Some hardened festivalites will feel a touch of deja-vu about much of the Cannes Competition this year, which again comes from the familiar names such as Atom Egoyan, Arturo Ripstein, John Sayles, and Chen Kaige.

But there will be little deja-vu about the Cannes market. For years distributors have been crying out for big, big titles. This Cannes they've got them, arguably in a larger number than ever before.

The emergence of a clutch of top titles is market driven by at least three factors: the continued multiplexing trend, the launch of a number of digital platforms across Europe, and the public flotation of distributors and producers in Germany.

As the world's increased screen count allows the US majors to stage blanket bows of their big pics, distributors need ever bigger titles to clinch any key playdates and screens.
Bigger titles also act as locomotives for Europe's burgeoning movie channels on digital platforms, aiding their branding. And, as the AFM proved, German companies flush from stock market flotations are able to take up some of the buying slack prompted by the downturn of economies in the Far East, Latin America and Russia.

Expect to see the following trends at this year's Cannes:

* More output deals as distributors enter multi-pic arrangements with leading suppliers in order to tie down indie tent-pole movies.

* Some very big projects being made available for indie distribbers, led this market by Summit's just-acquired $100 million U-boat thriller, U571 and Buena Vista Film Sales' Kevin Costner-starrer, 13 Days, with Ronald Donaldson now attached to direct. Inevitably, given these pics' budgets, the prices being asked are not slight: some $4.5 million for 13 Days just for Spain, for example. * Top film financiers and sales agents once associated with upscale projects in the mid-budget range are now embracing more commercial mainstream propositions. Intermedia, for example, has just announced Ace In The Hole, with Bruce Willis in advanced negotiations to star.

* And expect the psychology of buying films to evolve. "If you're quoted on the stock exchange, you have to keep on doing things just to keep your shareholders aroused," says an exec at one large German production-distribution house which successfully floated in 1998.
And if you're going for huge output deals, which are now the makings of an indie distribber, it's best to market your company image very carefully. So expect ever more self-respecting distributors to come to Cannes with PRs. And if they're new-ish, to practise such acquisitions deals as Intertainment's pick-up at the AFM of 18 pics from Franchise Films, a corporate marketing coup that made Intertainment a player overnight.
For smaller shingles Cannes will still be about selling and buying. But larger concerns will also be selling themselves. There's probably no better place in the film world to do this than Cannes.

The following are some of the big or new pics for which large distributors may step up to the plate:

* Bruce Willis is in final negotiations to star in Intermedia's $50-$60 million Ace In The Hole, playing an ex-con who is forced to aid a Las Vegas casino cover-up. Word is good on Intermedia's The Courier, although key cast - Brad Pitt is hotly tipped - and director still have to be confirmed.

* Summit Int'l looked very close last week to signing U571, the $100 million Dino de Laurentiis-produced World War II U-boat drama concerning a mission to crack the Enigma codes. Other new attractions in Summit's strongest slate of late: kidnap drama The Way Of The Gun, written (typically tortuously) and directed by The Usual Suspects scribe Christopher McQuarrie; getting-one's-rocks-off comedy American Pie; the Lawrence Bender-produced The Mexican, directed by Kevin Reynolds; the droll Barry Levinson comedy, An Everlasting Piece; and the Neal Moritz-produced Soul Survivors.

* Miramax Int'l's strong slate has a special buzz for Jez Butterworth's Birthday Girl, starring Nicole Kidman.

* Franchise Films has unveiled yet more big pics to international distributors including the Wesley Snipes actioner Art Of War, directed by Christian Duguay. Reaction to that script has been mixed, but buyers are also talking about American Iron with Walter Hill reportedly attached to direct.

* BVFS has the near-$90 million Kevin Costner drama 13 Days from Beacon Pictures; the Antonio Banderas/Woody Harrelson boxing drama Play It To The Bone; and ransom drama High And Low from a reportedly fine and morally caustic script by David Mamet, who will also direct. Steve Martin, William H. Macy and Joe Mantegna look set to star.

* Beyond David Fincher's noirish thriller The Black Dahlia, still in development, Mark Damon's Behaviour Worldwide is talking up The Body with Antonio Banderas tipped for the lead.

* Lakeshore may sell international on the Paramount-produced action-thriller Shooter.

* The Overseas FilmGroup will be unspooling a showreel for the flamboyant Shakespeare adaptation, Titus, toplining Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange.

* From France, TF1 Int'l has just announced a big new flagship English-lingo pic, James Ivory's adaptation of Henry James' last novel.

* Shooting began 26 April on the $36 million Vatel, which has gone to Germany (Tobis) and Italy. Also rolling is the English-lingo spin-off of Les Visiteurs, toplining Jean Reno and Christian Clavier, with Malcolm McDowell, Christina Applegate and Tara Reid.

* Kathy Morgan is prepping Vision Of Love. The pic is exec-produced by the Farrelly brothers, with Michael Keaton, Greg Kinnear and Maria Gracia Cucinatta said to be in the running for lead roles; Charles Wessler is to direct.

* Word is good on Moonstone's Pandemonium, Julien Temple's period pic about romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.

* Seven Arts International's big pic looks likely to be Morton Orwell, directed by Gregory Hoblit.
John Hopewell