cannes 2023

KUBI: Takeshi Kitano Returns With A Hefty Headcount In The Violent, Explosive Official Trailer

Three decades in the making with years of research and a book in toe comes the long-awaited pièce de résistance that is Kubi (or Neck), from director and star Takeshi Kitano in his final feature. The official trailer is now online as well, with the film now subject to reviews fresh out of Cannes where the film screen for the 76th edition. Set in the 16th century, as rival warlords battled to control Japan. Lord Oda Nobunaga, intent on controlling Japan, is waging war against several clans when one of his vassals, Araki Murashige stages a rebellion and promptly disappears. Nobunaga assembles his other vassals including Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi, and orders them to capture the fugitive Murashige, warning “I’ll choose whoever works hardest as my successor.” With various thoughts, schemes, and traps they carry out, they’re soon brought to a crossroads in a complicated situation. All roads lead to Honno-ji […]

COBWEB: Song Kang-Ho Is An Artist Trapped In Inspiration In The First Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Fully immersed in vibrance for its introspection is Cobweb, a dramatic new thriller with a trailer now online and ripe with energy. It’s the latest from director Kim Jee-woon who has been best known for delivering pulsating actioners and cult favorites like A Bittersweet Life, I Saw The Devil and manga adaptation Ilang: The Wolf Brigade, now reteaming with leading man Song Kang-ho for a fifth time since 1998’s The Quiet Family, and the hit 2000 comedy, The Foul King. Kim, who recently delivered Apple TV+ series “Dr. Brain,” directs from a script he wrote with Shin Youn-shik (Rough Play), with a story that, according to the film’s press kit, is inspired by Kim’s own mid-pandemic ruminations and reflections on the filmmaking process re: “creativity” and “originality,” and what kind of impact cinema will have in the future. As Kim himself noted in the director’s statement of the press kit, […]

KUBI: Takeshi Kitano’s Final Film Teases Violent Retribution In The First Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Five years after stepping down from his position at Office Kitano and with a new novel in his sights, celebrated actor and filmmaker Takeshi Kitano is now ripe for the upcoming ceremony with what looks to be his final bow with the new period action epic, Kubi. The film, based on Kitano’s 2019 novel, was announced a few weeks ago with a poster introduced ahead of the film’s premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, with Kitano directing from his own script and Kadokawa handling the film’s international sales, as well as its local Japan release this Fall. Kitano devoted 30 years to what became his lifework, researching and writing both an original novel and screenplay depicting his outrageous theory about the ambush at Honno-ji Temple, one of the great unsolved mysteries in samurai history. Focusing equally on ninja and foot soldiers, missing from traditional samurai narratives, and on the […]

RECKONER To Launch Sales At Cannes, Christina Hendricks To Star

Lee B. Golden III

Christina Hendricks is set to star in Reckoner, a new psychological thriller from debut filmmaker Nissar Modi (Breaking At The Edge, Z For Zachariah). The American Woman and Neon Demon actress will play an affluent woman whose “carefully constructed life is disrupted by a young man connected to a tightly-held secret from her past.” Reckoner is based on a short story by Rachel Ingalls. Financing will be by XYZ Films, who will produce with Two & Two Pictures in their continued partnership to produce films from first and second-time genre filmmakers from underrepresented demographics. XYZ Films is also debuting world sales launch at Cannes out of New Visions, the company’s new initiative designed to spotlight the boldest new voices alongside established talent striking a new path in the international space. The film will launch sales firstly in the slate alongside Zarrar Khan’s Directors’ Fortnight selection, Pakistani-Canadian horror In Flames, Tribeca […]