Cannes is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, but it’s also a business hub. The fest — and Cannes market — officially kick off tomorrow, May 17, but new projects are already being announced, including ones toplined by Rosamund Pike, Blake Lively, and Noomi Rapace.
Pike has signed on to star as trailblazing chemist and physicist Marie Curie in “Radioactive.” Variety broke the news. The biopic will be directed by “Persepolis” helmer Marjane Satrapi. An adaptation of Lauren Redniss’ graphic nonfiction book “Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout,” the live-action project is fully financed by Studiocanal.
“Marie Curie was such a natural force of life. Everybody, everywhere she went was affected by her energy and brilliance,” said Satrapi. “This is an intense role which requires a lot of intelligence and sensibility. Rosamund is ‘the one’ to incarnate her. I understood it the second I met her.”
Pike earned an Oscar nod in 2015 for “Gone Girl.” She was most recently seen in Amma Asante’s well-reviewed interracial romance “A United Kingdom.” She’ll play war reporter Marie Colvin in an upcoming biopic directed by Matthew Heineman (“Cartel Land”).
Lively will star as a single mom and former MMA fighter in “Bruised,” Deadline reports. Faced with the threat of losing her son to the authorities, the disgraced athlete “must get back in the cage for one last chance to fight for redemption and give her son the life she always wanted.”
Michelle Rosenfarb (“Sweet Surrender”) penned the script and Nick Cassavetes (“The Notebook”) will direct the project. Production for the action-drama will most likely kick off in September.
The source writes that “Nick Meyer’s Sierra/Affinity is launching sales on the project to foreign buyers in Cannes this week.” Linda Gottlieb (“Dirty Dancing”) will produce alongside Management 360’s Guymon Casady and Thunder Road Pictures’ Basil Iwanyk.
Lively made a major splash with last summer’s “The Shallows.” The shark thriller earned nearly $120 million and was made for just $17 million. The “Gossip Girl” alumna’s other credits include “Café Society,” “The Age of Adaline,” and “The Town.”
“Prometheus” actress Rapace will portray a counter-terrorism expert in “Close,” The Hollywood Reporter writes. The action-thriller will be directed by Vicky Jewson (“Born of War”), who also co-wrote the script.
According to THR, Rapace’s character “takes on what should be a babysitting job protecting a rich teenage heiress. But a violent attempted kidnapping forces the two to go on the run, and then they’ve got to take some lives — or lose theirs.”
Janette Day (“Ghost World”) and Sarah Radclyffe (“Les Misérables”) are among those serving as executive producers on “Close.”
“WestEnd acquired the film under its WeLove banner aimed at female audiences,” THR writes. Production is slated to kick off next month.
Rapace played Lisbeth Salander in the original Swedish-language adaptation of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and its sequels. She’s set to star in “Callas,” Niki Caro’s upcoming biopic about opera singer Maria Callas.
Check out our infographic about women directors screening films at Cannes this year. The fest runs until May 28.
