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Fifty-six French stars, including Carla Bruni, Charlotte Rampling and Carole Bouquet, signed an open letter defending Gerard Depardieu, the Oscar-nominated actor who has been charged with rape and accused by more than a dozen other women of sexual assault, harassment or groping.

The essay, published in the conservative-leaning French newspaper Le Figaro, reads, in part: “We cannot remain silent in the face of the lynching targeting him, the torrent of hate being dumped on his personality” (via AP). “When Gerard Depardieu is targeted this way, it is the art [of cinema] that is being attacked. … Depriving ourselves of this immense actor would be a drama, a defeat. The death of the art. Our art.”

Other signatories included actors Pierre Richard, Victoria Abril and Nathalie Baye, and directors Bertrand Blier and Francis Veber.

Depardieu has not been convicted in connection with any of the allegations and denies wrongdoing. He called the open letter “beautiful” and its signatories “courageous,...

French broadcaster France Televisions has been blamed by supporters of Gerard Depardieu, the Oscar-nominated actor of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” for contributing to the downfall of one of country’s most iconic actors with a bombshell documentary about his history of sexual abuse allegations which aired on Dec. 7.

The broadcaster’s head of film and international co-production, Manuel Alduy, tells Variety the TV group doesn’t have any agenda against Depardieu, however, and won’t boycott his films. “We will not ban films, but we won’t celebrate artists who have been accused until they’re completely cleared,” says Alduy, who joined France Televisions in 2021 after working at Twentieth Century Fox and Canal+ Group.

“Films are collective works of art and Depardieu happens to have starred in more than 100 films, including some classics of French cinema,” says Alduy. “It would be unfair for these films and for rights holders if we banned them,...

Clockwise from top left: The Wicker Man (Warner Bros.), Vanilla Sky (Paramont), Oldboy (FilmDistrict), The Toy (Columbia)Image: AVClub

In Hollywood, it often seems that the sincerest form of flattery is to remake a foreign film. Domestic versions of international hits are a long-running thing in a town where familiarity assumes success,...

Exclusive: Fox has given a straight-to-series order to Animal Control, a single-camera workplace comedy from The Moodys co-creators Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg, Dan Sterling (Long Shot) and Fox Entertainment Studios. Animal Control, slated for a midseason launch, marks Fox Entertainment Studios’ first fully owned live-action comedy. (Fox’s first fully owned comedy series overall is Dan Harmon’s upcoming animated series Krapopolis.)

Animal Control, which had been heating up for a pickup, was developed as part of Fox’s script-to-series model. Three scripts have been written, and casting is set to begin immediately.

2022 Fox Pilots & Series Orders

At its May upfront, Fox announced straight-to-series dark comedy Cindy Snow, from Warner Bros. Television, as a new midseason replacement. As Deadline reported last week, the deal for that series never closed over various issues, making a January launch for the show impossible. As a result, Fox is not going forward with...

It’s unlikely that anyone was holding their breath for an English-language reimagining of Francis Veber’s 2006 French hit “La Doublure,” a lovable if trite farce in which a porter and a supermodel fake a romantic relationship in order to prevent a PR disaster. But with the help of some doting cultural specificity, a charming cast and sunshiny Los Angeles skies, “Come As You Are” director Richard Wong’s “The Valet” proves that a remake can still be a welcome thing these days, even in a world oversaturated with them.

Written by Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg (the duo behind the “Overboard” remake), this sweet-natured and good-humored rom-com-with-a-twist should easily find reasonable streaming success upon its May 20 launch on Hulu. This version of the story brings its distinctly “Notting Hill” beats to Tinseltown, where the modest and socially awkward Antonio works as a valet, parking the fancy cars of a...

Arguably, Mexican film and television superstar Eugenio Derbez has already conquered the American market. His 2013 film “Instructions Not Included” is the highest grossing Spanish-language film in the U.S. and grossed 100 million worldwide. He earned a SAG Award as part of the “Coda” ensemble cast, which went on to win the Best Picture Oscar, and he co-starred in the hit action-adventure “Dora and the Lost City of Gold.”

However, the attempts to launch him as a romantic leading man — in 2017’s “How to Be a Latin Lover” and 2018’s “Overboard,” a remake of the 1987 comedy — haven’t exactly lit the world on fire, even if they have been profitable.

But if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, and Derbez is back, with “Overboard” writers Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg, starring in and producing Hulu’s “The Valet,” directed by Richard Wong. It’s a remake of the...

