George Lucas talks of retirement, making "hobby" films

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - 'Phantom Menace' haters won't have George Lucas to kick around anymore.

The man who captivated generations of youngsters with his 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones' films - only to see many of those same fans revolt after he returned to those franchises in recent years with critically derided new installments - is hanging it up.

Lucas tells Empire Magazine this month that he is retiring to make more personal 'hobby' movies.

'I've always wanted to make movies that were more experimental in nature, and not have to worry about them showing in movie theaters,' Lucas said.

He implies that he will also be less active in LucasFilm, the special effects and production company he founded.

'I'm moving away from the company, I'm moving away from all my businesses, I'm finishing all my obligations and I'm going to retire to my garage with my saw and hammer and build hobby movies,' Lucas said.

It is not the first time that Lucas has hinted publicly that he is ready to step away from the commercial filmmaking that forms the spine of his career.

While promoting his World War II aviation drama 'Red Tails' last winter, Lucas told The New York Times that he was finished with 'Star Wars.'

'Why would I make any more, when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?' Lucas said.

He did hold out some hope for his admirers, saying he might be persuaded to make another 'Indiana Jones' film.

If that doesn't come to pass and if Lucas ever gets bored with his garage, he can always join fellow filmmaking retiree Steven Soderbergh for bingo.



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Anne Hathaway sings in "Les Miserables" trailer

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Man the barricades, musical fans - 'Les Miserables' is coming to the big screen.

Universal offered the first look at the film adaptation of the Tony-winning stage triumph. From the look of things, director Tom Hooper has done a meticulous job of capturing the grit and grime of 19th-century France. 'Chicago' it decidedly is not.

It also sounds like Susan Boyle may need to find a new signature song. The preview for the movie musical is set to Anne Hathaway performing her own pared-down rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream,' the anthem that launched Boyle's career.

At a preview for theater owners at CinemaCon last April, Universal Pictures Chairman Adam Fogelson said that Hooper hoped to capture most of the singing on set, instead of having his actors record their songs in a studio after the fact. He hinted that had happened with Hathaway's rendition.

In addition to showcasing Hathaway's vocals, the teaser includes quick glimpses of stars Hugh Jackman, playing Jean Valjean as both convict and reformed businessman; Russell Crowe as the vengeful Inspector Javert; Amanda Seyfried as a luminous looking Cosette; and Eddie Redmayne as Marius.

However, there's no hint of what Sacha Baron Cohen has planned for his role as the scene-stealing innkeeper Thénardier.

What do you think - can the movie live up to the Broadway show? See the trailer at http://thewrap.com/movies/column-post/les-miserables-preview-debuts-anne-hathaway-singing-41961.



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Mel Brooks, David Lynch to get honorary degrees

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Legendary comedian Mel Brooks and iconic filmmaker David Lynch will receive honorary degrees from the American Film Institute, the organization announced on Tuesday.

Brooks and Lynch will receive doctorates of fine arts degrees for 'contribution of distinction to the art of the moving image' during the AFI Conservatory commencement at Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theatre on June 13.

Previous recipients of the AFI Honorary Degree include Robert Altman, Maya Angelou, Clint Eastwood, Roger Ebert, James Earl Jones, Nora Ephron, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kathleen Kennedy, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, Helen Mirren, Haskell Wexler and John Williams.



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Tom Cruise thriller changes title to "Jack Reacher"

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Paramount has renamed Tom Cruise's next film, opting for 'Jack Reacher' in place of 'One Shot.'

Reacher is the name of Cruise's character, who is the protagonist in a series of novels by Lee Child. The title change suggests the studio may see franchise potential.

This particular movie is based on Child's 'One Shot,' hence the initial cinematic title.

Cruise's Reacher is an ex-service member who must unravel the mystery of a sniper who stands accused of killing five people. The project also stars Richard Jenkins, Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall and director Werner Herzog.

Paramount had already moved up the film from a February release to its current December 21 slot.



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Popular winner in Cannes, U.S. films the big losers

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Critics lauded the Cannes film festival jury on Monday for awarding director Michael Haneke's 'Love' (Amour) the coveted Palme d'Or for best picture, justifying its status as favorite going into Sunday night's awards ceremony.

The Austrian has now won the top prize at the world's biggest cinema showcase twice, joining a small elite of multiple winners and cementing his place as a master of film making.

Slow and understated, Love's portrayal of an elderly French couple facing the last stages of life had audiences in tears and critics rushing off to write five-star reviews virtually across the board.

Its victory was particularly welcome in France, with the stars of the movie, both in their 80s, highly respected names in French cinema.

'The names of Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant ... will play in the public eye like a French victory,' said Le Parisien newspaper.

Conspicuous in their absence from the awards ceremony that wrapped up the 12-day festival on the French Riviera were U.S. productions, five of which made it into the main competition of 22 entries.

Not even the acting talent of A-listers Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt, alongside hot emerging Hollywood names like Jessica Chastain, Tom Hardy and Zac Efron, was enough to win over the judges led by Italian director Nanni Moretti.

Turn the clock back a year, and U.S. director Terrence Malick was winning the Palme d'Or for 'The Tree of Life' and Kirsten Dunst scooped the actress award for her role in Lars Von Trier's apocalyptic epic 'Melancholia'.

'FEELING LET DOWN'

Cannes critics were cool towards most U.S. productions, although New Zealand-born Andrew Dominik's 'Killing Them Softly', starring Pitt as a mob enforcer in a recession-hit U.S. city, was reasonably popular.

'None set the town on fire and clearly can't count upon widespread critical support down the line,' said The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy, in reaction to the awards.

'The feeling of letdown about these films running from vague to severe created the feeling of a mixed-bag festival.'

What the strong North American presence did do, however, was put stars on the red carpet, a key ingredient to success at a film festival which thrives not only on high-brow cinema but also on glamour, fame and celebrity buzz.

The other big loser on the night was French-born director Leos Carax's 'Holy Motors', an audacious and surreal film about a man, played by Denis Lavant, who adopts 10 alternative lives in a single day.

Featuring Kylie Minogue and Eva Mendes in cameo roles, as well as a character who is married to a monkey, an aroused man-monster and stretch limousines which talk at night, the movie was the main talking point of the festival as it sharply divided opinion.

In addition to Haneke, two other former Cannes winners were awarded -- Briton Ken Loach won third prize for Scottish comedy caper 'The Angels' Share' and Romanian Cristian Mungiu won best screenplay for exorcism drama 'Beyond the Hills'.

The movie's two young stars, Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, were surprise dual winners of the actress prize, while Danish star Mads Mikkelsen scooped the best actor prize for his portrayal of a man wrongly accused of child abuse in the harrowing drama 'The Hunt'.

Mexico's Carlos Reygadas won the best director category for 'Post Tenebras Lux', a dreamlike exploration of the undercurrent of menace within Mexican society today.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Haneke's "Love" wins to cheers at Cannes film festival

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Austrian director Michael Haneke won the Cannes film festival's top honor, the Palme d'Or, on Sunday with 'Love' (Amour), his acclaimed tale of an elderly couple facing the inescapable, yet no less tragic march of death.

Haneke joins an elite group of two-time winners at the world's biggest film festival after his 'The White Ribbon' won in 2009.

The simple yet moving tale set almost entirely inside a Paris apartment left audiences in tears in Cannes, and it will prove a popular winner for a director considered one of the greatest working in Europe today.

Love also won plaudits for its two main actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, who are both in their 80s.

'A very, very big thanks to my actors who have made this film. It's their film. They are the essence of this film,' Haneke told a packed audience at the closing ceremony after being applauded and cheered.

Critics were almost unanimous in their praise for Love.

'Whatever his message, the spell of this incandescent film will be an elevating memory,' Mary Corliss wrote in Time Magazine. 'In the history of movies about love, Amour lasts forever.'

The glamorous red carpet awards, held amid thunder, lightning and pouring rain on the French Riviera, brought to an end a 12-day blur of screenings, photo shoots, parties and deal making.

'It's raining a little bit,' deadpanned 'The Artist' actor Jean Dujardin, wiping his soaking forehead as he entered the theatre after signing autographs.

