"Snow White and the Huntsman" is pretty but empty

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It's no wonder they keep remaking 'Snow White,' since it seems like a male Hollywood mogul's idea of a chick flick: Two women battle over who's prettier, with the younger, hotter model eventually prevailing over the vain old soul-sucking, husband-killing witch.

Someone should set the story in Beverly Hills to make the message even clearer, but 'Snow White and the Huntsman' takes place in yet another enormous castle perched above yet another enchanted forest.

Following the lead of Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland,' 'Huntsman' takes a traditionally passive lead character and turns her into a sword-wielding warrior woman. And while this newest fairy tale adaptation is a stronger and more coherent movie than 'Alice' (not much of a feat there), it's still something of a beautiful mess, with too many characters, occasionally sluggish pacing and a tone that veers frenetically between intense and campy.

Your evil queen this evening will be Ravenna (Charlize Theron), whose beauty and sorcery have allowed her to survive the ravages of time (and of various kings). Her latest victim is the recently widowed father of the beautiful Snow White, and after committing regicide, the queen exiles her stepdaughter to the tower.

While eating bird hearts and inhaling the life essence of beautiful young women helps a little, Ravenna eventually finds it harder and harder to maintain her youth and beauty, so when her magic mirror (which looks more like a gong) tells her she can be immortal by possessing the heart of the now-adult Snow White (Kristen Stewart), who is fairer and purer, the queen sends for the girl.

A bird whose wing Snow White had mended as a child helps the lass escape (this is the sort of thing that works way better in a Disney cartoon than in a live-action movie), so the queen hires the huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) to track the runaway in the dark woods that few people can navigate. Once he realizes the queen's treachery, the never-named huntsman accepts Snow White's offer to transport her to a neighboring castle from which she can launch a war that will end Ravenna's reign for good.

The movie never skimps on visual effects, from monsters made of glass shards to a hallucinatory and foreboding dark forest - although one moment featuring a multi-antlered white stag is such a rip-off of 'Princess Mononoke' that Studio Ghibli should sue - but the characterizations are almost never as interesting as Colleen Atwood's costumes. There will be lots of versions of Theron's evil queen running around West Hollywood and Chelsea this Halloween; it's a performance that's about one part Tilda Swinton to 30 parts Faye Dunaway, and it's the sort of over-the-top craziness that spawns midnight screenings for drunken audiences.

On the other end of the spectrum is Stewart, doing the petulant-teen routine that 'Twilight' viewers have come to know so well over the years, with the added twist of becoming a boarding-school Saint Joan in the film's final act.

Even swaddled in armor and chain mail, it's hard to imagine this blank-faced debutante stirring an army to follow her to Forever 21, much less to battle against a powerful necromancer.

Speaking of 'Twilight,' the movie gives Snow White two potential suitors - the Huntsman and Snow's grown-up childhood beau William (Sam Claflin) - but it's never particularly well delineated how either man is important to the story. It's admirable to have a movie with a strong heroine who isn't defined by her love interest(s), but if the guys are going to be around, we should know why, as well as how our heroine feels about them.

And then there are the dwarves: Earlier this year, 'Mirror Mirror' managed to find a septet of compelling and funny actors who happened to be little people. 'Huntsman' uses CG trickery to render well-known character actors like Bob Hoskins, Toby Jones, Ian McShane, Eddie Marsan, Nick Frost and Ray Winstone into the vertically-challenged forest dwellers who come to our heroine's aid, and while they're all engaging and amusing, I found myself thinking too much about the effects work that I was completely taken out of what little story there was by that point in the film.

Theron's outrageous turn will no doubt inspire drag queens the world over, but beyond that, 'Snow White and the Huntsman' is just another fairy tale that loses its way in the woods.



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Anne Hathaway sings in "Les Miserables" trailer

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Man the barricades, musical fans - 'Les Miserables' is coming to the big screen.

Universal offered the first look at the film adaptation of the Tony-winning stage triumph. From the look of things, director Tom Hooper has done a meticulous job of capturing the grit and grime of 19th-century France. 'Chicago' it decidedly is not.

It also sounds like Susan Boyle may need to find a new signature song. The preview for the movie musical is set to Anne Hathaway performing her own pared-down rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream,' the anthem that launched Boyle's career.

At a preview for theater owners at CinemaCon last April, Universal Pictures Chairman Adam Fogelson said that Hooper hoped to capture most of the singing on set, instead of having his actors record their songs in a studio after the fact. He hinted that had happened with Hathaway's rendition.

In addition to showcasing Hathaway's vocals, the teaser includes quick glimpses of stars Hugh Jackman, playing Jean Valjean as both convict and reformed businessman; Russell Crowe as the vengeful Inspector Javert; Amanda Seyfried as a luminous looking Cosette; and Eddie Redmayne as Marius.

However, there's no hint of what Sacha Baron Cohen has planned for his role as the scene-stealing innkeeper Thénardier.

What do you think - can the movie live up to the Broadway show? See the trailer at http://thewrap.com/movies/column-post/les-miserables-preview-debuts-anne-hathaway-singing-41961.



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Tom Cruise thriller changes title to "Jack Reacher"

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Paramount has renamed Tom Cruise's next film, opting for 'Jack Reacher' in place of 'One Shot.'

Reacher is the name of Cruise's character, who is the protagonist in a series of novels by Lee Child. The title change suggests the studio may see franchise potential.

This particular movie is based on Child's 'One Shot,' hence the initial cinematic title.

Cruise's Reacher is an ex-service member who must unravel the mystery of a sniper who stands accused of killing five people. The project also stars Richard Jenkins, Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall and director Werner Herzog.

Paramount had already moved up the film from a February release to its current December 21 slot.



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Popular winner in Cannes, U.S. films the big losers

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Critics lauded the Cannes film festival jury on Monday for awarding director Michael Haneke's 'Love' (Amour) the coveted Palme d'Or for best picture, justifying its status as favorite going into Sunday night's awards ceremony.

The Austrian has now won the top prize at the world's biggest cinema showcase twice, joining a small elite of multiple winners and cementing his place as a master of film making.

Slow and understated, Love's portrayal of an elderly French couple facing the last stages of life had audiences in tears and critics rushing off to write five-star reviews virtually across the board.

Its victory was particularly welcome in France, with the stars of the movie, both in their 80s, highly respected names in French cinema.

'The names of Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant ... will play in the public eye like a French victory,' said Le Parisien newspaper.

Conspicuous in their absence from the awards ceremony that wrapped up the 12-day festival on the French Riviera were U.S. productions, five of which made it into the main competition of 22 entries.

Not even the acting talent of A-listers Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt, alongside hot emerging Hollywood names like Jessica Chastain, Tom Hardy and Zac Efron, was enough to win over the judges led by Italian director Nanni Moretti.

Turn the clock back a year, and U.S. director Terrence Malick was winning the Palme d'Or for 'The Tree of Life' and Kirsten Dunst scooped the actress award for her role in Lars Von Trier's apocalyptic epic 'Melancholia'.

'FEELING LET DOWN'

Cannes critics were cool towards most U.S. productions, although New Zealand-born Andrew Dominik's 'Killing Them Softly', starring Pitt as a mob enforcer in a recession-hit U.S. city, was reasonably popular.

'None set the town on fire and clearly can't count upon widespread critical support down the line,' said The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy, in reaction to the awards.

'The feeling of letdown about these films running from vague to severe created the feeling of a mixed-bag festival.'

What the strong North American presence did do, however, was put stars on the red carpet, a key ingredient to success at a film festival which thrives not only on high-brow cinema but also on glamour, fame and celebrity buzz.

The other big loser on the night was French-born director Leos Carax's 'Holy Motors', an audacious and surreal film about a man, played by Denis Lavant, who adopts 10 alternative lives in a single day.

Featuring Kylie Minogue and Eva Mendes in cameo roles, as well as a character who is married to a monkey, an aroused man-monster and stretch limousines which talk at night, the movie was the main talking point of the festival as it sharply divided opinion.

