"Blindness" is in.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 | 11:55 AM

"Blindness," the new film from "City of God"'s Fernando Meirelles, was one of the major omissions the industry was buzzing about when the Cannes line-up was announced last week. Now it looks like the film will be opening the festival — from the Toronto Star:

The Cannes Film Festival has selected Blindness, produced by Toronto's Niv Fichman, for its coveted opening night slot on May 14, the Toronto Star has learned.
This dark $25 million epic - about an unnamed city struck by a unique plague in which 90 per cent of the population go blind - is a three-way co-production involving Brazil and Japan as well as Canada.

There still has not been any official word from festival headquarters in Paris, but yesterday the word spread in Toronto that the film's producers have been given the good news by Cannes officials.

The film was adapted by Don McKellar from Jose Saramago's 1995 Nobel Prize-winning novel, and stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, so it would be physically impossibly to stuff the project with any more prestige. There's no word yet as to whether the film will be in competition or not.

Elsewhere, Variety is reporting that that "Hunger," from British director Steve McQueen, is likely to be the opening film of Un Certain Regard, "physical hardship" between the apparent running theme amongst Cannes titles.

[Photo: "Blindness," Miramax Films, 2008]