The Grand Prix runner-up prize was awarded to 'Reality', Matteo Garrone's examination of society's obsession with celebrity and reality television.

British director Ken Loach won the Jury Prize, or third prize, for his charming Scottish whisky caper 'The Angels' Share'.

Mexico's Carlos Reygadas won the best director award for 'Post Tenebras Lux', a dreamlike exploration of the undercurrent of menace within Mexican society today.

Romania's Cristian Mungiu picked up the screenplay honor for 'Beyond the Hills' about a real-life exorcism gone wrong, and his two young stars, Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, shared the best actress award.

Danish star Mads Mikkelsen was a popular winner of the best actor prize for his portrayal of a man wrongly accused of child abuse in the harrowing drama 'The Hunt'.

On the sodden red carpet leading into the Grand Theatre Lumiere theatre, the cast and crew of 'Therese Desqueyroux' braved the rain for the world premiere of this year's closing film.

Annie Miller, the wife of the late director Claude Miller who was finishing the film when he died, was in floods of tears as she walked up the stairs and turned to face the ranks of photographers and cameramen.

The stars came out in force in Cannes this year, underlining the festival's ability to attract big names as well as showcase low-budget movies that otherwise might struggle to find an audience.



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Past winners lead the pack for Cannes film award

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The 2012 Cannes film festival ends on Sunday evening with the award of the Palme d'Or for best picture at a red carpet gala ceremony, the climax of a 12-day blur of screenings, photo shoots, parties and deal making.

As thousands of journalists, critics, executives and stars head home and luxury yachts weigh anchor for their next port of call, the big question is who will walk away with one of the most coveted film prizes after the Oscars.

Two previous winning directors are favorites, although up to half of the 22 entries in the main competition in Cannes this year have been named as potential victors.

Austria's Michael Haneke wowed Cannes yet again this year with 'Amour' (Love), a stately tale of death and what it means for an elderly couple living in a Parisian apartment.

Set almost entirely in a single building, Haneke is typically unflinching in his film making, and the result had audiences in Cannes moved to tears.

'Whatever his message, the spell of this incandescent film will be an elevating memory,' wrote Mary Corliss in Time Magazine. 'In the history of movies about love, Amour lasts forever.'

The two leading actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, are both in their 80s, and their memorable performances underlined a year in which the actors, particularly male, have universally impressed.

The other former winner in the leading pack for the Palme d'Or is Romania's Cristian Mungiu, whose 'Beyond the Hills' is another austere tale of a couple's tragedy, this time two young women living together in a remote convent.

Based on the real-life story of an exorcism gone wrong, it explores the clash between spiritual and worldly love and how even the most well-meaning act can go horribly awry.

ANYONE'S GUESS

Jacques Audiard would be a popular home winner with 'Rust & Bone' starring Marion Cotillard, while French-born Leos Carax presented easily the most bizarre of this year's competition entries, the surreal, madcap 'Holy Motors'.

'Killing Them Softly', a modern-day gangster tale starring Brad Pitt, was one of five U.S. productions in competition and won warm plaudits from critics, as did 'Mud' by Jeff Nichols.

Thomas Vinterberg's Danish child abuse story 'The Hunt' packed a real punch, while Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa impressed with his World War Two drama 'In the Fog'.

Two comedies lightened the often somber mood among audiences on the Croisette waterfront - Ken Loach's Scottish whisky caper 'The Angels' Share' and Wes Anderson's childhood fantasy 'Moonrise Kingdom.'

Arguably the hardest category for the jury to decide will be best actor, with a string of acclaimed performances.

Foremost among them was Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt, Matthias Schoenaerts in Rust & Bone, Trintignant in Love, Denis Lavant in Holy Motors and Aniello Arena in Italian entry Reality.

Should he win, Arena would not be able to walk up the fabled red carpet stairs to accept his prize because he is serving a lengthy prison service, having been allowed out on day release to shoot the movie.

The stars were out in force this year, underlining Cannes' power to attract big names as well as showcase low-budget movies that otherwise might struggle to find an audience.

On Saturday, Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey were on the red carpet for the world premiere of 'Mud', and before them this festival came Pitt, Kylie Minogue, Bruce Willis, Nicole Kidman and 'Twilight' stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

Outside the official festival, rapper Kanye West and Kim Kardashian showed up to promote his short film, Sean Penn hosted a glitzy gala to raise money for Haiti and Harvey Weinstein entertained the stars at the exclusive amfAR AIDS charity bash.

On the giant market that is a key part of Cannes, business was described by specialist Hollywood publications as solid, although not as strong as 2011.

Cannes' Middle East films show Arab Spring unfurl

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The 'Arab Spring' is the focus of two movies at Cannes this year as film makers present tentative steps towards democracy on the big screen, one year after political upheaval in Libya and Egypt.

While both films deal with contemporary events in the Middle East, 'The Oath of Tobruk' ('Le Serment de Tobrouk') is a French-language documentary about the Libyan war with a highly subjective slant.

'After the Battle' ('Baad el Mawkeaa') is a fictional account of the uprising in Cairo from Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah.

At the centre of The Oath of Tobruk - which is not included in the official competition in Cannes - is Bernard-Henri Levy, a prominent French left-wing intellectual, who is co-director, narrator and central subject.

The film follows him meeting rebel leaders and convincing former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to take the lead in the West's response to the crisis, which resulted in Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow last year.

'It's a film that tells how the international community ... can reverse the course of things, stop a massacre and save a population,' Levy told a news conference on Saturday, accompanied by several Libyan representatives.

Levy always appears camera-ready in his film, wearing a crisp suit as he walks through rubble, and we see him being cheered at rallies, greeted by politicians (one of whom likens Levy to the French Enlightenment writer and philosopher Voltaire) and interviewed on TV.

We hear little from the rebel leaders themselves and nothing from the local population.

'Those with a cynical turn of mind might be tempted to rename it (the film) 'How I Ran the Libyan Revolution',' wrote British newspaper the Guardian.

At Saturday's press conference - which prompted complaints because it was held before reporters had viewed the film - Levy was accompanied by two men, their faces covered by the Syrian flag, whom he introduced as dissidents who had slipped out of Syria to attend the film festival.

Given the continued bloodshed there, Levy said his documentary should be viewed with a double focus - that of a 'war won and one of a tragedy in process'.

'The Benghazi of today is called Homs,' he said.

LOVE LETTER TO EGYPTIANS

The messy clash between classes, and between the individual and society, is the subject of Nasrallah's film, set against the backdrop of the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

'Every day something new happened,' director Nasrallah told reporters, describing last year's revolution.

'All our energy, thoughts, and emotions were focused on these events and I thought, 'This is the stuff of a film. This is what film is made of'.'

In the movie, the drop in tourism with the outbreak of the popular revolution has left horseman Mahmoud (Bassem Samra) out of work.

Manipulated by President Hosni Mubarak's forces, he and other horsemen terrorize protestors by riding at full speed through Tahrir Square in a brazen act of intimidation, a real-life incident that occurred in February 2011.

The film centers on the unlikely relationship between Mahmoud and a secular divorcee, Reem, played by Menna Shalaby, who crosses paths with him.

'The revolution is for you, so they stop paying you crumbs,' Reem implores Mahmoud, who struggles to understand how the demonstrators can help improve his lot in life.

Nasrallah - who said his cast and crew were harassed while filming at Tahrir Square at the height of the demonstrations - called After the Battle a love letter to his country.

'If I made this film, it's because Egypt and the Egyptian people - who aren't yet used to democracy, who are making their first steps to recover their dignity, because a dictatorship makes you hate yourself - these people deserve this love letter that we wrote for them with this film.'

After the Battle is one of 22 films vying for the top prize at Cannes, the Palme d'Or, to be awarded on Sunday.

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage; Editing by Sophie Hares)



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"Cosmopolis" brings star Pattinson to Cannes

CANNES, France (Reuters) - 'Twilight' star Robert Pattinson is a ruthless billionaire on a journey to self-destruction in Canadian director David Cronenberg's 'Cosmopolis', a searing attack on greed and capitalism launching at the Cannes film festival.