In addition to Haneke, two other former Cannes winners were awarded -- Briton Ken Loach won third prize for Scottish comedy caper 'The Angels' Share' and Romanian Cristian Mungiu won best screenplay for exorcism drama 'Beyond the Hills'.

The movie's two young stars, Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, were surprise dual winners of the actress prize, while Danish star Mads Mikkelsen scooped the best actor prize for his portrayal of a man wrongly accused of child abuse in the harrowing drama 'The Hunt'.

Mexico's Carlos Reygadas won the best director category for 'Post Tenebras Lux', a dreamlike exploration of the undercurrent of menace within Mexican society today.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Haneke's "Love" wins to cheers at Cannes film festival

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Austrian director Michael Haneke was the popular winner of the Cannes film festival's top honor on Sunday with 'Love' (Amour), an elegiac tale of an elderly couple facing the inescapable, yet no less tragic march of death.

Haneke joins an elite group of two-time winners of the coveted Palme d'Or at the world's biggest film festival after his 'The White Ribbon' won in 2009.

The glamorous red carpet awards, held amid thunder, lightning and pouring rain on the French Riviera, brought to an end a 12-day blur of screenings, photo shoots, parties and deal making on Cannes' giant marketplace.

'It's raining a little,' deadpanned 'The Artist' actor Jean Dujardin, wiping his soaking forehead as he entered the theatre after signing autographs.

Haneke's moving tale set inside a Paris apartment and following a man caring for his ailing wife reduced audiences to tears. The award underlined the 70-year-old's reputation as one of the greatest European directors working today.

'I must say I cried a lot,' fashion designer and jury member Jean Paul Gaultier told a news conference.

'I realized that maybe to be on the jury was not so easy because you have to have a lot of emotions sometimes that are strong and make you hurt,' said Gaultier, speaking in English. 'But I love to be hurt in that way.'

Love marked a shift away from Haneke's preoccupation with violence The White Ribbon and 2005's 'Hidden'.

'The film talks about love,' Haneke told a press conference after receiving the Palme d'Or amid loud cheers at the awards ceremony. 'Journalists always try to stick a label on directors and say, 'Well, he is a specialist in this or an expert in that.' For a long time, I've been the 'expert' in violence.'

Love also won plaudits for its two main actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, both in their 80s.

HOLLYWOOD LEFT EMPTY-HANDED

Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Matthew McConaughey and rising stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Shia LaBeouf all walked the red carpet this year, putting Hollywood at the centre of Cannes.

Yet despite five U.S. pictures appearing in the main competition of 22 films, they all left empty-handed.

Asked about the U.S. productions in competition, and the glamour they brought to the festival, jury president Nanni Moretti said: 'I'm not against glamour, but the glamour has to be in films that really please me.'

The Grand Prix runner-up prize was awarded to 'Reality', Matteo Garrone's examination of society's obsession with celebrity and reality television.

Its central character Luciano was played by Aniello Arena, an Italian serving a lengthy prison sentence who was allowed out of jail on day release to shoot the movie.

Two other previous Palme d'Or winners picked up prizes.

British director Ken Loach won the Jury third prize for his charming Scottish whisky caper 'The Angels' Share' and Romania's Cristian Mungiu scooped the screenplay honor for 'Beyond the Hills' about a real-life exorcism gone wrong.

His two young stars, Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, shared the best actress honor, while Danish star Mads Mikkelsen scooped the best actor prize for his portrayal of a man wrongly accused of child abuse in the harrowing drama 'The Hunt'.

'I'm normally a very cool person but this time I could hardly say anything,' said Mikkelsen, who was close to tears as he collected his award.

Mexico's Carlos Reygadas won the best director category for 'Post Tenebras Lux', a dreamlike exploration of the undercurrent of menace within Mexican society today.

On the sodden red carpet leading into the Grand Theatre Lumiere, the cast and crew of 'Therese Desqueyroux' braved the rain for the world premiere of this year's closing film.

Annie Miller, the wife of the late director Claude Miller who was finishing the film when he died, was in floods of tears as she walked up the stairs and turned to face the ranks of photographers and cameramen.



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Past winners lead the pack for Cannes film award

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The 2012 Cannes film festival ends on Sunday evening with the award of the Palme d'Or for best picture at a red carpet gala ceremony, the climax of a 12-day blur of screenings, photo shoots, parties and deal making.

As thousands of journalists, critics, executives and stars head home and luxury yachts weigh anchor for their next port of call, the big question is who will walk away with one of the most coveted film prizes after the Oscars.

Two previous winning directors are favorites, although up to half of the 22 entries in the main competition in Cannes this year have been named as potential victors.

Austria's Michael Haneke wowed Cannes yet again this year with 'Amour' (Love), a stately tale of death and what it means for an elderly couple living in a Parisian apartment.

Set almost entirely in a single building, Haneke is typically unflinching in his film making, and the result had audiences in Cannes moved to tears.

'Whatever his message, the spell of this incandescent film will be an elevating memory,' wrote Mary Corliss in Time Magazine. 'In the history of movies about love, Amour lasts forever.'

The two leading actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, are both in their 80s, and their memorable performances underlined a year in which the actors, particularly male, have universally impressed.

The other former winner in the leading pack for the Palme d'Or is Romania's Cristian Mungiu, whose 'Beyond the Hills' is another austere tale of a couple's tragedy, this time two young women living together in a remote convent.

Based on the real-life story of an exorcism gone wrong, it explores the clash between spiritual and worldly love and how even the most well-meaning act can go horribly awry.

ANYONE'S GUESS

Jacques Audiard would be a popular home winner with 'Rust & Bone' starring Marion Cotillard, while French-born Leos Carax presented easily the most bizarre of this year's competition entries, the surreal, madcap 'Holy Motors'.

'Killing Them Softly', a modern-day gangster tale starring Brad Pitt, was one of five U.S. productions in competition and won warm plaudits from critics, as did 'Mud' by Jeff Nichols.

Thomas Vinterberg's Danish child abuse story 'The Hunt' packed a real punch, while Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa impressed with his World War Two drama 'In the Fog'.

Two comedies lightened the often somber mood among audiences on the Croisette waterfront - Ken Loach's Scottish whisky caper 'The Angels' Share' and Wes Anderson's childhood fantasy 'Moonrise Kingdom.'

Arguably the hardest category for the jury to decide will be best actor, with a string of acclaimed performances.

Foremost among them was Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt, Matthias Schoenaerts in Rust & Bone, Trintignant in Love, Denis Lavant in Holy Motors and Aniello Arena in Italian entry Reality.

Should he win, Arena would not be able to walk up the fabled red carpet stairs to accept his prize because he is serving a lengthy prison service, having been allowed out on day release to shoot the movie.

The stars were out in force this year, underlining Cannes' power to attract big names as well as showcase low-budget movies that otherwise might struggle to find an audience.

On Saturday, Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey were on the red carpet for the world premiere of 'Mud', and before them this festival came Pitt, Kylie Minogue, Bruce Willis, Nicole Kidman and 'Twilight' stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

Outside the official festival, rapper Kanye West and Kim Kardashian showed up to promote his short film, Sean Penn hosted a glitzy gala to raise money for Haiti and Harvey Weinstein entertained the stars at the exclusive amfAR AIDS charity bash.

On the giant market that is a key part of Cannes, business was described by specialist Hollywood publications as solid, although not as strong as 2011.

Cannes' Middle East films show Arab Spring unfurl

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The 'Arab Spring' is the focus of two movies at Cannes this year as film makers present tentative steps towards democracy on the big screen, one year after political upheaval in Libya and Egypt.

While both films deal with contemporary events in the Middle East, 'The Oath of Tobruk' ('Le Serment de Tobrouk') is a French-language documentary about the Libyan war with a highly subjective slant.

'After the Battle' ('Baad el Mawkeaa') is a fictional account of the uprising in Cairo from Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah.

At the centre of The Oath of Tobruk - which is not included in the official competition in Cannes - is Bernard-Henri Levy, a prominent French left-wing intellectual, who is co-director, narrator and central subject.

