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MAY 15, 2015
THR.COM/CANNES CANNES №3
CANNES
WEATHER
AND HIGH
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TODAY
75° F
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TOMORROW
74° F
23° C
THERON: AP PHOTO/THIBAULT CAMUS.
Thurman
Joins Up With
The Brits
by Pamela McClintock
Uma Thurman is set to star
in The Brits Are Coming, a broad
comedy about an eccentric,
no-good British couple who
flee to Los Angeles and plot a
jewel theft.
Kristin Chenoweth also will
star in the movie, which Cassian
Elwes, filmmaker J.C. Chandor,
Robert Ogden Barnum and Will
Clevinger are producing.
James Oakley, a protege of
Chandor’s, will direct. Oakley’s
other directing credits include
The Devil You Know, starring
Rosamund Pike, Lena Olin and
Jennifer Lawrence. Oakley is set
to start shooting The Brits Are
Coming in July from a script he
co-wrote with Alex Michaelides.
Further casting on the project
is underway.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Is Mad Max
Oscar Worthy?
By Gregg Kilday
At the official press
screening on May 14 of
Mad Max: Fury Road, the
audience broke into spontaneous
applause three times during
the course of the film. With
94 reviews currently tallied on
Rottentomatoes.com, it’s racked
up an enthusiast 99 percent
approval rating. Any other movie
From left: Margaret Sixel,
director George Miller,
Charlize Theron, Nicholas
Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, producer
Doug Mitchell and Courtney
Eaton at the screening of the
film Mad Max: Fury Road.
Can Black Films Go Global?
Once considered a tough sell overseas, projects featuring African-American characters
and themes are starting to break through. ‘There’s been a sea change,’ says one insider
By Tatiana Siegel and Scott Roxborough
The 68th Cannes Film Festival is being hyped
as the year of the woman. But it might also
be aptly dubbed the year of the black film.
Given the slew of projects being shopped at the
Cannes film market that features black narratives
— notably a Barack Obama-inspired love
story Southside With You, Chiraq (Spike Lee’s
reimagining of the Greek comedy Lysistrata),
Jeff Nichols’ Loving, about an interracial couple
in the 1950s and spoof film Fifty Shades of Black
from Marlon Wayans — as well as Rick Famuyiwa’s
Dope playing in the Directors’ Fortnight section of
the festival, there are signs that fare once deemed
ice cold in international markets is heating up.
For years, the prevailing thinking has been that
films with black casts don’t generate money outside
the U.S. Think Like a Man, Get On Up and an About
Last Night remake all made less than 5 percent of
their worldwide box-office overseas.
But Oscar best picture winner 12 Years a Slave
made an astounding 70 percent of its $188
million worldwide box office in international
territories. And this year’s best picture nominee
Selma made a promising 22 percent of its
$67 million worldwide haul overseas.
Stuart Ford’s IM Global, which is handling sales
on Southside, Chiraq and Fifty Shades, is particularly
bullish. Buoyed by the international success of his
company’s The Butler, which surprised with
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Ford
MAD MAX
HITS THE
RED CARPET
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 3
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