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Cannes Film Festival Day 2 Brought Peter Jackson, ‘Fast’ Family

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The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing and we’ve got your must-read recap on everything that is going on in the sunny south of France, including Peter Jackson getting his honorary Palme d’Or and the “Fast and the Furious” crew showing up and making a lot of loud engine-revving sounds (we’re assuming).

Peter Jackson Gets His Flowers, Defends AI

Peter Jackson, the celebrated filmmaker behind “Heavenly Creatures,” “The Frighteners” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy (plus its subsequent “Hobbit” trilogy), held a masterclass as part of his appearance at the festival, which also includes him receiving an honorary Palme d’Or.

At the masterclass, the director, who has always had a keen eye on technology, said that he doesn’t “dislike” AI being used in film production. This isn’t exactly surprising; he’s used the technology before in his Beatles documentary “The Beatles: Get Back,” which helped him sharpen footage and enhance audio from the original filming sessions. He joked that he thinks that AI is “going to destroy the world,” but when it comes to using it himself in films “I don’t dislike it at all.”

Jackson continued: “To me, it’s a special effect. It’s no different from other special effects.”

lord-of-the-rings-gollum
Warner Bros./New Line

Others may disagree with that assessment, given that AI learns from existing art and has lasting impacts on the environment, thanks to the amount of data required to generate images.

“A lot of the current environment, everyone’s so worried about AI … I don’t think a Gollum-type character or a generated character has any hope for winning any awards, which is a bit unfair, especially in the Andy Serkis case where it’s not an AI-generated performance, it’s a human-generated performance 100% of the way,” Jackson remarked.

Elsewhere, Jackson said that Andy Serkis was really the only person to direct the new “Lord of the Rings” film “The Hunt for Gollum” (“I thought the most exciting version of this movie is if Andy Serkis makes it”) and said that he is writing a new “Tintin” movie while in Cannes, which he hopes to direct. Steven Spielberg directed the first Jackson-produced film, which was released back in 2011.

“The deal was that Steven directs one and I direct another,” said Jackson. “Steven did his film, then for 15 years [later] I haven’t made mine. I feel very awkward about that.”

Renate Reinsve Returns to Cannes

Renate Reinsve
Renate Reinsve (Photo by Nolan Zangas /NEON)

For TheWrap’s Cannes magazine cover story, Steve Pond spoke with Cannes regular Renate Reinsve — who was previously at the fest with “The Worst Person in the World” and “Sentimental Value” — about making her return with “Fjord.” The drama by Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”) stars Reinsve and Sebastian Stan as a Norwegian-Romanian couple who move to a small town in Norway, where their conservative religious lifestyle clashes with their liberal neighbors’ values, putting uncomfortable scrutiny on their parenting decisions.

Reflecting on last year’s 19-minute standing ovation for “Sentimental Value,” Reinsve said she had resigned herself to the possibility that the film wouldn’t make a splash.

“We were open to thinking that it might go nowhere,” she said. “It was a personal movie, and you don’t know until you show it to an audience. And it’s the same now, going there with ‘Fjord.’ We don’t know how it’s going to be received. I will always be nervous about that, I think.”

The Family Comes to Cannes

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“The Fast and the Furious,” the underdog street-racing movie that kicked off an unlikely global franchise that is still going to this day (the next installment arrives in 2028), will screen at the festival for its 25th anniversary. And on Cannes’ second day, there was a star-studded photo call with Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez, joined by producer Neil H. Mortiz and Paul Walker’s daughter Meadow. (Walker died tragically in an automobile accident in 2013.)

After all the black-tie galas and glitzy evening gowns, there was something refreshing about seeing Diesel in his black T-shirt and white jeans posing for photos. Who says Cannes is pretentious? When the “Fast and Furious” family shows up, expect the unexpected.

Cannes Film Market Sets Records

While the Film Festival takes up much of the attention, there is also the Cannes Film Market happening simultaneously, which attracts buyers, sellers and distributors to the south of France. This is where, in the 1980s, companies like Cannon would sell entire movies based on little more than a well-airbrushed poster and an intriguing logline and where countless deals are currently made. And this year’s Cannes Film Market is setting records.

