It’s been seven years since “Holy Motors,” but Leos Carax is finally ready to make another movie. “Annette,” a musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. Filming is about to begin in Antwerp, Belgium and Los Angeles. The screenplay was written by the musical Mael brothers (Ron and Russell), otherwise known as Sparks, a musical duo launched 47 years ago.
Synopsis: “A stand-up comedian (Adam Driver) and his opera singer wife (Marion Cotillard) have a two-year-old daughter with a surprising gift.” Rooney Mara was cast as the opera singer but dropped out. Michelle Williams replaced Mara but “also dropped out after the project got stuck in development.” And then Cotillard stepped in.
it's even half as good as “Holy Motors” then we have ourselves a great movie.
I wrote about “Holy Motors”:
“You have to give credit to this wildly imaginative filmmaker. He’s allergic to formula and refuses to adhere to the norm. In the thrilling, visionary, frustrating, exhausting and masterful “Holy Motors,” he decided to give us a poisonous valentine to the cinema, splitting his film into a bunch of different genres. Episodic in nature and more than eye-opening, Carax gave us something we’ve never seen before: a surreal nightmare of the past, present and future of cinema. With unusual acting chameleon Denis Lavant by his side, this was a movie in which anything could happen, in which any image could get juxtaposed with any other. There was no three-act structure built upon a tired, overplayed premise. Carax pushed, pushed and pushed until he found the existential, surrealistic nirvana he’d been looking for throughout the movie, which climaxed with a simple but awe-inspring final image that was as haunting as it was ridiculous.”
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.