In the movie based on a Don DeLillo novel of the same name, capitalism is corrupting, characters cannot communicate, and people joke that rats could be the new currency. The film is competing for the festival's top prize to be awarded on Sunday.

The slick but stilted critique of the financial industry managed to capture the zeitgeist that erupted last year with the Occupy Wall Street movement, protests in Manhattan that occurred even as the film was being shot, Cronenberg said.

'We didn't think we were making ... a prophecy, when we started making the movie, but suddenly that was the case,' Cronenberg told reporters. 'For some reason our movie is capturing the moment. It became a documentary instead of a fiction film.'

Heartthrob Pattinson plays high finance wonderkid Eric Packer, obsessed with the idea of crossing New York during heavy traffic and roadblocks to get a haircut.

It is never clear why the perfectly groomed lead actor wants a haircut, but along the circuitous route across town in his white stretch limo he appears in every scene of the movie -- usually sitting in a throne-like black leather seat.

'You need someone that people want to watch and he was brave enough to play a character who is not really sympathetic,' Cronenberg said. 'Some actors don't want to play that. And he was not afraid.'

Pattinson told reporters he was initially intimidated by the prospect of working on the film, acknowledging that 'I can't explain what the movie is about.'

'I kind of spent two weeks in my hotel room worrying and confusing myself,' he confessed.

SENSE OF MENACE

Cronenberg's dialogue - which he adapted from the novel in six days - is close to DeLillo's text, with its enigmatic non-conversations whose subjects range from the devaluation of the yuan to asymmetrical prostates.

'I've had a long day,' Pattinson tells the man (Benno Levin, played by Paul Giamatti) who is trying to assassinate him at the end of the film. 'Time for some philosophical pause.'

Cronenberg - who is known for dark films like 'The Fly' and 'Crash' - creates a sense of menace in 'Cosmopolis' as threats to the president and anxiety over unsecured networks pervade the relative security and quiet of Packer's white limousine.

'The situation is not stable,' warns Packer's bodyguard before they drive through the anarchy of Times Square, where enraged demonstrators carry inflated rats and spray paint the limo.

Even the characters' bodies begin to feel the effects of the corrupting world around them.

'My prostate is asymmetrical,' Levin confesses.

'So is mine,' replies Packer, who earlier in the film discussed currency valuations with a colleague in his limo while undergoing a prostrate exam.

'What does it mean?'

Reaction to the film from the Cannes audience was mixed, with bloggers and critics taking to Twitter to offer their initial reactions.

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian called it 'stilted, self-important and fantastically shallow', whereas a colleague on the same newspaper, Xan Brooks disagreed, describing Cosmopolis as a 'film of cool, diamond brilliance.'

For a look at the Cannes lineup click here: http://link.reuters.com/vav28s

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Universal Studios unleashes "Transformers: The Ride"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Universal Studios Hollywood on Thursday unveiled its newest attraction, 'Transformers: The Ride-3D,' based on the blockbuster films and toys that the theme park's operators called their best ride yet.

The ride, which opens to the public on May 25 as the United States kicks off its summer holiday season, takes people by car through a futuristic city under siege by evil and immersed in combat between heroic shape-shifting characters, the Autobots, and their nemeses, the Decepticons.

Rather than serve as witness to the conflict, guests are made to feel like characters in the battle, enlisted alongside the Autobots to save the world.

'We think this is the best ride that we've ever created,' Steve Burke, President & CEO of NBCUniversal told Reuters. 'It's got a lot of different aspects to it that you literally couldn't do as recently as ten years ago.'

Built across 2,000 feet of track on a 60,000 sq. ft. stage in a 60-ft. high building, the ride was created to revolutionize the amusement park experience through motion-based flight simulation.

Autobots and Decepticons battle all around the cars as sensory stimulators unleash the heat of explosions, spit of the robots and quake of gears and exploding bombs.

The attraction also features the original voice work of actors Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who voiced the robotic characters in three hit 'Transformers' movies that took in over $2.6 billion, combined, at worldwide box offices.

'We're about guest experience, we want people to keep coming back,' said Ron Meyer, President & COO of Universal Studios. 'A ride like this, which is so extraordinary, just invites people to return because they will be more than thrilled that they did it, and will keep coming back to experience it again.'

In addition to the ride, Universal Studios Hollywood is launching Energon, a Transformers-inspired energy drink to be sold at military-themed kiosks at the park.

(Editing By Bob Tourtellotte)



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Kidman "oversexed Barbie Doll" in gritty Cannes film

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Nicole Kidman plays an 'oversexed Barbie doll' in the hard-hitting murder drama 'The Paperboy', premiering at the Cannes film festival on Thursday and notable for arresting scenes of sex, violence and urination.

In the adaptation of a Pete Dexter novel, the Australian Oscar winner plays trailer-trash bombshell Charlotte Bless, who is obsessed with a man on death row with whom she exchanges letters.

She is drawn into a newspaper investigation into the prisoner, who may have been wrongfully convicted, triggering a frantic series of sexual encounters, humorous exchanges and a dangerous game of violence and death in the Florida swamps.

Two scenes in particular had critics and reporters chattering in Cannes after a press screening.

In one Bless urinates on Zac Efron's character Jack after he is badly stung by jellyfish in the sea, while the second is a bizarre and unflinching portrayal of a sex scene set in a prison visiting room that involves no physical contact at all.

Kidman, in a figure-hugging vermilion dress for her Cannes photo call, was asked at a press conference whether she found shooting the scenes embarrassing:

'Strangely no, because I think I had to step into a place to play the character where I didn't step out of it and look at myself, so it wasn't hard to shoot.

'This is what (director) Lee (Daniels) brought out of me and so it didn't feel uncomfortable at the time,' Kidman added.

'I have not seen the movie, so I may be uncomfortable watching the movie, but that's my job. It's my job to give over to something, not to censor it, not to put my own judgments in terms of how I feel as Nicole playing the character.'

ALL-STAR CAST

Directed by 'Precious' film maker Daniels, The Paperboy also stars Matthew McConaughey as tenacious but conflicted reporter Ward, Efron as his younger brother Jack, singer Macy Gray as housemaid Anita and John Cusack as the imprisoned Hillary.

Set in the 1960s, the plot plays out against a background of racism and homophobia, and U.S. film maker Daniels said the story was based on first-hand experience -- his brother spent time in jail and he was shunned as a gay black man.

'I can't tell you how many men that I've been with in the 80s, that were white, and the 90s, that I could be intimate with and publicly would shun me.

''No, I will not be seen with you, black man.' I knew them. And they hate themselves for it. I know that guy. So all these people (in the film) are people that live in my head and in my world and in my existence.'

Kidman, 44, said she found some of her most rewarding roles in lower-budget, independently produced movies, and did not want to be 'pigeon-holed' into playing certain parts.

'I'm willing to fail because of that. I just want to be able to try. Because it's exciting to put your toe into different places of the world and that's what still keeps me working at this age.'

The 'Moulin Rouge!' and 'The Hours' star did her own hair and makeup for the part of Charlotte, due to budget constraints.

'I got out the fake tan and I put on lashes that were old and I ... got out a hair piece thing and it was platinum and I sort of threw it all on, I took a photo and I texted it to Lee, kind of all different provocative positions.

'That was how it started to come together, because what he sent back, which I cannot say, but it was like 'thumbs up'.'

Efron, best known as a teen idol in lighter fare like the 'High School Musical' series, spends much of the film in only his underwear in a character that Daniels said was deliberately eroticized.

'He's good-looking and the camera can't help but love him...and I'm gay, so what do you want?' Daniels said.

For a graphic of the Cannes film festival click here: http://link.reuters.com/vav28s

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)



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With kids, career, no time to direct, says Brad Pitt

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Brad Pitt, in Cannes to promote his latest movie 'Killing Them Softly', has no intention of following fiancee Angelina Jolie into directing, he told Reuters on Wednesday.

The 48-year-old, one of Hollywood's biggest stars, hit the red carpet at the film's world premiere on Tuesday, drawing noisy crowds and the world's media to the glitzy ceremony.

As well as playing mob enforcer Jackie Cogan in the violent but darkly comic gangster movie, Pitt was one of its main producers, a side of the business he has become increasingly involved in over the last six years.