Netflix has dropped a trailer for “The Takedown,” a cop comedy directed by “Lupin” helmer Louis Leterrier and starring Omar Sy and Laurent Lafitte. The movie is a sequel to the French comedy “On The Other Side Of The Tracks.”

Sy and Lafitte star as two cops with very different styles and backgrounds who are reunited for criminal investigation across France. What seems to be a simple drug deal turns out to be a high level case wrapped in danger and unexpected comedy. The script is penned by Stéphane Kazandjian.

“‘The Takedown’ is the logical continuation of a close relationship with Omar Sy: we got along so well on Lupin that we were looking for other projects,” said Leterrier, adding that he found the script “extremely funny and dynamic on topical subjects that are difficult to tackle in a comedy.”

Leterrier said he wanted the film to be positioned between...

Legendary French stage and screen actor Michel Bouquet has died. He was 96. The César Award winner passed away today at a Paris hospital, his spokesperson confirmed to Afp. A tribute on the official website of the Elysée Palace did not cite a cause of death.

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery

Born in 1925, Bouquet began his film career in 1947 and went on to appear in more than 100 movies. In the 1960s and ’70s, he collaborated with New Wave directors François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol in such films as Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black and Mississippi Mermaid and Chabrol’s The Unfaithful Wife and Just Before Nightfall, among others.

Later in his career, Bouquet won a European Film Award for Jaco Van Dormael’s Toto Le Héros (1991) and took two Best Actor Césars for Anne Fontaine’s How I Killed My Father (2001) and Robert Guédiguian’s The Last Mitterand...

Netflix has dropped the first full trailer for its upcoming buddy cop action comedy The Takedown. Lupin’s Omar Sy reteams with Laurent Lafitte in the follow-up to their 2012 On The Other Side Of The Tracks. In another reunion, Lupin director Louis Leterrier has the reins. The French film is part of Netflix’s drive to ramp up local feature productions and launches globally on the streamer on May 6. Check out the dubbed trailer above.

The story centers on Ousmane Diakité (Sy) and François Monge (Lafitte), two cops with very different styles, backgrounds and careers. When the unlikely pair is reunited for a criminal investigation that takes them across France, what seemed to be a simple drug deal turns out to be a high level case wrapped in danger and unexpected comedy. Izia Higelin also stars.

Leterrier commented that the film is a “logical continuation of a close relationship with Omar Sy.

Colcoa French Film and Series Festival announced the lineup for the 25th edition of the annual City of Lights, City of Angels event, which is scheduled to take place Nov. 1 to Nov. 7 at the Director’s Guild of America headquarters in Los Angeles as it has been traditionally held. The event will be in-person and will feature 55 films and series screened live, 30 of which will be considered for Colcoa cinema awards. Among the films are also 19 shorts.

The opening film, screening Nov. 1, will be “Between Two Worlds,” which recounts the adventures of Marianne Winckler, a celebrated author who goes undercover as a cleaning lady to write a book on job insecurity in the gig economy. The closing films scheduled are writer and director Xavier Giannoli’s “Lost Illusions” as well as writer and director Arthur Harari’s “Onoda, 10,000 Nights In The Jungle.” All three of these films will be premiering...

Albert Dupontel stars in his own hectic romp, which tries and fails to be funny about disability and dying

Bafflement has to be the chief response to this laboured, weirdly misjudged comedy from French actor and film-maker Albert Dupontel, supposedly inspired by the anarchic spirit of Terry Gilliam, who has been credited for “participation exceptionelle” and gets a wacky cameo. It’s also dedicated to the memory of Terry Jones.

But in fact this is a frantically French romp in the commercial mainstream, about as far from Python as it’s possible to get. Virginie Efira – not a comedy natural – plays Suze, a woman dying of a bronchial disorder, of all hilarious things. Before she dies, she wants to find the child she was forced to give up as an unmarried teen mother. But while she is at the government office begging for help, that department’s It technician, Monsieur...

Muriel Sauzay, Pathe Intl.’s former head, and Agnès Mentré, Wild Bunch’s former acquisition topper, have launched Maremako, a Paris-based banner banner with a special interest in adaptations and remakes.

The company’s first slate includes an English-language remake of “Stalk” with Endeavor Content, in association with Drake’s DreamCrew and Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Prods.; and “French Love,” a anthology series with Noemie Saglio (Netflix’s “The Hook Up Plan”) showrunning and Richard Grandpierre’s Eskwad producing. “Stalk” follows a teenage hacker who gets hazed in his freshman year at a prestigious engineering school and sets off to take his revenge by cyber-stalking his tormentors.

