Elsa Keslassy International Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent REInvent has closed a French deal on “The Angel Maker,” a psychological thriller starring a top Nordic cast including Julie R. Ølgaard (“The Killing”), Roland Møller (“Riders of Justice”), Christopher Læssø (“The Bridge”) and Stine Stengade (“Those Who Kill”). The banner has sold the film to Koba Films in France and will be hosting a market screening at Cannes on the 18th. “The Angel Maker” tells the story of crime detective Laura who is specialized within cybercrime. Laura is on sick leave with a psychosis after a birth depression and by coincidence she stumbles upon a case with a beastly serial killer which piques her interest and she decides that it is time for her to return to her job as a crime detective.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent On the heels of his acclaimed stage performance at London’s National Theater for “Phaedra,” Assaad Bouab (“Call My Agent!,” “Bad Sisters”) is set to team with filmmaker Benjamin Ross (“The Frankenstein Chronicles”) and European production banner Asacha Media Group on “Voyager.” “Voyager” will star Bouab as legendary Medieval explorer and philosopher Ibn Battuta who went on pilgrimage to Mecca and ended up travelling for over twenty years and over 76000 miles across Africa, India and Eurasia, more than anyone in pre-modern history.  Battuta logged his experiences of the people, places and cultures he encountered along the way, writing one of the world’s earliest and most famous travelogues, The Rilah, and earning himself legendary status in history. The project is being developed as a series.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Playtime has boarded “Monsieur Aznavour,” the prestige biopic of legendary French-Armenian Charles Aznavour starring Tahar Rahim (“A Prophet,” “Napoleon”). Budgeted at €26 million, the film will start principal photography on May 30. Pathé has scooped French rights and will give it a wide release in theaters. Surely one of the hottest packages to hit this year’s Cannes market, the film will chart Aznavour’s sprawling life journey, from his poor childhood to his rise to fame, from his triumphs to his failures, from Paris to New York. Aznavour was devoted to his art until the very end, singing his songs in ten languages, on every stage, in every city, desperately searching for perfection. He sold more than 180 million records around the world.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Catherine Corsini, an outspoken queer activist and co-founder of France’s feminist organization 50:50, should have been celebrating her new film’s inclusion in the competition lineup of the Cannes Film Festival. Instead, she found herself in the middle of a firestorm after “Homecoming,” her coming-of-age story, failed to get the proper government approvals for a scene of a sexual nature involving two minors.   Corsini admits that mistakes were made. But she says that she took every effort to protect her young actors from being exploited.   That scene, which was eventually cut from the movie, became the object of wild rumors, which Corsini said are false, “crazy, completely out of control.” “I’m hallucinating at things I’m reading, accusing me of having forced Esther to do a blowjob or masturbate herself,” she said. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mk2 Films is set to reunite with Joachim Trier following “The Worst Person in the World,” the Norwegian helmer’s Cannes prize-winning and Oscar-nominated romantic comedy which was also a worldwide box-office hit. The Paris-based company will handle international sales and co-produce alongside Juliette Schrameck at Agat Films, who was also a co-producer on “The Worst Person in the World,” alongside Nathanaël Karmitz and Elisha Karmitz for MK Production. Mk2 films, Schrameck and the Karmitz brothers join producers Maria Ekerhovd at Mer Film and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar at Eye Eye Pictures.  Trier is writing his untitled sixth feature with his long-term collaborator Eskil Vogt, with whom he shared an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. “It is an ambitious yet playful family drama. An intimate, moving, and often funny film about family, memory, and how we need to rewrite the stories we tell about ourselves in order to survive,” said the pair.