While the big companies flaunt their stars at cocktail parties up and down the Croisette, others have to work a bit harder to sell theirs. So when a Moving Pictures colleague was invited to a cocktail reception with Keith Branagh, he assumed that it was another example of the Joey Travolta syndrome - if you can't get the talent, get his brother.
What a pleasant surprise then to see the real Kenneth Branagh, in sparkling form on the Croisette on Tuesday night after a very well-received promo reel of his upcoming Hamlet. Funny how some PRs don't even know the names of their biggest stars. Their again nobodies parfect are trhey… oops!
A British hard man abroad
Move over wimps - "the British Stallone" is in town. Colombia TriStar have snapped up the world rights to Craig Fairbrass' action thriller, Killing Time, and he is poised to muscle in on the action Stateside. Just be sure you don't call him a "luvvie".
"Our usual British export is a middle-class fop," mutters the Cockney lad made good by parts in Cliffhanger, Proteus and Beyond Bedlam. "There aren't a lot of men out there."He has a second, three-film deal with Metrodome. Actioner Darklands unspools next March, and shooting starts on The More's the Risk and Sugartown in 1997. Expect a high body count.
Some like it yacht
Tony Curtis, here with his latest film, The Continued Adventures of Reptile Man, is something of a Cannes legend - as is Moving Pictures' distinguished senior correspondent Jørn Rossing Jensen, who recalls an interview in 1974 when Curtis arrived for the world premiere of Menahem Golan's production Lepke. "I went to his suite at the Carlton Hotel for my interview appointment. Curtis dragged me through the room to the balcony, waving nine fingers at a large cruiser moored in the bay. 'I always get this suite because I can see my yacht from here," he explained. "We will be nine for dinner.'"
The drinks have been lined up, the music is being cranked up to 11 and we're ready to rock and roll! Tonight's edition of the legendary Moving Pictures party, to be held once again at the Chateau de la Napoule, runs from 22.00 until an unseemly hour sometime on Friday morning. The party's main sponsor this year is MDP, with the support also of co-sponsors UK-based Winchester Productions and Germany's Kinowelt. Drink this year will be supplied once again by Smirnoff, Sapporo beer and Perrier, along with Goldkenn liqueur and Campari. If you know you have an invitation waiting for you, please come along to the Moving Pictures office - Salon Suquet A & B, Noga Hilton Hotel - today to collect it. But please be quiet - Americans, in particular, have got very loud voices and we're still trying to do some work!
ON THIS DAY,16 MAY
…the following people were born: Tori Spelling (1973); Janet Jackson (1966); Jon Jost (1943); Bernardo Bertolucci (1940); Harry Carey Jnr (1921); Liberace (1919); Margaret Sullavan (1911); Henry Fonda (1905);
…the following people died: Alain Cuny (1994); Jim Henson (1990); Sammy Davis Jnr (1990)
…and the following Cannes-tastic titles were released: Indiscreet (USA, 1931); The Constant Husband (UK, 1955); Peeping Tom (UK, 1960); Breaker Morant (Australia, 1980); La femme publique (France, 1984); and Le lieu du crime (France, 1986).
Bravo, Bravo
Yoni Cohen, general manager of Bravo's Timewarp TV channel, was supposed to sign a three-year output deal with Troma this week. But his expensive luggage had been flown to Madrid rather than Nice, so he was forced to don casual attire. Troma topper Lloyd Kaufman's offer of a Sgt Kabukiman costume was politely declined. From September, Saturday night on Bravo will be Troma Night, featuring favourites like Cannibal! The Musical.