“French Love,” meanwhile, will be based on the highly popular Elle magazine weekly column “C’est mon histoire” (It’s My Story). The column, which boasts one of the highest readerships of French women’s magazine segments on love stories in France,...

Lionsgate’s English-language remake of Francis Veber’s French feature hit The Valet has been acquired by Disney’s direct-to-consumer platforms for a summer 2022 release as a Hulu Original in the U.S. and a Disney+ Star Original abroad.

Directed by Richard Wong and starring Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving, The Valet follows Olivia (Weaving), a movie star who enlists Antonio (Derbez) – a parking valet – to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man (Max Greenfield). As a valet, the hard-working Antonio usually flies under the radar but his ruse with Olivia thrusts him into the spotlight and brings him to see himself more clearly than ever before.

Betsy Brandt, Marisol Nichols, Noemi Gonzalez, Carmen Salinas, Ravi Patel, Tiana Okoye, Diany Rodriguez, Armando Hernández, Carlos Santos, Amaury Nolasco, John Pirucello and Alex Fernandez also star. Additionally, in a previously unannounced supporting role, Reggaeton superstar Lunay...

Slate also includes new films from Michel Hazanavicius and Pierre Salvadori.

Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled one of its biggest Cannes slates to date as it gears up for its first trip to the Croisette in two years.

As well as 10 Cannes selections (as of June 15), it also features upcoming projects from Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and fellow Cannes laureate Arnaud Desplechin, and the portmanteau work Shining Sex, combining the talents of Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Sion Sono, directorial duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Bertrand Mandico and Kleber Mendonça Filho.

Now in pre-production, the Dardenne’sTori...

Slate also includes new films from Michel Hazanavicius and Pierre Salvadori.

Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled one of its biggest Cannes slates to date as it gears up for its first trip to the Croisette in two years.

As well as 10 Cannes selections (as of June 15), it also features upcoming projects from Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and fellow Cannes laureate Arnaud Desplechin, and the portmanteau work Shining Sex, combining the talents of Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Sion Sono, directorial duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Bertrand Mandico and Kleber Mendonça Filho.

Now in pre-production, the Dardenne’sTori...

Exclusive: Noemi Gonzalez, Tiana Okoye, Diany Rodriguez, Armando Hernandez, and Carlos Santos have been added to the cast of Lionsgate’s The Valet, the English-language remake of Francis Veber’s French film.

The new additions are joining stars Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving in the film, which is being directed by Richard Wong.

The film, written by Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, follows Olivia (Weaving), a movie star who enlists Antonio (Derbez) – a parking valet – to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man. As a valet, the hard-working Antonio usually flies under the radar but his ruse with Olivia thrusts him into the spotlight and brings...

Exclusive: Max Greenfield, Marisol Nichols, Betsy Brandt, and legendary Mexican screen and television icon Carmen Salinas are the latest to board the Lionsgate English-language remake of the French hit The Valet, joining stars Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving.

Richard Wong is directing the film, which is in production. The original version was written and directed by Francis Veber.

Weaving stars as Olivia, a movie star who enlists Antonio (Derbez) – a parking valet – to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man. As a valet, the hard-working Antonio usually flies under the radar, but his ruse with Olivia thrusts him into the spotlight and brings him to see himself more clearly than ever before.

Greenfield, from TV’s The Neighborhood and New Girl, will play Vincent Royce, the charming, boyishly handsome business mogul. Nichols, who is known for the CW’s Riverdale and appears in Lionsgate’s upcoming film Spiral,...

Film is a contemporary remake of 1970s French comedy The Toy by Francis Veber.

Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has boarded sales on director James Huth’s comedy The New Toy, co-starring Daniel Auteuil and Jamel Debbouze.

A remake of Francis Veber’s 1976 comedy The Toy, it revolves around a journalist who becomes the plaything of the son of his newspaper baron boss but uses the situation to open the young boy’s eyes to the fact that money can’t buy everything.

A 1982 US remake directed by Richard Donner and starring Richard Pryor as the journalist was a hit at the box office,...

Sony Pictures Intl. Productions has boarded “The New Toy,” a French comedy that will be directed by James Huth and will be headlined by Cesar award-winner Daniel Auteuil and popular French comedian Jamel Debbouze.

“The New Toy” is inspired by Francis Veber’s 1976 cult classic “The Toy,” which was previously remade in the U.S. by Richard Donner in 1982 with Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason in the leading roles.

Huth penned the adapted screenplay with Sonja Shillito. In the original film, a poor journalist finds himself as a toy of a boss’s son. Making friends with the naughty child, he tries to save him from the cruel power of his father.

