The Hollywood Reporter has released its first Cannes Film Festival daily issue, which includes a preview of the film market, a chat with Sofia Coppola about her competition title The Beguiled and a look at the fest’s new security measures, including an anti-drone system.
Stars Off the Red Carpet
After years of slim pickings and second-tier stars, Cannes’ film market is lousy with A-listers. THR looks at how the above-the-line talent attached to upcoming projects reads like a studio playlist: Zac Efron, Margot Robbie, Johnny Depp, Amy Schumer, Jake Gyllenhaal and Alicia Vikander all have new films on offer. And buyers are aflutter over the prospect, still unconfirmed, of a possible Will Smith project, a terrorism-themed film that, if it pans out, would be the first time in decades that a Smith film would be available to independent buyers.
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“I Would Never Remake a Film”
Sofia Coppola returns to Cannes with her reimagining of The Beguiled, starring Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning and Coppola’s frequent collaborator Kirsten Dunst as a group of women whose isolated existence at an all-girls boarding school is interrupted by the arrival of a wounded Union soldier (Colin Farrell). Coppola tells THR about why she was reluctant to make it, working within the Southern Gothic genre and dealing with gore for the first time.
Fest Security Measures
Cannes kicked off with a panel of military men to show their might as questions of security hang over the festival. For the first time, the city will deploy an anti-drone system, which will be one of the main new technology measures — if not the most visible — used during the fest. Other proven measures include large cement blocks and oversized potted trees dotted through the pedestrian area of the Croisette. Said festival president Pierre Lescure: “Since we’ve entered this terrorism era, it was a real concern last year and since we had the tragedy of Nice, it’s a bigger concern.”
Click here to download the Day 1 PDF.
