Saturday, 10 March 2012

Cannes 2012: Wes Anderson's 'Moonrise Kingdom' to open festival


Director's seventh feature, starring Ed Norton and Bruce Willis, follows a teenager who abandons his scout troupe to run away with his girlfriend

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom will open the 65th Cannes film festival on 16 May.

The director of The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore will bring the kook to the Croisette with his seventh feature, which was co-written with Roman Coppola and will screen in the Grand Théâtre Lumière of the Palais des Festivals, the largest Cannes venue. Guests will include Nanni Moretti, the Italian director who is presiding over this year's jury.
"Wes Anderson is one of the rising powers of American cinema, to which he brings a highly personal touch, particularly in Moonrise Kingdom, which once again is a testimony to the creative freedom in which he continues to evolve," said Thierry Frémaux, Cannes' artistic director. "Sensitive and independent, this admirer of Fellini and Renoir is also in his own right a brilliant and inventive film-maker."

Set in the mid-60s, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of Sam, a teenager who abandons his scout troupe to run away with his girlfriend, Suzy. Hot on the pair's trail are the rest of the scouts from Camp Ivanhoe (including scout leader Edward Norton), a commanding police sheriff (Bruce Willis) and Suzy's parents, played by Frances McDormand and Anderson regular Bill Murray. A number of the film's stars are expected to attend the Cannes premiere.

In similar style to last year's festival opener – Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris'Moonrise Kingdom will be released across France on the same day as the Cannes screening. The rest of the Cannes lineup will be officially announced on 19 April, but there has been speculation that new films from David Cronenberg, Paul Thomas Anderson and Michael Haneke will be among the high-profile work at the festival. Cronenberg's Cosmopolis, an adaptation of a Don Delilo novel starring Robert Pattinson, will be looking for a big launch; Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master – in which Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as a the charismatic leader of faith-based organisation – could be set for general release in October; Haneke, winner of the Palme d'Or in 2009 for The White Ribbon, will be looking to extend his run of Cannes success with Love, a drama about two retired music teachers, starring Isabelle Huppert.

The 65th Cannes film festival runs from Wednesday 16 May to Sunday 27 May 2012.



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