“’The Toy’ was Francis Veber’s first film and it left a mark on me when it was released in theaters in 1976,” said the well-established French producer Richard Grandpierre, who is producing “The New Toy.”

“I have seen it dozens of times.

Paris prosecutors have announced that they are dropping their rape investigation into actor Gerard Depardieu.

They said Tuesday that there was not evidence to back up the allegations made by a young actress who accused Depardieu of assaulting her last August. “The several investigations conducted…didn’t yield proof of the offense,” the prosecutors said in a statement.

The 22-year-old woman, who was reportedly a student at a school where Depardieu was teaching, alleged that he raped her at his Paris home on two occasions, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 13, 2018, when she was there to rehearse for a play.

At the time, Depardieu’s lawyer, Hervé Témime, told French media that Depardieu was “shaken by this complaint” and strongly denied “any assault, rape, or any criminal act.”

Depardieu stars in Netflix’s French original “Marseille” and earned an Oscar nomination for his role in the 1990 film “Cyrano de Bergerac.” He also...

Sydney film festival’s opening-night feature is a riotous crowd pleaser driven by the energy of its utterly affable creators

It’s tantalising to ponder how a film about people who make a living as professional “breaker upperers” – paid by clients to end the relationship with their lovers – might have been handled by a great director of farce, such as Francis Veber or Preston Sturges, or a writer with a sharp and caustic wit, like Tina Fey.

In the hands of co-writers, directors and stars Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek – two charismatic and personable New Zealand comedians – the material is not so much witty as rambunctious; the sting of a potentially prickly concept dulled by their innocuous, play-to-the-back-rows approach.

Derbez will produce, Greenberg will write and Bob Fisher will direct the remake of the French comedy.

Eugenio Derbez is reuniting with the writer and director of recent box office success Overboard on a remake of French comedy The Valet (La doublure) for Lionsgate’s Pantelion Films.

Overboard writer Rob Greenberg and director Bob Fisher will jointly write and direct the remake, with Derbez and Ben Odell producing through their 3Pas Studios.

The original French comedy was written and directed by Francis Veber and grossed nearly $30m worldwide in 2006. It tells the story of a parking valet who pretends to...

Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, the writing duo behind Eugenio Derbez’s biggest film opening ever Overboard have been hired to write and direct a remake of the French comedy The Valet for Pantelion. Greenberg also directed Overboard which opened to $14.7M and has amassed $42M worldwide since releasing into theaters earlier this month. Derbez will star and produce with producing partner Ben Odell through their 3Pas Studios banner.

Overboard launched to Pantelion’s biggest opening weekend ever and the biggest opening for any comedy in any language in Mexico as well this past weekend.

The announcement of The Valet comes on the heels of 3Pas’ deal with Lionsgate to develop television series for Lionsgate’s Television Group and streaming platforms.

La doublure (translates to The Valet) is the remake of the 2006 French comedy from Francis Veber which is about a parking valet who is enlisted to become the beard...

Stars: Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Michel Galabru, Carmen Scarpitta, Remi Laurent | Written by Jean Poiret, Marcello Danon, Francis Veber, Edouard Molinaro | Directed by Edouard Molinaro

Modern audiences may be familiar with The Birdcage, the 1996 Us remake starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. That film’s success should not have been a surprise because two decades earlier Edouard Molinaro made this French-language breakout hit.

The mainstream press ignored it. The gay media saw it as offensive stereotyping. The public loved it. Is La Cage Aux Folles an Lgbtq cinematic landmark or an exercise in camp mockery? Perhaps it’s a bit of both. One moment you’re congratulating the film for its sophisticated and normalising depictions of gay existence, and the next you’re thrown another crass and tasteless bum joke.

The setting is St Tropez, and we open with a cut-price Scorsese tracking shot, taking us into the titular cabaret club.

Eric Barbier’s “Promise at Dawn” will headline the 2018 Colcoa French Film Festival on April 23, the Franco-American Cultural Fund announced Tuesday.

“Promise at Dawn” is an adaptation of French author Romain Gary’s autobiography that stars Pierre Niney and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The film will kick off the screenings of 37 new features and documentaries competing for the Colcoa Cinema Awards at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. The event will present a record total of 86 films, TV shows, digital series, and virtual reality programs, 75 of which will be considered for the Colcoa awards throughout the week’s festivities, which will culminate on May 1.

Colcoa executive producer and artistic director Francois Truffart also announced that this year’s festival will set aside a day exclusively for screening first films made by female writers and directors. The day, titled “Focus on a Filmmaker Day,” will honor writer, director, and actor Melanie...

