Baltasar Kormakur Directing 'Vikingr'; Jacques Audiard Helms 'Erran'; Joe Dante Plans 'Ombra Amore'

Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur continues to make in-roads in Hollywood where he's found success making genre flicks with some pretty big stars. The Contraband and 2 Guns director has lined up his next project, Vikingr, based on the classic tales of Vikings and Nordic settlers.The gig keeps Kormakur in partnership with Universal Pictures, who backed his prior U.S. features and will distribute his next film, Everest, which stars Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, and John Hawkes. [Deadline]

You know how much I loved the brutally tough Rust & Bone a couple of years ago, and I've been waiting patiently for word of Jacques Audiard's next film. Well now comes word that he will write and direct Erran, about "a Sri-Lankan Tamil fighter who is a political refugee in France, where he works as a caretaker on an 'unruly' council estate in the Parisian suburbs." Even better, filming begins next week with the plan to have its premiere at Cannes. [Cineuropa]

Joe Dante (Gremlins, Burying the Ex) continues his comeback with the supernatural romance, Ombra Amore. Set in the midst of Italy's current economic crisis, the story centers on the love affair between Pete, a werewolf whose pack is responsible for the economic downturn; and Maggie, a vampire whose aristocratic family was bankrupted by the greedy wolves' schemes. How is this not titled The Wolf of Via Veneto? [THR]

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Beautiful new U.K. trailer for 'Rust and Bone' starring Marion Cotillard

There are some very high expectations for Rust and Bone, especially coming out of a well-received appearance at Cannes where it competed for the Palm d'Or. The film comes with a ton of awards pedigree, directed by Jacques Audiard who gave us the excellent crime drama, A Prophet, and stars Oscar winner Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, who last year gave a riveting performance in the Oscar-nominated Bullhead. With Toronto right around the corner and a November 16th release not far off, a new U.K. trailer has been unveiled.

Chronicling the unlikely relationship between two tortured souls, Schoenaerts plays a poor man recently put in charge of a son he barely knows, but finds a reason to hope when he meets Cotillard's whale trainer who loses her legs in a terrible accident. The film looks absolutely gorgeous, and whatever that song is going to haunt me for the rest of the day. Check out the trailer for Rust and Bone below....[MSN]

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Trailer Time: 'Rust & Bone', starring Marion Cotillard

Quietly one of my most awaited films of the year, Rust & Bone stars Marion Cotillard and is the next film from French director, Jacques Audiard. Audiard brought us the top notch crime flicks, A Prophet and The Beat that Skipped My Heart. He's doing something a little bit different this time around, but the emotions appear to be just as raw as ever.

Based on Craig Davidson's collection of short stories, Rust & Bone features Cotillard as a trainer of killer whales who loses her legs in a freak accident, who enters into a relationship with a homeless ex-boxer, played by Matthias Schoaenarts(Bullhead).

The first official trailer has been released, and while it's completely in French you don't need to understand what they're saying to catch the feelings involved. Plus, it's absolutely gorgeous to look at, like all of Audiard's movies are.  Rust & Bone will open in France on May 17th, and hopefully we'll see it here not too long after....




De rouille et d'os by rtl-fr

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Marion Cotillard to star in A Prophet director's follow-up, Rust and Bone

There are some who staked out the position last year that French director Jacques Audiard's crime pic, A Prophet, wasn't just one of the best foreign language films but arguably the best of the year. Period. I loved it, but wasn't prepared to go quite that far. It did convince me to seek out Audiard's 2005 film, The Beat That Skipped My Heart, and found it to be superior in a lot of ways. Whatever the case, Audiard is firmly on my radar, and have been anxiously awaiting whatever he does next. That film is called Rust and Bone, and one of my favorite actresses in Marion Cotillard is set to star.

Based on the collection of short stories by Canadian author Craig Davidson, it's described as being a mix of suspense and love, with Davidson's work often being compared to that of Chuck Palahniuk(Fight Club). Audiard andThomas Bidegain, who helped co-write A Prophet, will tag team the script. Matthias Schoenarts, Celine Sallette, and Bouli Lanners are set to co-star.

I love this mix of smaller foreign films(Little White Lies, for instance) and big Hollywood stuff that Cotillad has found. Already this year we've seen her in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, and she'll be one of the featured cast in Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. And of course there's that little film from Christopher Nolan called The Dark Knight Rises you might've heard about. 

Shooting begins in September, so she'll jump right from the Batverse and into this project.

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