The Cannes market ensures there is no shortage of news updates, and so we have another round-up. The talented Marielle Heller has found her next project as Variety reports she is set to direct Amy Adams in Nightbitch. The adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s novel is backed by Searchlight Pictures, which will release the film on Hulu. With production set to get underway this fall, Adams will lead as a woman who is “thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, who slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a canine.”
Following News of the World, Paul Greengrass has announced his next project. The Hood, set to star Benedict Cumberbatch, is a period piece depicting the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt. THR notes our lead will likely play a farmer leading the “major uprising,” which “took part across large parts of England in response to issues, such as socio-economic and political tensions and high taxation.”
Lukas Moodysson is returning to his 2000 hit Together for his next film. Screen Daily reports the Swedish director will be helming a sequel titled Together 99. The story will pick up in 1999 when the collective featured in the original is now down to two people Göran (Gustaf Hammarsten) and Klasse (Shanti Roney) as they reconnect with their old friends. Production begins this August so expect a festival bow next year.
While Michel Gondry’s career peak has come to pass, we’re still looking forward to what he’s working on next and now we have an update on his first project in seven years. The Playlist reports he’s readying the French-language comedy The Book of Solutions, set to star Pierre Niney, Blanche Gardin, Camille Rutherford, Frankie Wallach, and Vincent Elbaz. While not much is known yet, it will follow “a filmmaker attempting to overcome his creative demons,” perhaps an autobiographical plea considering the break in between projects for the director.
Earlier this week, we reported that Bong Joon-ho’s next film, an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s new sci-fi novel Mickey7 starring Robert Pattinson, would get underway this August in the UK and now more cast have been added. Deadline reports Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Naomi Ackie are coming aboard the sci-fi film, which follows a disposable worker drone sent on an expedition with humans to colonize the ice world Niflheim. If any mission is too dangerous, Mickey is sent and if he dies, a new body can be regenerated with its memories intact.
Variety reports a remake of Wim Wenders’ 1982 documentary Room 666 is now shooting at Cannes Film Festival. Backed by MK2 Films, Lubna Playoust directs the new project, titled Curiosity Room, which will feature interviews with Audrey Diwan, Pietro Marcello, Joachim Trier, along with expected appearances by David Cronenberg and Claire Denis, and many more. The original, which featured Jean-Luc Godard, Steven Spielberg, Michelangelo Antonioni, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and more, posed questions about the future of cinema. Considering the last few years, it’s certainly time for another temperature check. See a clip from the original below.
Related to the above update, Diwan and Wenders have found their next films. The Happening director will make her English-language debut with Léa Seydoux for Emmanuelle, Variety reports. Another adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel, Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski wrote the script that follows “a woman and the series of erotic fantasies that she entertains.”
Meanwhile, Wenders will return to Tokyo to make a film about toilets, THR reports. Set to star Koji Yakusho, it will follow the city’s real-life plan to create 17 public toilets designed by renowned architects. “A toilet is a place where everybody is the same, there’s no rich and poor, no old and young, everybody’s part of humanity,” Wenders said. “There is something very Japanese about the idea, about the whole setting. And I almost think it’s a Utopian idea.”