Will some serious star power reinvigorate the Cannes Film Market?
That’s the big question facing sales agents as studios and streamers hit the Croisette on the prowl for compelling new movies. At Sundance, Berlin and Toronto, the movie business seemed to be in the throes of a massive contraction. Having spent freely while launching their own in-house challengers to Netflix, studios like Warner Bros., Disney and Paramount, along with their indie brethren, were in full-on cost-cutting mode. Complicating matters was the fact that after being burned by overspending for projects and packages at festivals in the past, tech giants like Apple and Amazon have instead concentrated on producing in-house content. That left many filmmakers still searching for distribution long after the crowds dispersed.
But there’s something about the sunshine — or maybe the free-flowing rosé — in the South of France that always leads to a bidding war or two. Here’s a look at 16 projects that have buyers buzzing and that maybe, just maybe, could have Hollywood spending like it’s 2019 again.
“Bunker”
Cast: Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz
Director: Florian Zeller
Agency: CAA, WME, FilmNation (International)
Why Buyers Care: Zeller, the director of the Oscar-winning “The Father” and an acclaimed playwright, returns to the screen with this thriller about an architect tapped to construct a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire. It all sounds very on point given how much the wackier branch of the one percent has been in the headlines of late. (We may or may not be referencing a certain godfather of all things DOGE). Throw in real-life married couple Bardem and Cruz, who are usually electrifying when paired on film, and you have all the ingredients for something special.
“Urchin”
Cast: Frank Dillane, Megan Northam
Director: Harris Dickinson
Agency: Charades
Why Buyers Care: Dickinson shows a different side of himself, making his feature directorial debut with this story of a drifter trying to reintegrate into society. This film makes its debut in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and — sight unseen — the early buzz is strong, with Dickinson apparently delivering a compelling portrait of how the system fails people dealing with mental health issues.
“Untitled Celebrity Pass Comedy”
Cast: Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, Ben Wang, John Slattery
Director: David Wain
Agency: WME
Why Buyers Care: It’s a “Mad Men” reunion, with Hamm and Slattery sharing the screen alongside Deutch in this story of a woman whose relationship with her fiancé is threatened after he uses his celebrity hall pass. R-rated comedies, once among the most reliably commercial of genres, seem poised for a resurgence and Wain, who has scored with the likes of “Role Models” and “Wet Hot American Summer,” knows how to get big laughs.
“Ruin”
Cast: Gal Gadot, Matthias Schoenaerts
Director: Niki Caro
Agency: UTA, WME, CAA, The Veterans (International)
Why Buyers Care: As “Mulan” proved, Caro can stage a historical set piece with the best of them. And she has an evocative backdrop with “Ruin,” which takes place in the aftermath of World War II and follows a recently released camp prisoner (Gadot) who teams up with a German soldier (Schoenaerts) to exact revenge on a Nazi SS squad.
“Alma”
Cast: Pamela Anderson, Dakota Fanning, Lindsay Duncan
Director: Sally Potter
Agency: Bankside
Why Buyers Care: The “Pamissance” continues. Anderson, fresh off her buzzy turn in “The Last Showgirl,” leads an ensemble that includes Fanning and Duncan in this story of a family who reunite to scatter the ashes of their mother. Instead of a nice send off and a few shared remembrances, they are left to deal with her continued haunting presence. Potter, who made arthouse classics like “Orlando,” has a particular knack for spinning these kind of offbeat yarns.
“The Invite”
Cast: Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton
Director: Olivia Wilde
Agency: FilmNation, UTA
Why Buyers Care: Wilde has an enviable track record behind the camera, having directed the critically adored “Booksmart” and the commercially successful head-spinner “Don’t Worry Darling.” This relationship comedy sounds like an envelope pusher (in a good way), telling the story of a couple whose “get to know you” with the neighbors also unearths some deeply repressed feelings and unexplored sexuality. It will be interesting how a comic genius like Rogen plays off Norton and Cruz, who, though award-winning thespians, have shown they know how to deliver a punch line in films like “Birdman” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
“The Six Billion Dollar Man”
Director: Eugene Jarecki
Agency: WME
Why Buyers Care: Jarecki is no stranger to hot-button issues and controversial figures, having previously tackled everything from the War on Drugs to the military industrial complex to Henry Kissinger. With his latest documentary, “The Six Billion Dollar Man,” Jarecki examines Julian Assange and the debate around press freedom that the Wikileaks founder kicked off. The film, which should spark fierce debate when it screens at Cannes, boasts never before-seen archival footage. It debuts roughly a year after Assange reached a plea deal and was released from prison in the U.K.