Asked whether he might add directing to his career in movies, he replied: 'No, not a chance.

'It makes sense on some level, but I really enjoy being a creative producer and I enjoy my day job,' he said at the Carlton Hotel on the main Cannes waterfront overlooking the beach and luxury yachts moored offshore.

'It's enough for me. I want to also be a dad, first and foremost. After two days it gets itchy, I miss them. I just know how I'd be, I see how much time it takes to mount the thing and put it together. It wouldn't be a good match.'

Last year Jolie, with whom Pitt has six children, directed her first feature 'In the Land of Blood and Honey', a hard-hitting drama set in the Bosnian war.

'Killing Them Softly' was directed by New Zealand-born Andrew Dominik, the second collaboration between him and Pitt after they made 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' together in 2007.

GOOD REVIEWS, POISONED POLITICS

Set against the U.S. presidential election in 2008, and the economic crisis during which it was held, the movie is featured in the main competition at the Cannes film festival and has generally impressed critics.

'Here it's artistic merit first and less about an opening weekend,' Pitt said, explaining why he thought a launch in Cannes was important for the film.

'They have such respect for the auteur, and you know it's going to get a really respectful viewing.'

As well as telling the story of gang violence after a poker game is hijacked, Dominik's third feature paints a bleak picture of the U.S. economic and political landscape.

Pitt said he did not see much hope of improvement in the political climate, which he has described as 'toxic,' amid the current presidential election year.

'It's such a divide, such a rift, that I don't see any positive outcome,' he told Reuters. 'And I don't know of anything that's going to bring the two parties together to work together.'

The Oscar-nominated actor said he was glad to put something back into New Orleans, where the film was shot, after it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and subsequently hit by the financial crisis.

'They have a great film infrastructure now and there's amazing rebates for movies to get made ... to help recover from an economic disaster,' Pitt said.

'It feels good to bring a film there because you know it's supporting the city, it's a big influx of cash when a movie comes to town. You're giving people jobs and it's a really good feeling. I'm very connected to that place.'

Dominik, speaking during a joint interview with Pitt, said he felt intimidated being in competition in Cannes with some of the filmmakers he most admired, including Austria's Michael Haneke who is presenting 'Amour'.

'The night before (Tuesday's premiere) I kind of felt terrified and I think about midday yesterday I started to realize that it had gone over and I started to feel relieved.'

For a look at Cannes 2012 lineup, click here: http://link.reuters.com/vav28s

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)



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Kerouac's "On the Road" hits screen in Cannes debut

CANNES (Reuters) - The Bible of the Beat Generation, 'On the Road' premiered at Cannes on Wednesday, taking more than five decades for the frenetic tale of liberation, masculinity and post-War America to play out its journey from novel to the big screen.

Furiously written on a typewriter over a three-week long creative binge in 1951, Jack Kerouac's On the Road is the seminal portrayal of 'Beat' culture and its spiritual quest for expression.

The film version from Brazilian director Walter Salles ('Motorcycle Diaries') strives to capture the energy and drug-fuelled stream of consciousness of the original book.

Salles is helped by the casting of British actor Sam Riley as protagonist Sal Paradise, a stand-in for Kerouac himself, and U.S. actor Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty, a symbol of American virility and poster child for living in the moment.

'The only people who interest me are the mad ones,' Paradise writes, and Moriarty fits the bill. The charming, adventurous con man becomes Paradise's alter ego, and their closely bonded friendship plays out across a series of road trips.

'It's about the loss of innocence, it's about the search for that last frontier they'll never find,' Salles told reporters in Cannes. 'It's about also discovering that this is the end of the road and the end of the American dream.'

Kristen Stewart of 'Twilight' fame plays Moriarty's young wife Marylou, Kirsten Dunst plays second wife Camille and Viggo Mortensen takes a turn as Old Bull Lee, who is based on William Burroughs.

Salles said he and the team had 'enormous respect for Kerouac' which helped drive the process from the time Francis Ford Coppola bought the film rights to the book in 1979.

The idea of making On the Road into a movie languished 'until Walter raised his hand and said I think I can make this movie,' said Coppola's son, Roman, who is a co-producer. 'It took 30 years but it was such a natural fit with Walter.'

Most early reviews were negative.

'It feels long and tedious, as if we've dropped in on someone else's party without knowing or caring who these folks are, knocking back the whisky and barbiturates as regularly as they're knocking off each other,' wrote London magazine Time Out's Dave Calhoun.

British newspaper The Telegraph called the film a 'tedious loop of beatnik debauchery' while the Evening Standard said it 'seems to lack the mad passion of Jack Kerouac's ferocious and extraordinary writing.'

ROAD MOVIE

Drugs, sex and jazz are central to On the Road, as the lead characters' quest for freedom of body and mind take them to black jazz clubs, flop houses, migrant camps and rail depots.

'A road movie I think is what made me into a film maker and I'm very loyal to it,' Salles told the press.

He said he found parallels between Kerouac's search for inspiration through jazz and bebop as he wrote his novel in an improvisational style and the job of the director.

'You always have to be on the lookout for what you find along the way, it's a way of creating fantastic images.'

Salles' camera captures America's vastness - and the promise of something new around the corner - from the lights of New York to the hills of San Francisco and the long expanse of flat road and endless sky in between.

But as the sun fades on the brief and bright explosion of the characters' lives, age and responsibility intrude.

'This high we're on is a mirage,' character Carlo Marx tells Paradise and Moriarty.

For a look at Cannes' 2012 lineup, click here: http://link.reuters.com/vav28s

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Brad Pitt mob movie portrays broken American dream

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Brad Pitt's latest movie paints a bleak picture of the broken American dream, blending a violent but comic gangster story with overt criticism of politicians' failure to address the economic crisis.

'Killing Them Softly' takes place in an unspecified U.S. city which has borne the brunt of the financial collapse -- houses are abandoned, shops are shuttered and petty criminals and mobsters alike are struggling to get by.

The movie, co-produced by Pitt, is in the main competition at the Cannes film festival this year, and has its red carpet world premiere on Tuesday.

Pitt plays ruthless hitman Jackie Cogan, brought in by a syndicate of mafia bosses to eliminate a group of thieves who raid a high-stakes poker game.

The title derives from his insistence on avoiding unnecessary pain and suffering when he carries out his killings.

It features gangster movie mainstays Ray Liotta and James Gandolfini, and reunites Pitt with New Zealand-born director Andrew Dominik after the two collaborated on 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'.

The political message of the film is unavoidable. News channels play in the background in bars and on the radio in cars, and the topic of debate is invariably the financial crisis, political failure, greed and shattered dreams.

Barack Obama, John McCain and George W. Bush appear on the 2008 campaign trail making promises to address the economy and preserve the ideals on which the country was built.

In a scene at the end, Cogan launches a scathing attack on Thomas Jefferson, the main author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, whom he accuses of being a liar and hypocrite.

'I live in America and in America you're on your own,' Pitt's character declares. 'America's not a country, it's just a business.'

NOT ANTI-OBAMA

At a news conference following a press screening of the film, Pitt said he did not want Killing Them Softly to be seen as an attack on President Obama.

'I lean more towards the left and I want to understand my own bias and so I am not opposed to characters that have different views from yourself,' he said.

'I think very highly of him (Jefferson) actually.

'We are playing people with very specific opinions. We are clearly living in our country at a time of great divide and so I'm interested in those other arguments that are ... certainly not mine.'

He spoke of a 'toxic' political divide in the United States where 'it's more about the party winning the argument than about the issues themselves. It's a serious, serious problem.'

Pitt did not seem surprised when questions turned from the film and its political message to his personal life.

He told journalists that his fiancee Angelina Jolie was not in Cannes, quelling rumors that the Hollywood power couple would appear together on the red carpet.

Asked when they planned to get married, he replied: 'We have no date. We actually really, truly have no date. Certainly date-wise it's absolutely rumor.

'And I'm still hoping we can figure out our marriage equality in the States before that date,' he added, referring to his support for same-sex marriage countrywide.

