International Insider: Cannes Gets In Gear; Inside Sky Studios; Strike Unsettles LA Screenings; Russia Rattled
deadline.comWelcome, Insiders. Cannes is now well under way while the picket lines remain busy in LA. Jesse Whittock here in London. I’ve rounded up all the big and important news from film and TV, so sit back and enjoy the read.
Subscribe here. Controversy: Diana Lodderhose here reporting from Cannes where it’s been all systems go on the Croisette since the festival kicked off with the opening of Johnny Depp starrer Jeanne du Barry on Tuesday.
It wouldn’t feel like a proper Cannes without a healthy dose of controversy. Festival head Thierry Frémaux responded to French actress Adèle Haenel’s suggestion that Cannes is part of a French eco-system that turns a blind eye to sexual violence. “It’s not true and the proof is that if you believed it, you would not be here, listening to me now, taking your accreditations and complaining about the press screenings for a festival of rapists,” he told journalists at a press conference on opening day.
All eyes were on Depp and his Jeanne du Barry director Maïwenn on opening night, notably because it was the first acting role Depp has had since he won a defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard and also because Maïwenn came under intense scrutiny after reports arose of her spitting on a journalist before the festival.
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