(This article forms a part of the First Day First Show newsletter that brings you the latest and best from the world of movies and entertainment. Subscribe now)
Around Tinsel Town
>> 76th Cannes Film Festival
A showcase of the world’s best cinema, a red-carpet spectacular, and a French Riviera hive of dealmaking. This year’s Cannes Film Festival is underway now. The 76th Cannes Film Festival opened on Tuesday with the premiere of Jeanne du Barry, a historical drama by Maïwenn starring Johnny Depp.
This year’s festival is headlined by a pair of marquee premieres: Martin Scorsese’s Osage Nation 1920s epic Killers of the Flower Moon, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, and James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, starring Harrison Ford in his final performance as the character.
Notably, this year’s festival has a strong Indian presence as well, in the likes of Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting L. Murugan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Oscar-winner Guneet Monga, actors Khushbu Sundar, Sara Ali Khan, Vijay Varma, and others.
Here are a few highlights from Cannes this week:
> Johnny Depp gets teary-eyed as ‘Jeanne du Barry’ gets a seven-minute standing ovation on the opening day
> Michael Douglas receives an honorary Palme d’Or
> ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ swings into action; Harrison Ford honoured before joyous festivalgoers
> Cannes director defends festival after Adele Haenel slams French film industry’s #MeToo response
> Sean Penn, backing WGA strike, calls Producers Guild the ‘Bankers Guild’
> Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan reunite on screen in ‘Black Flies’
> Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s ‘Monster’ receives six-minute standing ovation
> Union Minister of State for I&B inaugurates India pavilion at Marche du Film
> Hollywood veteran Michael Douglas visits India Pavilion, minister invites him to IFFI
> Ethan Hawke, Pedro Almodóvar go gun-slinging, present ‘Strange Way of Life’
> Aishwarya Rai Bachchan stuns in silver Sophie Couture gown
>> PVR Pictures becomes PVR INOX Pictures after merger
PVR Pictures, the production and distribution arm of PVR group, has been renamed PVR INOX Pictures following the merger of PVR and INOX Leisure. PVR INOX Pictures will exist as the combined motion picture arm of PVR INOX Limited.
Bollywood
Parineeti Chopra, Raghav Chadha get engaged in Delhi
SC stays Bengal’s ban on ‘The Kerala Story’, asks T.N. to provide security to theatres
Shah Rukh Khan hosts US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti at Mannat home
Ajay Devgn, R Madhavan, Jyotika to star in Vikas Bahl’s supernatural thriller
Shefali Shah, Jaideep Ahlawat win top honours at New York Indian Film Festival
Amitabh Bachchan, Anushka Sharma post helmet-less photos, Mumbai Police takes note
Angad Bedi to star in legal drama series ‘A Legal Affair’
Randeep Hooda’s cop series ‘Inspector Avinash’ to stream on JioCinema
Hollywood
Al Pacino, Viggo Mortensen and John Travolta to lead JFK movie ‘Assassination’
Tom Hanks wants Idris Elba to play James Bond
Mel Gibson to direct suspense film ‘Flight Risk’ with Mark Wahlberg in the lead
James Cameron’s ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ to premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on June 7
Marvel’s ‘Loki’ Season 2 to premiere on Disney+ on October 6
‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ to release a day early in Indian theatres
Kate Winslet, Ben Whishaw win at BAFTA Television Awards
Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Alicia Vikander to star in Ron Howard’s ‘Origin Of Species’
Vin Diesel hints at turning ‘Fast X’ into a trilogy
Willem Dafoe joins star cast of ‘Beetlejuice 2’
‘In the Arena: Serena Williams,’ a docu-series on Tennis legend, in development at ESPN
Tom Hardy’s ‘Venom 3’ adds Chiwetel Ejiofor
Dave Bautista to star in action comedy ‘The Killer’s Game’
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya light up Bulgari event in Venice
Elle Fanning to star in Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’
Regional cinema
Pawan Kalyan-Sai Dharam Tej film titled ‘Bro’; motion poster and first look out
Karthik Subbaraj’s ‘Jigarthanda DoubleX’, starring Raghava Lawrence and SJ Suryah, gets a release date
Rajinikanth announces Kapil Dev’s cameo in ‘Lal Salaam’
Ram Pothineni, Puri Jagannadh return for ‘iSmart Shankar’ sequel ‘Double iSmart’
‘Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil’, starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Basil Joseph, goes on floors
Dulquer Salmaan to star in ‘Vaathi’ director Venky Atluri’s next
Nivin Pauly to team up once again with Jude Antony Joseph
Samuthirakani’s next to be directed by Nanda Periyasamy
Bhojpuri films like ‘Maai’, ‘Bewafa Sanam’, ‘Khiladi’, and more to stream on Jio Cinema
Shreyas Talpade-Radhika Kumaraswamy’s ‘Ajagrata’ goes on floors
World cinema
Jackie Chan to star in ‘A Legend’, a sequel of his 2005 actioner ‘The Myth’
