Inside Element Pictures: How the Irish Production Company Became a European Powerhouse, Yorgos Lanthimos Whisperer and Cannes Triple Threat

Living under the Royal spotlight, one wouldn't necessarily expect the Royal family to have much spare time due to their packed calendar of events. However, even members of the monarchy find occasional moments to unwind - and what could be more relatable than curling up to enjoy a spot of telly? Just last week, Queen Camilla sent fans into a frenzy when she confessed to being a fan of Bridgerton, during a visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, in perfect timing for a tour of a gorgeous garden inspired by the much-talked-about Netflix series.

CMAT has spoken to NME about the impressive cultural footprint of her native Ireland, as well as plans for her next album – which could arrive sooner than you think.Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson was speaking to us on the red carpet of the Ivor Novellos in London this week (Thursday May 23), where she was nominated for Best Album for the acclaimed ‘Crazymad, For Me‘ – but was already convinced that she wouldn’t win due to the competition she faced. The award was later picked up by Yussef Dayes.“Lankum are nominated for the award, who’ve already beat me for Irish album of the year – also RAYE, who won 75million awards at the BRITs and I just sat through that, twiddling my thumbs, not winning anything,” Thompson told NME.

Seemingly from out of nowhere, actor turned director Gilles Lellouche throws a Molotov Flanby into the Competition with only his second feature, a terrific and unexpectedly potent piece of genre filmmaking that could, to avoid spoilers, be described as a kind of mash-up of Badlands and La Haine, as if directed by Walter Hill. Throw in a little Eurocrime, from the likes of Fernando Di Leo and late-period Jean-Pierre Melville, and you’re getting close to what Lellouche has achieved here, a romantic banlieue opera that delivers all the gritty, vicarious thrills of the now-standard post-Goodfellas gangster movie but also burrows into issues of class and gender in refreshingly unpredictable ways.

This evening the Cannes Film Festival welcomed another world premiere of an ambitious French title with Beating Hearts (L’Amour Ouf). Gilles Lellouche’s competition entry from Studiocanal was greeted with a 15-minute standing ovation inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent A new Saudi Arabian film studio with deep pockets and Hollywood connections is launching from the Cannes Film Festival with a slate of film and TV projects. The Los Angeled-based 3SIX9 Studios – announced at an event on a yacht in the bay of Cannes – is co-founded by actor and producer Daya Fernández, who serves as CEO; Inga V.

When Lee Sung Jin’s limited series Beef wrapped production back in 2022, the cast and crew were so happy with the profound camaraderie they’d developed that they’ve attempted to meet for dinner at least once a week ever since — some irony for a story originally borne out of anger and resentment.

Emma Stone is set to team up with Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos again on the upcoming film Bugonia.Stone and Lanthimos are currently in Cannes to attend the premiere of another new collaboration, Kinds of Kindness, where they have announced their next project.Bugonia will be the pair’s fifth combination, following on from The Favourite, the short film Bleat, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness. It is set to co-star Jesse Plemons, who also appears in Kinds of Kindness, which gets a UK release on June 28.Bugonia will be based on a 2003 sci-fi film from South Korea named Save The Green Planet!, and it will tell the story of a group of conspiracy theorists who kidnap a CEO that they believe is trying to destroy the Earth.Earlier this year, Stone picked up her second Oscar for Poor Things, following on from her success for La La Land in 2017.Promoting the film, Stone went out of her way to respond to those who suggested that it was sexist and exploitative.

Fresh off his brief but scene-stealing performance in “Civil War,” Jesse Plemons is reteaming with six-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos for his next film, now titled “Bugonia,” which has landed at Focus Features for North America. Plemons is also one of the many ensemble talents in Lanthimos’ “Kinds Of Kindness,” which just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and co-stars Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, and Hunter Schafer (read our review).

