It’s very early for Cannes 2025 spitballing, but I couldn’t help but report on this intel.
I’m being told that Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” is eyeing a world premiere at next year’s Cannes Film Festival. Not that surprising given what the film is about, and the filmmaker behind it.
“Nouvelle Vague” will be Linklater’s first project shot entirely in French. The film will reconstruct the story behind the creation of the Nouvelle Vague movement in French cinema and focus on the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1959 groundbreaker, “A Bout de Souffle” (“Breathless”).
The characters in the film will include legendary filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Cocteau, Robert Bresson, Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Pierre Melville, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette — most of them were responsible for the rise of the Nouvelle Vague in the ‘60s. No other casting details are known at this time.
It’s French actor Guillaume Marbeck who will be portraying Jean-Luc Godard. Zoey Deutch is also in the cast, playing “Breathless” beauty Jean Seberg. I can also confirm that some of the other actors taking part in “Nouvelle Vague” include newcomers Jean-Jacques Le Vessier, Jodie Ruth-Forest and Jonas Marmy.
”Nouvelle Vague” is being dubbed as a “comedy” and “love letter” to the French New Wave, Godard and company. In a recent interview, Linklater had confirmed the project and went on to describe it as being “like a New Wave film.”
Will Linklater be premiering two films at Cannes? He’s already in post production on “Blue Moon,” starring Ethan Hawke. It’s something to keep an eye on in the coming months.
Despite Cannes still being six months away, things are clearly starting to rev up with the selection committee, and I keep getting emails about posting an early spitball list of the potential titles that might show up next May on the Croisette. There are too many. There’s an innumerable amount of A-list auteurs who are expected to have new films ready by next summer.
Here’s the contenders list, and keep in mind only 21-23 films usually get selected for competition, including a mandatory five to six from France.
Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay)
Alpha (Julia Ducournau)
Mother Brother Sister Mother (Jim Jarmusch)
The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)
Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
The Way of the Wind (Terrence Malick)
Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
Young Mother (The Dardennes)
Jupiter (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Highest 2 Lowest (Spike Lee)
The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendoca Filho)
The Battle of Baktan Cross (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Caught Stealing (Darren Aronofsky)
At the Sea (Kornél Mundruczó)
Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie)
In the Hands of Dante (Julian Schnabel)
Chocobar (Lucrecia Martel)
Orphan (Laszlo Nemes)
Dreams (Michel Franco)
Mektoub: Canto Duo (Abdellatif Kechiche)
Resurrection (Bi Gan)
Butterfly Jam (Kantemir Balagov)
The Magnificent Life of Sylvain Pagnol (Sylvain Chomet)
Yes! (Nadav Lapid)
Red Rocks (Bruno Dumont)
Disappearance (Kiril Serebrenikkov)
Flowervale Street (David Robert Mitchell
Untitled sci-fi (Arthur Harrari)
Wake of Umbra (Carlos Reygadas)
Non Compos Mentis (Paul Schrader)
Hope (Na Hong-jin)
On Land and Sea (Hylmur Pálmason)
F1 (Joseph Kosinski)
Untitled (Jia Zhangke)
Rosebushpruning (Karim Aïnouz)
Eagles of the Relublic (Tarik Saleh)
Tu ne fear point d’image (Kaouther BenHania)
Sacrifice (Roman Gavras)
Mission: Impossible 8 (Christopher McQuarrie)
Une Affaire (Arnaud Desplechin)
Untitled (Oliver Laxe)
Enzo (Robin Campillo)
L’interet D’Adam (Laura Wandel)
Vie Privee (Rebecca Zlotowski)
The Wave (Sebastien Lelio)
The Drama (Kristofer Borgli)
Silent Friend (Ildiko Enyedi)
Duse (Pietro Marcello)
Sacrifice (Roman Gavras)
Dossier 173 (Dominik Moll)
I Want Your Sex (Greg Araki)
I’m not even counting a few U.S. titles that might or might now go to Cannes, depending if they want to go to Venice instead:
The Smashing Machine (Benny Safdie)
After The Hunt (Luca Guadagnino)
Eddington (Ari Aster)
Mother Mary (David Lowery)
Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
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.