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Ben Affleck on ‘SNL’: Oscar Speech Apology Is Hard Work (Video)

Ben Affleck returned as host of "Saturday Night Live" for the fifth time, but didn't get the full-on welcome treatment from fellow "five-timers" that Justin Timberlake did earlier this year. He did get the chance to apologize to his wife Jennifer Garner for that odd acceptance speech he gave after winning the Oscar for "Argo." He explains it all to her in his opening monologe here. You decide if it "works."

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Cannes: Phase 4 Acquires U.S., Canadian On Anna Paquin Pic ‘Free Ride’

Phase 4 Films acquired all U.S. and Canadian rights to writer-director Shana Betz’s feature directorial debut Free Ride. The film stars Anna Paquin, Cam Gigandet, Drea De Matteo, Liana Liberato, Jeff Hephner, Brit Morgan and Ava Acres. Scripted by Betz, the film is produced by Susan Dynner, Cerise Hallam Larkin, Chris Swinney and Paquin, and executive produced by Mark Larkin and Stephen Moyer. This is the first film production from Paquin and Moyer’s new production company CASM. Phase 4 will release the film later this year in theaters and on demand. Paquin and Moyer star together in HBO’s True Blood. Set in the 1970s and based on her life story, Betz’s accomplished directorial debut is a provocative crime thriller: Paquin plays a single mother who moves to Florida with her daughters in search of a better life but gets pulled into the high-stakes drug-trade business. “Shana Betz has written and directed a poignant and gripping film anchored by a powerful performance by Anna Paquin,” says Phase 4′s Barry Meyerowitz. “We look forward to working with Shana, and the entire cast and producing team to bring this film to audiences.” “It’s always very exciting to discover talented writers and directors at the beginning of their careers. Based on the life story ... Read More »

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Cannes: Wrekin Hill Acquires U.S. On Gabriele Salvatores’ ‘Siberian Education’ With John Malkovich

Wrekin Hill Entertainment acquired U.S. rights to Gabriele Salvatores’ Siberian Education. Based on the novel by Nicolai Lilin, with a screenplay by Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli and Salvatores, the film stars John Malkovich, Arnas Feravicius, Vilius Tumalavicius, Eleanor Tomlinson, Peter Stormare, Jonas Trukanas and Vitalji Porsnev. Set in the ghetto of Soviet Russia, Siberian Education follows the path of two boys who are members of a gang of exiled Siberians. The best friends grow up together, mastering a unique education focused on illegal arts such as theft, banditry and weaponry. Their clan has its very own stringent code of honor, which, while criminal, sometimes actually coincides with what is generally considered ethical and moral. It is a code that must never be broken, no matter what. As the boys turn to men, everything they have come to know and learn is tested. The film’s produced by Catteya’s Riccardo Tozzi, Giovanni Satabilini, Marco Chimenz, and executive produced by Gina Gardini. The deal for the film was negotiated by Rene Cogan and Alex Mandell for Wrekin Hill with WestEnd Films on behalf of the filmmakers. WestEnd is handling international sales on this title. Wrekin Hill will release the film in late 2013. It has already been released in several territories including Italy ... Read More »

Cannes Briefs: Mongrel Acquires Canadian ‘La Grande Bellezza’; Cohen Books ‘Inventor And The Tycoon’; Zombie Western From ‘Iron Sky’ Producer; Glavkino Expansion

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What is Jewish Humor? Justin Timberlake ‘Smells a Trap’ for Coen Brothers in Cannes

Justin Timberlake stepped in to save an awkward situation when directors Joel and Ethan Coen were asked at the Cannes Film Festival about Jewish humor by a German reporter on Sunday.

"I smell a trap," quipped Timberlake at a news conference (left) for Joel and Ethan Coen's sardonic drama about a folk singer, "Inside Llewyn Davis," where a German reporter asked about the nature of "Jewish humor."