Liotta, best known as a nasty mobster, said it made a welcome change to be on the receiving end of a cinematic beating. In Killing Them softly he plays the likeable Markie, who is framed and subsequently punished for the poker heist.

'What I really liked about it was I'm usually the one beating people up so it was nice to go the other way and have them beat me up, it was really a nice change.

'The hardest part was letting those two guys beat me up because I know I can take them. That's the roughest part, these little shrimps beating me up.'

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Alain Resnais revisits classic Greek legend at Cannes

PARIS (Reuters) - Take 15 well-known French theatre and film actors, add a classic Greek legend and voila, you have the makings of the latest Cannes offering from French director Alain Resnais.

'Vous N'Avez Encore Rien Vu' (You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet) is an art-house film within a film that relies heavily on its ensemble cast, whose members include Sabine Azema, Pierre Arditi, Anne Consigny and Lambert Wilson.

It is one of a handful of French-language movies in competition for the film festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, to be awarded on Sunday.

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet is based on Jean Anouilh's play Eurydice, which in turn is based on the classic Greek legend of Orpheus, in which the young musician unsuccessfully tries to save his lover Eurydice from the underworld.

The 89-year-old Resnais is a lion of French cinema with six decades of film making under his belt whom Cannes honored with a lifetime achievement award in 2009.

The themes of memory and time, and plots that rely on interwoven narratives crop up again and again in his works, whose best known include his first feature, 'Hiroshima Mon Amour' (Hiroshima My Love), and the concentration camp documentary 'Nuit et Brouillard' (Night and Fog).

In You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, Resnais has his cast play themselves as they reunite at the home of a deceased director (Denis Podalydes) with whom they had worked in the past on 'Eurydice.' His final wish is for them to view a film of a young troupe performing the play.

As the actors watch, snippets of dialogue they once had memorized comes back to them, and they gradually inhabit the roles themselves.

'The actors are portraying themselves in the film, they reminisce and remember their past,' Resnais told a news conference, speaking in French. 'Suddenly, while they're playing their parts, they're caught up in the ghosts, the phantoms of their memories.'

Early reaction to the film was tepid, with several critics and bloggers citing the director's formal style which held any emotional connection with the characters at bay.

The Guardian called it an 'indulgent, self-conscious film about acting, memory and the persistence of the past.'

'Like a lot of Resnais's recent work it mounts an interesting challenge to the realist consensus of cinema, to the convention that we must pretend that what is being played out on screen is actually happening,' read the review.

'But despite its moments of charm and caprice, the film is prolix, inert, indulgent and often just plain dull.'

Resnais said he has been interested for years in the relationship between theatre and film, a connection that plays out in the movie as sets resemble stages, and vice versa.

'We see where the differences are but it seems to me that there is something great that can bring theatre and cinema closer together and that's the need for actors,' Resnais told the press.

Actress Sabine Azema, Resnais' wife who plays one of three Eurydices in the film, said the strong cast her husband gathered together was one of the film's strengths.

'They know that they're free to invent, and that's why Resnais chose them, that's what he's waiting for them to do. I wonder whether it's his talent for organizing the group that I admire most in him,' Azema told French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur.

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage)



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Joke on Europe as Madagascar sequel comes to Cannes

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The joke is on Europe, and in particular France, with the third animated 'Madagascar' adventure, which has its world premiere at the Cannes film festival on Friday bringing big names in comedy to the red carpet.

'Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted', from DreamWorks Animation, is the first installment in the franchise to be shot in 3D, and studio bosses will be hoping it can match the box office magic of its predecessors.

A slot at the Cannes film festival, where hundreds of news outlets descend each year, can be an ideal launchpad, particularly because the notoriously fussy critics tend to blunt their pencils for animated entertainment.

'This festival, it celebrates all types of film ... Our film's about travelling to Europe and what better place could we launch a film like that than in Cannes?' said Tom McGrath, one of three directors working on the movie.

'What we always aspired to do was to take you to a fantastic world, like everyone was transported when they saw Pinocchio,' he told a news conference after a press screening.

'That's the great thing about CG (computer generated animation). First people aspired to do photo-realism, and now we're trying to create these fantasy worlds.'

In Madagascar 3, the central characters of Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman leave Africa in search of their penguin friends who have flown to Europe to spend their gold and gems in the casino in Monte Carlo.

'Operation Penguin Extraction' goes predictably awry, and in the ensuing havoc the heroes join a travelling circus in their bid to get back to their beloved New York.

On the way, via Rome and London, European stereotypes are sent up, including France's reputation as a country where people work short hours and its cultural icon Edith Piaf, whose famous song 'Non, je ne regrette rien' is gloriously parodied.

When Vitaly, a grumpy Russian tiger, disagrees with Alex, he counters 'That's Bolshevik!', prompting an American penguin to add: 'Never thought I'd say this ... but the Russky's right.'

Famous scenes from well-known action movies are also recreated, including the bus balancing on the edge of a cliff in 'The Italian Job' and people dodging flying bullets, or in this case bananas, in 'The Matrix'.

The main villain in Madagascar 3 is deranged French animal control officer Capitaine Chantel DuBois, voiced by Frances McDormand.

Part Cruella De Vil and part rottweiler, she terrorizes the fleeing animals, hell bent on claiming Alex's scalp to complete her stuffed animal wall hangings.

Ben Stiller returns as the voice of good-hearted lion Alex, Chris Rock reprises his role as the irrepressible zebra Marty and David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith are back as Melman and Gloria respectively.

New to the cast in the 'threequel' are Bryan Cranston as Vitaly, Martin Short as the scene-stealing Italian sea lion Stefano and Jessica Chastain as a sultry jaguar.

According to website Boxofficemojo.com, the first Madagascar film from 2005 earned $533 million in global ticket sales and the second (2008) around $604 million.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Sorkin says Jobs movie won't be straight biography

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin hasn't yet figured out how to put the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on the silver screen, but he is certain it's not going to be a straightforward biography.

Sorkin, who won an Oscar for his screenplay of Facebook film 'The Social Network' and created TV drama 'The West Wing', said on Thursday he would be looking for an element of tension or an obstacle in Job's life on which to hang the movie.

Movie studio Sony Pictures announced on Tuesday that Sorkin would adapt Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography of the enigmatic genius behind the iPod and the iPhone. Jobs, 56, died in October after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer.

'I know so little about what I am going to write. I know what I am not going to write. It can't be a straight ahead biography because it's very difficult to shake the cradle-to-grave structure of a biography, ' Sorkin told reporters at a news conference for his upcoming HBO drama 'The Newsroom.'

Sorkin noted that 'The Social Network' saw the Facebook story through the lens of an acrimonious lawsuit that pitted CEO Mark Zuckerberg against his Harvard friends over the creation of the social media network.

'Drama is tension versus obstacle. Someone wants something, something is standing in their way of getting it. They want the money, they want the girl, they want to get to Philadelphia - doesn't matter ... And I need to find that event and I will. I just don't know what it is,' Sorkin said.

Sorkin said he would turn his full attention to the Jobs film in late June, once he has launched 'The Newsroom', which is set behind the scenes at a television network.

He said that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been hired by the film studio as a 'tutor' on all the technical aspects of computers and on Jobs himself.

Wozniak and Jobs founded Apple from a garage in 1976. Wozniak stopped working for the company in 1987 but kept in touch with Jobs until his death.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, Writing by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Travolta accuser hires celebrity lawyer Allred

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The masseur whose $2 million sexual battery lawsuit against Hollywood actor John Travolta was dismissed earlier this week hired celebrity attorney Gloria Allred on Wednesday and could file a new claim.

Allred, who numerous high-profile cases over the years have included representing women involved in the Tiger Woods sex scandal, said on Wednesday that she is now the attorney for 'John Doe No. 1' and will be consulting with the masseur on his next steps in the case that has made headlines worldwide.

'Mr. Doe's lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice which means that he is still legally entitled to file a lawsuit against John Travolta if he chooses,' Allred said in a statement. 'We are in the process of conferring with him regarding the next steps, which he may wish to take.'