After polling critics from around the world for the greatest American films of all-time, BBC has now forged ahead in the attempt to get a consensus on the best comedies of all-time. After polling 253 film critics, including 118 women and 135 men, from 52 countries and six continents a simple, the list of the 100 greatest is now here.

Featuring canonical classics such as Some Like It Hot, Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall, Duck Soup, Playtime, and more in the top 10, there’s some interesting observations looking at the rest of the list. Toni Erdmann is the most recent inclusion, while the highest Wes Anderson pick is The Royal Tenenbaums. There’s also a healthy dose of Chaplin and Lubitsch with four films each, and the recently departed Jerry Lewis has a pair of inclusions.

Check out the list below (and my ballot) and see more on their official site.

100. (tie) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese,...

City of Lights: City of Angeles. The largest French film festival in the world and one of the largest festivals in L.A.!

Colcoa French Film Festival, “9 Days of Premieres in Hollywood” takes place April 24 to May 2 in the prestigious theaters of the Directors Guild of America on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood (3 theaters (600, 160 and 37 seats), a 210 capacity lounge and a 1,500 capacity lobby).

Colcoa is the acronym of “City of Light, City of Angels” the original name of an event celebrating relationships between filmmakers from two capital cities of cinema. In 2015, the festival’s name was officially changed to Colcoa French Film Festival. Colcoa was founded in 1997 by The Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique collaborative effort of the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association, the Writers Guild of America West, and France’s Society of Authors Composers and Publishers of Music (Sacem). Colcoa is also supported by l’Association...

Mubi is showing The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1972) from November 17 - December 16, 2016 in the United States.There is deception throughout The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe. Sometimes, it’s deliberate; sometimes, it’s not. From the sleight of hand card trickery that plays out under its opening credits to its hilariously enacted case of intentionally-mistaken identity, the film is an increasing volley of duplicity and modified perception. But it’s more than just what happens in the film. This 1972 spy movie send-up is itself a cleverly crafted ruse, a straight-faced farce that incorporates most everything one associates the cinematic sub-genre and slyly points out the subtle silliness inherent in its recurrent conventions. Characters and the viewer will often see something and assume it to mean something—one is accustomed to always looking for clues and revealing “tells” in a movie like this—only to have...

Film Movement continues with its Classic series and delivers their next title in a continuing line-up of new Blu-ray presentations, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, a seminal French comedy of the period from director Yves Robert. A stylized paean to the comedic tradition of Jerry Lewis, this is straight-faced screwball comedy not quite as daring or inventive as the title’s sterling reputation promises (it did win the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival). Notable, especially considering the significant talent in front of and behind the camera, it’s a comedy classic of uncomplicated froth, though its ability to amuse now seems dwarfed by expectation.

Traveling violinist Francois (Pierre Richard) is misidentified as a superspy by France’s national intelligence. As a host of people desperately attempt to interpret Francois’ strange actions, everyone becomes more and more assured of his significant skills. Meanwhile, Francois is embroiled...

Two of director Philippe de Broca’s earliest renowned titles get new restorations and are available for the first time on Blu-ray, That Man From Rio (1964) and Up to His Ears (1965), the first two titles from a loose James Bond spoof trilogy featuring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Certainly ahead of his time, de Broca’s amusing adventure films are much more than the kind of lowbrow entertainment that would come to typify the genre known as spoof, and this became a notable inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones films, particularly 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Inspired by the adventures of Belgian cartoonist Herge’s Tintin adventures (which also provided the basis for a 2011 Steven Spielberg adaptation), a prized Amazonian statue is stolen from a Parisian museum. Three such statues left South American on an expedition that involved the late father of Agnes (Francoise Dorleac) and and two colleagues. Professor Catalan...

Looking for what's new on Netflix streaming for October 2014? You've come to the right place.

We've rounded up the best TV shows and movies arriving soon. So take some time to peruse this list, and maybe block off a weekend or two so you can binge-watch Season 5 of "The Vampire Diaries" or something.

Here's a much larger rundown of what subscribers can expect in September, courtesy of Netflix. All title dates are subject to change.

Available October 1

"Annie" (1982)

Based on the Depression-era comic strip "Little Orphan Annie," this adaptation of the smash Broadway musical follows America's favorite urchin (Aileen Quinn) as she captures Daddy Warbucks' (Albert Finney) heart with her unquenchable optimism. In the meantime, Annie must try to dodge the treacherous head of the orphanage (Carol Burnett). Directed by John Huston, Annie features the hit song "Tomorrow."