The film follows him meeting rebel leaders and convincing former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to take the lead in the West's response to the crisis, which resulted in Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow last year.

'It's a film that tells how the international community ... can reverse the course of things, stop a massacre and save a population,' Levy told a news conference on Saturday, accompanied by several Libyan representatives.

Levy always appears camera-ready in his film, wearing a crisp suit as he walks through rubble, and we see him being cheered at rallies, greeted by politicians (one of whom likens Levy to the French Enlightenment writer and philosopher Voltaire) and interviewed on TV.

We hear little from the rebel leaders themselves and nothing from the local population.

'Those with a cynical turn of mind might be tempted to rename it (the film) 'How I Ran the Libyan Revolution',' wrote British newspaper the Guardian.

At Saturday's press conference - which prompted complaints because it was held before reporters had viewed the film - Levy was accompanied by two men, their faces covered by the Syrian flag, whom he introduced as dissidents who had slipped out of Syria to attend the film festival.

Given the continued bloodshed there, Levy said his documentary should be viewed with a double focus - that of a 'war won and one of a tragedy in process'.

'The Benghazi of today is called Homs,' he said.

LOVE LETTER TO EGYPTIANS

The messy clash between classes, and between the individual and society, is the subject of Nasrallah's film, set against the backdrop of the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

'Every day something new happened,' director Nasrallah told reporters, describing last year's revolution.

'All our energy, thoughts, and emotions were focused on these events and I thought, 'This is the stuff of a film. This is what film is made of'.'

In the movie, the drop in tourism with the outbreak of the popular revolution has left horseman Mahmoud (Bassem Samra) out of work.

Manipulated by President Hosni Mubarak's forces, he and other horsemen terrorize protestors by riding at full speed through Tahrir Square in a brazen act of intimidation, a real-life incident that occurred in February 2011.

The film centers on the unlikely relationship between Mahmoud and a secular divorcee, Reem, played by Menna Shalaby, who crosses paths with him.

'The revolution is for you, so they stop paying you crumbs,' Reem implores Mahmoud, who struggles to understand how the demonstrators can help improve his lot in life.

Nasrallah - who said his cast and crew were harassed while filming at Tahrir Square at the height of the demonstrations - called After the Battle a love letter to his country.

'If I made this film, it's because Egypt and the Egyptian people - who aren't yet used to democracy, who are making their first steps to recover their dignity, because a dictatorship makes you hate yourself - these people deserve this love letter that we wrote for them with this film.'

After the Battle is one of 22 films vying for the top prize at Cannes, the Palme d'Or, to be awarded on Sunday.

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage; Editing by Sophie Hares)



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"Cosmopolis" brings star Pattinson to Cannes

CANNES, France (Reuters) - 'Twilight' star Robert Pattinson is a ruthless billionaire on a journey to self-destruction in Canadian director David Cronenberg's 'Cosmopolis', a searing attack on greed and capitalism launching at the Cannes film festival.

In the movie based on a Don DeLillo novel of the same name, capitalism is corrupting, characters cannot communicate, and people joke that rats could be the new currency. The film is competing for the festival's top prize to be awarded on Sunday.

The slick but stilted critique of the financial industry managed to capture the zeitgeist that erupted last year with the Occupy Wall Street movement, protests in Manhattan that occurred even as the film was being shot, Cronenberg said.

'We didn't think we were making ... a prophecy, when we started making the movie, but suddenly that was the case,' Cronenberg told reporters. 'For some reason our movie is capturing the moment. It became a documentary instead of a fiction film.'

Heartthrob Pattinson plays high finance wonderkid Eric Packer, obsessed with the idea of crossing New York during heavy traffic and roadblocks to get a haircut.

It is never clear why the perfectly groomed lead actor wants a haircut, but along the circuitous route across town in his white stretch limo he appears in every scene of the movie -- usually sitting in a throne-like black leather seat.

'You need someone that people want to watch and he was brave enough to play a character who is not really sympathetic,' Cronenberg said. 'Some actors don't want to play that. And he was not afraid.'

Pattinson told reporters he was initially intimidated by the prospect of working on the film, acknowledging that 'I can't explain what the movie is about.'

'I kind of spent two weeks in my hotel room worrying and confusing myself,' he confessed.

SENSE OF MENACE

Cronenberg's dialogue - which he adapted from the novel in six days - is close to DeLillo's text, with its enigmatic non-conversations whose subjects range from the devaluation of the yuan to asymmetrical prostates.

'I've had a long day,' Pattinson tells the man (Benno Levin, played by Paul Giamatti) who is trying to assassinate him at the end of the film. 'Time for some philosophical pause.'

Cronenberg - who is known for dark films like 'The Fly' and 'Crash' - creates a sense of menace in 'Cosmopolis' as threats to the president and anxiety over unsecured networks pervade the relative security and quiet of Packer's white limousine.

'The situation is not stable,' warns Packer's bodyguard before they drive through the anarchy of Times Square, where enraged demonstrators carry inflated rats and spray paint the limo.

Even the characters' bodies begin to feel the effects of the corrupting world around them.

'My prostate is asymmetrical,' Levin confesses.

'So is mine,' replies Packer, who earlier in the film discussed currency valuations with a colleague in his limo while undergoing a prostrate exam.

'What does it mean?'

Reaction to the film from the Cannes audience was mixed, with bloggers and critics taking to Twitter to offer their initial reactions.

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian called it 'stilted, self-important and fantastically shallow', whereas a colleague on the same newspaper, Xan Brooks disagreed, describing Cosmopolis as a 'film of cool, diamond brilliance.'

For a look at the Cannes lineup click here: http://link.reuters.com/vav28s

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Universal Studios unleashes "Transformers: The Ride"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Universal Studios Hollywood on Thursday unveiled its newest attraction, 'Transformers: The Ride-3D,' based on the blockbuster films and toys that the theme park's operators called their best ride yet.

The ride, which opens to the public on May 25 as the United States kicks off its summer holiday season, takes people by car through a futuristic city under siege by evil and immersed in combat between heroic shape-shifting characters, the Autobots, and their nemeses, the Decepticons.

Rather than serve as witness to the conflict, guests are made to feel like characters in the battle, enlisted alongside the Autobots to save the world.

'We think this is the best ride that we've ever created,' Steve Burke, President & CEO of NBCUniversal told Reuters. 'It's got a lot of different aspects to it that you literally couldn't do as recently as ten years ago.'

Built across 2,000 feet of track on a 60,000 sq. ft. stage in a 60-ft. high building, the ride was created to revolutionize the amusement park experience through motion-based flight simulation.

Autobots and Decepticons battle all around the cars as sensory stimulators unleash the heat of explosions, spit of the robots and quake of gears and exploding bombs.

The attraction also features the original voice work of actors Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who voiced the robotic characters in three hit 'Transformers' movies that took in over $2.6 billion, combined, at worldwide box offices.

'We're about guest experience, we want people to keep coming back,' said Ron Meyer, President & COO of Universal Studios. 'A ride like this, which is so extraordinary, just invites people to return because they will be more than thrilled that they did it, and will keep coming back to experience it again.'

In addition to the ride, Universal Studios Hollywood is launching Energon, a Transformers-inspired energy drink to be sold at military-themed kiosks at the park.

(Editing By Bob Tourtellotte)



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Kidman "oversexed Barbie Doll" in gritty Cannes film

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Nicole Kidman plays an 'oversexed Barbie doll' in the hard-hitting murder drama 'The Paperboy', premiering at the Cannes film festival on Thursday and notable for arresting scenes of sex, violence and urination.

In the adaptation of a Pete Dexter novel, the Australian Oscar winner plays trailer-trash bombshell Charlotte Bless, who is obsessed with a man on death row with whom she exchanges letters.

She is drawn into a newspaper investigation into the prisoner, who may have been wrongfully convicted, triggering a frantic series of sexual encounters, humorous exchanges and a dangerous game of violence and death in the Florida swamps.

Two scenes in particular had critics and reporters chattering in Cannes after a press screening.