16,000 market participants are at Cannes this week, from more than 140 countries. And while the United States, France and the United Kingdom remain the top three countries by attendance, Japan (this year’s Country of Honor) has recorded an almost 50% surge in registration. They are now the fifth most represented country at the Cannes Film Market.

There are 1,700 buyers and 600 companies exhibiting films at this year’s Cannes Film Market, with 1,500 festival and market screenings and 250 industry events. As for what will be bought, what will be sold and what will be exhibited? That remains to be seen. But there certainly is enough product to go around.

Reviews? We’ve Got ‘Em

The Festival started off with the debut of Pierre Salvadori’s “The Electric Kiss,” which didn’t exactly get the electric response that the festival or filmmakers were probably hoping for. In fact, it had a lukewarm response, with our critic Steve Pond describing the film as “a little clunky, kind of messy and oddly entertaining.”

This isn’t exactly out of character, as Pond also noted that “in recent years has given its opening-night berth to a string of movies that delivered sporadic pleasures but were never among the highlights of those festivals: Amelie Bonnin’s curious ‘Leave One Day’ last year, preceded by Quentin Dupieux’s goofy ‘The Second Act,’ Maïwenn’s inert ‘Jeanne du Barry,’ Michel Hazanavicius’ wacky ‘Final Cut’ and Leos Carax’s wild musical ‘Annette.’” How could anyone forget “Annette?”

The Electric Kiss
“The Electric Kiss” (Cannes Film Festival)

It’s odd to think how “The Electric Kiss,” set in a sideshow in 1920s Paris, could be as dull as many of the reviews are suggesting, but that seems to be exactly the case. As Pond concluded: “Part Gallic rom-com and part meditation on grief, ‘The Electric Kiss’ slips and slides and provides a slight way to begin the film festival, but not an unpleasant one. As usual, Cannes kicked off with an appetizer; the main courses will follow.”

Some of those main courses?

Vietnamese director and graphic artist Phuong Mai Nguyen’s debut animated feature “In Waves,” which is playing as part of the independent International Critics’ Week section of the festival. Pond said that “for all the virtuoso hand-drawn animation, at heart this is an emotional story – and, make no mistake, a major tearjerker of a rom-dram,” part lovingly animated exploration of grief, part traditional coming-of-age melodrama.

There is also Kôji Fukada’s drama “Nagi Notes,” “a film defined by a sense that the filmmaker is trying to chip away at something,” said Pond. He said that the film wasn’t as powerful as Fukada’s recent “Love Life,” but that “there’s still something here that you can’t fully dismiss.”

Ashes
“Ashes” (Cannes Film Festival)

And Diego Luna, hot off the success of Lucasfilm’s hit Disney+ series “Andor” (among many other things), is at Cannes this year with his first film as a director in 10 years (since 2016’s little-seen drama “Mr. Pig”). “Ashes,” Pond wrote, “is a quiet character study that gets its power from understatement and its style from embracing silence and darkness. Luna returned to directing not to show off, but to make a few points about compassion and empathy.”

“Ashes,” adapted from a 2022 novel by Brenda Navarro, is a family drama that seems to hold a subtle power. Pond said that Luna launches “a quiet return to directing, but it’s unsettling and hard to shake.”

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Channel 4 Making Stroke Documentary ‘Trauma: My Broken Brain’

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EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 is teaming with the Stroke Association on a documentary sereis looking at young people living with the aftermath of a stroke.

Trauma: My Broken Brain follows three young survivors through the most frightening days of their lives and the grueling journey back to independence.

Every five minutes someone in the UK suffers a stroke – there are 1.4 million stroke survivors living in the UK today – but the aim of the doc is to show that this is only the beginning of recovery. Filmed over seven months with access to these young adults at the most terrifying and testing moments of their lives, the series meets Dan (28), a dancer left confined to a wheelchair, barely able to speak following emergency brain surgery; Saskia (22), a self-described social butterfly left bedbound after a brain bleed so severe her family feared she would not survive; and Dec (20), who collapsed just four months into a new relationship and spent weeks in a coma, his family and girlfriend unsure if he would survive.