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent If you thought Johnny Depp starring in a film might be a lightning rod of controversy, imagine the movie’s director spitting on a journalist. “Jeanne du Barry” will open the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night, marking Depp’s return to the red carpet, following legal battles that have largely defined the actor for the past few years. Ahead of the film’s premiere, the director, French actor and filmmaker Maiwenn, admitted to assaulting a journalist by spitting on him. “She’s outspokenly anti-#MeToo and she made a gesture to please her world, and that’s why she bragged about it on TV. We could see a sort of pride that echoed that world,” journalist Edwy Plenel tells Variety in his first interview since the spitting incident. Plenel was referring to Maiwenn’s comments published by Paris Match in 2020, saying “It’s crazy how many stupidities they say these days! These women don’t like men, that’s clear, and they’re causing very serious collateral damages.” In that same interview she said “When I hear women complaining that men are only interested in their bottom, I tell them, ‘Enjoy it because it won’t last!'”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent REinvent Intl. Sales, the banner launched by former TrustNordisk CEO Rikke Ennis, has picked up “In the Name of God,” a thriller about a priest on a mission to expand his congregation at any cost. The film is directed by Ludvig Gür (“Pretending I’m a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story”) and stars Linus Wahlgren (“With One Eye Open,” “Beck”), Vilhelm Blomgren (“Midsommar,” “Gösta”) and Lisa Henni (“Rig 45,” “The Unthinkable”). The movie just wrapped filming.  The film revolves around Theodor, a 40-year-old priest whose world unravel after his wife becomes ill. He becomes convinced that he has been chosen by God to rid the world of sinners in order to bring new life to true believers.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The last love of Franz Kafka, the celebrated Czech author of “Metamorphosis,” will be portrayed in romantic drama “The Glory of Life.” TrustNordisk has boarded international sales ahead of Cannes, while Majestic is handling the domestic rights. Currently shooting, “The Glory of Life” is directed by Georg Maas (“Two Lives”) and is inspired by the love story between Kafka and Dora Diamant. The period drama was penned by Michael Gutmann and Maas. Producers are Helge Sasse and Solveig Fina for Tempest Film and Tommy Pridnig for Lotus Film. Kafka and Diamant met in 1923 on the Baltic Sea coast, a year before the author died from tuberculosis. The worldly wise Diamant, who was working in a Jewish community, took him to Berlin, and as Kafka’s health deteriorates rapidly, they traveled together to a sanatorium in Austria. The memory of their time together will shape Diamant for the rest of her life.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cannes Film Festival’s chief Thierry Fremaux asked journalists Monday if they really believed Cannes was celebrating rapists, as recently suggested by “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” actor Adele Haenel in an open letter published last week in Telerama. Haenel, who quit acting in films after Roman Polanski won best director at the Cesar Awards in 2020, said she retired from the film industry for political reasons, and said Cannes was “ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs,” citing Polanski, Gerard Depardieu and Dominique Boutonnat, the president of the National Film Board (CNC). Fremaux told journalists at a press conference ahead of the 2023 festival’s opening night that Haenel, who was at Cannes to present “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” in competition in 2019, was making “radical” comments that were “false.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The city of Cannes has banned protests along the Croisette and its surroundings during the Cannes Film Festival. The labor union CGT, which is represented by Denis Gravouil on the administration board of the Cannes Film Festival, is still preparing a large demonstration on May 21 but it will take place along Boulevard Carnot, far away from the Croisette and from the festival’s headquarters. There will also be a rally of hospitality workers, including staff from hotels, cafes and restaurants, in front of the Carlton hotel – whose famous guests this year include Martin Scorsese — on May 19, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The rally, which will likely involve protesters banging saucepans to express their anger, is technically allowed because the front of the Carlton is a private area.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “False Flag” director Oded Raz is set to direct “Jerusalem 67,” an epic period thriller retelling Israel’s unlikely victory during the Six Day War in 1967. The long-gestating project is getting ready to shoot on location in Jerusalem on Aug. 16 and is being produced by New York-based Joseph Schick, a U.S. lawyer who started developing it over a decade ago. Yael Grobglas (“Supergirl”) is in advanced negotiations to play the lead role as a civilian haunted by a painful childhood who leaves her family to serve on the frontlines of war. Itzik Cohen, whose acting credits include “Fauda” and “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” is in advanced negotiations to join the cast.