Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux insisted on altering an interview after the fact; a new book looks at Sofia Coppola’s mission to cast Bill Murray in Lost in Translation; Mike Tyson joins Sean Penn in a new paramedics thriller. All in today’s Cannes-heavy edition of the Movie News Rundown.
How to Cast Bill Murray: A new book on Sofia Coppola hits shelves today and we have an exclusive excerpt. In the excerpt, author Hannah Strong looks at how Coppola’s loneliness inspired Lost in Translation and how she was so set on casting the elusive Bill Murray that she enlisted the help of Wes Anderson, who had cast her cousin Jason Schwartzman and Murray in Rushmore a few years earlier.
Cannes Censorship: The Cannes Film Festival begins today with an opening night screening of Final Cut, a new zombie movie from Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist). But it caused a stir yesterday when Deadline surprisingly reported: “Long a bastion of artistic freedom, the Cannes Film Festival has a secret: it censors interviews with festival head Thierry Frémaux.” The news site added that “the festival has not only been demanding copy approval as a condition for interviews with Frémaux (something no other festival or organization has asked of Deadline), but after pledging not to make any changes to copy, it has been removing content including potentially uncomfortable answers from Frémaux relating to diversity and controversial filmmakers.”
Weird: Legitimate U.S. news outlets do not typically agree to these kinds of terms, and Deadline says that its writer, Andreas Wiseman, only learned of them when the interview was complete. Wiseman says that Frémaux’s “measured, thought-provoking but also potentially problematic answer” regarding Roman Polanski was watered down and that “comments made in response to a question about the lack of women filmmakers were also removed.”
What Did Deadline Do? “We decided not to run the magazine interview given that it was tainted,” Wiseman writes, You should read the entire wild story here.
Frémaux Responds: Frémaux disputed that Deadline had been censored, while admitting that he reserves the right to change his quotes before they are published. “There isn’t self-censorship and even less censorship. If I’m doing an interview and the journalist accepts — and it’s a French tradition to back-read interviews — I’ll back-read and if I want to change something, I’ll change it; I don’t change the text of the journalist,” Frémaux said. “I have the right to control what I must say and even change opinions, why not? I prefer to speak normally and then decide what I want to keep in the interview.” We have also emailed the festival for comment.
Twitter Responds:
No one looks good here. Not Frémaux and certainly not Deadline for not running the original copy and standing behind their journalists. Wild to openly admit to this breakdown in ethics. https://t.co/zJkJTpVxqh
— Robert Daniels (@812filmreviews) May 16, 2022
LOL, just publish it. This says more about you than them…. https://t.co/tZnodL0YfG
— Matthew Belloni (@MattBelloni) May 16, 2022
This speaks of your weakness. “Can’t” publish? Why? Just push the button. If you’re abiding by their request, that’s on you. Not them. Lame. Did they threaten lack of access? That’s the issue, isn’t it. https://t.co/VzRPQTq124
— M Speier (@mspeier1) May 16, 2022
Any content controlled/influenced by the interviewee/subject is tainted and should be considered nothing more than advertorial or PR. Any attempts at control, as well as allegiances with/interests from a subject, should ALWAYS be clearly highlighted/declared. NO to copy approval. https://t.co/H6OLFHkq9H
— Simon Thompson (@ShowbizSimon) May 16, 2022
Well done @AndreasWiseman one of the best journalists reporting on the film industry https://t.co/dXAAAcEQRR
— Kaleem Aftab (@aftabamon) May 16, 2022
It’s long been common practice in France for powerful people to vet interviews after the fact, or to try at least. I wrote about the practice a few years ago after a local paper stood up to Macron: https://t.co/PkewfZvomn https://t.co/pKT628pBSm
— Jon Allsop (@Jon_Allsop) May 16, 2022
Cronenberg’s Return: Canadian maestro David Cronenberg hasn’t directed a feature since 2014’s Map to the Stars, but he returns to moviemaking and to Cannes, and most importantly, to the body horror genre with Crimes of the Future. Cronenberg spoke with Variety for a can’t-miss interview. He discusses his fascination with TV and streamers, but how he is ultimately disappointed that Netflix is far too similar to the classic Hollywood studios who are “very conservative mainstream.”
Interesting Choice, AMC: To play the red band Crimes of the Future trailer ahead of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent this weekend, a film which could easily be PG-13 if it didn’t have adult language. The casual crowd was completely baffled by the trailer. I was loving it.
How Cronenberg Ends the Variety Interview: “I am a gentle person. But I just look at the world and this is what I see!”
More Netflix: Vanity Fair has one of the better behind-the-scenes deep dives into Netflix’s present troubles.
More Cannes: Australian maestro George Miller sits down with Deadline to chat about Three Thousand Years of Longing, a movie he has described as the “opposite” of Mad Max: Fury Road.
Cannes Acquisition: Ahead of its Cannes premiere, IFC has picked up R.M.N., the latest from Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu. Mungiu previously won the Palme d’Or 15 years ago for his stark abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days.
Cannes Catch-Up: If you’re behind on what’s playing Cannes for the next 11 days, consult The Film Stage’s list of their 20 most anticipated titles at this year’s edition. Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future is number one, but there are also new films from Kelly Reichardt, Mia Hansen-Løve, Park Chan-wook, Claire Denis and actor Owen Kline.
Film Trailers on Film: The Film Stage also has a great scoop that hundreds of 35mm film trailers have been scanned and uploaded onto YouTube.
Tyson: Before you read this casting announcement, first watch the 35mm scan of Scorsese’s 1999 ambulance drama Bringing Out the Dead. Now that you’ve done that, Mike Tyson has joined Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan for the thriller Black Flies, to be directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. “An adaptation of the novel by Shannon Burke, the story is set in the high-wire world of New York City paramedics and takes a look at the toll the job inflicts on their lives,” The Hollywood Reporter says.
Irma Vep Trailer: Olivier Assayas’ 1996 Irma Vep is now a HBO series. A24, who also produces Euphoria for HBO, is producing here as well. Check out the teaser trailer below:
Main image: Mike Tyson at the 2018 U.S. Open. Courtesy of Shutterstock
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