"Annie: A Royal Adventure" (1995)

Annie, the charming orphan with a head full of red curls,...

• Julia Roberts has joined fellow Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow and 12 Years A Slave nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor in the remake of the 2009 Argentinian film The Secret in Their Eyes. The original feature won the Best Foreign Language film Oscar in 2010. Billy Ray, who wrote the screenplay for The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips, will write and direct the story about a former Mi-5 agent (Ejiofor) on a joint task force with the FBI, who thinks he’s finally found the man who murdered the daughter of his former partner and friend (Roberts). [Deadline]

• Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette will star in the relationship drama Miss You Already.

‘La Cage aux Folles’ film: Edouard Molinaro international box office hit (photo: Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault in ‘La Cage aux Folles’) (See previous post: “‘La Cage aux Folles’ Director Edouard Molinaro Dead at 85.”) But Edouard Molinaro’s best-known effort — comedy or otherwise — remains La Cage aux Folles (approximate translation: "The Cage of the Queens"), which sold 5.4 million tickets when it came out in France in 1978. Perhaps because many saw it as a letdown when compared to Jean Poiret’s immensely popular 1973 play, Molinaro’s movie ended up nominated for a single César Award — for eventual Best Actor winner Michel Serrault. Somewhat surprisingly, in the next couple of years La Cage aux Folles would become a major hit in the United States and other countries. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the U.S. in 1979, the film grossed $20.42 million at the North American box office — or about $65 million in 2013 dollars, a remarkable sum for a subtitled release.

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 25, 2012

Price: DVD $24.95

Studio: Hen’s Tooth

Gerard Depardieu and Jean Reno are on the lam in Shut Up!

Jean Reno (Margaret) and Gerard Depardieu (Potiche) star in the 2003 French caper movie Shut Up!.

In the comedy, Quentin (Depardieu) is an amiable idiot who drives everyone crazy with his mindless, incessant chatter. After a botched hold-up, he’s thrown in a prison cell with Ruby (Reno), a hard-boiled thief who refuses to speak at all.

After the unlikely pair escape from jail together, Ruby is unable to shake the cumbersome but oddly helpful Quentin. But Quentin might be just the kind of person that Ruby needs when he finds himself pursued by his former gang and the police, both hoping to lay their hands on the 20 million Euros he has secretly stashed away.

Written and directed by Francis Veber (The Dinner Game), Shut Up! (or Tais-toi!

The music of upcoming comedy movie Bumboo was recently held at Big FM office in Mumbai. Along with singer Sunidhi Chauhan, music director Santosh Singh, lyricist Shadab Akhtar, director Jagdish Rajpurohit and the cast of the movie Sumit Kaul and Sharat Saxena were present.

Considered the first official remake of a French film, Jagdish clarified, “I don’t consider it a remake, I consider it an adaptation. The important thing is whether you can take something and mold it according to your thoughts into something entertaining.” Talking about the album he said,” (The album has) foot tapping music with high voltage energy in the spirit of the film Bumboo that lingers on long after the songs are heard.” Sumit Kaul, who is a popular TV artist and will be seen in a unique get-up in this movie, isn’t exactly new to comedy. “I enjoy comedy, he said, “ I was...

His debut directorial .Bumboo. is the remake of French hit .L.Emmerduer., yet it is sans big Bollywood stars. Budget constraints notwithstanding, Jagdish Rajpurohit says he would have made it with the same cast even if he had much more money because stars don.t guarantee returns..I have a great cast - Sharat Saxena, Sanjay Mishra, Sudhir Pandey.all of them may not be a part of the so-called list of commercial stars, but they are all popular and have done some wonderful work in their career,. Rajpurohit told Ians over phone from Mumbai.A veteran theatre actor himself, Rajpurohit says he has acted in the film to cut down on the cost of the small budget film. .Otherwise, if I was to be given the same script to be made with a lot more money, I would have made .Bumboo. with the same bunch of actors. They are spontaneous and wonderful.

Bumboo signifies 2 things- the Bamboo stick or a troubled situation. The upcoming movie ‘Bumboo’ under the Rcl Banner, is an adaptation of French classic L’Emmerduer written by Francis Veber (French writer & director with brilliant films like A Dinner Game (Indian version: Bheja Fry), Valet etc.

The makers of the movie have launched a new application on their official Facebook page called the ‘Wall of Bumboo’. This is an interactive application where the user can come and Bumboo (which is a virtual whack with a bamboo) the person they want to. Th ...

