The Weinstein Co. shopped till the last day of the Cannes Film Festival, as it nabbed the North American rights to “Control”, Joy Division’s biopic movie, the North American home video rights to “Waz”, a detective thriller, and the Australian rights to the animated controvert movie, “Persepolis”.
“Control” is a black-and-white movie marking the feature directorial debut of the music video veteran Anton Corbjin. The movie depicts the life and death of Ian Curtis, the lead singer of the popular band Joy Division. Curtis committed suicide at the age of 23. His character will be played by Sam Riley, who will play opposite to Samantha Morton, as Curtis’ wife.
Another black-and-white movie is “Persepolis”, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s animated film, which is the adaptation of Satrapi’s graphic novel about a girl during the Iran’s Islamic revolution. The movie will be distributed domestically by Sony Pictures Classics.
“Waz”, the third movie picked up by the Weinstein Co., is Tom Shankland’s British thriller telling the story of a detective, played by Stellan Skarsgrad, who is stalked by a serial killer.

The Finnish holiday home of the Russian director Andrei Nekrasov was broken in just a month before the director’s movie about the murdered Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. This seemed suspicious to Andrei Nekrasov, although for the police it looked just another break-in.
However, for Andrei Nekrasov, who was a friend of the former KGB agent, it looked very strange that the burglar caused some damage, but he stole nothing. The Russian director stated that he feared for his safety after making the movie, which does include interviews with Alexander Litvinenko and also criticize Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Although there is no proof that the break-in was linked to Andrei Nekrasov’s documentary, the broken windows, the letters and books ripped and negatives destroyed, without anything stolen, seem strange enough.
The director’s house is placed in Luumaki, 110 miles northeast of Helsinki, and it is used by Nekrasov to store his research material.
For the Lappenranta police the case is just an ordinary crime. Many burglaries happen all year round the area, where there are many holiday homes.

The famous action director John Woo is to both direct and produce “Ninja Gold”, a new property from the video game creator Warren Spector, the one who created such video games as “Deus Ex”, “System Shock” and “Thief: Deadly Shadows” and other video games.
The eventual movie will be released by 20th Century Fox and Warren Spector, the video game creator, will executive produce.
“Ninja Gold” is about a ninja warrior, part of a centuries-old bloodline and legacy, who will be forced to confront the reality of covert warfare in the modern world. The Yakuza and the Russian mob being involved in tons of gold being stolen in South Africa will be the concept on which the story of the game will be based.
It was John Woo’s idea to do something involving the conflict between traditional and modernity and the specific conflict between the traditional ninjas and the modern-day setting. He was intimately involved in the creation of the “Ninja Gold” cast of characters, especially the hero.
The movie was said to still have fantastic elements from the game, although it would be more reality-based. However, the result of the collaboration between one of the biggest names in video games and one of the most famous action directors is expected to be a success.

U.K.’s Channel 4 is to broadcast a movie showing previously unseen photos of Princess Diana in the car crash that killed her in 1997, along with her boyfriend Dodi al Fayed and their chauffeur Henri Paul. Channel 4 said described the movie as “responsible”, marking the 10 years from Diana’s violent death. The British newspapers have already reported that the film will feature previously unpublished photos of Diana receiving medical attention from a doctor, as she lay dying in the back of the black Mercedes S-class vehicle in which the three persons eventually died.
The film was made thanks to the witnesses of the car crash who escaped the French legal authorities in not having their photos confiscated.
The broadcasting of the movie, however, angered some people in the U.K. The Conservatives said that the documentary should not be shown because of the distress that it will cause Princess Diana’s family. Although the broadcaster said that all the insensitive materials have been ejected from the documentary, the Conservatives said that the film would be insensitive to Prince William and Harry, Diana’s sons. “We would expect more from a public service broadcaster than showing sensationalist material in this way.” – said Hugo Swire, a spokesman of the Conservative Party.

The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s movie “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” won the top award of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The story within the movie is set toward the end of the Communist era and is telling about two student friends, Gabita and Otilia, who are ruthlessly exploited after one seeks an illegal abortion.
Despite the grey, colorless and pitiless landscape of the socialist country, the story is about friendship and how friends go to save each other.
“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” was also the critics’ favorite movie to win the Palme d’Or award. When receiving the award, the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu said: “I … hope that this award that I am getting tonight is going to be good news for small filmmakers from small countries because it looks like you don’t necessarily need a big budget and a lot of stars.”
“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” beat many highly acclaimed movies which participated in the main competition of the 60th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which included the Russian director Alexander Sokurov’s “Alexandra”, Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men”, David Fincher’s “Zodiac” and Gus Van Sant’s “Paranoid Park” and other movies.
This year’s Cannes Film Festival’s competition was said to have been one of the strongest in recent years.
The other awards of the festival were, as it follows: “The Mourning Forest”, Naomi Kawase’s movie, won the runner-up Grand Prix prize; Julian Schnabel won the Best Director award for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”.
The Best Screenplay award was won by Fatih Akin’s “The Edge of Heaven”; Konstantin Lavronenko and Jeon Do-yeon won the Best Actor and Actress awards, for their roles from Andrei Zvyagintsev’s “The Banishment” and Lee Chang-dong’s “Secret Sunshine”, respectively.
“Jellyfish”, an Israeli-French production by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen, won the Camera d’Or award.