See photos: The Scene at the Cannes Film Festival 2013 (Photos)

Timberlake has a supporting role in the movie as folk singer Jim.

"The Germans are not really known for humor," said the reporter, who suggested that the Second World War and the Holocaust might have robbed the German people of their humor and, perhaps, Jewish wit.

He then asked: "Jewish humor, does it exist? If so what does it consist of?"

After Timberlake stepped in to deflect the question for the (presumably Jewish) Coens, and music supervisor T. Bone Burnett interjected a few remarks to make the question go away, Joel Coen stepped up.

Read also: Cannes Review: Coen Brothers' 'Inside Llewyn Davis' Is a Breathtaking Ode to Failure

"There's nothing like the Holocaust to put the stake in a certain kind of humor," he deadpanned, before moving on to questions closer to the heart of his film, set in the 1960s in the Village.

"Inside Llewyn Davis," starring an unknown, Oscar Isaac, as the title character, debuted to raves at the festival on Saturday.  CBS Films is distributing the film in the United States in the fall.

Cannes Review: Coen Brothers’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ Is a Breathtaking Ode to Failure

Those of us who know Bob Dylan's story well can point to his transformative influence on the folk music scene in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s. What is remarkable is how Dylan shaped his own style from a unique amalgam of folk singers of the time, borrowing what he needed from Woody Guthrie and absorbing the best of the rest from everyone else. That didn't explain his genius, nor does it explain his subsequent disgust with traditional folksinging – disgust that was manifested in his going electric, infusing his lyrics with rock-n-roll poetry, and refusing to be lumped in with the protest folkies of the time.

While none of that may seem to matter in Joel and Ethan Coen's melancholy meditation on the time before Dylan changed everything, awareness of the schism that was brewing makes "Inside Llewyn Davis" all the more interesting. The movie captures a distinct moment in time when a scraggly young man from Hibbing, Minnesota struggled to find his place on the brink of a wayward movement about to be forever altered.

See photos: The Scene at the Cannes Film Festival 2013 (Photos)

Watching the folk singers in "Llewyn Davis," it's easy to see how a guy like Dylan could completely overwhelm anything else being offered up at the time. How do you justify hard-knock ballads about your life when the guy right behind you is Bob Dylan?  A man who shows up at the mic playing his guitar like everyone else but departing from the traditional laments of folk music to write lyrics you've never heard before. 

Into this seemingly uncorrupted world comes Llewyn Davis, a folk singer who was part of a singing duo until his partner killed himself. That's the essential premise, but the film is about so much more than the events of the time. You can almost see these guys as disciples in a less subversive "Life of Brian," as dozens of scrappy young men like Dylan loitered around bars with no winter coat, a guitar slung over their shoulder, and a vulnerable neediness that women can't help but respond to. 

But this film is only partly about a peripheral player in what would become Bob Dylan's world. "Llewyn Davis," in fact, isn't about success at all. It's about failure, artistic failure, personal failure, and how the smallest fumbles can forever alter the course of your life -- a cat accidentally gets out, you forget to use a condom, you're trying to become a big folk singer right before Dylan comes to town.

Also read: What is Jewish Humor? Justin Timberlake 'Smells a Trap' for Coen Brothers in Cannes

But what if the big break you're hoping for never comes? You are then left to sift through the wreckage of that dream.  Poor Llewyn can't get anything right. He keeps hammering at the dream but there is no magic moment of success waiting for him, no startling bursts of genius. The only remarkable thing about him is what a fuck-up he is. He ends up playing the part of Sisyphus, rolling the big rock up the hill only to see it roll back down.

Joel and Ethan Coen play with the idea of timing, of circumstance and consequence, in various ways. Every time Llewyn is given the opportunity to do the right thing he almost always botches his shot. At the same time, Llewyn is doing the best he can to make things right. It isn't for lack of trying that he screws everything up—it is simply bad luck, mixed with the false perception that perseverance will pay off for everyone in the end, the cruel myth that the American Dream really is accessible to everyone.

