Samuel L. Jackson, Henry Golding to Lead Psychological Thriller ‘Head Games,’ Launching in Cannes With Higher Standard, CAA, Range

Tatiana Siegel An iconic woman needs an apt setting. So, to mark its 100th anniversary, Columbia Pictures has teamed with the Municipality of Cannes to put the studio’s instantly recognizable Torch Lady and roster of legendary actresses on full display as part of a free photographic exhibit in the historic city’s town square, just off the Croisette and with the Palais and Mediterranean Sea serving as a backdrop.

Before making Joachim Trier’s 2021 hit The Worst Person in the World, Renate Reinsve was about to jack it all in. Three years later — after A Different Man, with Sebastian Stan, Another Life, with Gael García Bernal, and Handling the Undead, a chiller from Let the Right One In writer John Ajvide Lindqvist — she now finds herself not just back in Cannes but doing double duty at the Sundance, Berlin and Tribeca film festivals (“It’s a running joke that I have two movies everywhere”). Reinsve takes the lead in the Swedish drama Armand, directed by Ingmar Bergman’s grandson Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel.

EXCLUSIVE: Quiver Distribution announced today the acquisition of North American rights to the upcoming psychological thriller Detained directed and co-written by Felipe Mucci (Two Deaths of Henry Baker) and Jeremy Palmer and starring Abbie Cornish (Amazon’s Jack Ryan, Bright Star, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Laz Alonso (Amazon’s The Boys, Avatar, Fast & Furious).

The most awaited film this year at the Cannes Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, had its world premiere Thursday night, with the dystopian epic decades in the making landing a seven-minute standing ovation.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” went wild for his latest high-octane action film, showering the movie with a six-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday night. Taylor-Joy blew kisses into the camera as the clapping continued at the end of the credits, performing a theatrical bow. Hemsworth looked teary-eyed at the rapturous response.

Omnes Films has a goal. “Our mission is to fill a void in modern cinema,” says its website. “Our films are passionate, ambitious works made by friends that favor atmosphere over plot and study the many forms of cultural decay in the 21st Century. Whatever the subject or genre, we seek projects that are original in conception and feel like they’ve never been made before.” It sounds wildly ambitious, and maybe it is, but Cannes audiences will be the judge of that when two of its films — Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point by Tyler Taormino and Eephus by Carson Lund — premiere in Directors’ Fortnight.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Game developers that have worked on Sid Meier’s “Civilization,” “XCOM” and “The Sims” have launched their own life sim-focused venture, Midsummer Studios, with backing from investors including Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions. Founded by Firaxis Games vets Jake Solomon (creative director) and Will Miller (game director), as well as chief operating officer and chief financial officer Nelsie Birch, Midsummer launches with $6 million raised in seed funding led by Transcend Fund, along with Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, Krafton and Day Zero Productions.

EXCLUSIVE: We can tell you that James Franco and Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones are leading the action thriller The Razor’s Edge from producer Corey Large (Paradise City, It Follows, The November Man) and filmmaker Demian Lichtenstein (3000 Miles to Graceland).

Queer Eye star Antoni Porowski has assembled a star-studded lineup of celebrity friends who will accompany him on a global culinary adventure in his upcoming Nat Geo docuseries No Taste Like Home. Awkwafina (A Real Bug’s Life), Henry Golding(The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare), James Marsden (Jury Duty),Florence Pugh (Oppenheimer), Issa Rae(Insecure) and Justin Theroux (The Leftovers) take a journey toward cultural and personal discovery with Porowski as their gastronomic guide in the docuseries produced by Gordon Ramsay’s Studio Global Ramsay. No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski is slated to premiere in spring 2025.

Mark Damon, a film producer, sales executive, and spaghetti Western actor, died at 91, representatives for the executive told Deadline.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Uncork’d Entertainment has pre-bought multi-territory rights to upcoming Argentinian-produced action-horror film “Eyes of the Abyss” ahead of its showcase in Cannes next week. Uncork’d has picked up the film, which is currently in post-production, for North America, the U.K. and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Alex Ritman Filming is now underway on action adventure movie “Afterburn,” starring Dave Bautista (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Dune”) and Samuel L. Jackson (“The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “Django Unchained”) with Olga Kurylenko (“Quantum of Solace,” “Black Widow”) and Kristofer Hivju (“The Gentlemen,” “Cocaine Bear”) rounding out the cast. The film is directed by J.J.

Chrissy Teigen, Andy Cohen, the cast of The Valley and numerous Real Housewives will be celebrating today after Bravo unveiled its latest programming slate.

Shoppers are heaping praise on an 89p Aldi product hailed a 'game changer' for anyone with hay fever. With pollen counts on the rise, an increasing number of us are looking to hay fever tablets, wipes and nasal sprays to ease symptoms.

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

EXCLUSIVE: Production, finance, and sales company Panorama Motion Pictures will make its Cannes market debut with a slate of projects from Catalyst Studios and other independent producers.

Alex Ritman Writer-director S. Craig Zahler (“Bone Tomahawk”) is set to reunite with his “Dragged Across Concrete” and “Brawl in Cell Block 99” star Vince Vaughn and Oscar winner Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”) for upcoming crime thriller “The Bookie & the Bruiser.” Anton will introduce the film to international distributors at the upcoming Marche du Film in Cannes. UTA Independent Film Group and Range Media Partners arranged the financing and will be representing the North American distribution rights.

Actress and filmmaker Judith Godrèche, who has been at the forefront of a fresh #MeToo wave in France this year, has been invited by the Cannes Film Festival to world premiere short film Moi Aussi in Official Selection.

EXCLUSIVE: Republic Pictures has acquired North American rights to Dreamquil, the psychological thriller starring Elizabeth Banks and John C. Reilly.

EXCLUSIVE: Political drama-thriller Words Of War, led by an ensemble including Maxine Peake, Ciarán Hinds, and Jason Isaacs, is heading to this month’s Cannes Market.