In one Bless urinates on Zac Efron's character Jack after he is badly stung by jellyfish in the sea, while the second is a bizarre and unflinching portrayal of a sex scene set in a prison visiting room that involves no physical contact at all.

Kidman, in a figure-hugging vermilion dress for her Cannes photo call, was asked at a press conference whether she found shooting the scenes embarrassing:

'Strangely no, because I think I had to step into a place to play the character where I didn't step out of it and look at myself, so it wasn't hard to shoot.

'This is what (director) Lee (Daniels) brought out of me and so it didn't feel uncomfortable at the time,' Kidman added.

'I have not seen the movie, so I may be uncomfortable watching the movie, but that's my job. It's my job to give over to something, not to censor it, not to put my own judgments in terms of how I feel as Nicole playing the character.'

ALL-STAR CAST

Directed by 'Precious' film maker Daniels, The Paperboy also stars Matthew McConaughey as tenacious but conflicted reporter Ward, Efron as his younger brother Jack, singer Macy Gray as housemaid Anita and John Cusack as the imprisoned Hillary.

Set in the 1960s, the plot plays out against a background of racism and homophobia, and U.S. film maker Daniels said the story was based on first-hand experience -- his brother spent time in jail and he was shunned as a gay black man.

'I can't tell you how many men that I've been with in the 80s, that were white, and the 90s, that I could be intimate with and publicly would shun me.

''No, I will not be seen with you, black man.' I knew them. And they hate themselves for it. I know that guy. So all these people (in the film) are people that live in my head and in my world and in my existence.'

Kidman, 44, said she found some of her most rewarding roles in lower-budget, independently produced movies, and did not want to be 'pigeon-holed' into playing certain parts.

'I'm willing to fail because of that. I just want to be able to try. Because it's exciting to put your toe into different places of the world and that's what still keeps me working at this age.'

The 'Moulin Rouge!' and 'The Hours' star did her own hair and makeup for the part of Charlotte, due to budget constraints.

'I got out the fake tan and I put on lashes that were old and I ... got out a hair piece thing and it was platinum and I sort of threw it all on, I took a photo and I texted it to Lee, kind of all different provocative positions.

'That was how it started to come together, because what he sent back, which I cannot say, but it was like 'thumbs up'.'

Efron, best known as a teen idol in lighter fare like the 'High School Musical' series, spends much of the film in only his underwear in a character that Daniels said was deliberately eroticized.

'He's good-looking and the camera can't help but love him...and I'm gay, so what do you want?' Daniels said.

For a graphic of the Cannes film festival click here: http://link.reuters.com/vav28s

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)



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With kids, career, no time to direct, says Brad Pitt

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Brad Pitt, in Cannes to promote his latest movie 'Killing Them Softly', has no intention of following fiancee Angelina Jolie into directing, he told Reuters on Wednesday.

The 48-year-old, one of Hollywood's biggest stars, hit the red carpet at the film's world premiere on Tuesday, drawing noisy crowds and the world's media to the glitzy ceremony.

As well as playing mob enforcer Jackie Cogan in the violent but darkly comic gangster movie, Pitt was one of its main producers, a side of the business he has become increasingly involved in over the last six years.

Asked whether he might add directing to his career in movies, he replied: 'No, not a chance.

'It makes sense on some level, but I really enjoy being a creative producer and I enjoy my day job,' he said at the Carlton Hotel on the main Cannes waterfront overlooking the beach and luxury yachts moored offshore.

'It's enough for me. I want to also be a dad, first and foremost. After two days it gets itchy, I miss them. I just know how I'd be, I see how much time it takes to mount the thing and put it together. It wouldn't be a good match.'

Last year Jolie, with whom Pitt has six children, directed her first feature 'In the Land of Blood and Honey', a hard-hitting drama set in the Bosnian war.

'Killing Them Softly' was directed by New Zealand-born Andrew Dominik, the second collaboration between him and Pitt after they made 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' together in 2007.

GOOD REVIEWS, POISONED POLITICS

Set against the U.S. presidential election in 2008, and the economic crisis during which it was held, the movie is featured in the main competition at the Cannes film festival and has generally impressed critics.

'Here it's artistic merit first and less about an opening weekend,' Pitt said, explaining why he thought a launch in Cannes was important for the film.

'They have such respect for the auteur, and you know it's going to get a really respectful viewing.'

As well as telling the story of gang violence after a poker game is hijacked, Dominik's third feature paints a bleak picture of the U.S. economic and political landscape.

Pitt said he did not see much hope of improvement in the political climate, which he has described as 'toxic,' amid the current presidential election year.

'It's such a divide, such a rift, that I don't see any positive outcome,' he told Reuters. 'And I don't know of anything that's going to bring the two parties together to work together.'

The Oscar-nominated actor said he was glad to put something back into New Orleans, where the film was shot, after it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and subsequently hit by the financial crisis.

'They have a great film infrastructure now and there's amazing rebates for movies to get made ... to help recover from an economic disaster,' Pitt said.

'It feels good to bring a film there because you know it's supporting the city, it's a big influx of cash when a movie comes to town. You're giving people jobs and it's a really good feeling. I'm very connected to that place.'

Dominik, speaking during a joint interview with Pitt, said he felt intimidated being in competition in Cannes with some of the filmmakers he most admired, including Austria's Michael Haneke who is presenting 'Amour'.

'The night before (Tuesday's premiere) I kind of felt terrified and I think about midday yesterday I started to realize that it had gone over and I started to feel relieved.'

For a look at Cannes 2012 lineup, click here: http://link.reuters.com/vav28s

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)



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Kerouac's "On the Road" hits screen in Cannes debut

CANNES (Reuters) - The Bible of the Beat Generation, 'On the Road' premiered at Cannes on Wednesday, taking more than five decades for the frenetic tale of liberation, masculinity and post-War America to play out its journey from novel to the big screen.

Furiously written on a typewriter over a three-week long creative binge in 1951, Jack Kerouac's On the Road is the seminal portrayal of 'Beat' culture and its spiritual quest for expression.

The film version from Brazilian director Walter Salles ('Motorcycle Diaries') strives to capture the energy and drug-fuelled stream of consciousness of the original book.

Salles is helped by the casting of British actor Sam Riley as protagonist Sal Paradise, a stand-in for Kerouac himself, and U.S. actor Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty, a symbol of American virility and poster child for living in the moment.

'The only people who interest me are the mad ones,' Paradise writes, and Moriarty fits the bill. The charming, adventurous con man becomes Paradise's alter ego, and their closely bonded friendship plays out across a series of road trips.

'It's about the loss of innocence, it's about the search for that last frontier they'll never find,' Salles told reporters in Cannes. 'It's about also discovering that this is the end of the road and the end of the American dream.'

Kristen Stewart of 'Twilight' fame plays Moriarty's young wife Marylou, Kirsten Dunst plays second wife Camille and Viggo Mortensen takes a turn as Old Bull Lee, who is based on William Burroughs.

Salles said he and the team had 'enormous respect for Kerouac' which helped drive the process from the time Francis Ford Coppola bought the film rights to the book in 1979.

The idea of making On the Road into a movie languished 'until Walter raised his hand and said I think I can make this movie,' said Coppola's son, Roman, who is a co-producer. 'It took 30 years but it was such a natural fit with Walter.'

Most early reviews were negative.

'It feels long and tedious, as if we've dropped in on someone else's party without knowing or caring who these folks are, knocking back the whisky and barbiturates as regularly as they're knocking off each other,' wrote London magazine Time Out's Dave Calhoun.

British newspaper The Telegraph called the film a 'tedious loop of beatnik debauchery' while the Evening Standard said it 'seems to lack the mad passion of Jack Kerouac's ferocious and extraordinary writing.'

ROAD MOVIE

Drugs, sex and jazz are central to On the Road, as the lead characters' quest for freedom of body and mind take them to black jazz clubs, flop houses, migrant camps and rail depots.

'A road movie I think is what made me into a film maker and I'm very loyal to it,' Salles told the press.