Travolta faces a similar claim from another masseur. His lawyer, Los Angeles-based Martin Singer, has vehemently denied the sexual battery claims against the 'Grease' actor and on Tuesday said his client had been vindicated by the dismissal of the first complaint. His office had no immediate comment about Allred's hiring on Wednesday.

John Doe No. 1, a Texas resident, initially claimed in court papers filed earlier this month that Travolta groped him during a private massage in Beverly Hills in January.

But on Tuesday, his former attorney, Okorie Okorocha, filed a notice dismissing the lawsuit. Okorocha told Reuters he had 'limited his representation' of the plaintiff after the masseur got the date wrong of the alleged incident and contacted media outlets directly.

'I wanted to be the only one talking to the press ... His case needed to be redone and it would take a lot of time to redo the whole thing,' Okorocha said.

Okorocha plans to go ahead with the lawsuit against Travolta representing a second male masseur, John Doe No. 2, who claimed Travolta sexually assaulted him during a massage session in an Atlanta hotel in late January.

Two other men have made similar claims to media outlets but no legal filings have yet been made in those cases.

Travolta, 58, has been married to actress Kelly Preston since 1991. He first gained fame on the television show 'Welcome Back, Kotter' and later enjoyed hit movies such as 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Urban Cowboy' before going on to grittier roles in films such as 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Get Shorty.'

Allred represented the family of O.J. Simpson's slain ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, during Simpson's trial and filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against actor David Boreanaz on behalf of a client who was an extra on Borneanaz's show 'Bones.' She also represented a Chicago woman who alleged that former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed her.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bill Trott)

Cannes festival opens with quirky comedy and a camel

CANNES, France (Reuters) - The Cannes film festival kicked off on Wednesday with quirky U.S. comedy 'Moonrise Kingdom', Wes Anderson's exploration of childhood and young love centered around two 12-year-olds who fall in love and run away together.

The touching tale, set in 1965 on an island off the coast of New England, was a popular opening movie in the French Riviera resort, drawing laughs and warm applause at a press screening ahead of the official evening world premiere.

During the screening, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was causing chaos on the nearby Croisette promenade, where he rode a camel and adopted the character of his latest alter ego General Aladeen, an outrageously offensive North African dictator.

The publicity stunt, captured by dozens of photographers and cameramen, was typical of the kind of publicity stunts for which Cannes has become famous.

In addition to the 22 movies in the main competition lineup, hundreds more screen in lesser selections and on the huge market place, and getting the media's attention can make or break a movie's prospects.

Anderson, presenting a film for the first time in Cannes, had no such challenge, having been handed the coveted opening competition slot and boasting a cast that includes Bill Murray, Bruce Willis and Tilda Swinton.

His light-hearted, surreal picture also features two young actors marking their movie debuts -- Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward were just 12 when they auditioned for the parts of Sam and Suzy, respectively.

'I didn't know that I wanted to become an actor until I actually started working on the movie, and that's when I really began to realize that this is what I love doing,' Hayward told reporters at a press conference.

SAM AND SUZY RUN AWAY

In Moonrise Kingdom, Sam, an oddball and unpopular orphaned boy scout, runs away from his summer camp to meet up with Suzy, a girl with whom he has fallen in love.

Suzy's parents, played by Murray and Frances McDormand, consider her to be a problem child, and she has no qualms in leaving them to be with Sam.

The young couple set up camp, read books, become friends, and experience sexual awakening away from the troubled world of adults, but when the grown-ups eventually catch up with them their dramatic adventure does not end.

Murray, who has appeared in most of Anderson's films including 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and 'Rushmore', joked that the director had become his sole employer, although he did not get paid for his troubles.

'I really don't get any other work but through Wes. I just wait by the phone,' he said in his trademark deadpan delivery.

'These are what we call art films. I don't know if you know what those are. They're films where you work very, very long hours for no money and...all we get is this trip to Cannes.'

He also welcomed Willis into the Anderson 'family'.

'Bruce is a serious crazy movie star, and for him to play the part of the town cop in this one-car town was fun, it was great and it really pays off.

'He really does have the great heroic 'Die Hard' moment at the end of this silly little kids' film. It's one of the biggest laughs of any film I've ever been in.'

For Willis, best known as an action hero, the chance to work on a low-budget, low-profile movie was a welcome change.

'I found it really refreshing to be directed, to be asked to perform the part in a really specific way,' he told reporters.

'In a world where a lot of films where you don't rehearse and no one really talks to you about it, it was so nice to be asked to work in a certain way.

'It (the film) is about love, it's about new love and young love and love that has gotten mixed up and messed up. It's all still the same story of how everybody needs to be loved in some way.'

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Mike Collett-White)

Lawyer says John Travolta vindicated by dropped sex lawsuit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of the two male masseurs who accused actor John Travolta of sexual assault dropped his $2 million lawsuit on Tuesday, but the lawyer for the second man said he was going ahead with that case and was confident of success.

The unidentified man, referred to as John Doe No. 1, who claimed that the Hollywood star groped him during a massage session in Beverly Hills in January, filed a notice dismissing his lawsuit with federal court in Los Angeles.

Travolta's lawyer Marty Singer, who has termed the claims 'absurd and ridiculous,' said on Tuesday the actor was vindicated by the dismissal of the first complaint.

'My client is completely vindicated by Doe #1 dropping his claims and dismissing his lawsuit. We fully expect that my client will similarly be vindicated with respect to Doe #2, as well as with respect to any other person who makes meritless claims against John Travolta,' Singer said in a statement.

The first masseur was reported last week to have said he got the wrong date of the alleged incident after photos and restaurant receipts surfaced putting the 'Saturday Night Fever' actor in New York on the same day.

'The case has been dismissed, but that doesn't mean it can't be refiled,' the plaintiff's attorney, Okorie Okorocha, told Reuters.

Okorocha said he still will be going ahead with the lawsuit against Travolta, representing a second unidentified man, John Doe No. 2, who claimed that Travolta rubbed his leg, touched his genitals and tried to initiate sex at a private appointment at an Atlanta hotel on January 28.

Asked whether he was concerned about the credibility of John Doe No. 2's suit in light of the first masseur's dismissal, Okorocha said 'Not at all. I'm not worried about anything with John Doe 2.'

Celebrity news website Radar Online said on Tuesday that it had obtained emails it claimed were written by the Atlanta masseur to his employers that made no reference to the alleged incident involving Travolta.

Radar Online said the emails were written the day after the alleged encounter and that the masseur was asking to be demoted.

A third man, cruise ship worker Fabian Zanzi, claimed last week on a Chilean TV show that Travolta offered him $12,000 to have sex while on a cruise in 2009, but he has not filed a lawsuit against the actor.

Travolta, 58, has been married to actress Kelly Preston since 1991. He found international claim with the movies 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Grease' in the 1970s, before going on to grittier roles in 'Pulp Fiction.'

The latest allegations against the actor are unlikely to affect his career according to celebrity image experts, who say Travolta has overcome speculation about his sex life in the past without any negative impact on his popularity.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Jill Serjeant and Todd Eastham)

Masseur drops sex assault claim against John Travolta

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of the two male masseurs who accused actor John Travolta of sexual assault dropped his $2 million lawsuit on Tuesday, but the lawyer for the second masseur said he was going ahead with that case and was confident of success.

The unidentified man, referred to as John Doe No. 1, who claimed that the Hollywood star groped him during a massage session in Beverly Hills in January, filed a notice dismissing his lawsuit with federal court in Los Angeles.

The man was reported last week to have said he got the wrong date of the alleged incident after photos and restaurant receipts surfaced putting the 'Saturday Night Fever' actor in New York on the same day.

'The case has been dismissed, but that doesn't mean it can't be refiled,' the plaintiff's attorney, Okorie Okorocha, told Reuters.

Okorocha said he still will be going ahead with the lawsuit against Travolta, representing a second unidentified man, John Doe No. 2, who claimed that Travolta rubbed his leg, touched his genitals and tried to initiate sex at a private appointment at an Atlanta hotel on January 28.

Asked whether he was concerned about the credibility of John Doe No. 2's suit in light of the first masseur's dismissal, Okorocha said 'Not at all. I'm not worried about anything with John Doe 2.'