Channel 4 has taken the rare step of teaming with a charity on the doc. It is being produced by Stream Media Group, which was also behind the same network’s Anna Richardson: Love, Loss and Dementia, made with the Alzheimer’s Society.

Channel 4 commissoning exec Simon Lee said: “This is an ambitious and important series that challenges perceptions and gives a voice to young people whose lives have been transformed by stroke, as they embark on the long road that begins after survival.”

Stream’s Victoria Noble added: “What struck us throughout filming was how little people understand about stroke. Survival is often seen as the end of the story, when in reality, it is only the beginning. By sharing their journeys with such honesty and courage, Dec, Dan and Saskia revealed the reality of rebuilding a life after stroke, and the truth behind the long and unforgiving journey to reclaim the right to live an independent life. Alongside the extraordinary support of their families, their stories offer a powerful insight into resilience, determination and hope. It’s been a privilege to tell their stories.”

Noble is EP with Ben Padfield and producer is Laura Hooper. Series director is Storm Theunissen and production executive is Fiona Ridgers. The show was filmed with access to The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust and Clatterbridge Rehabilitation Centre, and Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

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Dori Media Hitting Cannes With Unscripted Shows Like ‘You Show Know’

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EXCLUSIVE: Power Couple seller Dori Media is heading to Cannes with the largest unscripted slate in its history.

At MIPCOM, the Israeli company will debut the likes of games shows The Hive and You Should Know, docu-series My Hottest Years and primetime reality format New Love, which is from Power Couple maker Abot Hameiri.

Also on the slate is Paraiso Tropical, a doc exploring a mysterious Panamanian plane crash, and Seekers, which looks at humans’ search for meaning.

“We have been listening to our clients across the globe, many who are looking for affordable content that can help them break through with their local audiences and we are headed to MIPCOM with our largest slate of unscripted programming, a slate that features many new offerings that we believe can do just that,” said Dori Media Group CEO Nadav Palti.

Studio quiz show The Hive comes from and is from United Studios Productions and channels Kan 11 and Makan. The show’s USP is that knowing the right answer isn’t enough: Contestants need to know when to take a risk, when to block an opponent, and how to build a strategic play.

You Show Know is another quiz, this time from Shenhar Productions. Questions are tailored specifically to each contestant, drawing from their social media feeds, meaning they should, in theory, know the answers.

Doc series My Hottest Years comes from Drucker-Goren Communications and is for Kan 11, looking at what happens when women’s hormones change, while New Love is a dating reality show for Reshet 13. The format sees women live with a carefully-selected stranger for 72 hours, before they decide whether to stay for another three days or replace them with someone new.

Paraiso Tropical is a co-production from Apertura Films and Ajimolido Films in which filmmaker Abner Benaim reopens the case of a passenger plane that exploded over Panama, killing all 21 on board, including his under. Seekers, meanwhile, runs to six parts and follows the human experience through the eyes of an Amazonian chief, an Advaita monk, an African healer, a Hindu sage, a Native grandmother and a Buddhist psychologist. Édgar Ramírez, Riley Keough and Jamie-Lynn Sigler all feature.

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‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 Actor Bids Farewell To Character Who Dies

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SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Ted Lasso Season 4, Episode 9, titled “Mae Rides The Bus,” now streaming on Apple TV.

The title of the second-to-last episode of Ted Lasso Season 4 hints at a goodbye to a beloved character who has been around since the first season.

Episode 9 bids farewell to Richmond’s own Mae Green (Annette Badland) who dies doing what she loves: supporting the Lady Greyhounds at their away match against Bristol City in the stands.

“That’s what happens. You’re involved with folks, and they disappear. They go, and she loved her life,” Annette Badland told Deadline. “She made the very best of her life and really relished it. So she went, I suppose, for her, in the very best way.”

The Crown & Anchor pub owner was invited to take the team bus to the away game after she had hinted that it would be difficult for someone with her “level of seasoning” to make the two and a half hour drive. Thus, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) invite her on the shuttle with all of the players, and they embrace Mae as one of their own on the drive.

