Final Cannes predictions
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 18, 2007 at 07:53 AM
Variety's Allison James has finally run a Cannes 2007 advance-buzz piece, and her big lead-graph prediction is that Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights will play the opening-night slot. That's it? Everyone's been saying that, and the Cineuropa guys predicted that one over two weeks ago.
If Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men doesn't play at next month's Cannes Film Festival, and thus deny Coen-heads the first peek at Javier Bardem's performance as Chigurh, the ogre-ish hit man, a lot of people will be bitterly disappointed.
The official Cannes festival lineup will be released sometime tomorrow morning in Paris (i.e., Thursday), which will be an hour or two after midnight in Los Angeles tonight. If anyone in the loop wants to shoot me an early blast...
Hollywood Elsewhere is fully expecting to hear that the following English- language titles are in: Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men and Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart (i.e., his Daniel Pearl movie). I'm also nurturing this out-of-nowhere notion that Alan Ball's Nothing Is Private will be shown. A lot of us would also like to see Michael Moore's Sicko and Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dreams.
I'm giving fair warning right now there will be dismay and disappointment if most of the films in the previous graph aren't announced. I want the Coen, Haynes and Anderson films to show up, at the very least.
Yesterday's Cineuropa column says that U.S. films which have apparently secured a competition slot include Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park (old news), David Fincher's Zodiac (possibly being rescued from the dreaded closing-night berth?) and James Gray's We Own the Night, which costars Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix.
James is reporting that Persepolis, a graphic novel-styled animated feature that was press-luncheoned last year by Sony Classics, is getting a berth of some kind, and that Gregg Araki's Smiley Face may be chosen in the Director's Fortnight section.
Other promising possibles, she's suggesting, are Hector Babenco's El Pasado, Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light (another early Cineuropa pick), Bela Tarr's L'homme de Londres and Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
A friend claims that the Cineuropa speculators are to be regarded askance. They "emphatically stated that Coppola's film [i.e., Youth Without Youth] was going, though that's impossible," he cautions.
Last updated: October 3, 2007
Obviously I'm light in several categories.
Suggestions and disputations are welcome.
BEST PICTURE: Australia (20th Century Fox), The Argentine (Focus Features), Guerilla (Focus Features), Milk (Focus Features), Seven Pounds (Sony), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount/Warner Bros.), The Soloist (DreamWorks), Body of Lies (Warner Bros.), Revolutionary Road (Paramount Vantage/DreamWorks), The Changeling (Universal Pictures), Frost/Nixon (Universal), Doubt (Miramax), Blindness (Universal Pictures), Defiance (Paramount Vantage), The Duchess (Paramount Vantage), Valkyrie (MGM-UA), The Reader (Weinstein Co.)
BEST DIRECTOR: Fernando Meirelles (Blindness), David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Brian Singer (Valkyrie), Baz Luhrmann (Australia), Steven Soderbergh (The Argentine and Guerilla), Gus Van Sant (Milk), Gabriele Muccino (Seven Pounds), Joe Wright (The Soloist), Ridley Scott (Body of Lies), Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road), Clint Eastwood (Changeling), John Patrick Shanley (Doubt), Edward Zwick (Defiance), Saul Dibb (The Duchess), Stephen Daldry (The Reader)
BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ralph Fiennes (The Duchess), Hugh Jackman (Australia), Tom Cruise (Valkyrie), Harrison Ford (Crossing Over), Sean Penn (Milk), James Franco (Pineapple Express), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Synecdoche, New York), Heath Ledger (Dark Knight), Will Smith (Seven Pounds), Jamie Foxx (The Soloist)
BEST ACTRESS: Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Keira Knightley (The Duchess), Nicole Kidman (Australia)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Leiv Schreiber (Defiance), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), John Malkovich (Changeling and Burn After Reading), Bill Nighy (Valkyrie), Robert Downey Jr. (The Soloist), Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic thunder), James Franco (The Pineapple Express), Alan Alda (Nothing But the Truth)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Meryl Streep (Doubt), Amy Adams (Doubt), Vera Farmiga (Nothing But the Truth)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who (20th Century Fox)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Peter Straughan (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)
SPECIAL EFFECTS: Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Inside Elsewhere...
