Cannes Eve...

Poster for Lars Von Trier's Cannes entry "Melancholia"

The Cannes Film Festival opens tomorrow with Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" and then runs for 11 days.  We're anxiously awaiting the response from the critics on the ground so we can begin to apply that wisdom to our prognostications regarding Telluride #38.  The Playlist (at IndieWire) has an interesting rundown of what it says are 10 titles to be expected to make noise at Cannes.  You can find that link here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/cannes_film_festival_10_films_that_be_making_noise_on_the_croisette/

Meanwhile, Hitfix reported this morning that The Weinstein Company is on board for Paul Thomas Anderson's next project.  We met Anderson briefly when he attended TFF #34 as part of the tribute to Daniel Day Lewis and the sneak peak of 20 minutes or so of "There Will Be Blood."  The article suggests that the Weinstein's are looking for the new Anderson project to be a 2013 release...TFF #40???  Maybe.  It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was at Telluride for 2005's "Capote" for which he won the Best Actor Oscar.  So there's enough of  a pedigree there to think that it might be a part of the fest 2 years from now.

I'm kind of hesitant to get really worked up with this after the experience of stalking Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" kind of obsessively for 2 years only to see it scheduled for this year's Cannes followed by its U.S. open on May 27th.  But...it IS PT Anderson with Hoffman.  Check the Hitfix article at this link:

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/awards-campaign/posts/oscar-watch-paul-thomas-anderson-and-weinstein-company-take-on-scientology

Can't wait to start hearing the buzz out of Cannes...