“Strange Arrivals”
Cast: Colman Domingo, Demi Moore
Director: Roger Ross Williams
Agency: WME, CAA, Rocket Science (International)
Why Buyers Care: Oscar-winning director Williams teams up with Moore and Domingo, who were fellow Academy Award nominees this year for their work in “The Substance” and “Sing Sing,” to tell the true story of Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple who, in 1961, became the first reported case of an alien abduction. It’s based on a podcast of the same name by Toby Ball and boasts a script by Jane Anderson, best known for adapting “Olive Kitteridge” into an Emmy-winning HBO miniseries.
“The Accompanist”
Director: Zach Woods
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Everly Carganilla, Aubrey Plaza
Agency: CAA, Gersh, Mister Smith (International)
Why Buyers Care: Woods, best known for his comedic work on “Silicon Valley” and “The Office,” makes his feature directorial debut with the story of a 9-year-old (Carganilla) who gets placed with a funny and unpredictable foster parent (Sarandon) is dealing with ghosts from her past. The unusual premise — who doesn’t love some magical realism — and top-shelf cast should perk interest.
“Séance on a Wet Afternoon ”
Cast: Rachel Weisz
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Agency: UTA, CAA, FilmNation (International)
Why Buyers Care: Alfredson, who flexed his talent for spinning atmospheric tension with “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” remakes this 1964 British crime thriller about a medium, who dupes her husband into kidnapping the son of a wealthy family so she help the police “find” the kid and prove her psychic abilities are the real McCoy. Weisz has the showy lead role (Kim Stanley, who played the same part decades ago, got an Oscar nomination for her efforts).
“She Gets It From Me”
Cast: Rachel Zegler, Marisa Tomei
Director: Julia von Heinz
Agency: CAA, Embankment (International)
Why Buyers Care: Zegler, of “West Side Story” and “Snow White” fame, and Tomei, the Oscar-winning star of “My Cousin Vinny” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” will share the screen in this unconventional family story about a woman whose engagement celebration kicks off a search to find her pill-popping, ex-punk rocker birth mother. It sounds like a heartwarming, potentially hilarious and female-forward take on “Flirting With Disaster.”
“Photograph 51”
Cast: Natalie Portman
Director: Tom Hooper
Agency: CAA, FilmNation (International)
Why Buyers Care: Hooper, the Oscar-winning director of “The King’s Speech,” will try to regain his footing after “Cats” with this true story of Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant scientist whose work in x-ray crystallography gave Watson and Crick a leg up by capturing an image that revealed DNA’s double-helix structure. It sounds like a meaty role for Portman, as well as the kind of CGI-feline-free project that can remind audiences of Hooper’s undeniable talent for telling more grounded stories.
“Nouvelle Vague“
Cast: Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin
Director: Richard Linklater
Agency: Goodfellas
Why Buyers Care: The story behind the story that transformed cinema. Linklater, an icon of indies, pulls back the curtain on Jean-Luc Godard, one of progenitors of the French New Wave, and the making of “Breathless.” It sounds like catnip for movie lovers. Deutch is supposed to burn up the screen as Jean Seberg, the American film star whose fascinating off-screen life (she was a target of J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO and a passionate supporter of the Black Panther Party) probably deserves a mini-series of its own.
“Anxious People“
Cast: Angelina Jolie
Director: Marc Forster
Agency: WME, Black Bear (International)
Why Buyers Care: Forster, who recently helmed the surprise box office hit “A Man Called Otto,” returns with this story of an investment banker who finds herself taken hostage with a reluctant bank robber during an open house. Jolie earned some of the best reviews of her career playing Maria Callas in last year’s “Maria,” reminding viewers what they’d been missing after her self-imposed break from films.
“The Painted Bride“
Cast: Jeremy Allen White, Isabella Rossellini, Mandy Patinkin
Director: Jeremiah Zagar
Agency: WME, Charades/New Europe (International)
Why Buyers Care: White, soon to star as Bruce Springsteen in the biopic “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” is trying to leverage his breakout role as a stressed out chef in “The Bear” into movie stardom. Freed from the kitchen, “The Painted Bride” finds White playing a man obsessing over a new project dedicated to his young son and dying father. Zagar won raves for “We Are Animals,” a coming-of-age drama that was a favorite at the 2018 edition of Sundance, and also oversaw the Adam Sandler film, “Hustle.”
“Shutout”
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jenna Ortega
Director: David O. Russell
Agency: CAA, Black Bear (International)
Why Buyers Care: Russell’s last outing didn’t go so well — that would be 2022’s high-profile flop, “Amsterdam.” But most of the director’s previous collaborations with De Niro, such as “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Joy,” have been winners. It also helps that Ortega, who has built an impressive fanbase thanks to her work on Netflix’s “Wednesday,” is a legitimate draw. Here’s hoping the two actors can help Russell recapture his touch with this story of a pool hustler and his prodigy. At the very least, “Shutout” will be interesting.
