New Cotillard-Farhadi and Kidman-Dahan duos

by Fabien Lemercier

17/05/2012 - A stream of announcements followed the kick-off of the the 65th Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film.

Memento Films (see the news) revealed that Oscar-winning star Marion Cotillard (photo – currently competing on the Croisette in Rust and Bone [trailer, film focus]) will star in the next film by Iran’s Asghar Farhadi (This year’s winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with A Separation). Shooting of this feature film, produced and sold by Memento, will start in the autumn in Paris.

In September Olivier Dahan (La Môme [trailer]) will start shooting Grace de Monaco with Australia’s Nicole Kidman in the leading role. Produced by Stone Angels (Pierre-Ange Le Pogam), the film’s linchpin will be the year 1962, when Alfred Hitchcock suggested a return to cinema to she who had become Princesse of Monaco six years earlier.

Guillaume Canet has joined François Cluzet in the cast of Turning Tide by Christophe Offenstein, which centres around a skipper taking part in the Vendée Globe Challenge… The two actors are established partners: they have already worked together in Rivals [trailer] and Canet directed Cluzet in Tell No One [trailer] and Little White Lies [trailer]. En solitaire will be produced by Les Films du Cap together with Gaumont (who is driving the international sales - news), Belgium (Scope Pictures) and Spain (A Contracorriente).

The winning team of I’ve Loved You So Long [trailer] is coming together again, with Philippe Claudel directing, and starring Kristin Scott-Thomas in Avant l’hiver which will also feature Daniel Auteuil and Leïla Bekhti. Shooting on this sentimental drama, sold by TF1 International, will start in the autumn.

Kinology (article) has launched the pre-sales for the thriller, in English, Dark Places, by Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Sarah’s Key [trailer]) which will plunge the American Amy Adams into exploring (an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Gillian Flynn) a dramatic event from her childhood (the murder of her family by members of a satanic cult). Hugo Films will produce the film together with the Brits from Safran.

(Translated from French)