Cannes Market: Alec Baldwin’s ‘Rust’ and Sam Jackson, Boyd Holbrook-led Death-Row Drama ‘Last Meals’ Latest to Launch Sales
With the Cannes Film Festival just mere hours away from starting, more and more projects are being packaged and getting ready to advertise a sale for distribution at the highly-coveted Cannes market.
We’ve been reporting on several of them for the past few days, but here are two that feel special. First, we have the new Western Rust, which has been all over the news for the past year because of the worst possible reason. While shooting in New Mexico in October 2021, lead actor Alec Baldwin discharged a prop gun and accidentally killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. After a period of mourning and some legal battles with the family, production was able to resume in April. Now, with one more month to go before wrapping, Goodfellas (previously known as Wild Bunch International) is preparing to sell the film at the Cannes market, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The story finds Baldwin as an infamous outlaw who must come out of hiding to try to stop his 13-year-old grandson from being hanged for murder. Joel Souza is directing from a story he conceived with Baldwin. The pic is now filming again in the Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana. Hutchins’ widower, Matthew Hutchins, is an executive producer on the film, following a deal that he reached with the production after filing and later settling a wrongful death suit.
This aerial video image provided by KOAT 7 News, shows Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Officers responding to the scene of a fatal accidental shooting at a Bonanza Creek, Ranch movie set near Santa Fe, N.M. Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. Authorities say a woman has been killed and a man injured Thursday after they were shot by a prop firearm at a movie set outside Santa Fe. The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office says a 42-year-old woman was airlifted to a hospital, where she died, while a 42-year-old man was getting emergency care at another hospital. (KOAT 7 News via AP)
On another note, another project hitting the market is an upcoming film led by Samuel L Jackson and Boyd Holbrook titled Last Meals, according to Deadline. The story follows a former White House chef (Jackson) who, years later, finds himself cooking meals for inmates on death row. One of them (Holbrook) starts a hunger strike and before we know it, forms an unlikely alliance with Jackson’s Walter, who falls for the inmate’s willingness to renounce one final pleasure in order to protest for his innocence.
According to Deadline, the script has been circulating for a couple of years with very positive feedback, but was a victim of the pandemic and was ultimately repurposed. Holbrook has been attached for a while, with Jackson joining most recently. Delroy Lindo was originally going to play Walter, with Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje directing.
The new version has Andrew Levitas on board to direct, with Justin Piasecki credited as the writer; Piasecki’s Stakehorse was the center of a bidding war which Amazon ultimately came out on top of. Sentient Entertainment is co-financing, with Renée Tab and Christopher Tuffin representing them as producers; also producing are Morgan Freeman, Oscar nominee Gary Lucchesi, and Lori McCreary, and Michael McKay of Revelations Entertainment. Andrew Schefter, Justin Piasecki, Myles Nestel, and Lisa Wilson are executive producers.
No word on when production will start.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