In the era of remakes where big budget blockbuster movies of one region or industry are remade in other language and style, Bollywood gives us another one which will hit the silver screen in March. Bumboo, the upcoming movie under Rcl Motion Pictures, is based on the original story L'emmerdeur by Francis Veber. L'emmerdeur is a French classic cult, which is a world renowned comic movie. The movie which has made the whole of Europe and other western countries laugh their lungs...

What is ‘Bumboo’? ‘Bumboo’ is a Hindi slang which signifies bad times. Bumboo is a story based on the idea, that in this life we all meet someone who comes and makes every situation miserable. Bumboo is adapted from the classic cult French comedy L’emmerdeur by Francis Veber.

The makers launched the official digital poster of the movie and the social media promotions. The movie is all set to release this year. L’emmerdeur is a cult movie which is watched and loved all over the world. Considering the original film’s success, we can imagine the laugh riot in Bumboo.

Bumboo stars Kavin Dave, Sharat Saxena, Sanjay Mishra, Sudhir Pandey, Sumit Kaul, Mandy Takhar. The movie is adapted by Jagdish Rajpurohit and Kavin Dave, Screenplay by Jagdish Rajpurohit and Kavin Dave, Produced by Rcl Motion Pictures and directed by Jagdish Rajpurohit.

Official Digital Poster Launch Of ‘Bumboo’ is...

Kenneth Branagh's returned to his native Belfast for a play that proves he can do slapstick and Shakespeare

The first thing Kenneth Branagh did when he returned to his home town of Belfast a fortnight ago was to visit his old house. It was a red-brick terrace on Mount Collier Road in a Protestant area of north Belfast, where Branagh had lived with his parents and his older brother, Bill, until he was nine years old and the family left for a new life in England.

Now, 41 years later, Branagh can still remember the streets of his childhood, the way he used to walk to school and the fact that everyone knew his name. "When you were being called in for your tea, if you couldn't see your mother, the yell from the doorstep would come to you jungle-drums fashion," he says. "Someone two streets away would tell you...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

Sorry, folks… there are simply too many great films streaming this week to post an image for them all, but that’s a good thing, eh? You’ve got your movie watching work cut out for you, due in great part to Miramax releasing damn near their entire catalog of films on one day!

B. Monkey (1999)

Streaming Available: 05/01/2011

Director: Michael Radford

Synopsis: Good-hearted schoolteacher Alan Furnace (Jared Harris) desperately wants some excitement in his life — and he may just get some. One lonely night at a London bar, Alan spies the raven-haired beauty Beatrice (Asia Argento) arguing with two friends, Paul (Rupert Everett) and Bruno (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Beatrice quickly befriends Alan and...

Thor director Kenneth Branagh is taking a break from movies to star in a play in his Northern Ireland hometown.

The British thespian stepped behind the camera last year to direct the upcoming superhero blockbuster, but he's now returning to his dramatic roots by taking on a role in French farce The Painkiller by Francis Veber.

Branagh, who was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, will head home to appear at the city's Lyric Theatre from 23 September until 16 October.

He will appear alongside Welsh TV star Rob Brydon, according to Variety.

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Bitter Feast"

Directed by Joe Maggio

Released by Mpi Home Video

When a food critic ("Humpday"'s Justin Leonard) takes a butcher knife to the restaurant of a celebrity chef (James LeGros), the chef plots the ultimate revenge in this gory satirical thriller from director Joe Maggio. (My review from the Los Angeles Film Festival is here.)

"Case 39"

Directed by Christian Alvart

Released by Paramount

2010 is probably a year best forgotten by Renee Zellweger, who not only appeared in the execrable "My Own Love Song," which went straight to Netflix, but also this thriller that was filmed in 2006, but didn't see a release until last fall. Zellweger stars as a social worker whose latest case involving a child (Jodelle Ferland) that she believes is a victim of abuse leads to something far more terrifying. Bradley Cooper and Ian McShane co-star.

"Catfish...

With the big waves she makes in Hollywood, Kristen Shaal is certainly no schmuck. Her credits include stints on "How I Met Your Mother," "Mad Men," and "Bob's Burgers," and she's the voice you've most certainly heard in box office hits "Shrek Forever After" and "Toy Story 3." Certain to be a favorite guest at any dinner table, the funny woman stars in "Dinner For Schmucks," opposite Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, out on DVD and Blu-ray today.

Schaal plays Susana, the office assistant to Paul Rudd's character Tim who insists that he do what it takes for the two of them to land promotions within their company. Tim is coerced into participating in a mean-spirited contest among his coworkers in which each invitee must bring a person he considers the biggest dunce at the party, to put it mildly. The film is a reworking of the 1998 French comedy "The Dinner Game,...

