Cannes ‘08: Pete Hammond, Day 1 -- Cannes, Jack Black and Indy
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A long day in
Bright and early at 10 this morning Jack Black and 40 sweating, costumed panda bears emerged from the drink to march in unison for an old-style press event to tout the out-of-competition entry and June 6 domestic release ‘Kung Fu Panda’ that had the paparazzi out in force.
Black was in a jovial mood, showing off his patented martial arts moves and happy to be there after 3 1/2 years’ work on the animated film, a period during which he got married, had one kid and now is expecting another imminently.
DreamWorks Animation has become expert at using the fest to launch its tent-pole films ever since its top executive, Jeffrey Katzenberg, persuaded the programmers to put a rare animated flick, ‘Shrek,’ in competition.
Subsequently they’ve been back almost every year, including last year with a ‘Bee Movie’ stunt off the roof of the Carlton and most memorably for “A Shark’s Tale” when co-stars Angelina Jolie and Jack Black tossed Will Smith off the big fish and into the water in front of what seemed like half the world’s photogs.
One wag said this morning that, considering the reportedly icy relations between DreamWorks and owner
Then after a marathon of screenings, both in competition and in the market, it was back to the Carlton Pier for a Panda-less full-blast party celebrating opening night film ‘Blindness,’ directed by ‘City of God’s’ Fernando Meirelles. Star Julianne Moore finally emerged about 12:30 a.m. from an elegant tented dinner party next door for key creative people involved in the film to join the throng gathered to celebrate, even though the picture (being released this fall by Miramax in the States) had been getting early mixed reviews.
Guests had to follow a course through a white fog-filled entryway that rendered them mostly blind themselves until emerging into the soiree. It was in the white mist that we ran into
Also there were Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics, who were enthusiastically touting two entries they have in competition: Atom Egoyan’s ‘Adoration,’ screening on the 22nd, and Cannes regular Wong Kar Wai’s finally completed version of his unfinished ‘90s film ‘Ashes of Time,’ now titled ‘Ashes of Time Redux,’ screening on Sunday after the ‘Indiana Jones’ premiere.
Barker told us he believes that, in this form, ‘Ashes’ could now be the great director’s masterpiece. Barker also was already talking Oscar, surmising from everything he’s heard on the inside that the late Heath Ledger as the Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’ (a Warner Bros. film Barker has nothing to do with) could well emerge as the one to beat for best actor this year.
From his own slate, he said Kristin Scott Thomas would be ‘this year’s Julie Christie’ (a multiple award winner and Oscar nominee for ‘Away From Her’) for a French film that Sony Classics acquired called ‘Il y a longtemps que je t’aime’ (I’ve Loved You So Long), directed by Philippe Claudel.
Following on the heels of Marion Cotillard’s academy win for ‘La Vie en Rose’ in February, the French could really have reason to celebrate. Barker plans to release the film, first seen at the Berlin Film Festival, by the end of this year in order to qualify. He expects stiff competition from two of his other stars: Anne Hathaway in Jonathan Demme’s about-to-be-retitled ‘Dancing With Shiva’ and Melissa Leo in the Aug. 1 release ‘Frozen River’ (a Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance). He compares the latter to Amy Adams, a 2005 surprise supporting Oscar nominee for ‘Junebug.’
Tomorrow it will be the Pandas’ turn again when ‘Kung Fu Panda’ premieres at the Palais out of competition with stars Black, Jolie (who also stars in Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” competition entry next Tuesday), Dustin Hoffman and Lucy Liu expected to hit the red carpet.
One day down, 11 to go.
-- Pete Hammond