He said he found parallels between Kerouac's search for inspiration through jazz and bebop as he wrote his novel in an improvisational style and the job of the director.

'You always have to be on the lookout for what you find along the way, it's a way of creating fantastic images.'

Salles' camera captures America's vastness - and the promise of something new around the corner - from the lights of New York to the hills of San Francisco and the long expanse of flat road and endless sky in between.

But as the sun fades on the brief and bright explosion of the characters' lives, age and responsibility intrude.

'This high we're on is a mirage,' character Carlo Marx tells Paradise and Moriarty.

For a look at Cannes' 2012 lineup, click here: http://link.reuters.com/vav28s

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage, editing by Paul Casciato)



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A Minute With: Barry Sonnenfeld about "Men in Black 3"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld, who worked with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones on the 1997 film 'Men in Black,' has united with the duo for 'Men in Black 3,' which will be released in theaters on Friday.

In the latest film in the franchise about the exploits of two secret agents who maintain order among aliens living on Earth disguised as humans, Smith's Agent J must travel back in time to 1969 to save his partner, Agent K, played by Jones in the present and Josh Brolin in the past.

Sonnenfeld spoke to Reuters about the latest collaboration, the addition of Brolin to the cast and the three films.

Q: The last 'Men in Black' film came out 10 years ago. What took so long?

A: 'I don't know exactly why this one took 10 years ... The funny thing is, the idea for 'Men in Black 3' is based on an idea that Will pitched to me while we were on the set of 'Men in Black 2.' One night Will said, 'It would be fun on the next one for me to go back in time and save Tommy Lee Jones from something that happens to him in the past, which makes Tommy Lee Jones dead in the present.''

Q: How did Brolin pull off such an uncanny performance?

A: 'Many people ask me if I dubbed Tommy Lee's voice over Josh's performance, which we didn't do. Josh watched all of Tommy's movies. He had a tape recorder on the set which he would listen to of Tommy's performance in the first two movies. He just channeled him.'

Q: Did you worry that maybe too much time has passed between installments and audiences won't remember the previous films?

A: 'Since it will have been 15 years since the first one, in some cases kids who loved these movies are now adults and are going to be able to bring their own kids to this one. The previous films have had a really great life theatrically, on DVD and on television, so I think people are excited to see this one. Agent K and J are a beloved couple that audiences look forward to seeing again. There's a lot of love between the two characters, although it's never expressed.'

Q: Much has been reported about how difficult the entire production was - how it started shooting before there was a completed script and a built-in hiatus that dragged on longer than it should. What are the facts?

A: 'It's not nearly as big a deal as people think it is. We needed to start shooting when we did for several reasons. One was (to take advantage of) the tax investment credit from New York State (that was going to expire). Secondly, Will Smith had been circling several movies and we wanted 'Men in Black 3' to be his next movie.'

Q: But isn't shooting without a completed script a Hollywood no-no?

A: 'We had a script and knew where we were going, but only the first act was ready to shoot. So we shot the first act up until just before Christmas. We scheduled the movie to have a several-month hiatus because the other acts still needed additional pre-production. So instead of coming back from Christmas break two weeks later, we came back and started preproduction on those next two thirds of the movie. We didn't start shooting for another six or eight weeks after that.'

Q: What were some of the issues that needed to be addressed?

A: 'The biggest challenge when doing a time travel movie is to lock down all the rules of time travel so the audience understands them, appreciates them and buys into them. We spent many evenings watching 'Back to the Future,' which is the best of the time travel movies, to see just how brilliantly they pulled that off. We didn't want to paint ourselves into a time travel corner.'

Q: What lessons did you learn on the first two that you could apply here?

A: 'On the second one we tried to be too funny. The franchise works beyond the fact that it's a comedy. If you look at the first one, it doesn't play as a comedy. There are funny scenes but it's observational, like Will being thrown around by a pregnant alien with tentacles in the background of a shot. It's not that someone is saying funny things. It's about the characters and the chemistry between them.'

Q: So how is the third one different, besides being in 3D?

A: 'This is the most emotional of the three movies. We learn stuff about Agent J and K at the end of the movie that we don't see coming.'

Q: After 15 years and a couple of kids, has time mellowed out the energetic Will Smith?

A: 'He's still as hyperactive as he's ever been. He's like a six-month old Great Dane puppy. He's got way too much energy, he's way too happy and he's way too rambunctious. He never stops.'

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit)



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Brad Pitt mob movie portrays broken American dream

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Brad Pitt's latest movie paints a bleak picture of the broken American dream, blending a violent but comic gangster story with overt criticism of politicians' failure to address the economic crisis.

'Killing Them Softly' takes place in an unspecified U.S. city which has borne the brunt of the financial collapse -- houses are abandoned, shops are shuttered and petty criminals and mobsters alike are struggling to get by.

The movie, co-produced by Pitt, is in the main competition at the Cannes film festival this year, and has its red carpet world premiere on Tuesday.

Pitt plays ruthless hitman Jackie Cogan, brought in by a syndicate of mafia bosses to eliminate a group of thieves who raid a high-stakes poker game.

The title derives from his insistence on avoiding unnecessary pain and suffering when he carries out his killings.

It features gangster movie mainstays Ray Liotta and James Gandolfini, and reunites Pitt with New Zealand-born director Andrew Dominik after the two collaborated on 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'.

The political message of the film is unavoidable. News channels play in the background in bars and on the radio in cars, and the topic of debate is invariably the financial crisis, political failure, greed and shattered dreams.

Barack Obama, John McCain and George W. Bush appear on the 2008 campaign trail making promises to address the economy and preserve the ideals on which the country was built.

In a scene at the end, Cogan launches a scathing attack on Thomas Jefferson, the main author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, whom he accuses of being a liar and hypocrite.

'I live in America and in America you're on your own,' Pitt's character declares. 'America's not a country, it's just a business.'

NOT ANTI-OBAMA

At a news conference following a press screening of the film, Pitt said he did not want Killing Them Softly to be seen as an attack on President Obama.

'I lean more towards the left and I want to understand my own bias and so I am not opposed to characters that have different views from yourself,' he said.

'I think very highly of him (Jefferson) actually.

'We are playing people with very specific opinions. We are clearly living in our country at a time of great divide and so I'm interested in those other arguments that are ... certainly not mine.'

He spoke of a 'toxic' political divide in the United States where 'it's more about the party winning the argument than about the issues themselves. It's a serious, serious problem.'

Pitt did not seem surprised when questions turned from the film and its political message to his personal life.

He told journalists that his fiancee Angelina Jolie was not in Cannes, quelling rumors that the Hollywood power couple would appear together on the red carpet.

Asked when they planned to get married, he replied: 'We have no date. We actually really, truly have no date. Certainly date-wise it's absolutely rumor.

'And I'm still hoping we can figure out our marriage equality in the States before that date,' he added, referring to his support for same-sex marriage countrywide.

Liotta, best known as a nasty mobster, said it made a welcome change to be on the receiving end of a cinematic beating. In Killing Them softly he plays the likeable Markie, who is framed and subsequently punished for the poker heist.

'What I really liked about it was I'm usually the one beating people up so it was nice to go the other way and have them beat me up, it was really a nice change.

'The hardest part was letting those two guys beat me up because I know I can take them. That's the roughest part, these little shrimps beating me up.'

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Alain Resnais revisits classic Greek legend at Cannes

PARIS (Reuters) - Take 15 well-known French theatre and film actors, add a classic Greek legend and voila, you have the makings of the latest Cannes offering from French director Alain Resnais.

'Vous N'Avez Encore Rien Vu' (You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet) is an art-house film within a film that relies heavily on its ensemble cast, whose members include Sabine Azema, Pierre Arditi, Anne Consigny and Lambert Wilson.

It is one of a handful of French-language movies in competition for the film festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, to be awarded on Sunday.

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet is based on Jean Anouilh's play Eurydice, which in turn is based on the classic Greek legend of Orpheus, in which the young musician unsuccessfully tries to save his lover Eurydice from the underworld.

