Cannes is ending with mixed results. Early market activity indicated how the French festival also wasn’t able to pull the market out of the slump. And now it seems like a classic case of bulls vs. bears. On the one side Variety is reporting ‘Cannes reels in deals,’ but on the other side there’s another piece saying ‘Cannes market signs caution tune.’ Conclusion: some deals, but the dead market isn’t showing much signs of life.

“Some big deals are going down today. But overall, feedback from the market is that it’s somewhat sober,” Cannes director Jerome Paillard said. As at the other festivals this year, everybody is still cautious. Nobody wants to buy another ‘Speed Racer.’ “Too much financing created an insane number of films and more for people to buy, but (ultimately) they pick and choose the movies they want to buy,” ICM exec Hal Sadoff said.

Continue reading False alarm: still SOME deals at Cannes

Farlanders

Release date: TBA, 2009
Budget: unknown

Director: Sam Mendes
Actors: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jeff Daniels
Produced by: Big Beach Films, Neal Street and Edward Saxon Productions
Filming location: Connecticut

There isn’t as much info on ‘Farlanders’ as in our last ‘In production’ post about ‘Bunraku,’ but I’ll work with what I’ve got here. ‘Farlanders’ is Sam Mendes’ sixth movie since he made it big with ‘American Beauty’ in 1999. Yes, it’s almost ten years since you first saw ‘American Beauty,’ which got no less than 5 Oscars.

Continue reading In production: ‘Farlanders’

The four-time Academy Award winners (9 nominations) Joel and Ethan Coen are opening Venice this year with their new film ‘Burn After Reading.’ The movie will star none other than George Clooney, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt. It’s being produced by Working Title Films for Focus Features and finished shooting last Fall.

The comedy follows the story of a CIA agent who gets fired for being an alcoholic. After writing down his memoirs in revenge, he accidently leaves them in the gym, where the gym’s owner finds them.

‘Burn After Reading’ will open the 65th Venice Film Festival August 27.