Michelle discovers a couple of comedy films thanks to the power of Netflix.
Adam joins the Elsewhere crew from the Windy City and hits the ground running this week.
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Comments
Remember, this is a festival that celebrates international cinema. You seem to have a one-track mind about the American films competing. Traditionally, no more than 4 or 5 American films make it into the competition so it's highly unlikely that all your predictions will make it in.
Posted by: JD![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 09:14 AM
My first thought at that picture was, "Nicolas Cage has the Marty Feldman role in a remake of Young Frankenstein?"
Posted by: Mgmax![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 09:15 AM
You gott remember though, Cannes LOVES Joel and Ethan. Barton Fink practically swept the awards here. Joel won Best Director for "The Man Who Wasn't There" for pete's sake. I'd be surprised if their's didn't make it over say, PTA or Michael Moore.
Posted by: Hopscotch![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 10:00 AM
A MIGHTY HEART is definitely playing Cannes, no question - was told this by a PR person weeks ago.
Posted by: Devin Faraci![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 10:16 AM
The problem with the Cannes competition is that they seem to have an anything goes policy with some directors. Didn't the Coen brothers version of The Ladykillers play in the competition? It wasn't a terrible movie, but it wasn't worthy of a competition slot. And Michael Winterbottom seems to have a similar relationship with the festival, which is odd because his films never win any prizes.
Don't underestimate the Cannes affection for Paul Thomas Anderson (who won best director there for Punch-Drunk Love) or Michael Moore (who won a special award for Bowling For Columbine and the Palme d'or for Fahrenheit 911). I'm sure some of these titles will be MIA simply because there isn't room for them all.
Posted by: JD![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 10:59 AM
any news on Sean Penn's Into the Wild ?
Posted by: jane6![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 11:16 AM
Mgmax, I'm pretty sure some development executive just read what you wrote, soiled himself, then picked up the phone and started calling agents.
First I'm guessing they'll make a Broadway musical out of it and then they'll turn the musical in to a movie.
Posted by: cjKennedy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 11:25 AM
Hasn't the Young Frankenstein musical already been announced?
Posted by: T. S. Idiot![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 11:49 AM
This is just my sense of the world around me, take it with a grain of salt, but the...persona of Michael Mooore is not quite as beloved as it used to be, but just as reviled. Coming from me, a young liberal from CA in the movie business, I've been a fan of Moore's for a long time, but even I felt he lets his ego get in the way sometimes. Not to mention there's a documentary, and a book out by OTHER LIBERALS basically calling Moore out on some of his antics. And everyone's kind of sick of a super rich guy feeling America's pain...
That being said....the healthcare system in the US will break our country soon. My guess in 10 years, maybe less, any visual presentation to show how completely out-of-whack that system is. Fine by me.
Posted by: Hopscotch![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 12:02 PM
TS: Yes, I see according to Wikipedia Brooks has been composing a score since April 2006. 12 months is about right for me catching wind of things...
Posted by: cjKennedy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 12:04 PM
I can't believe that's Felix in Michael Mann's Collateral.
Posted by: Mr. Gittes![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 12:08 PM
Jesus, that is one scary photo. The Coen's have been in a slump for a while (well for their last two flicks) and I hope they can bounce back. Plus Bardem is a fine actor who deserves a break through. Maybe a Coen Brother grotesque will not be it.
Posted by: Dublin101![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 01:00 PM
Little Update:
According to several France sites (including allocine.fr ), the France release date of ZODIAC is moved to 5/16/2007.
Therefore, ZODIAC will definitely not be the closing night film.
Posted by: marychan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at
April 18, 2007 02:44 PM
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