Author: SD

General delegate Thierry Fremaux bristled at the notion that Cannes Film Festival always selects the same filmmakers for its Competition, saying that “it’s really not true.” At the pre-festival press conference, Fremaux was asked why the Dardenne brothers are in Competition for the ninth time, with their film The Young Mother’s Home. “This question hides another one,” said Fremaux, mimicking those who say “‘the Dardenne brothers yet again, it’s always the same people!’” “If you look at the statistics, it’s not,” said Fremaux, citing the first-time filmmakers in Competition this year, including Ari Aster with Eddington, Carla Simon with Romeria…

Michelle Yeoh will star in the action title The Surgeon, which has become the latest sales title to join Patrick Wachsberger’s Cannes slate at his fledgling outfit 193. Yeoh, who won the lead actress Oscar in 2023 for Everything Everywhere All At Once, will play the titular character, a retired surgeon, who must fight her way out after she is abducted and coerced into operating on a mystery patient. Roshan Sethi wrote and will direct the project, which reunites Wachsberger and John Wick producers Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road – that franchise began when Wachsberger ran Lionsgate’s motion…

Warner Bros The Accountant 2 leads the new releases in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend as the Ben Affleck-starring crime drama opens in 573 locations. The sequel is up from its 2016 predecessor which opened in 397 venues. That film had a debut of £1.6m and went on to clear £5m across its run. Gavin O’Connor returns to direct The Accountant 2, which won the SXSW Headliner audience award earlier this year and sees Affleck return to the role of an autistic accountant for criminal organisations. In the sequel, he uses his unconventional methods to solve the murder of…

Demi Moore and Colman Domingo will star in Roger Ross-Williams’ Strange Arrivals which Rocket Science and Cross City Films are launching at Cannes. The film is based on the eponymous podcast about an interracial couple who were the first reported case of alien abduction in 1961 while travelling back from their honeymoon in Niagara Falls. CAA Media Finance and Cross City Films, See-Saw’s sales arm, are co-repping US rights. Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Samantha Lang and Anne Carey of See-Saw Films are producing Strange Arrivals which was developed by See-Saw’s Label I Am That, and is produced in association with…

The Cannes Film Festival has added four new titles to its Official Selection. Bi Gan’s Résurrection joins the Competition lineup. It is a sci-fi detective movie starring Jackson Yee and Shu Qi, with Les Films du Losange handling sales.  Martin Bourboulon’s 13 Days, 13 Nights will play out of competition. Based on the book by Commander Mohamed Bida, it follows the evacuation of the French embassy in 2021 when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. Roschdy Zem, Lyna Khoudri and Sidse Babett Knudsen star.  Eugene Jarecki’s documentary The Six Billion Dollar Man about Julian Assange will play as a special screening. And finally Lise Akoka and…

EXCLUSIVE: Playtime has scored international sales rights to Andrea Di Stefano’s My Tennis Maestro starring Pierfrancesco Favino about a young athlete who bonds with his unconventional coach. It is produced by Italy’s Indiana Production, Indigo Film and Vision Distribution in collaboration with Memo Film, Sky, and Playtime. Now in post-production, Vision Distribution will distribute in Italy and Universal pictures will release in France. Playtime will show first images from the film in Cannes. The €11m ($12.5m) film follows a 13-year-old tennis hopeful feeling pressure from his father’s weighty expectations who sets off for a training tour and life-changing journey along the Italian…

Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback, the latest entry in Japan’s popular long-running anime film franchise, earned $24.1m (¥3.43bn) from 2.31 million admissions over its three-day opening weekend (April 18-20) – a new record for the franchise. The previous record was set by Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram, which earned $23.5m (¥3.35bn) on 2.27 million admissions across its opening weekend in April 2024. That film ended up being Japan’s top-grossing film of 2024 with a total of $110.9m (¥15.8bn). The new release was leagues ahead of the weekend’s second place title, Doraemon The Movie: Nobita’s Art World Tales, which took $655,000 (¥92m).…

Worldwide box office: May 2-4 RankFilm (distributor) 3-day (world)Cume (world)3-day (int’l)Cume (int’l)Territories 1 Thunderbolts* (Disney) $162.1m $162.1m $86.1m $86.1m 53 2 Sinners (Warner Bros) $43.4m $236.7m $10.4m $57m 72 3 A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros)  $40.3m $873.4m $26.6m $475.2m 79 4 The Dumpling Queen (various) $16.8m $26.1m $16.8m $26.1m 5 5 The Accountant 2 (Warner Bros)  $16.6m $65.7m $7.2m $24.6m 73 6 A Gilded Game (various) $11.1m $16m $11.m $16m 4 7 Detective…

EXCLUSIVE: Indonesian animated feature Jumbo has smashed records to become the third highest grossing local film of all time in the country, recording 7.49 million admission after four weeks on release. The first animated feature produced by Jakarta-based Visinema Studios follows a chubby boy who gets bullied and nicknamed Jumbo by his peers. When a fairy appears asking for help, the two embark on an adventure to reunite her with her family and look for a stolen book written by the late parents of the boy. The film opened on March 31 during the week-long Hari Raya Puasa holiday and…

South Korean crime thriller Yadang: The Snitch took the top spot at the South Korea box office on its opening weekend (April 18-20), ending The Match’s short reign and accounting for nearly 70% of all tickets sold. Released on April 16, Yadang: The Snitch took $4.11m from 608,149 admissions across 1,832 screens, according to Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service. Its cumulative gross stands at $5.26m from 786,077 total admissions. Directed by Hwang Byung-gook, the story revolves around the intertwined ambitions of a drug broker played Kang Ha-neul of Netflix hit Squid Game, a prosecutor played by…