust is launching for sales in Cannes.

“It’s f–ing hard to make a good airplane movie,” Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund emphasized multiple times this morning in Cannes as he spoke to international press about his plans for The Entertainment System Is Down, the latest feature he has set to direct starring a buzzy cast led by Kirsten Dunst and Daniel Brühl. 

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee Bill Nighy (Living), Indie Spirit nominee Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place I & II), BAFTA nominee George MacKay (1917) and BAFTA nominee Matt Smith (The Crown) are set to star in acclaimed Argentinian filmmaker Pablo Trapero’s (El Clan) English-language movie debut & Sons, which is being scripted by Oscar winner Sarah Polley (Women Talking).

EXCLUSIVE: Riverdale and Hustlers star Lili Reinhart is set to lead mystery thriller American Sweatshop, whose producers include Oscar winner Barry Levinson (Rain Man) and acclaimed American showrunner Tom Fontana (Oz) who will be producing his first feature.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Female stunt performer Wiriya Caesar will step up into the lead performer role in upcoming Thai action film “The 24.” The film project is being launched this week in the Cannes Market by new international sales firm Boz Pictures. Wiriya (aka Porntip Wiriya, aka “Fan”) has previously been a stunt double for Mary-Elizabeth Winstead in “Kate” and Golshifteh Farahani in “Extraction,” and has other credits on “Thirteen Lives” and “Hidden Strike.” In “The 24” she will star as an assassin who wakes up with a time bomb strapped to her body. She has clear instructions to kill a hit list of 24 members of the Bangkok underground, with each successful hit buying her more time alive. Caesar is joined in the cast by Japan’s Sakaguchi Tak (“Re:Born,” “One Percenter,” “Versus”), Dan Chupong (“Ong Bak 1 &2,” “Born to Fight”), Sunny Pang (“The Night Comes for Us,” “Headshot” and Gareth Evans’ upcoming “Havoc”) and Simon Kook (“Ip Man 3,” “Mayhem”). The film, which will shoot in the fourth quarter of this year, is written and directed by Lee Thongkham (“The Maid,” “The Lake,” “Kitty the Killer”).

Keanu Reeves (John Wick) is now confirmed for Ruben Östlund’s anticipated upcoming film The Entertainment System Is Down and we can reveal that he’ll be joined in the cast by Kirsten Dunst (Civil War) and Daniel Brühl (Rush).

Greta Gerwig addressed the growing #MeToo movement in France at the jury press conference on opening day of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “I think people in the community of movies telling us stories and trying to change things for the better is only good,” Gerwig said when asked how she felt about #MeToo-related rumors swirling ahead of the festival. “I have seen substantive change in in the American film community, and I think it’s important that we continue to expand that conversation.

EXCLUSIVE: Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood, Daredevil) is set to star in horror-thriller The Cycle, which will be launched for sales at the Cannes market by The Exchange.

EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Phillippe (Shooter) and Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) are leading thriller The Patient, which is launching in the Cannes market with International Film Trust.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Pinnacle Peak Pictures is bringing a slate of faith-based films to the Cannes market, including a new installment in the “God’s Not Dead” franchise. Entitled “God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust,” the film will be released theatrically in the U.S. this fall, but, like the rest of Pinnacle’s slate, foreign territories are available to buyers.

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).

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winning producers See-Saw Films (The King’s Speech) are gearing up on Tenzing, about the inspirational life of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and his summit of Mount Everest in 1953 alongside fellow outsider New Zealander Edmund Hillary.

EXCLUSIVE: The in-demand Sydney Sweeney, coming off hit rom-com Anyone But You and horror pic Immaculate, is shifting gears again as she is set to portray trailblazing boxer Christy Martin in a new biopic which could be a knockout for buyers at the Cannes market where Black Bear will be launching.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator) will re-team with his Unhinged director Derrick Borte on the action-thriller Bear Country.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Playmaker has signed with Neopol Film to handle international sales for their upcoming creature horror thriller, “Paws.” Featuring polar bear creature animatronics from the renowned studio behind “Star Wars” and “Jurassic World,” the film tells the story of a climate researcher stranded in the Arctic who must forge an unlikely alliance with a polar bear in order to survive. The project will feature a stellar international cast, yet to be announced.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Olivia Colman and John Lithgow head the cast of “Jimpa,” a multi-generational family tale involving a nonbinary teenager and her mother who take a trip to see their gay grandfather. The Australia- and Europe-set film is directed by Sophie Hyde, whose most recent film was the breakout “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.” The film is now in its third week of production in Amsterdam and will later shoot in Adelaide, Australia and Helsinki, Finland. Rights to the film are being handled by Protagonist Pictures in much of the world and by CAA Media Finance in North America, with sales kicking off at the Cannes Market next week.

Vin Diesel is set to enter production on Riddick: Furya, the anticipated fourth installment of the Riddick franchise, on August 26.

EXCLUSIVE: Nicolas Cage, FKA Twigs, Noah Jupe and Souheila Yacoub are set to star in Egyptian-American director Lotfy Nathan’s The Carpenter’s Son exploring the rarely told story of the childhood of Jesus with a horror take.