The 89-year-old Resnais is a lion of French cinema with six decades of film making under his belt whom Cannes honored with a lifetime achievement award in 2009.

The themes of memory and time, and plots that rely on interwoven narratives crop up again and again in his works, whose best known include his first feature, 'Hiroshima Mon Amour' (Hiroshima My Love), and the concentration camp documentary 'Nuit et Brouillard' (Night and Fog).

In You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, Resnais has his cast play themselves as they reunite at the home of a deceased director (Denis Podalydes) with whom they had worked in the past on 'Eurydice.' His final wish is for them to view a film of a young troupe performing the play.

As the actors watch, snippets of dialogue they once had memorized comes back to them, and they gradually inhabit the roles themselves.

'The actors are portraying themselves in the film, they reminisce and remember their past,' Resnais told a news conference, speaking in French. 'Suddenly, while they're playing their parts, they're caught up in the ghosts, the phantoms of their memories.'

Early reaction to the film was tepid, with several critics and bloggers citing the director's formal style which held any emotional connection with the characters at bay.

The Guardian called it an 'indulgent, self-conscious film about acting, memory and the persistence of the past.'

'Like a lot of Resnais's recent work it mounts an interesting challenge to the realist consensus of cinema, to the convention that we must pretend that what is being played out on screen is actually happening,' read the review.

'But despite its moments of charm and caprice, the film is prolix, inert, indulgent and often just plain dull.'

Resnais said he has been interested for years in the relationship between theatre and film, a connection that plays out in the movie as sets resemble stages, and vice versa.

'We see where the differences are but it seems to me that there is something great that can bring theatre and cinema closer together and that's the need for actors,' Resnais told the press.

Actress Sabine Azema, Resnais' wife who plays one of three Eurydices in the film, said the strong cast her husband gathered together was one of the film's strengths.

'They know that they're free to invent, and that's why Resnais chose them, that's what he's waiting for them to do. I wonder whether it's his talent for organizing the group that I admire most in him,' Azema told French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur.

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage)



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Antiviral brings Cronenberg father-son act to Cannes

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Syringes of infected blood, festering sores and sterile white labs are the images of 'Antiviral', as young film maker Brandon Cronenberg borrows themes of disease and bodily transformation that have made his father David king of the body horror genre.

'Pass the sick bag, there's another Cronenberg on the block' read the headline of the Hollywood Reporter's review after the film debuted at the Cannes film festival, part of the 'Un Certain Regard' competition for emerging directors.

Antiviral follows clinic worker Syd March, played by Caleb Landry Jones who with his pale skin and lanky frame has the look of a young undertaker.

Syd's job is to sell obsessed fans their favorite celebrity's infections. The world Cronenberg paints is bleak and cynical, and he is unsparing with his closeups of needles entering veins.

Grey-hued steaks made from celebrity cells, skin grafts from celebrities' skin and copious amounts of vomited blood all have a place in the thriller, which despite the nausea-inducing horror, moves at the speed of a clinic waiting room.

Cronenberg, 32, told Reuters his debut feature was 'one manifestation of a broader human impulse, to deify people, to create gods and then tear them apart.

'I find it fairly fascinating,' he said of celebrity culture. 'People are so incredibly fanatical, that never ceases to amaze me how crazy people are. I think it can be incredibly grotesque at times.'

As for his famous father, Cronenberg said he had never pushed him into film: 'When I decided it was something I wanted to do, he was completely supportive.

'I have a great relationship with my dad so being able to share this together is really cute and emotional,' he said of being in Cannes together. 'He's very cute.'

'SCI-FI VAMPIRE THRILLER'

David Cronenberg - who attended Antiviral's press screening along with Tim Roth, president of the Un Certain Regard competition's jury - is one of Canada's best-known directors for his dark films like 'The Fly' and 'Crash'.

Dubbed the 'Baron of Blood,' the elder Cronenberg favors themes that deal with psychological and physical deterioration and disease.

He is in the running for the Palme d'Or this year with 'Cosmopolis', which stars 'Twilight' star Robert Pattinson as a privileged New Yorker whose ride across town in a white limousine sets off 'the most decisive 24 hours of his life.'

Film reviews following Antiviral's premiere pointed to a confused plot and mannered style that prevented the film from delivering the satirical wallop its subject merits.

'Brandon Cronenberg's feature debut is a cybermedical sci-fi vampire thriller that battles constantly, and with only limited success, against its ludicrous script,' wrote Screen magazine.

But celebrity obsession is a worthy target and the young director is sometimes spot on, as when one of the clinic's employees notes that there is a growing market for the ringworm virus from an A-list celebrity's dog.

'Celebrities are not people. They're group hallucinations,' says the owner of the clinic, indirectly pointing the finger at society at large for its destructive fixations.

Malcolm McDowell makes an appearance late in the film as a doctor who tries to rid Syd of disease and his performance helps ground the film.

His casting inevitably reminds the viewer of the classic 'Clockwork Orange,' with its own unforgettable look at medical experimentation.

(Additional Reporting By Cindy Martin, editing by Paul Casciato)



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'Avengers' outguns 'Battleship' at box offices

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - New action movie 'Battleship' collided with Iron Man, The Hulk and the rest of 'The Avengers' this weekend at movie theater box offices, and the super heroes came out on top.

'Avengers' from Walt Disney Co's Marvel Studios added an estimated $55.1 million to its U.S. and Canadian ticket sales and held the No. 1 box office spot for the third straight weekend, according to studio forecasts on Sunday.

The strong performance left big-budget 'Battleship,' which launched in theaters on Friday, drifting in second place with $25.3 million. Final figures will be released on Monday.

Since it opened overseas in late April, 'Avengers' has dominated movie theater box offices worldwide. Global sales for the film that unites a squadron of Marvel super heroes in a battle against evil reached $1.18 billion through Sunday, making it the biggest Disney release ever, the studio said.

Steady interest in 'The Avengers' likely took business from 'Battleship,' an effects-filled $209-million production inspired by a Hasbro board game. Ahead of the weekend, box office forecasters projected at least $30 million for 'Battleship' in its North American (U.S. and Canadian) debut.

'We're disappointed obviously, there are a lot of factors going into this including the juggernaut 'Avengers' ... it's taking a big chunk out of the marketplace,' Nikki Rocco, president of domestic distribution at Universal Pictures, told Reuters.

'As a studio, it's not a disaster but as a domestic opening, it's softer than we could have hoped for ... the (audience) attention span is unfortunately altered when you have a juggernaut like 'Avengers,'' Rocco added.

The movie stars Taylor Kitsch and Alexander Skarsgard as Navy officers engaged in a battle at sea against alien invaders. The U.S. Navy provided ships and crew members for the film.

Universal Pictures released 'Battleship' overseas weeks ago. International sales since the April 11 debut reached $226.8 million through Sunday, the studio said. Combined, global ticket sales for 'Battleship' stand at $252.1 million.

In third place for the weekend, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's satire, 'The Dictator,' earned $17.4 million domestically over the weekend. The movie opened on Wednesday last week, and its five-day total came in at $24.4 million.

'We're ecstatic about that result. It's a fantastic start for us and we couldn't be more pleased ... for us to think we could beat 'Borat,' that was a pretty high goal ... hopefully we have a shot getting to 'Borat' numbers based on the opening,' Anthony Marcoly, president of international distribution at Paramount, told Reuters.

OPPRESSIVE LEADER

In the film, the irreverent Cohen, whose first film 'Borat, Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' earned $128 million during its run in U.S. and Canadian theaters, again plays for laughs in 'The Dictator.

This time Cohen portrays an oppressive leader of a fictional north African country. The movie cost $65 million to produce and Baron Cohen has been capturing headlines with high profile publicity stunts in the United States, London, Germany and Cannes, ahead of the film's release.

Marcoly added that they will be pushing the film into Southern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia this summer, focusing on its comedic value in those markets, rather than Baron Cohen's star status.