“The Sims” has been one of Electronic Arts Inc.’s best selling computer games. But now the Sims will go on the screen too, as the company sold the movie rights to 20th Century Fox.
“The Sims” are one of Electronic Arts Inc.’s biggest franchises, and It includes sequels and expansions such as “The Sims: House Party”, or “The Sims: Vacation”. It has sold about 85 million copies since their release on the market seven years ago.
“The Sims” has been often described as a virtual dollhouse computer game, as it puts players in charge of simulated people. The players will help them make friends, find jobs, buy stuff and doing everything in order to have a happy life.
The computer game was created by the legendary game designer Will Wright, who is known for his creations that eschew linear storylines in the favor of the players’ creating and exploring their own worlds.
Rob Humble, the head of The Sims Studio at Electronic Arts Inc., said about the game: “The Sims has done an interactive version of an old story, which is what it’s like to have infinite power and how do you deal with it.”
The financial terms of the deal between Electronic Arts Inc. and 20th Century Fox haven’t been mentioned till now.

Emir Kusturica’s “Promise Me This” was the last of the 22 movies to be screened in the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival. The movie gave the festival a well deserved happy ending, as this year’s previous movies had been tales full of darkness and bitterness.
Screened a day ahead of the award ceremony, “Promise Me This” tells its story that takes place in a little village in the hills of Serbia. A grandfather, his grandson and the boy’s buxom teacher live here an idyllic existence, which is yet threatened by state officials and suitors.
The old man will do his best to keep the invaders away, but he will also realize that his grandson, Tsane, will have to leave one day to seek a bride in the city.
The movie is hysteric and funny at the same time, set against high-tempo music from brass bands and accordions. The contemporary themes played on by the movie include the mafia’s plans to build another World Trade Center in Serbia. There is even a scene where two rival gangs lay their weapons down on an architect’s model of the new Serbian Twin Towers.
Emir Kusturica is a two-time winner of the Palme d’Or important award. The director said that this could have been the last time he competed in the Cannes Film Festival worldwide contest.
“This is becoming much too much. Probably I will be making some more movies in my life, but if I’m going to be competing, I’m not quite sure.” – said Kusturica.

Walt Disney Co. said that its third part of the trilogy series “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” grossed about $57 million in its first two days of release across North America. This includes $14 million from the Thursday evening previews, which took place before the movie’s official release from the day to come. The other $43 million includes sales of $3 million from the midnight screenings.
Walt Disney Co. refused to forecast sales for the next weekend (June 1 – 3), which will also be boosted by the United States’ Memorial Day holiday from Monday. Yet, the company did not hesitate to say that the movie earned about $85.5 million from 102 international markets, which includes Germany, France, Britain, South Korea and Japan among the best selling markets.
The performance third part of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series would be difficult to be compared with the performances of the previous two movies, as “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” marks the first Disney movie to be released “day-and-date” around the world. For example, the first part of the trilogy, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” had bee rolled out internationally over a period of eight weeks last year.
Lebanon, India and China are the only markets on which the movie hasn’t played from its first days of release. Across Canada and the United States, the new movie will be playing in a record 4,362 theaters, which will be 110 theatres more than Sony Corp.’s “Spider-Man 3”. Earlier in May 2007, “Spider-Man 3” was a real record-breaker, setting an opening-weekend hit record of $151 million. It was also launched worldwide over the course of a few days.
Another hit movie of the month was DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.’s “Shrek the Third”, which debuted with $122 million.

The actress Sandra Bullock agreed to play the main character in the romantic comedy “The Proposal”. The movie is about a very demanding female boss, who will suddenly face deportation to Canada.
The woman will make a deal with her young assistant to agree to a sham engagement and marriage.
Sandra Bullock became famous for her role from “Miss Congeniality”. She recently appeared in the supernatural thrillers “The Lake House” and “Premonition”.
“The Proposal” is set up at Disney.

The Warner Brothers Pictures studio and the producer Joel Silver are trying to get the rights for one of the most famous television cartoons from the 80s, “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”.
They are planning to bring to the big screen a live-action version of the 80s popular cartoons.
Justin Marks is to write the adaptation script for the movie that would be called “Masters of the Universe”, which was also the name of the Mattel toy line on which the cartoon was based.
The parts are now negotiating the terms, but a deal could be months away according to them.
The famous cartoons are remembered for the image of a blond-haired prince who is on top of a mountain. He is uttering the magic words: “By the power of Grayskull, I have the power!” and he is then turning into the heroic He-Man. The hero, however, has his allies, Man-at-Arms, Battle Cat and Orko. They are all defending their planet, Eternia, from evil Skeletor, who’s always trying to conquer the Castle Grayskull, a fortress which endows He-Man with his powers.
He-Man’s sister had also her series, “She-Ra: Princess of Power”.
In 1987 the series was adapted for the big screen by Cannon Film. It starred Frank Langella as Skeletor and Dolph Lundgren as He-Man.
Justin Marks is known for writing the script for “Voltron: Defender of the Universe”, a movie based on another cartoon of the 80s. He also wrote “Super Max”, focusing on the superhero Green Arrow.