"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]

+ 'Blindness' set to open Cannes (Toronto Star)
+ 'Blindness' tipped to open Cannes (Variety)

By Alison Willmore in Festivals, Rumors | Link | Recommended (2)

Tags: Blindness, Cannes, Fernando Meirelles, Hunger

Two rumors from the past weekend's New York Comic Con that caught my eye:

JoBlo.com reports that Guillermo del Toro, at the convention to push "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," announced that he's working on a project called "Saturn and the End of Days":

What he calls his final movie about "childhood and horror", it tells the tale of the Apocalypse, as seen through the eyes of a small child going to and from the grocery store. "What would happen if the Apocalypse was viewed while you were doing errands," Del Toro pondered. "You go back and forth and nothing big happens except the entire world is being sucked into a vortex of fire."

Del Toro's been attached to everything from "The Hobbit" to an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" to "Doctor Strange," so it's impossible to guess what he'll actually start production on next. He's been adept at switching back and forth between personal films and studio ones in a way that never seems begrudgingly "one for me, one for them," but "Saturn and the End of Days" would seem to complete a nice thematic trilogy with "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth."

The MTV Movies Blog quotes Frank Miller, at the con hawking his first solo directorial outing, "The Spirit," as ready to move on to directing an adaptation of his own comic book "Hard Boiled":

"We're talking about [it]," Miller declared to us at NY Comic Con. "I've got a really unusual way I want to do it...

"I'm in love with directing," he gushed. "I've found a way to expand my career. Comics and directing are really two sides of the same coin. That's what Robert Rodriguez taught me...good drama is good drama."

Back in 2001, David Fincher's name was tossed around as a potential director for "Hard Boiled," with Nicholas Cage to star, but nothing came of it.

[Photo: Big movie, little movie — "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," Universal Pictures, 2008; "Pan's Labyrinth," Picturehouse, 2006]

+ NYCC: Del Toro's next? (Joblo.com)
+ EXCLUSIVE: Frank Miller In Talks To Direct 'Hard Boiled' Movie (MTV News Blog)

By Alison Willmore in Rumors | Link | Recommended (3)

Tags: Frank Miller, Guillermo del Toro, Hard Boiled, Saturn and the End of Days