Screen presents a selection of the buzziest projects from North America available to international buyers at this year’s Cannes market.
Asymmetry
Dir. Ed Zwick
Richard Gere and Diana Silvers will star for Zwick (The Last Samurai, Defiance) in the adaptation of Lisa Halliday’s 2018 novel of the same name about a chance encounter in New York’s Central Park that leads to an affair between an editorial assistant and a renowned novelist. Everything is put at risk once they are exposed. Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz of The Bedford Falls Company adapted the novel with Halliday. Bedford Falls, Clay Pecorin’s Rainmaker Films and FilmNation are the production entities, and FilmNation and Rainmaker are co-financing. FilmNation has taken on international sales, and co-reps US with CAA Media Finance.
Contact: FilmNation
Bitcoin
Dir. Doug Liman
Patrick Wachsberger, head of 193, will show first footage from this thriller starring Casey Affleck, Pete Davidson, Gal Gadot and Isla Fisher about Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who embarks on a perilous quest to prove that he is the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto of crypto lore, the creator of Bitcoin. Liman, whose credits include Edge Of Tomorrow and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, began filming in February based on a screenplay by Nick Schenk. Independent finance veteran Ryan Kavanaugh is producing alongside Lawrence Grey. CAA reps North American rights.
Contact: 193
The Blair Witch Project
Dir. Dylan Clark
Lionsgate and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster are teaming on a reboot of one of the great independent success stories, the 1999 found-footage horror that reportedly cost $35,000 to produce and earned $248m at the global box office. Clark’s YouTube horror shorts have earned him a loyal following, and he will direct from his rewrite of an original screenplay by Chris Thomas Devlin. Two of the original film’s stars, Joshua Leonard and Michael C Williams, will serve as exec producers alongside the original filmmakers Eduardo Sanchez, Daniel Myrick and Gregg Hale.
Contact: Lionsgate International
The Brigands Of Rattlecreek
Dir. Park Chan-wook
South Korean filmmaker Park’s English-language western boasts a starry cast of Matthew McConaughey, Austin Butler and Pedro Pascal alongside Tang Wei in the story of a grieving sheriff who teams up with an enigmatic stranger as the vengeful pair set off to confront a gang of gunslingers. Bradley Fischer produces for Mythology Entertainment alongside Park for Moho Film. The director’s No Other Choice was South Korea’s Oscar submission last season and his credits include Oldboy and The Handmaiden. International sales are by 193, while WME Independent and CAA Media Finance co-rep US.
Contact: 193
Bulls
Dir. James Morosini
A hip cast led by Dylan O’Brien from this year’s box-office horror hit Send Help, Lewis Pullman and Kaia Gerber (Mother Mary) star in the erotic thriller about a man who visits a hedonistic resort in the hope of returning a changed man for his girlfriend. Things go wrong when he hooks up with a manipulative woman married to an alpha male. Morosini, whose credits include double SXSW 2022 award-winner I Love My Dad, wrote and directs. QC Entertainment (Get Out) is financing and will produce with Roth/Kirschenbaum Films (Anyone But You). Production is scheduled to start this year. Manifest Pictures has international sales, while CAA Media Finance, WME Independent and QC Entertainment rep the US.
Contact: Manifest Pictures
Critterz
Dir. Nik Kleverov
Kleverov, the co-founder of Los Angeles-based live-action and AI outfit Native Foreign, is set to direct this family animation from a screenplay by Paddington In Peru writers James Lamont and Jon Foster alongside Tom Butterworth. The story of a woodland creature on a quest to find her long-lost brother is an expanded version of the 2023 short by OpenAI creative strategist Chad Nelson, which claimed to be the first to use OpenAI’s creative tools. AGC International holds worldwide rights.
Contact: AGC International
Hold On To Your Angels
Dir. Benh Zeitlin
Oscar winner Jessie Buckley and her Hamnet co-star Paul Mescal will reunite in the new feature from Beasts Of The Southern Wild director Zeitlin about a hellbound outlaw (Mescal) and a ferocious shepherd of lost souls (Buckley) who fall in catastrophic love against the backdrop of their crumbling bayou paradise. Zeitlin wrote the screenplay and Plan B Entertainment will produce with regular Sean Baker collaborator Alex Coco through his Rapt Film. The producers have earmarked a February 2027 start. The Veterans reps international sales, while CAA Media Finance has the US.
Contact: The Veterans
The Housemaid’s Secret
Dir. Paul Feig
Feig and Sydney Sweeney return from last year’s $399m global hit for the second adaptation of Freida McFadden’s psychological thriller novels. Kirsten Dunst joins the follow-up as Sweeney’s Millie accepts a job keeping house for a woman she is never allowed to see and uncovers the truth behind a locked door, threatening to expose secrets far darker than her own. Michele Morrone returns as the brooding Italian groundsman Enzo. Producing are Hidden Pictures’ Todd Lieberman, Feig and his partner Laura Fischer of Pretty Dangerous Pictures, Sweeney through her Fifty-Fifty Films, and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine.