Oscar Isaac plays Llewyn Davis, a character based very loosely on folksinger Dave Van Ronk, who wrote a memoir of Greenwich Village in the late '50s and early '60s and was a significant influence on Dylan. Davis is a man with big dreams who has no clue as to how to live. He gets by bouncing from one friend's couch to another. His records don't sell. His money is dwindling.

Through the film, you can hear pulse of Dylan himself, and his obvious influence on the Coen brothers. Not just in how Llewyn is portrayed to evoke a figure who helped prime Greenwich Village for the likes of Dylan, but in themes that weigh heavy in Dylan's own canon -- themes of happenstance, absurdity, love gone wrong, and fate. 

It is fate, in fact, that seems to always chase after Llewyn, and simple twists of fate that plague him.  Even when he's doing his best, there are still forces beyond his control to thwart his efforts. 

The Coens have made what is likely to be one of the best films of the year, and certainly among their own best work. They've stepped a bit out of their comfort zone in some respects, especially with the absence of their usual cinematographer, Roger Deakins. The film has a different look than we're accustomed to seeing from the Coens, because they're working with Bruno Delbonnel for the first time.

Carey Mulligan very nearly steals the show as as Llewyn's fed up ex-girlfriend. John Goodman is something of a surreal Mephistopheles, as usual, and other famous faces continually show up to surprise us.  There is also the bit with the cat, but to say any more would ruin one of the best things about the film.

"Inside Llewyn Davis" hovers somewhere between comedy and tragedy, never committing fully to either.  The film is part of the world of the Coen brothers, which mostly doesn't trust that any of us will have or deserve a happy ending. But neither is it unrelenting bleak. 

What matters, finally, to Llewyn Davis isn't that he becomes famous, or that he dies trying -- but that, for a few brief minutes he's up there singing. He knows his song well, though it takes time for him to realize that to achieve greatness in music -- or any art for that matter -- is to access parts of yourself most of us keep hidden.   Dylan has always had an exceptional gift to express that. Davis has it too, but it's harder for him to find and impossible for him to hold onto. 

"Inside Llewyn Davis" comes like a breath of fresh air at Cannes, an accomplished, breathtaking work, a portrait of a specific time and place before everything changed.  Like Dylan himself, the Coens keep evolving, never settling on one style for very long.

Dylan is still playing music, still writing songs; the fire that burns within him, one gifted him by the fates, still obliterates all others. But that doesn't mean tales of the Llewyn Davises who live in his shadow should remain untold. Our best stories are not just about the brightest supernovas. Our collective dreams are also lit by twinkling stars that don't even have a name but hold their place in the firmament nonetheless, forced into faltering orbits by wrong turns, bad timing, and fate.

Fox International Productions Ramps Up Two New German Comedies

Fox International Productions‘ German operation had a big hit this year with The Break-Up Man, the comedy that grossed $24M locally and is being eyed as a U.S. remake. FIP Germany is now moving ahead on two new local-language projects. Shooting starts in late summer on the adaption of Andreas Steinhöfel’s children’s book Rico, Oskar And The Pasta Detectives. Neele Leana Vollmar is directing the story of friends Rico and Oskar. When Oskar disappears, Rico goes on a wild hunt throughout Berlin to save him. Alexandra Maria Lara (Downfall) plays Rico’s mother with Elyas M’Barek (The Wave), Ronald Zehrfeld (Barbara) and Milan Peschl (What A Man) also aboard. Also upcoming is Marco Petry’s teen comedy Playing Doctor which he co-wrote with Jan Ehlert. The Lieblingsfilm Munchen production will be produced by Robert Marciniak and Philipp Budweg. Marco Mehlitz, FIP Germany’s head of production and development, is overseeing both films.

