Robert Pattinson to hunt down Saddam Hussein in “Mission: Blacklist”

by Dimitris Ioannou

“The Twilight Saga” star Robert Pattinson is joining the army, but only for the movies. The young actor has signed for the leading role in the movie “Mission: Blacklist” where he'll play military interrogator Eric Maddox, the man who spearheaded the investigation to find out where former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was hiding.

The film is based on Maddox's book “Mission: Blacklist #1”. The director of “Johnny Mad Dog” Jean-Stephane Sauvaire is leading the project, while the adaptation for the screen and the production is by Erik Jendersen, mostly known from HBO's TV mini-series “Band of Brothers” in 2001.

“Mission: Blacklist” is scheduled to be sold at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. Robert Pattinson will be at Cannes Film Festival for David Cronenberg's “Cosmopolis” which is competing for the Palme d'Or prize.

The films and jury of the 65th Cannes Film Festival

by Dimitris Ioannou

The jury members of the 65^th Cannes Film Festival announced on Wednesday by the festival director Thierry Fremaux and cover a wide range of the arts and ethnicities.

The Palestinian actress and director Hiam Abbass, the British director and scriptwriter Andrea Arnold, the also British actor Ewan McGregor, the French actress Emmanuelle Davos, the German actress Diane Kruger, the Greek-American director, scriptwriter and producer Alexander Payne, the Haitian director, scriptwriter and producer Raoul Peck and the French designer Jean Paul Gaultier will be the jury, while the Italian director, actor and producer Nanni Moretti is honoured to be their President.

Those nine people will have to decide the winners in the main categories between the 22 films in Competition. This year we find a very strong English-language presence in the lineup, maybe because the festival is dedicated to the 50 years from the death of Hollywood's idol, Marilyn Monroe.

The festival will open on May 16 with the movie “Moonrise Kingdom” by the American filmmaker Wes Anderson, most known for his movies “The Royal Tenebaums” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”. David Cronenberg's “Cosmopolis” starring Robert Pattinson, Andrew Dominik's “Killing Them Softly” with Brad Pitt and Ray Liotta, and Lee Daniels' “Paperboy” with “High School Musical's” star Zac Efron, John Cusack and Nicole Kidman, are some of the most anticipated films.

Among other English-language filmmakers we see “Take Shelter” director Jeff Nichols, competing with “Mud” starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey, John Hillcoat with “Lawless” starring Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf, Walter Salles with Viggo Mortensesn, Kristen Stewart and last years winner Kirsten Dunst being “On the Road” and Ken Loach with “The Angels' Share” starring Roger Allam, John Henshaw and Daniel Portman.

International auteurs on the list include Michael Haneke with “Love” (Amour), Cristian Mungiu with “Beyond the Hills”, Sangsoo Hong with “In Another Country” (Da-Erun Na-Ra-E-Suh) and Abbas Kiarostami with “Like Someone in Love”.

The rest of the filmmakers competing for the Palme d'Or prize are: Jacques Audiard with “De Rouille Et D'os” starring Marion Cotillard, Leos Carax with “Holy Motors” starring Eva Mendes, Matteo Garrone with “Reality”, Im Sang-soo with “The Tast of Money” (Do-Nui Mat), Sergei Loznitsa with “In The Fog” (V Tuman), Yousry Nasrallah with “After The Battle” (Baad El Mawkeaa), Alain Resmais with “Vous N'avez Encore Rien Vu”, Carlos Reygadas with “Post Tenebras Lux”, Ulrich Seidle with “Paradise: Love” (Paradise: Liebe) and Thomas Vinterberg with “The Hunt” (Jagten).

The 65th Cannes Film Festival will run from May 16 through May 27 in the South of France.

Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf in first “Lawless” trailer

by Dimitris Ioannou

Who doesn't love a good, old-fashioned, gangster film, set in the Prohibition-era, full of gunshots, man-to-man fights and illegal activities?

The Weinstein Company and director of “The Road” and “The Proposition” John Hillcoat, present the first trailer of “Lawless”, based on the 2008 historical novel “The Wettest Country in the World” by Matt Bondurant.

In the promiscuous film, starring Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain, we follow a pair of brothers who are in charge of a bootlegging gang in the South.

The film, which premiers at Cannes Film Festival next month, is scheduled to open nationwide on August 31.

Watch the trailer below...

65th Cannes Film Festival pays tribute to Marilyn Monroe

by Dimitris Ioannou

It's been 50 years since the death of Marilyn Monroe and the Cannes Film Festival pays tribute to the legendary Hollywood actress by selecting the iconic blonde for the festival's 65^th anniversary poster.

According to a festival statement, “Fifty years after her death, Marilyn is still a major figure in world cinema, an eternal icon, whose grace, mystery and power of seduction remain resolutely contemporary. Each of her screen appearances sparks the imagination. The Festival poster captures Marilyn by surprise in an intimate moment where myth meets reality – a moving tribute to the anniversary of her passing, which coincides with the Festival anniversary. She enchants us with this promising gesture: a seductively blown kiss. The Festival is a temple of glamour and Marilyn is its perfect incarnation. Their coming together symbolizes the ideal of simplicity and elegance.”

The American actress who became a major sex symbol in the '50s, died on August 5, 1962 at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. At the age of 36, the woman born Norma Jeane Mortenson, ended her life by an overdose of barbiturates.