RELATED: ‘Ted Lasso’ Episode 6 Recap: Phil Dunster Returns & New Believe Sign Debuts On New Year’s Eve

“I love the Lionesses, so I was thrilled when [Season 4] happened, and the girls are tremendous and effervescent and glorious to be around. The pub quiz scene took a couple of days to shoot, but that was like a tidal wave coming,” Badland said. “They are just so full of energy and life. So that was just something wonderful to be involved in, and just enhanced all the feelings and the camaraderie. And Mae couldn’t play football, wasn’t allowed to play football, I’m sure she’s had a lot of bad stuff in her life, but she just carries on and defies the odds and just keeps on pitching. That’s an excellent story to tell.”

In the below interview, Badland unpacks Mae’s legacy left on the series, transitioning from the men’s team dynamic of the first three seasons to the Lady Greyhounds and how Mae might come up in the finale episode.

DEADLINE: Did you know about this episode for Mae when you signed on for Season 4? How did you react when you found out what would happen for her in Episode 9?

ANNETTE BADLAND: No, I didn’t know, and I didn’t know till about, I suppose, maybe November. We were only an episode away filming that. I was shocked, but I’m very proud being in the show, and I admire Jason [Sudeikis]. I think the series is so successful because people smell it’s very genuine. The audience know it’s not made cynically. It’s not a product. It’s something Jason wants to say about the world and how we are, so you have to trust that.

I don’t know when I’ll die. You just don’t know. So, being told that it was going to happen quite close to it being filmed, you just have to go. ‘Well, that’s [that]. He told me in the storyline, so he started at the beginning [with] “I invite her to come, and blah blah, and she won’t drive, and then she comes to the grounds and she goes in the bus,” and I’m going, “Oh wow, this is…” and then “She passes.” [Gulps.] But hopefully that’s what will happen for the audience too.

DEADLINE: How did you want to approach the speech you gave in the locker room before the game? There’s the moment in the bus before where they’re like, “We’re gonna grill you about your whole life and everything you know. How did you approach those scenes with the end of the episode in mind? What you wanted to leave on the field, for lack of a better way to put that?

BADLAND: I think not giving in. She’s very outspoken. She’s a lioness who will defend you till the nth degree once you’ve got her heart and respect. Being an older woman, where you do become invisible, Mae’s never going to be invisible. She will not allow that to happen. I get ignored. You’ll stand at a counter, and people won’t bother, or they’ll walk into you. “You’ve had your time, move aside.” And Mae would not allow that, and was still in there pitching and relishing.

L-R: Jason Sudeikis and Annette Badland in Season 4 of 'Ted Lasso'

L-R: Jason Sudeikis and Annette Badland in Season 4 of ‘Ted Lasso’

Apple TV

DEADLINE: What does it say about her that she wants to sit in the audience stands or the supporters side versus the box with Rebecca and everyone?

BADLAND: Yeah, not her people, and she might have felt constrained. “Well, I’m not going to sit and behave myself or feel the fool because I’m sitting with you.” I’ll go where the folk that really scraped together to get the money, who are dedicated, [are sitting]. Even although it was her pub, she’s not part of a hierarchy. Everybody’s judged on how they are. Just not her style. Go and be with the real fun.

DEADLINE: There’s the hint of the shares and the battle that’s going on there. And Mae has shares, and she was like protecting her patrons at the pub. Can you tease anything about how could she could leave an impact that way too on the team?

BADLAND: Well, she had a very large pile of shares. I mean, they were about “yay high” (gestures to table height she sits at.) She uses them to good effect. Her instructions are for them to be used in a particular way that is quite good.

DEADLINE: I love her relationship with Ted’s son this season too. I was hoping you could talk about working with Grant and any wisdom she maybe has left with him?

BADLAND: He is a delight. He’s a beautiful young man, and bright. We got on terribly well, and I shall miss him. Really, it was great having that element in the pub too. Another side of her. I can’t tease you with anything, I don’t think, but he knows what he’s doing now with a tea towel.

DEADLINE: Keeley’s pregnancy is revealed in 409, and I’ve heard some people talk about the cycle of life and how someone passes and then a new life comes into the world. So I was curious if you had any thoughts on those themes for episode nine?