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Orange Studio is launching several French projects at the Cannes Film Market, including Simon Bouisson’s “Drone,” a thriller produced by Haut et Court (“The Night of the 12th”), and “Miss Violet,” a period drama directed by Eric Besnard (“Delicious”) and starring Alexandra Lamy (“Rolling to You”). Bouisson, who is directing “Drone,” previously penned and directed the short-format series “Stalk” which was hit on France Televisions’ youth-centered service and has been optioned for a remake in the U.S. The thriller stars Marion Barbeau, the dancer-turned-actor who broke through in Cedric Klapisch’s “Rise,” as well as Eugénie Derouand (“Paris Police”), Cédric Kahn (“November”) and Stefan Crepon (“Peter Von Kant”)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Backup Systems, the Paris-based company behind the owner of the cloud-based app MovieChainer, has launched Connect, which is being presented as the first AI-powered app enabling smart data upload and data management for filmmakers. Rolled out on the eve of the Cannes Film Market, this new tool has been created to help filmmakers with non-creative tasks and has been designed to identify entertainment-related data, including all sorts of creative, financial and contractual data used in the film and TV industry. The app scans hard drives or dedicated folders in search for user’s raw material – scripts, videos, contracts, budgets, accounting reports etc, automatically archives files at the right place in user’s own cloud-based secured drive. Connect also identifies relevant data contained in the files and extract them to feed user’s database – enabling data-centric approaches and models to generate intelligence for the user. Backup Systems will be at Cannes to present the app.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, whose movies “The Square” and “Triangle of Sadness” have won two of the past five Palmes d’Or, will attend Cannes this year not as a competitor but as jury president. Over a lively phone chat, Östlund (who lives on Majorca with his fashion-photographer wife, Sina Görtz, and their son) shares his wildest aspirations for the festival. What made you want to take on the role of jury president? When you look at the history of who has been the president of the Cannes Film Festival’s jury, you get humbled. My biggest inspirations come from the directors connected to this festival. And the way Cannes is fighting for the intellectual European perspective of cinema is something that is important and unique in the world.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ulrich Thomsen (“”Festen,” “Banshee”), Rasmus Hammerich (“On My Mind”), Ida Marie Nielsen (“Vikings”) and Diêm Camille (“Washington Black”) are set to headline “Ripple,” a graduation film by promising new director Joey Moe and producer Jasmin Jiramani. Jiramani recently delivered the Star Wars fan film “Shrouded Destiny: A Star Wars Long Tale” starring Lars Mikkelsen, who has also been in the Disney+ Star Wars series “Ahsoka.”  Moe and Jiramani, who are both students of the prestigious Danish film school Super8, said “Ripple” explores why people spend so much time obsessing over macabre true crime tales.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sales banner Best Friend Forever has unveiled the teaser for Ramata Toulaye-Sy’s buzzed-about Senegalese drama “Banel & Adama,” which is the sole feature debut slated for the competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The lushly lensed female emancipation drama, set to bow on May 20, takes place in a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues. The film was shot in Pulaar language with a cast of local non-professional actors, including Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine Sy and Moussa Sow.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Frida Kempff (“Winter Buoy”) is set to direct “The Swedish Torpedo,” a period film inspired by the life of Sally Bauer, the first Scandinavian to swim across the English Channel in 1939. The prominent Nordic cast is led by Josefin Neldén (“Border,” “438 Days”), Mikkel Boe Følsgaard (“Royal Affair,” “Borgen”), as well as Lisa Carlehed (“The Emigrants”). Produced by David Herdies and Erik Andersson at Momento Film, the film will start shooting in August in Sweden, Estonia, Belgium and England. “Five years ago I didn’t know who Sally Bauer was and even less what she had achieved. Five days ahead of the outbreak of WWII she swam across the English Channel,” said Kempff I feel this is a story that needs to be told, about a woman who accomplished the impossible and shattered both social norms and world records.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Viaplay Content Distribution has closed the first raft of deals for its ambitious action drama film “Stockholm Bloodbath” directed by Mikael Håfström. Ahead of Viaplay’s official streaming premiere in 2024, “Stockholm Bloodbath” will be distributed in the Nordics by Scanbox Entertainment. It will roll out in Denmark on Jan. 18th and in Sweden and Norway on Jan. 19. Splendid Film, meanwhile, has acquired all rights for Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. “Stockholm Bloodbath” is part of Viaplay Content Distribution’s roster which will be unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival to international buyers. The company will present new and exclusive material from the film.