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Yorgos Lanthimos can’t stop (won’t stop!) working with Oscar winner Emma Stone, casting the actress once again as leading lady for his next project “Bugonia.” The drama will also star Jesse Plemons who, along with Stone, appears in Lanthimos’ forthcoming “Kinds of Kindness.” That three-chapter feature just premiered on Friday at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “Bugonia” follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. The script is from heat-seeking “Succession” and “The Menu” writer Will Tracy.

Focus Features has taken worldwide rights to Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest project Bugonia, the remake of South Korean sci-fi comedy Save the Green Planet, which sees the Greek director reunite yet again with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. The trio are here in Cannes with their Competition title Kinds of Kindness, which had its world premiere Friday.

Tom Rothman, the Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman and CEO, wined and dined a select few at a splendidly swish soirée Friday at Mamo Michelangelo in Antibes, hosted by Charles Finch as part of his annual Filmmakers Dinner honoring 100 years of Columbia Pictures, and there was something he said about why movies matter that has stuck with me.

Christopher Vourlias The Intl. Emerging Film Talent Foundation (IEFTF), a new Athens-based venture established to provide support for unheard and unseen talent, launches May 18 at the Cannes Film Festival during the ceremony for the Arab Cinema Center film awards at the Plage des Palmes.

Following four Oscar wins just a few months ago for his Emma Stone-starrer Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos unveiled his latest feature at Cannes‘ Grand Theatre Lumiere this evening. His three-hour absurdist anthology Kinds of Kindness, also starring Stone as well as Willem Dafoe and Jesse Plemons, reaped a six-minute ovation.

CANNES – To be perfectly honest, we didn’t expect it would be so difficult to collect our thoughts regarding Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness.” A world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, this isn’t the first anthology film we’ve reviewed in our career, let alone one with an unconventional structure. Perhaps our hesitation is that we’re still rattled by what Lanthimos and longtime screenwriting collaborator Efthimis Filippo hope to provoke with three tales of people yearning for control and the excess of such constraints.

Who is RMF? We never do find out. Yorgos Lanthimos’ trio of stories in Kinds of Kindness are titled The Death of RMF, RMF is Flying and RMF Eats a Sandwich. 

Noémie Merlant’s star is rising as an actress. Baby Ruby and Tár won her international recognition across 2022 and 2023, while anticipation is growing around her starring role in Audrey Diwan’s English-language reboot of erotica classic Emmanuelle. In the meantime, Merlant is hitting Cannes with The Balconettes, her second film in the director’s chair after Mi iubita, mon amour. Set against a Marseille heatwave, the riotous comedy and gorefest co-stars Merlant alongside Souheila Yacoub and Sanda Codreanu as female flatmates who are pushed to the brink when a late-night drink with an attractive neighbor (played by Emily in Paris actor Lucas Bravo) takes a bloody turn.

Near the end of the miniseries Lawmen: Bass Reeves, David Oyelowo’s titular character is told something all too familiar to many unsung real-life heroes: “No one’s gonna ever know, but you made history today.”

Billy Corgan‘s new unscripted series Adventures in Carnyland has just dropped – watch the trailer below.The Smashing Pumpkins co-founder first announced the news in February, and the show will reportedly focus on his involvement in wrestling. Corgan has served as the president of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) since 2017.The eight-episode series, Billy Corgan‘s Adventures In Carnyland, is set to premiere on the CW on May 14 and will let fans “see behind the scenes of SP, Billy’s family and wedding, the NWA and more”.Speaking about the series, Corgan said: “Rebuilding the historic NWA brand has been both an honor and challenge, and this show opens the doors wide so to speak.

Anna Marie de la Fuente When an estimated 1,000 international TV buyers descend on Los Angeles for the annual TV event known as the LA Screenings, they will see a contracted market still recovering from the twin Hollywood strikes of last year and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the pandemic. It kicks off with the LA Screenings Independents, held May 15-17 for smaller studios and distributors at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel, which are then followed by screenings at the major studios’ respective lots across May 18-22 where they present their latest shows.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran producers Frida Torresblanco (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Frank Murray (First Reformed) have teamed up to launch Hangtime International Pictures, a new transatlantic production company headquartered in London and New York.