Celebrity news website Radar Online said on Tuesday that it had obtained emails it claimed were written by the Atlanta masseur to his employers that made no reference to the alleged incident involving Travolta.

Radar Online said the emails were written the day after the alleged encounter and that the masseur was asking to be demoted.

A third man, cruise ship worker Fabian Zanzi, claimed last week on a Chilean TV show that Travolta offered him $12,000 to have sex while on a cruise in 2009, but he has not filed a lawsuit against the actor.

Travolta's lawyer Martin Singer has vehemently denied claims from all three men, calling them 'absurd and ridiculous.' He did not immediately return calls for comment on Tuesday on the first plaintiff's decision to drop his legal action.

Travolta, 58, has been married to actress Kelly Preston since 1991. He found international claim with the movies 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Grease' in the 1970s, before going on to grittier roles in 'Pulp Fiction.'

The latest allegations against the actor are unlikely to affect his career according to celebrity image experts, who say Travolta has overcome speculation about his sex life in the past without any negative impact on his popularity.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Philip Barbara)

Cannes film festival curtain up with comedy, chaos

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Comedy will dominate the opening of the Cannes film festival on Wednesday, with Wes Anderson's child fantasy 'Moonrise Kingdom' in a tussle with Sacha Baron Cohen's anarchic alter ego General Aladeen for the attention of the world's media.

Thousands of journalists and movie executives are in the glamorous Riviera resort for 12 hectic days of screenings, red carpets, parties and dealmaking, and the first day is typical of the diary clashes they face.

Anderson's film, starring Bruce Willis and Bill Murray, is the official opening entry in the main competition, ensuring a splashy launch with a press screening, news briefing, interviews and red carpet gala premiere on Wednesday evening.

Yet just a short stroll away along the famous palm-lined Croisette waterfront, Baron Cohen will also be muscling in on the action with a press conference of his own at the swanky Carlton Hotel to promote his latest picture 'The Dictator'.

Judging by his outrageous sense of humor and eye for the theatrical, the British comic may steal much of the limelight as he adopts the character of Aladeen, a cruel North African dictator partly inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings.

Amid the pranks and late night parties, however, there is plenty of hard work to be done, with a giant marketplace showcasing hundreds of films and hoping to defy the economic gloom across much of Europe with a spate of sales.

'The economic situation in Europe is not great, but does it mean that we have to forget the dream?' said Thierry Fremaux, general delegate of the festival. 'The (economic) crisis is not the crisis of this year,' he told Reuters.

'It has been five years that we are in crisis here in Europe,' he added, speaking in English. 'But we have to manage a way to give the people dreams and to say that even in the 1930s after the big crisis, cinema was in very good shape.'

RISING STARS IN SPOTLIGHT

Along the Croisette, last-minute preparations were underway on Tuesday as beach pavilions stocked up with champagne and lobster, promotional posters went up and stages were erected.

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman are among established Hollywood names expected to grace the red carpet, where they will be joined by a long list of rising stars hoping to make their mark.

Cannes, as the world's biggest and most glamorous film festival, is an ideal platform for a movie and its cast. Silent hit 'The Artist', which went on to sweep the Oscars, launched here last year.

But notoriously picky critics can also make life awkward for directors and actors, as with the 2006 world premiere of 'The Da Vinci Code' which received poor reviews.

While grumpy cinephiles is an integral part of Cannes, organizers will be keen to avoid a repeat of last year when maverick director Lars Von Trier was controversially expelled for making jokes about Nazis at a press conference.

This year, the festival has come under fire for not including a single female director in its main competition lineup after four were selected in 2011. It has defended its decision, saying it would not impose a 'quota policy'.

Despite the row, media reaction to this year's lineup has been generally positive.

In the main competition of 22 films, Brazilian director Walter Salles' adaptation of Jack Kerouac's novel 'On the Road' has generated plenty of buzz, not least because 'Twilight' actress Kristen Stewart takes on a leading role.

Best known as Bella Swan from the vampire blockbusters, the 22-year-old American will be joined on the sun-kissed French Riviera by Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson.

The British actor appears in another competition movie 'Cosmopolis', directed by Canada's David Cronenberg, a topical tale of corporate greed that follows a successful New York financier whose world disintegrates around him.

John Hillcoat's movie 'Lawless', a Depression-era gangster tale, features Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Shia LaBeouf and Mia Wasikowska among others, underlining the importance of fresh acting talent at this year's festival.

Previous winners of the coveted Palme d'Or prize for best film who are in contention again are Austria's Michael Haneke with 'Amour' (Love), Iran's Abbas Kiarostami ('Like Someone In Love'), Briton Ken Loach ('The Angels' Share') and Romanian Cristian Mungiu ('Beyond the Hills').

Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey and Kidman all star in Lee Daniels' 'The Paperboy' and Pitt appears in Andrew Dominik's 'Killing Them Softly'.

Hot topics on the big screen include the Arab uprisings, with Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah's 'After the Battle' in competition, and the pitfalls of celebrity culture in 'Antiviral', the debut feature from Cronenberg's son Brandon.



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Taylor Lautner starring in action thriller 'Tracers'

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Taylor Lautner, he of the million-dollar abs, will follow up 'Twilight' by playing a bike messenger who gets in hot water with the mob in 'Tracers.'

The hunky star will be seen next in the final installment of the vampire romance franchise, 'Breaking Dawn: Part 2,' which hits theaters on November 16.

FilmNation Entertainment's 'Tracers' will give Lautner plenty of opportunity to show off his physical prowess. The film is set in the world of parkour, the physical discipline that centers on moving efficiently around obstacles, be it by jumping, climbing or running.

Lautner will play Cam, a bike messenger in New York City, who is in debt to an organized crime gang. He gets introduced to parkour by a sexy stranger after he crashes his bike.

Daniel Benmayor ('Bruc, the Manhunt') will direct. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Entertainment will produce.

FilmNation will introduce the film to international buyers at the Cannes Film Festival this month.

Although he boasts a rabid base of teen fans, Lautner has had less success outside of the 'Twilight' franchise.

'Abduction,' his first attempt to carry a picture, grossed a disappointing $82 million worldwide. Likewise, 'Stretch Armstrong,' for which Lautner was set to earn a reported $7.5 million when the project was at Universal, has moved to Relativity Media without its youthful star still attached.



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'Avengers' rings up $103 million in record weekend

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - 'The Avengers,' the smash hit movie about Marvel superheroes who team up to save the Earth, crushed competitors for a second weekend with a record $103.2 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales and was poised to top $1 billion worldwide, studio estimates showed on Sunday.

After posting the highest domestic box office debut in history last weekend, 'Avengers' set another record by easily topping the $75.6 million 'Avatar' pulled in during its second weekend in 2009, making 'Avengers' the first movie to exceed $100 million in its second weekend.

'Avengers' has now racked up a staggering $628.9 million internationally since opening overseas on April 25, distributor Walt Disney Co said, positioning it to break the $1 billion threshold after just 19 days.

'We're obviously thrilled,' said Robert Iger, Disney's Chairman and CEO in a statement.

'You can never anticipate this kind of success,' echoed Dave Hollis, executive vice president for motion picture distribution. 'It's a staggering result.'

Its success owed in large part to 'a story that delivers on every level, to every segment of the audience,' he added.

The big-budget 3D flick - the first of Hollywood's lucrative summer season - unites Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain America and other Marvel comic book heroes in a fight against a villain determined to destroy the planet. Disney announced this week it is planning an 'Avengers' sequel.

The movie took in $207.4 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters over its opening weekend, helping improve the performance of the studio, which earlier stumbled at box offices with its big-budget release 'John Carter.'

'Avengers' mania overwhelmed new horror comedy 'Dark Shadows,' according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters. 'Dark Shadows' pulled in an estimated $28.8 million from Friday through Sunday at domestic theaters.

The latest collaboration between actor Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton, the $100 million 'Dark Shadows' is based on the cult TV soap opera that ran from 1966 to 1971 about vampires, werewolves and witches living in a ghostly countryside manor. Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter also star.

Studio executives said the total was in line with expectations of about $30 million.