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off a successful collaboration on “Charlatan,” Films Boutique has boarded Agnieszka Holland’s next film “The Green Border,” which just completed principal photography in Poland. Now in post production, “The Green Border” tells the fateful story of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by President Lukaschenko opening doors to migrants in Belarus as a back door to enter the EU.  The screenplay, penned by Holland, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Maciej Pisuk, is inspired by real events. Research for the film included hundreds of hours of document analysis, interviews with refugees, border guards, borderland residents, activists and experts.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Flo,” a biopic of popular French sailor Florence Arthaud slated to world premiere at Cannes’ Cinema de la Plage, has been boarded by Other Angle. The French sales company will introduce the film to buyers at Cannes. Set to unspool on May 19, “Flo” charts Arthaud’s unique achievement in the male-dominated world of sailing, notably her victory of the Route du Rhum, a transatlantic sailing race, in 1990. The movie also portrays Arthaud as a fiercely independent woman who chose to live her dreams to the fullest rather than follow her pre-determined path. The film is directed by Geraldine Danon and is produced by Manuel Munz, in association with Metropolitan which will release the film in French theaters on Nov. 25.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Can you believe it took 75 years to nominate a woman as the president of the Cannes Film Festival?” Iris Knobloch asks, reflecting on her 2022 appointment as the fest’s top executive. Known for her strong will, the chic, charismatic German is used to being a rare woman in power — she essayed various roles at the top of WarnerMedia in Europe for 25 years, where she cultivated relationships with such Hollywood players as Warner Bros. Discovery consultant and former Disney chief Alan Horn, filmmakers Christopher Nolan and Todd Phillips, Amazon Studios and MGM film head Courtenay Valenti and Amazon Studios marketing chief Sue Kroll.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Noémie Merlant, the French actor of “Tár,” is reteaming with Celine Sciamma, who directed her in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” for her sophomore outing, “The Balconettes.” The fantastical comedy horror movie is being written by Merlant with the collaboration of Céline Sciamma. MK2 Films will launch sales at the Cannes Film Market. Filming is slated to begin this summer. Set in a boiling Marseille neighborhood plagued by a heat wave, the movie revolves around three roommates who gleefully meddle in the lives of their neighbors from their balcony. Until a late-night drink turns into a bloody affair. Merlant stars in the film alongside Souheila Yacoub (“Dune”) and Sanda Codreanu (“Mi Iubita Mon Amour”).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The birth of the hip and naughty Irish-language rap group Kneecap will be portrayed in a raucous anti-establishment comedy penned and directed by Rich Peppiatt (“One Rogue Reporter”). The film, which wrapped shooting this month, features the eponymous trio (Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí) who play heightened versions of their own lives against the backdrop of post-Troubles Belfast. The politically engaged band has gained critical acclaim for their artful blend of Irish and English rap about the gritty reality of growing up in Northern Ireland. French sales and co-production house Charades has boarded “Kneecap” and will be representing the film in international sales, while Curzon and Wildcard will handle the distribution in the U.K. and Ireland.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s topical third feature, “The Good Teacher,” co-written by “Happening” filmmaker Audrey Diwan. François Civil, the French star of “The Three Musketeers” and “The Wolf’s Call,” stars as a young teacher wrongfully accused of sexual misconduct by a teenage girl from his class. As he faces mounting pressures from the girl’s older brother and her classmates, the situation spirals out of control: Allegations spread, the entire school is thrown into turmoil, and the teacher has to fight to clear his name. “The Good Teacher” marks the second collaboration between Indie Sales and Lussi-Modeste following “The Price of Success” which screened at Toronto and San Sebastián New Directors’ competition. “The Price of Success was picked up by Netflix for a multi-territory deal including the US.