Contact: Lionsgate International
Incógnito
Dir. Robert Rodriguez
Jessica Alba and Michael Peña will star as siblings Lena and Frank Aguila, whose family services business doubles as a front for covert operations. When Lena gets dragged back into the business for a high-stakes heist, the entire team must come together to pull it off. Rodriguez, whose credits include Machete, Sin City and From Dusk Till Dawn, will direct from a screenplay by Juan Carlos Coto based on an idea from Alba, Peña and Rodriguez. The director and his Brass Knuckle Films partner Alexis Garcia are producing alongside Alba and Tracey Nyberg of Lady Spitfire, A Higher Standard’s Jeffrey Greenstein and Nickel City Pictures’ Mark Fasano. The producers are targeting an autumn production start.
Contact: Kira Sterrett, A Higher Standard
Killing Kelly
Dir. Iain Softley
Jason Isaacs, riding high on season three of The White Lotus, will star opposite Thomasin McKenzie (Last Night In Soho) in the darkly comic thriller adapted from legendary Irish satirist Flann O’Brien’s short story Two In One. Isaacs will play Kelly, an abusive boss who is killed by his long-suffering employee Murphy, a taxidermist who uses his skills to wear the dead man’s skin. Isaacs will portray Kelly and Murphy dressed in Kelly’s skin. McKenzie plays the object of Murphy’s affection, the unconventional Miss Poe. Production is scheduled to begin this autumn in Dublin, with Fisher Stevens’ Highly Flammable producing alongside Grand Pictures and Forthcoming Films. Screen Ireland is supporting the project and J Todd Harris’s Branded Pictures is co-financing. Upgrade holds worldwide rights.
Contact: Upgrade
The Last Resort
Dir. Donald Petrie
Voltage will screen comedy The Last Resort starring Daisy Ridley from Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens, Alden Ehrenreich from Weapons and Sam Neill from the Jurassic Park franchise. The story centres on a New York hotel executive with life choices to make after she falls for an expatriate pilot while on a business trip to Southeast Asia. Tia Carrere, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Beck Bennett and Jo Koy round out the cast. Production took place in the Philippines, with Asia Pacific Films producing alongside Ernesto ‘Bong’ Sta Maria Jr and Raja Collins. Manuel V Pangilinan, chairman of the MVP Group of Companies in the Philippines, fully financed the project and serves as executive producer. Vertical will distribute in the US in 2027.
Contact: Voltage Pictures
Later The War
Dir. Charlie Kaufman
This comedy drama, starring Channing Tatum, Tessa Thompson and Patsy Ferran, is inspired by Iddo Gefen’s short story Debby’s Dream House. Kaufman’s feature version follows a comedy superstar in a shaky marriage who turns to a Holocaust film in a bid for dramatic legitimacy. Production is earmarked for Cyprus in 2027. Ken Kao and Josh Rosenbaum of Waypoint Entertainment (Project Hail Mary) are producing with frequent Jeff Nichols collaborator Sarah Green. The Veterans reps international sales while CAA Media Finance has the US.
Contact: The Veterans
The Passenger
Dir. Magnus von Horn
Jeremy Strong will portray a Jewish businessman on the run in 1930s Berlin in The Passengers. It is the English-language debut of The Girl With The Needle director von Horn, who co-wrote the screenplay with Aleko Gotscheff based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz. Strong will play the central character Otto Silbermann, who flees Berlin after the November 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom (or the Night of Broken Glass). Port au Prince Films’ Jan Krueger and Rosh Khodabakhsh and Lava Films’ Mariusz Wlodarski are producing the feature. FilmNation is co-financing and holds worldwide rights excluding German-speaking territories and Poland.
Contact: FilmNation
Reset
Dir. Matt Smukler
Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Orlando Bloom lead this survival thriller based on a screenplay by Jordan Rawlins. Production is scheduled for August in the American West on the story of a woman who wakes up in the wilderness with no recollection of how she got there and must rely on a stranger who may not be who he says he is. Fortitude International is financing and founder Nadine de Barros serves as executive producer. Fortitude International handles international sales, while North America is repped jointly by UTA Independent Film Group, WME Independent and Verve Ventures.
Contact: Fortitude International
The Road Home
Dir. Bill Condon
The Road Home stars Cynthia Erivo and Guy Pearce alongside Thabo Rametsi as exiled South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela. He defied his mentor and anti-Apartheid campaigner Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (Pearce) and worked with vocalist Miriam ‘Mama Africa’ Makeba (Erivo) to promote Paul Simon’s Graceland album during the UN’s cultural boycott. Studiocanal is financing with Flora Films and Rob Bath, and will distribute in South Africa, UK & Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, Poland and Australia & New Zealand.
Contact: Palisades Park Pictures
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