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Cannes: Antonio Banderas Joins ‘The 33′; Good Universe Selling Chilean Miners Movie

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Cannes: Focus Features International Awash In ‘Black Sea’ Deals

In a multi-territory deal, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisition has acquired Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Latin America on Focus‘ Jude Law-starrer Black Sea. Kevin Macdonald is directing the film about a submarine captain on a risky hunt for sunken treasure. FFI also sealed a deal with BackUp Media which invested against rights in France, Benelux and French-speaking Switzerland. Other territories sold include Australia and New Zealand (eOne), China, CIS, Israel and South Africa.

Cannes: Asif Kapadia To Helm WWI Love Story ‘Ali And Nino’

Senna helmer Asif Kapadia will direct Ali And Nino for UK producer PeaPie Films. IM Global is handling worldwide sales with production set for early 2014. Atonement scribe Christopher Hampton adapted the epic WWI love story that’s set in Azerbaijan where Ali Khan Shirvanshir, the male descendant of a royal Muslim family, falls in love with Nino Kipiani, a beautiful, Christian, Georgian princess. It’s based on the novel by Kurban Said that was published in 1937. PeaPie’s Kris Thykier (Kick-Ass, One Chance) is producing. Lelya Aliyeva is executive producer. Kapadia works across documentaries and fiction. His 2001 film The Warrior won the BAFTA for Best British Film. He’s an exec producer on Cannes official selection title Monsoon Shootout and is also due to direct an as-yet untitled Amy Winehouse documentary.

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Cannes: The Weinstein Co. Books ‘Suite Française’ In Multi-Territory Deal

The Weinstein Company, TF1 DA and eOne will partner on Suite Française, the Michelle Williams, Matthias Schoenaerts and Kristin Scott Thomas drama directed by Saul Dibb. TWC will handle U.S. rights, along with distribution rights in Latin America, Australia, Russia and Germany. Production starts in June on the 1940s-set film that’s based on Irene Nemirovsky’s novel about a young woman who lives with her controlling mother-in-law in Nazi-occupied France and ends up falling for a German officer. The 15M euro film will shoot in Belgium and Paris. The movie is produced by Qwerty Films’ Michael Kuhn and Andrea Cornwell. Xavier Marchand produces for eOne alongside Romain Brémond who produces for TF1. Harvey Weinstein is exec producer. France’s TF1 DA acquired rights to Nemirovsky’s unfinished novel in 2007. Dibb (The Duchess) adapted it for the screen with Matt Charman. TF1 has French rights to the film and eOne has distribution in the UK, Spain and Canada. TF1 International is selling.

Ben Affleck On ‘SNL’ Finale: ‘Ben Go F*** Yourself’

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Cannes: DreamWorks Enters Output Deal With France’s Metropolitan

Via its arrangement with David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment, DreamWorks has steadily been adding to its portfolio of offshore partners. Today’s news is that it’s pacted with the Hadida brothers’ indie powerhouse Metropolitan Filmexport in France. It’s also entered a deal with Inter-Film for Ukraine and a multi-picture agreement with MediaPro for Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Here’s the release:

CANNES: May 19, 2013 -DreamWorks Studios is pleased to announce that, through their existing collaboration with David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment to represent DreamWorks Studios’ films for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, they have concluded additional key partnership deals in Cannes with leading independent distribution companies including Samuel and Victor Hadida’s Metropolitan FilmExport in France. DreamWorks has entered into an output agreement with Metropolitan to distribute the company’s films in all media (theatrical, home entertainment, and TV). “We know Metropolitan to be amongst the strongest independents in Europe, and we are thrilled to be in business with them,” stated Jeff Small, DreamWorks President and COO. Samuel and Victor Hadida added, “For us, this arrangement is a natural progression of our business, and of our handling the best English language films for the French marketplace. We are very excited with the plans that Steven, Stacey, Jeff, and their team have for the coming years, and we are delighted to join them.” As part of the Company’s strategy to create a network of partnerships for ... Read More »

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