'We're hoping to leg it out over the next few weeks,' said Dan Fellman, president of theatrical distribution for Warner Bros., referring to films developing 'legs' and performing well for a period in the weeks after opening.

Fellman noted that big May films coming up were not really competing for the same audience as 'Dark Shadows,' which drew more than 50 percent of its opening weekend audience from viewers 35 and older.

'The audiences are applauding,' he said, adding 'There's a magic and chemistry that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have had over the years, and we're hoping that will continue as we approach' the lucrative Memorial Day period.

'We opened extremely well internationally,' with $36.7 million, Fellman noted.

In third place, romantic comedy 'Think Like a Man' grossed $6.3 million during its fourth weekend in theaters.

Teen survival drama 'The Hunger Games,' the year's biggest movie before 'Avengers' came on the scene, finished the weekend in fourth place with $4.4 million.

Fifth place belonged to love story 'The Lucky One,' which took in $4 million, with animated family film 'The Pirates! Band of Misfits' coming in sixth at $3.2 million.

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, released 'Dark Shadows' and 'The Lucky One.' 'Think Like a Man' and 'Pirates' were distributed by Sony Corp's Sony Pictures studio. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp released 'Hunger Games.'

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine and Chris Michaud; editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Todd Eastham)



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Travolta lawyer debunks sex claim by third man

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - John Travolta's lawyer on Friday hit back at 'ridiculous' new claims of sexual advances leveled at the actor by a third man, as a first accuser backtracked on the date of an alleged Beverly Hills incident.

Cruise ship worker Fabian Zanzi claimed on a Chilean TV show, 'Primer Plano,' that the Hollywood star offered him $12,000 to have sex while on a cruise in 2009.

It was unclear whether Zanzi had filed a legal action against Travolta, who is already the subject of a sexual assault lawsuit by two unidentified masseurs in Los Angeles.

'This is just another ridiculous claim by someone hopping on the bandwagon to get his 15 minutes of fame with a story about something that supposedly happened over three years ago,' Travolta's lawyer Martin Singer said in a statement on Friday.

'At that time Zanzi's supervisors did not believe him, confined him to his cabin and subsequently fired him, according to media reports. Significantly, we never heard of this guy before. The fact that we are only hearing about him now through tabloid gossip stories three years later speaks volumes,' Singer added.

Meanwhile, the masseur known as John Doe No. 1 who filed the first sexual assault lawsuit against Travolta last week was reported on Friday to have admitted that he got the date wrong of his alleged, unwanted encounter with the actor at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Travolta's lawyers have insisted that the two-time Oscar nominee, who has been married for 20 years to actress Kelly Preston, was in New York City on the day of the alleged incident in California. A restaurant receipt and photos have appeared on celebrity websites to bolster their claims.

Celebrity website RadarOnline.com, quoting unnamed sources close to the case, reported on Friday that the day on which the alleged Beverly Hills assault took place was earlier than the original January 16 date stated in the masseur's lawsuit.

The lawyer for John Doe No. 1 on Friday, told Reuters in an email that he no longer represented the masseur, and did not return calls seeking further comment. The new attorney for the plaintiff could not be reached.

A second masseur, also unidentified, joined the $2 million lawsuit this week, claiming Travolta had touched his genitals and approached him for sex at an Atlanta hotel on January 28.

Singer has called all the claims absurd, ridiculous and fictional.

Travolta, 58, is one of Hollywood's most beloved stars after roles in 'Saturday Night Fever', 'Grease' and 'Pulp Fiction'. He also gained worldwide sympathy when his autistic son Jett, 16, died after a seizure in 2009.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Cannes film festival puts spotlight on rising stars

LONDON (Reuters) - Rising stars will compete against established Hollywood names for the limelight at this year's Cannes film festival, with Robert Pattinson, Zac Efron, Kristen Stewart and Shia LaBeouf all appearing in highly anticipated movies.

They will rub shoulders with the likes of Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman, as well as some of the great names in directing, at the world's biggest and most glamorous cinema showcase.

'I think there's a whole new wave of acting talent that has come in on to the scene literally in the last couple of years,' Australian director John Hillcoat told Reuters.

His competition movie 'Lawless', a Depression-era gangster tale, features Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Labeouf and Mia Wasikowska among others, and he also singled out Michael Fassbender as an example of fresh talent coming to the fore.

'It's been a while since we've had (young) actors that have that kind of range, depth, gravitas and intensity that this wave of actors do.'

Cannes organizers will be keen to avoid the controversy that overshadowed last year's edition -- Danish director Lars Von Trier was banned after making Nazi jokes at a press conference, a decision criticized by many festival goers.

Film critics have at least given organizers the thumbs up for their selection of movies in 2012, although what looks promising on paper does not always make for a good festival.

Opening the whirlwind fortnight of screenings, parties and publicity campaigns on Wednesday is the glitzy world premiere of Wes Anderson's children's fantasy 'Moonrise Kingdom', starring Bill Murray, Bruce Willis and Tilda Swinton.

For Anderson, the walk down the famous red carpet-cum-fashion catwalk, flanked by showbiz media from around the globe, may be as daunting as for the debutant child actors in his cast.

'I've never been before, so for me just going to Cannes at all is exciting,' the director told Reuters in an interview.

'What I know about Cannes is from still photographs of people walking up those steps and paparazzi images, so I don't really have any expectations.'

Asked whether he would be busy on the crowded party circuit, he replied: 'I haven't received any invitations yet.'

SALLES ADAPTS KEROUAC CLASSIC

In the main competition of 22 films eligible for awards, Brazilian director Walter Salles' adaptation of Jack Kerouac's Beat Generation novel 'On the Road' has generated plenty of buzz, not least because Stewart takes on a leading role.

Best known as Bella Swan from the 'Twilight' vampire blockbusters, the 22-year-old American will be joined on the sun-kissed French Riviera by Twilight co-star Pattinson.

The British actor appears in another competition movie 'Cosmopolis', directed by Canada's David Cronenberg, a topical tale of corporate greed that follows a successful New York financier whose world disintegrates around him.

Previous winners of the coveted Palme d'Or prize for best film who are in contention again are Austria's Michael Haneke with 'Amour' (Love), Iran's Abbas Kiarostami ('Like Someone In Love'), Briton Ken Loach ('The Angels' Share') and Romanian Cristian Mungiu ('Beyond the Hills').

Efron, Matthew McConaughey and Kidman all star in Lee Daniels' 'The Paperboy' and Pitt appears in Andrew Dominik's 'Killing Them Softly'.

Among the favorite European film makers in Cannes this year are Jacques Audiard with 'Rust and Bone' featuring Marion Cotillard, and 89-year-old French director Alain Resnais with 'You 'Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!'.

Hot topics on the big screen include the Arab uprisings, with Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah's 'After the Battle' in competition, and the pitfalls of celebrity culture in 'Antiviral', the debut feature from Cronenberg's son Brandon.

British rocker Pete Doherty, famous for his run-ins with the law and relationship with supermodel Kate Moss as much as for his music, stars alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg in 'Confession of the Child of a Century'.

Animated blockbuster 'Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted' comes in 3D, while British comic Sacha Baron Cohen will give a provocative in-character appearance as General Aladeen to promote his latest satire 'The Dictator'.

MAKE OR BREAK

The stakes for hundreds of directors and performers from around the world who walk the famous red carpet into the Grand Theatre Lumiere cinema are high.

Cannes is an ideal launchpad for a film, as last year's Oscar darling 'The Artist' proved, but it can be a cinematic graveyard if notoriously picky critics and journalists leave the crammed press screenings unimpressed.

It is also a key event for thousands of financiers, studio bosses and producers who wheel and deal at the giant film market or over champagne and caviar aboard the expensive luxury yachts anchored offshore.

Despite the veneer of wealth and wellbeing, conversations over cocktails in Cannes are as often about economic uncertainty, internet piracy and falling DVD revenues as they are about lucrative deals and awards glory.

But it remains the one event on the crowded film festival calendar that the big players most want to attend.

'Showbusiness loves to get its heart revving, and that's what Cannes is all about,' said David Linde, head of Lava Bear Films and former chairman of Universal Pictures.