'Dark Shadows,' a horror comedy starring Johnny Depp, ended its second weekend in domestic theaters in fourth place, falling from the No. 2 spot last week. The movie pulled in $12.8 million, for a total of $50.9 million to date.

In fifth place, comedy 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' took in $10.5 million. Based on a popular pregnancy advice book, the movie stars an ensemble cast including Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz and Chris Rock as soon-to-be parents.

Lions Gate, Alcon Entertainment and Phoenix Pictures produced the movie with a budget in the high $30 millions, reducing their risk with partnerships and foreign pre-sales.

Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp, released 'Battleship.' Lions Gate Entertainment Corp released 'What to Expect.' 'Dark Shadows' was distributed by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros studio. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, released 'The Dictator.'

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Vicki Allen)

'Avengers' overpowers 'Battleship' at U.S., Canadian box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Superhero movie 'The Avengers' topped U.S. and Canadian box office charts for a third straight weekend with $55.1 million, sending action movie 'Battleship' into second place and toppling comedy 'The Dictator,' according to studio estimates on Sunday.

'Avengers,' from Walt Disney Co's Marvel Studios, has amassed more than $457 million in domestic ticket sales since its debut earlier this month and another $723 million internationally for a worldwide total of $1.18 billion, according to Disney.

'Battleship,' which had high hopes of becoming a summer blockbuster in the U.S. and Canada, could muster only $25.3 million this weekend in the face of the 'Avengers' juggernaut.

Sacha Baron Cohen's satirical comedy 'The Dictator,' which has been heavily promoted in advance of its debut, finished in third place for the weekend with $17.4 million. Since its debut last Wednesday, it has taken in a total of $24.5 million in domestic - U.S. and Canadian - ticket sales.

'Battleship' was launched by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp. Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures distributed 'The Dictator.'

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Jackie Frank)



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Cannes director Haneke faces death in moving "Love"

CANNES, France (Reuters) - It is a subject rarely tackled in cinema, but Austria's Michael Haneke forces us to confront the reality that will befall us all - the end of life - in 'Love', his beautiful and devastating film at Cannes.

The French-language feature 'Amour' follows an elderly married couple, former music teachers, who are enjoying a comfortable retirement in Paris before Anne, played by Emmanuelle Riva, suffers a stroke.

'It's a very powerful film and it's a very sober film. It might almost resemble a documentary on this terrible and very painful event,' Riva, best known for 1959's 'Hiroshima Mon Amour', told a news conference.

'It's tremendously simple and because it's so simple it's so powerful,' she added, speaking in French.

Tears flowed at the press screening ahead of the film's red carpet world premiere on Sunday, and judging by critics' crowing tweets and blogs immediately afterwards, Haneke is the early frontrunner for the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or.

Anne's loving husband Georges, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, admirably struggles to adapt as Anne's situation deteriorates, but Haneke is unsparing in showing us the banality and sadness of a daily routine that defines their new life.

We see Georges helping Anne get out of the bed into her wheelchair, go to the bathroom, or with monotonous physical therapy, and with each, the viewer is sucked into their world, painfully aware that death is approaching.

'None of that deserves to be shown,' Georges tells his daughter Eva, played by Isabelle Huppert, as Anne's speech deteriorates into incoherent mumbling.

OUT OF RETIREMENT

Haneke convinced veteran actor Trintignant, 81, to come out of retirement for the role of Georges. Trintignant won the best actor award at Cannes in 1969 for political thriller 'Z'.

'I suffered greatly but ... I'm very pleased by our work,' Trintignant said. 'It was painful but very beautiful at the same time.'

Haneke, winner of the Palme d'Or for 'The White Ribbon' in 2009 and a Cannes regular, said his new film is not a commentary on the elderly, or society's treatment of them.

Rather, he said, he was proud to make a 'simple' film about a relationship and its inevitable end.

'I never write a film to show something,' Haneke said, speaking in German.

'Once you reach a given age of necessity you have to contend with the suffering of someone you love ... it's inevitable. That's what gave rise to this project, I was not trying to say anything about society per se.'

The director is known for being demanding on his actors. But a pigeon with a cameo appearance was also on the receiving end of Haneke's orders.

'So long as he didn't get what he really wanted, he (Haneke) made the pigeon do things again and again,' Trintignant said. 'In fact there were two pigeons, because one of them gave up.'

'He didn't think the pigeon was very good.'

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage Editing by Maria Golovnina)



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Danish child abuse film shocks Cannes crowds

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Danish director Thomas Vinterberg burst on to the scene in Cannes in 1998 with the acclaimed 'Festen', and critics say he is close to his best again this year with 'The Hunt', a shocking take on child abuse and its impact on a small community.

Unlike some movies on the same theme, The Hunt leaves no doubt as to the main character's innocence.

Lucas, played by Danish star Mads Mikkelsen, is a nursery school teacher adored by the children and an integral part of a closely-knit circle of friends.

But when he is accused of sexual abuse by the young daughter of his best friend, smarting after he disciplines her for being over-affectionate, most of his colleagues and loved ones quickly assume the worst.

Events spiral out of control as the besmirched Lucas fights a lonely battle to prove his innocence and work his way back into a society that may never truly accept him again.

Rather than running away, he decides to confront his doubters, leading to tense standoffs and explosions of violence, invariably ending in humiliation.

Vinterberg portrays adults' desire to believe children and protect them at all costs.

'In Denmark we have a saying that children and drunk people always tell the truth,' he told reporters ahead of the red carpet world premiere in Cannes on Sunday. 'Yes, we are claiming that this is not always the truth.'

'OUR OWN SICK FANTASY'

The director said he researched many child abuse cases in order to make his movie.

'Frighteningly enough there are a lot of these cases. Early in the project (we) had to step out of real life and into drama so this is fully fiction and our own sick fantasy you could say.'

He called the community he portrays as a 'microcosm' of a wider phenomenon - the speed and ease with which false rumors can spread and harm reputations in the age of the internet.

The Hunt is one of 22 films in competition in Cannes, which ends with an awards ceremony next Sunday where Mikkelsen is seen as a contender for the best actor award.

Up against popular entries like Cristian Mungiu's 'Beyond the Hills' from Romania and Austrian auteur Michael Haneke's well-received 'Love', may be a long shot for the coveted Palme d'Or for best picture.

'I'm trying not to participate in this kind of handball or football game,' he replied, when asked how he felt about competing for awards in Cannes.

'This festival for me is the only festival in the world that protects the small, the pure and personal film and yet has the same strong amount of glamour around it.

'Of course, we're part of the competition, of course I would love to bring back some gold, but I truly feel that the mission is completed already.'

One critic questioned the plausibility of elements of the plot, and amid loud applause there were a few boos after a press screening of The Hunt, but reviews have praised its gut-wrenching power.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White Editing by Maria Golovnina)



This article is brought to you by SINGLES.

Joke on Europe as Madagascar sequel comes to Cannes

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The joke is on Europe, and in particular France, with the third animated 'Madagascar' adventure, which has its world premiere at the Cannes film festival on Friday bringing big names in comedy to the red carpet.

'Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted', from DreamWorks Animation, is the first installment in the franchise to be shot in 3D, and studio bosses will be hoping it can match the box office magic of its predecessors.

A slot at the Cannes film festival, where hundreds of news outlets descend each year, can be an ideal launchpad, particularly because the notoriously fussy critics tend to blunt their pencils for animated entertainment.

'This festival, it celebrates all types of film ... Our film's about travelling to Europe and what better place could we launch a film like that than in Cannes?' said Tom McGrath, one of three directors working on the movie.

'What we always aspired to do was to take you to a fantastic world, like everyone was transported when they saw Pinocchio,' he told a news conference after a press screening.

'That's the great thing about CG (computer generated animation). First people aspired to do photo-realism, and now we're trying to create these fantasy worlds.'

In Madagascar 3, the central characters of Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman leave Africa in search of their penguin friends who have flown to Europe to spend their gold and gems in the casino in Monte Carlo.

'Operation Penguin Extraction' goes predictably awry, and in the ensuing havoc the heroes join a travelling circus in their bid to get back to their beloved New York.