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Adèle Haenel, the French star of Cannes prize-winning film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” vanished from the film world in the aftermath of the 2020 Cesar Awards ceremony. That year, Roman Polanski won best director and Haenel, who was on the ground for her nomination with “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” walked out of the ceremony in a burst of anger upon hearing Polanski’s name, shouting “Bravo pedophilia!” Several months prior, Haenel had accused French director Christophe Ruggia of having sexually harassed her for years starting when she was just 12 years old, prompting the birth of France’s #MeToo movement. Since then, Haenel exited the movie biz to dedicate herself to political activism, as well as theater and dance with the artist Gisèle Vienne. She recently appeared on French TV to support the strike and protest against the country’s unpopular pension reform.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Netflix is set to give its hit reality series “Love Is Blind” a German-language adaptation. The format makeover, currently in production, will bring together singletons in Germany, Austria and Swiss who have signed up for a less conventional approach to modern dating. Netflix is rolling off the success of “Too Hot To Handle: Germany.” As part of the format, 30 singles begin this 10-episode show by talking to potential partners without being distracted by the other person’s appearance. They then propose to their chosen partner and only then see their fiancé for the first time. Back in the real world, couples will try to complement their emotional bond with a physical one as they plan their wedding day together.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Anonymous Content has come on board California surf-themed animated feature adapted from illustrator AJ Dungo’s celebrated graphic memoir, “In Waves.” Produced by Paris-based Silex Films, “In Waves” marks the feature debut of Phuong Mai Nguyen (“Brazen”), and is being penned by Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux, whose screenwriting credits include “After Love” and “The Origin of Evil.” The feature is produced by Priscilla Bertin and Judith Nora, co-Founders of Silex Films, alongside Charades and Nick Shumaker, Garrett Kemble, and David Levine who will executive produce on behalf of Anonymous Content.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Netflix has set Xavier Gens’ (“Gangs of London”) untitled Paris-set genre movie starring Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist“) and Nassim Lyes (“Overdose”) as its next French film original. Set in the Summer of 2024, the film unfolds in Paris which is hosting the World Triathlon Championships on the Seine for the first time. Sophia, a brilliant scientist, learns from Mika, a young environmental activist, that a large shark is swimming deep in the river. To avoid a bloodbath at the heart of the city, they have no choice but to join forces with Adil, the Seine river police commander. Bejo and Lyes star in the film opposite Léa Léviant. The film is produced by Let Me Be and is slated for a launch on Netflix in 2024.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent AC Independent and The Veterans have teamed up on the film adaptation of William Sleator’s cult 1974 science fiction novel “House of Stairs.” The elevated genre movie will star Jacob Tremblay (“Room,” “Good Boys”) and will be directed by Wi Ding Ho, whose 2018 movie “Cities of Last Things” won a prize at Toronto in the competitive Platform section. “House of Stairs”‘s film adaptation is penned by Matthew McInerney-Lacombe (“ICBM”).  Set in a dystopian America in the near future, the high-concept film follows five 16-year-old orphans who wake up to find themselves in a strange building with no walls, no ceiling, and no floor: nothing but endless flights of stairs leading in every direction, seemingly infinite. To find an exit, the five teenagers must learn to deal with the others’ disparate personalities, the lack of privacy and comfort, their clear helplessness, and a machine that only feeds them under increasingly ominous situations.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Pulsar Content has acquired “Niki,” a film about the famous French-American artist Niki de Saint-Phalle, for international sales. The Paris-based banner will introduce the period project to buyers at the Cannes market with exclusive first stills. “Niki” marks the feature debut of popular French actor Céline Sallette and stars Charlotte Le Bon (“The Walk” “Saint-Laurent”) as de Saint-Phalle. Le Bon recently made her feature debut with “Falcon Lake” — which bowed at Cannes last year — and previously starred in Robert Zemeckis’s “The Walk,” as well as Terry George’s “The Promise” and Jalil Lespert’s “Saint-Laurent.” Le Bon stars in “Niki” opposite Damien Bonnard (“Les Misérables“).