BADLAND: Oh yes, well it’s absolutely true, isn’t it? We move along. We’re here for a very short time, and the next wave, the next group of people comes in. I’m delighted for Keeley, just delighted, and poor old Roy.

DEADLINE: This episode felt like such a great send off for Mae, but could we still see a funeral or something in the finale?

BADLAND: You could, maybe. I guess, or it’s like, “Oh well, that’s it.” [They could forget about her.]

DEADLINE: What do you think she would want as a celebration of her life? Have you thought about that at all?

BADLAND: Oh, she’d have asked for a tremendous party at The Crown and Anchor. Everyone invited. Jason did modify some of 410. We talked after he told me about her passing, and he did, because that’s how he is. He’s responsive and collaborative. So he did change some of the stuff in 10, or incorporated what we talked about. She doesn’t just [go away]. She has, not an appearance, but she is still within the context.

DEADLINE: I’m also worried-not worried, but the pub was her thing. So I hope it’s in good hands in the future.

BADLAND: So does she. Oh yes.

DEADLINE: Anthony Head gets an acknowledgement in 409, and Rupert gets his mention too. How did that all weave together with Mae also leaving? What are your thoughts on that? You had scenes with Anthony in the past.

BADLAND: He came in the pub. The darts, and we were around. He came in more than that, but that was the main one. He was a beautiful man, and he will be much missed. He was charming and funny and generous, and we’d have naughty little sort of asides. And I had wondered why we weren’t — I assumed he would be in this last [season] and didn’t know, as I think very few people knew, he was ill and just couldn’t do it.

So we will miss him, and I respect him, and I think it’s a great honor to be in the episode that is dedicated to him.

DEADLINE: How did it feel embarking on this new chapter of the show after the previous three seasons with the men’s team, and how much do you think it meant to Mae? Could you talk about that transition and leaving the show behind?

BADLAND: Well, when we finished [Season 3], we didn’t think there would be another. Jason had said, “I’ve got a three series arc, that’ll be it.” And then to go back and to take, it’s very exciting because it’s a risk, isn’t it?

A female team [is] quite quite different, and the men have come with it. The male audience have gone with it, like they do with the genuine footballers. And there’s good stories, different stories in there, different tales to tell. So, I’m absolutely thrilled that it seems, in England, certainly, to have taken off this year. People don’t know what to do. They don’t know whether to watch it episode by episode or to binge watch it. They can’t wait to binge it. So that’s thrilling, absolutely thrilling. I’ve had a great time. I’m privileged to have been part of it, and I’ll just have to be in the stands, won’t I? And see how they progress.

Or there is a film called Wonderful Life, where an angel [comes down.]

Annette Badland in 'Ted Lasso' Season 4

Annette Badland in ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4

Apple TV

DEADLINE: I could see them incorporating it. I love that movie. We watch it every Christmas. She would be such a great Clarence-esque character.

BADLAND: Yeah, popping up in someone’s conscience and tearing them off a strip or whatever. Or giving them information.

DEADLINE: I feel like Beard may need some of that for some reason. Because we don’t see his reaction, at the end of the episode. We see it’s Rebecca’s telling Ted, you don’t see the words pass, but just from his actions, you know that she’s died. But yeah, I guess curious to see what will happen with him. I love that idea. I hope you’ve pitched that and that it comes to light in the future.

BADLAND: As soon as he said she passed, I said, “Oh, can I come back as an angel?” So we did talk about it.

But he doesn’t do the predictable, does he? That’s what’s so delightful.

DEADLINE: That’s all I had, unless you wanted to add anything else about what fans come up to you and say when they recognize you from the show, or any last words before we go.

BADLAND: Ah, encountering them is terrific, and I’m very proud to have been in this because I still get messages from people saying, you know, things like “My mom’s very ill with cancer. She comes home from her treatment. We all pile on the bed. We put Ted on. We believe. We laugh.” So that’s a just tremendous thing to have in the world, and to be connected to it, and feel you’ve done that for folk. No bad thing, eh?

RELATED: Apple TV Claims Largest Weekly Viewership Ever With ‘Mayday’, ‘Ted Lasso’ And Post-Emmys Bump For ‘Widow’s Bay’ & ‘Pluribus’

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