On the way, via Rome and London, European stereotypes are sent up, including France's reputation as a country where people work short hours and its cultural icon Edith Piaf, whose famous song 'Non, je ne regrette rien' is gloriously parodied.

When Vitaly, a grumpy Russian tiger, disagrees with Alex, he counters 'That's Bolshevik!', prompting an American penguin to add: 'Never thought I'd say this ... but the Russky's right.'

Famous scenes from well-known action movies are also recreated, including the bus balancing on the edge of a cliff in 'The Italian Job' and people dodging flying bullets, or in this case bananas, in 'The Matrix'.

The main villain in Madagascar 3 is deranged French animal control officer Capitaine Chantel DuBois, voiced by Frances McDormand.

Part Cruella De Vil and part rottweiler, she terrorizes the fleeing animals, hell bent on claiming Alex's scalp to complete her stuffed animal wall hangings.

Ben Stiller returns as the voice of good-hearted lion Alex, Chris Rock reprises his role as the irrepressible zebra Marty and David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith are back as Melman and Gloria respectively.

New to the cast in the 'threequel' are Bryan Cranston as Vitaly, Martin Short as the scene-stealing Italian sea lion Stefano and Jessica Chastain as a sultry jaguar.

According to website Boxofficemojo.com, the first Madagascar film from 2005 earned $533 million in global ticket sales and the second (2008) around $604 million.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Reality TV, celebrity obsession hit Cannes screens

CANNES (Reuters) - Obsession with celebrity is the focus of Italian director Matteo Garrone's new movie 'Reality' at the Cannes film festival, one of two pictures in the lineup exploring the corrosive power of instant fame and the desire to be watched.

Garrone is best known for his last film, the gritty 'Gomorrah' about a Naples crime syndicate. But with 'Reality' he switches gears, creating a modern day fairy tale whose protagonist's soul is slowly and inexorably eroded by the lure of fame.

The second film, screening outside the main competition on Saturday, is 'Antiviral,' the debut feature of Brandon Cronenberg, son of Canadian director David Cronenberg. Its plot follows a clinic worker who sells fans injections of viruses harvested from sick celebrities.

In 'Reality,' Lorenzo is an affable Naples fishmonger and loving father and husband whose family convinces him to try out for the reality TV show 'Big Brother.'

Garrone chose as his main actor Aniello Arena, whom he discovered working in a prison theatre troupe. Arena, who is still serving his term, was allowed out of prison during the days to film but returned to custody in the evenings. He was not allowed to accompany the rest of the cast to Cannes.

'Never give up your dreams!' Lorenzo is told by the television crew who audition him for a spot on the show. Lorenzo is convinced it's only a matter of time before he receives the call saying he's been picked, and his status in his small community gets an instant lift.

As the days drag on and the call doesn't come, however, Lorenzo's obsession grows, and his hold on reality wavers. He starts to believe that crew from the TV show are spying on him, to determine if he would be a good pick for the show.

'What are they thinking about me?' he worries in his mind, in which he already plays a starring role. He sells his fish business so he'll have money to fix up their home.

'So it will look good in interviews,' he explains to his wife, played by Loredana Simioli.

The audience is kept in suspense for much of the film, wondering whether the call will come that will release Lorenzo from his self-imposed torture and normalize his family relations, which have deteriorated.

Garrone is a fan of long pans in his latest film, which capture the beauty of a crumbling Naples while at the same time adding to the sense of voyeurism.

The movie opens with a sweep of the southern port city seen from above, gradually focusing in on a golden carriage drawn by two white horses and a footman in red breeches. When a bride and groom emerge, we see them enter their version of a fairy tale wedding - presided over by the host of Big Brother.

Garrone said it wasn't his goal to judge society's obsession with celebrity.

'What we were trying to do was to portray with great love a character while denouncing an aspect of society, but the aim was not at all to be critical,' Garrone told a press conference.

'We didn't want to provide any answers,' he added.

As for Cronenberg, celebrity obsession is part of something bigger in human society.

'I think that world is fascinating, both because of how grotesque it can be and how much it's really just one version of a much broader human impulse to deify and eviscerate,' the young director told Screendaily.com.

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage, editing by Paul Casciato)

Sorkin says Jobs movie won't be straight biography

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin hasn't yet figured out how to put the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on the silver screen, but he is certain it's not going to be a straightforward biography.

Sorkin, who won an Oscar for his screenplay of Facebook film 'The Social Network' and created TV drama 'The West Wing', said on Thursday he would be looking for an element of tension or an obstacle in Job's life on which to hang the movie.

Movie studio Sony Pictures announced on Tuesday that Sorkin would adapt Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography of the enigmatic genius behind the iPod and the iPhone. Jobs, 56, died in October after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer.

'I know so little about what I am going to write. I know what I am not going to write. It can't be a straight ahead biography because it's very difficult to shake the cradle-to-grave structure of a biography, ' Sorkin told reporters at a news conference for his upcoming HBO drama 'The Newsroom.'

Sorkin noted that 'The Social Network' saw the Facebook story through the lens of an acrimonious lawsuit that pitted CEO Mark Zuckerberg against his Harvard friends over the creation of the social media network.

'Drama is tension versus obstacle. Someone wants something, something is standing in their way of getting it. They want the money, they want the girl, they want to get to Philadelphia - doesn't matter ... And I need to find that event and I will. I just don't know what it is,' Sorkin said.

Sorkin said he would turn his full attention to the Jobs film in late June, once he has launched 'The Newsroom', which is set behind the scenes at a television network.

He said that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been hired by the film studio as a 'tutor' on all the technical aspects of computers and on Jobs himself.

Wozniak and Jobs founded Apple from a garage in 1976. Wozniak stopped working for the company in 1987 but kept in touch with Jobs until his death.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, Writing by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Travolta accuser hires celebrity lawyer Allred

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The masseur whose $2 million sexual battery lawsuit against Hollywood actor John Travolta was dismissed earlier this week hired celebrity attorney Gloria Allred on Wednesday and could file a new claim.

Allred, who numerous high-profile cases over the years have included representing women involved in the Tiger Woods sex scandal, said on Wednesday that she is now the attorney for 'John Doe No. 1' and will be consulting with the masseur on his next steps in the case that has made headlines worldwide.

'Mr. Doe's lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice which means that he is still legally entitled to file a lawsuit against John Travolta if he chooses,' Allred said in a statement. 'We are in the process of conferring with him regarding the next steps, which he may wish to take.'

Travolta faces a similar claim from another masseur. His lawyer, Los Angeles-based Martin Singer, has vehemently denied the sexual battery claims against the 'Grease' actor and on Tuesday said his client had been vindicated by the dismissal of the first complaint. His office had no immediate comment about Allred's hiring on Wednesday.

John Doe No. 1, a Texas resident, initially claimed in court papers filed earlier this month that Travolta groped him during a private massage in Beverly Hills in January.

But on Tuesday, his former attorney, Okorie Okorocha, filed a notice dismissing the lawsuit. Okorocha told Reuters he had 'limited his representation' of the plaintiff after the masseur got the date wrong of the alleged incident and contacted media outlets directly.

'I wanted to be the only one talking to the press ... His case needed to be redone and it would take a lot of time to redo the whole thing,' Okorocha said.

Okorocha plans to go ahead with the lawsuit against Travolta representing a second male masseur, John Doe No. 2, who claimed Travolta sexually assaulted him during a massage session in an Atlanta hotel in late January.

Two other men have made similar claims to media outlets but no legal filings have yet been made in those cases.

Travolta, 58, has been married to actress Kelly Preston since 1991. He first gained fame on the television show 'Welcome Back, Kotter' and later enjoyed hit movies such as 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Urban Cowboy' before going on to grittier roles in films such as 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Get Shorty.'

Allred represented the family of O.J. Simpson's slain ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, during Simpson's trial and filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against actor David Boreanaz on behalf of a client who was an extra on Borneanaz's show 'Bones.' She also represented a Chicago woman who alleged that former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed her.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bill Trott)