Who’s who in the Cannes film festival jury Willis to play Tyson’s boxing trainer in ‘Cornerman’
CANNES, France: In a year rocked by the #MeToo movement, the jury of the Cannes film festival is both majority female and led by a woman for the first time. Here are the nine members:
- Cate Blanchett
The two-time Oscar winner from Australia is the 12th woman to head the panel of judges. The 48-year-old has emerged as a key figure in Hollywood’s fight against sexual harassment.
One of the first women to call out Harvey Weinstein, Blanchett recently co-founded the “Time’s Up” movement in support of abuse victims.
She made her breakthrough as Britain’s flame-haired monarch Elizabeth I in the 1998 biopic, earning her the first of her six Oscar nominations.
Although she has never won anything at Cannes, her performance in ‘Carol’, where she played one half of a couple of illicit lesbian lovers, earned her rave reviews in 2014.
- Chang Chen
One of Taiwan’s best-known actors, the 41-year-old shot to fame in the 2000 martial arts saga ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ by fellow countryman Ang Lee.
Born into a family of actors, Chang got his first leading role aged 14 in ‘A Brighter Summer Day’, a violent four-hour epic about warring street gangs.
He has starred in several critically acclaimed Chineselanguage films including Hou Hsiao-hsien’s ‘The Assassin’, which won the best director award at Cannes in 2015.
- Kristen Stewart
The 28-year-old has long been a darling of Cannes, appearing in the main competition in ‘On the Road’ by Walter Salles in 2012 and Olivier Assayas’ ‘Clouds of Sils Maria’ and Woody Allen’s ‘Cafe Society’ in 2014.
The award-winning actress also premiered her first short film as a director, ‘Come Swim’, at the festival last year.
Stewart, a Los Angeles native, was first spotted by a talent scout at age eight and had her breakout role opposite Jodie Foster in the 2002 thriller ‘Panic Room’.
But her career made a quantum leap when, at 17, she played broody teen Bella Swan who falls in love with a vampire in the ‘Twilight’ films.
- Khadja Nin
Burundian Khadja Nin has become one of French-speaking Africa’s most celebrated singersongwriters with her unique blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms and modern pop.
She has performed alongside music legends like Montserra Caballe and Sting, and collaborated with French screen legend Jeanne Moreau for a music video.
The daughter of a diplomat and youngest of eight children studied music from an early age before eventually moving to Europe.
- Ava DuVernay
The trailblazing director, screenwriter, producer and distributor, who directed the Oscar-nominated civil rights drama ‘Selma’, is the first AfricanAmerican woman to helm a film with a budget over $100 million -- this year’s ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ starring Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey.
DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated documentary ‘13th’, named for the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery, offered a devastating account of mass incarceration of black men in contemporary American.
In March, she signed on to make the DC Comics superhero blockbuster, ‘The New Gods’.
- Lea Seydoux
At 32, Seydoux is one of France’s best-known actresses with a Palme d’Or already under her belt.
Starring in pictures by heavyweights ranging from Quentin Tarantino to Woody Allen, Seydoux is arguably best known to global audiences for her turn as a Bond girl opposite Daniel Craig in 2015’s ‘Spectre’.
But it was her soulful turn in Abdellatif Kechiche’s epic lesbian love story ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’, which unusually captured the Palme d’Or for the director and the two leads, that made her a Cannes fixture.
- Denis Villeneuve
The director and screenwriter, whose update of the sci-fi classic ‘Blade Runner 2049’ picked up two Oscars this year, is a frequent guest of the festival.
The 50-year-old filmmaker made his Cannes debut two decades ago with ‘August 32nd on Earth’ a drama about a model who confronts an existential crisis by deciding to have a baby with her best friend.
- Andrei Zvyagintsev
The Russian maker of such classics as ‘The Return’ and ‘Leviathan’ is regarded as one of the greatest directors in the world at the moment, with his last film ‘Loveless’ the critics’ favourite for the Palme d’Or last year.
It was pipped at the post by ‘The Square’, but the sombre story of the warped values of the country’s post-Soviet middle class was later nominated for best foreign film Oscar. — AFP BRUCE Willis is to play Mike Tyson’s boxing trainer Cus D’Amato in ‘Cornerman’.
The 63-year-old actor - who is best known for the ‘Die Hard’ franchise - is set to star in the Rupert Friend movie, which follows the retired manager as he makes a return to the game when a 13-year-old Tyson shows he has huge potential in the ring.
Friend describes the feature as a “story about fighting for what you believe in”, as D’Amato carries out a search to find the teenager a suitable opponent.
Tyson was the undefeated heavyweight champion until 1990, when he was knocked out by outsider Buster Douglas in Japan.
D’Amato - who also managed the careers of Floyd Patterson and José Torres; all of whom went on to become members of the International Boxing Hall of Fame - died in November 1985, at the age of 77.
‘Homeland’ helmer Friend joins Aimee Mullins on producing duties for Circus Florist Films, along with MadRiver Pictures’ Marc Butan and Ara Keshishian.
According to Screen Daily, production is due to commence later this year.
Friend commented: “Ultimately, this is a story about a deep love between two ferocious talents, each brave enough to admit their fears to the other, and so spur one another to greatness.
“It is a story about fighting for what you believe in, and a film that will make you question what strength really is.”
Willis is currently filming ‘Motherless Brooklyn’, in which he portrays Frank Minna, who
It is a story about fighting for what you believe in, and a film that will make you question what strength really is. Rupert Friend, producer
is murdered in New York in the 1950s, and he’s also working on a sixth ‘Die Hard’ movie.
Willis stars as the wisecracking police detective John McClane in the movies - which are based on author Roderick Thorp’s novel ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ - and was last seen as the iconic character back in 2013 in ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’.
Two years ago a “part-prequel, part-sequel” was announced and Willis is back on board, but talk of the film quieted down. — BANG Showbiz