A horror film starring two unknowns is this week's runaway success as Toy Story 3 climbs to second in the all-time charts

The winner

The Hollywood star system took another beating at the weekend as A-listers Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell lost out to The Last Exorcism, starring relative unknowns Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell. The well-reviewed horror flick opened at number one at the UK box-office with £1.10m – behind the pace of its Us debut ($20.4m) but still a great result for a non-franchise low-budget genre picture, and the biggest ever three-day opening for the film's local distributor, Optimum Releasing.

Typically for the horror genre, The Last Exorcism was driven by concept rather than talent, produced for a well-informed audience that tends to actively engage with new releases rather than waiting to be courted by marketers. The title has a long way to go to match last year's breakout hit,...

The Bheja Fry director Sagar Ballary is ready with three films, to be released one after the other in the next one year. Bheja Fry 2 is the one that is being most talked-about. Cutting down the controversy over the casting Ballary, currently shooting with director Madhur Bhandarkar for Hum Tum Aur Shabana says Rajat Kapoor was never meant to star in the sequel to Bheja Fry. "As in any ongoing series, only the character of the hero namely Bharat Bhushan played by Vinay Pathak would remain constant. All the rest of the characters, including Rajat Kapoor changes every time," explains Sagar. Sagar says the rumour about Rajat Kapoor opting out was spread by an actor who was sacked from Bheja Fry 2. "That actor thought that by spreading rumours about Rajat, she was covering her own tracks. I'm very happy to say Bheja Fry 2, as too my other two new films...

The latest Hollywood remake of a brief, moderately inventive French comedy transposes Francis Veber's Le Dîner de cons (1998) from Paris to Los Angeles. In the original, publisher Thierry Lhermitte gets into all kinds of trouble when he conspires to bring a dim, bald, accident-prone accountant (Jacques Villeret) to a club of supercilious sophisticates who compete to bring the most stupid guest to a monthly dinner party. In the French version the guest makes matchstick versions of the Eiffel Tower; in the remake he stuffs dead mice to construct bizarre tableaux of everything from The Last Supper to Munch's The Scream. Roach's crude, tasteless, unfunny movie is even worse than his Meet the Fockers, and sets back the cause of healthy bad taste by a decade.

ComedyDramaSteve CarellPhilip French

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A Hollwyood remake of a French film about a sadistic dinner party game becomes a crass comedy that completely blows Steve Carell's funnyman credibility, says Peter Bradshaw

Steve Carell's comedy stock-price takes a terrible knock with this buttock-clenchingly bad film, a deeply unfunny pseudo-French farce and a remake of Francis Veber's 1998 black comedy Le Dîner de Cons, or The Dinner Game. That was about a sadistic parlour game practised by a group of sneery metropolitan sophisticates. Each would invite the biggest idiot he could find to a regular formal dinner; the dopes would be mocked behind their back and a prize (secretly) awarded to the most egregious loser. I remember very much enjoying the original, but maybe distance now lends something other than enchantment to the view. Perhaps Veber's original has been trashed – or perhaps this crass movie has, disturbingly, located something crass in the source material itself.

Steve Carell deepens his comic repertoire in an enjoyable remake...

A reworking of Francis Veber's original French tale Le Diner de Cons, Dinner for Schmucks follows Tim Conrad (Paul Rudd), an ambitious analyst at a private equity firm, as he closes in on the opportunity to move up the corporate ranks. However, before he is given the promotion he so desperately wants, he must participate in a monthly dinner that is run by his boss, Lance Fender (Bruce Greenwood). Fender explains to Tim that he must accompany a guest to the dinner, one of an extraordinary nature whose talents are somewhat quirky and peculiar. In other words, Tim must bring a guest whose charming traits and uncharacteristic personality make them an “idiot”; moreover, someone whose simple nature makes them unaware of the barrage of contemptuous laughter aimed at them. At the same time, Tim remains equally persistent in getting...

Aamir Khan's home production Peepli Live will vie for audience attention at the box office alongwith Hollywood releases Dinner For Schmucks and Grown Ups this week.While Aamir's film is a satire on the rural-urban divide in India, director Jay Roach's film is inspired by French play The Dinner Game by Francis Veber. The Dinner Game was also the inspiration behind Bollywood hit Bheja Fry starring Vinay Pathak and Rajat Kapoor.Roach says his film is about a group of rich stockbrokers, who search eccentric characters with unique talents, to be entertained by them over dinner."Find a ...