Trailers
Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ trailer out now
Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt in ‘Mission Impossible 7’ trailer
Chris Hemsworth goes on yet-another high-stakes mission to save a family in ‘Extraction 2’ trailer
Jeremy Allen White returns to the chaos of culinary business in ‘The Bear’ Season 2 trailer
Vicky Kaushal, Sara Ali Khan are a feuding couple in ‘Zara Hatke Zara Bachke’ trailer
‘Satyaprem Ki Katha’ teaser shows Kartik Aaryan, Kiara Advani in a swoony musical
John David Washington tries to save mankind from a rogue AI in teaser of Gareth Edwards’ ‘The Creator’
Karishma Tanna is a crime journalist behind bars in trailer of Hansal Mehta series ‘Scoop’
New in streaming
Coming to Netflix in May: Arnold Schwarzenegger starrer Fubar, comedy-drama XO Kitty, sixth season of Selling Sunset, and more
New on Disney+ Hotstar in May: American documentary miniseries Rennervations, action comedy series American Born Chinese, and more
Coming to Apple TV+: Seth Rogan’s comedy series Platonic, Amanda Seyfried and Tom Holland’s limited series The Crowded Room, and more
New on Amazon Prime Video this week: Anthology series Modern Love Chennai, romantic-horror film Bones and All, and more
New K-dramas to watch: Third season of Dr Romantic, romantic-comedy True to Love, dystopian web series Black Knight and more
Essential reading
1) Seth Rogen on ‘Platonic’ and if men and women can truly stay friends
>> Roger also talks about why movies are behind the curve on depicting relationships in the real world
2) Interview with the team of ‘Modern Love: Chennai’: Trying to define love and its many hues
>> Thiagarajan Kumararaja and his cast speak about the creative freedom that comes with working on such an anthology
3) Vijay Antony on ‘Pichaikkaran 2’ and listening to the audience ‘inside him’
>> Actor-director talks about shaping ‘Pichaikkaran 2’ from the original’s success and getting back in touch with music
4) Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam: There is no space for elitism in cinema
>> Tharun looks back at his roller coaster journey and offers a glimpse into his new film ‘Keedaa Cola’
5) How Hollywood finally cracked the video game adaptation
>> A deep dive into the history of the genre, the infamous video-game movie curse, and how it was broken
6) Director Sailesh Kolanu: We are all following the path Marvel has created
>> Sailesh discusses his approach to cinema and how he hopes to have his signature as the ‘HIT’ universe grows bigger
7) Actor Indrans on ‘Jackson Bazaar Youth’, and how ‘Home’ changed the trajectory of his career
>> He speaks about carving a space for himself in Malayalam and his changing profile as an actor
8) Nandini Reddy on ‘Anni Manchi Sakunamule’: I remembered the warmth of my grandmother’s palm
>> She talks about understanding relationships across age groups and what she learnt from Sooraj Barjatya films
9) Danced to ‘Naatu Naatu’? Here’s how this Oscar-winning song was filmed
>> Ramji Natarajan, known as the ‘location guru’ in the industry, recounts the tale behind filming the hit track in Ukraine
10) Award-winning Malayalam costume designer Stephy Zaviour turns director with ‘Madhura Manohara Moham’
>> Stephy recounts the experience of directing her debut film, how she chose the technicians, and more
11) Hell’s consultants | Are consultancy firms more a liability than an asset?
>> Amidst massive lay-offs by the consultancy industry, Amazon Prime Video’s show is timely
12) Ashish Rajadhyaksha’s ‘John-Ghatak-Tarkovsky’ is an important story of the country’s history of protest against hate
>> The campus and its students became a microcosm of the nation and emblematic of the state’s ‘distrust of cinema.’
What to watch
1) In ‘Fast X’, Dom and his family are still on a roll despite balding tyres, thanks to Jason Momoa
2) Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell scheme to serve a coming-of-age cannibal romance in ‘Bones and All’
3) Sanya Malhotra chases jackfruits and jeopardy in prickly comedy, ‘Kathal’
4) Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s anthology ‘Modern Love: Chennai’ is a phenomenal assortment of captivating love stories
5) ‘Anni Manchi Sakunamule’ is an imperfect yet warm story of human relationship
6) Gulshan Devaiah, Saiyami Kher’s ‘8 A.M. Metro’ is more prosaic than poetic
7) Candy floss rom-com ‘XO, Kitty’ isn’t good for your teeth, but still warms the heart
8) ‘Kannada movie ‘Daredevil Musthafa,’ an adaptation of Tejaswi’s story, is a brilliant achievement
9) Radhika Madan, Rajat Barmecha’s ‘Kacchey Limbu’ is a fine film about the burden of dreams
10) ‘Maruthi Nagar Police Station’ is a choppily-written, patience-testing murder mystery
11) ‘Jackson Bazaar Youth’ is an unconvincing mish-mash of issues, without any punch
12) ‘Black Knight’ series is a thrilling peek into post-apocalyptic South Korea
13) A captivating young cast propels ‘Crater,’ a thrilling ride into time and space
COMMents
SHARE