Cannes 2022 Lineup 

►Vive le cinéma! The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the official lineup for its 2022 edition. Among the highlights to make the all-important competition selection, David Cronenberg returns to Cannes with Crimes Of The Future, James Gray is bringing Armageddon Time, festival favorite Ruben Östlund will show Triangle of Sadness, Kelly Reichardt will present Showing Up, Japanese auteur will show The Truth and South Korean master Park Chan-wook returns to competition with Decision to Leave. The full lineup. 

—Lifeless start. Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius' zombie comedy Z will be the opening film of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The movie is a French remake of the 2017 Japanese film One Cut of the Dead and stars Romain Duris and Bérénice Bejo. Z will play out of competition on the Croisette. The story. 

—Retour en fanfare. There was no rumored David Lynch-Laura Dern project (boo!), but the lineup for the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is a return to form writes THR's Alex Ritman with a grand assortment of major stars, buzzy titles, former Palme d'Or winners, returning auteurs, rising filmmakers making their leap to the main competition and first-timers looking for a breakthrough. The analysis. 

—One to look out for. Lee Jung-jae, the breakout star of Netflix’s smash-hit series Squid Game, will unveil his directorial debut Hunt, a Korean-language spy thriller set in the 1980s, at Cannes this year. The film will premiere out of competition in Cannes’ Midnight Screening section, a sidebar typically devoted to thrillers and genre fare. The story. 

—Playing both sides. Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, who quit the European Film Academy over its response to the Russian invasion earlier this year, is set to get a special screening of his film Natural History of Destruction at Cannes this year. The festival also revealed that Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov’s new drama Tchaïkovski’s Wife would compete for the Palme d’Or. The story.

Elon Musk Offers to Buy Twitter for $43.4 Billion 

►And there we have it. Elon Musk has made an offer to buy Twitter in a $43.4 billion deal. In a “best and final” offer that Musk sent via text message to Twitter board chair Bret Taylor, he wrote that “since making my investment, I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.” He added: “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.” The story. 

—Part to be recast. Frank Langella is no longer involved in Netflix’s limited series The Fall of the House of Usher following an investigation into his alleged misconduct on set. The investigation was completed with the series midway through production, meaning the actor’s role will be recast. Langella was set to play Roderick Usher in Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy’s eight-episode horror project inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's stories. The story.

—Guilty. Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of forcible touching in a protracted criminal case accusing the Oscar-winning Jerry Maguire star of violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019. The single guilty plea came nearly three years after Gooding’s arrest in the case that saw several delays as his lawyers sought to get the charges reduced or dismissed. The story. 

—"This is the film I’ve wanted to make my entire life." The late comedy legend Andy Kaufman is getting the doc treatment. Alex Braverman is set to direct the feature doc about the SNL and Taxi star, with Roadrunner filmmaker Morgan Neville producing. The producers have secured exclusive rights to key films and much of Kaufman’s early work, alongside never-before-seen footage and audio recordings. Kaufman's key creative partners, Lynn Margulies Osgood and Bob Zmuda, are also on board. The story.

—Back to life...and Beth. Hulu has ordered a second season of Amy Schumer’s dramedy Life & Beth. The renewal comes just under a month after the show's all-at-once release. The series, that stars Schumer and Michael Cera, has earned positive reviews but viewing data isn’t yet available as Hulu doesn’t release internal numbers and Nielsen figures for its premiere week aren’t out yet. The story.

Mads Mikkelsen on 'Fantastic Beasts' Casting "Chaos," Depp and Rowling  

►"I’d like him not just to be instantly demagogic." Mads Mikkelsen took on the role of Gellert Grindelwald in the third Fantastic Beasts film in inauspicious circumstances after Johnny Depp was fired. The Danish actor reveals the film's producers gave him two days to decided on taking the part, the latest in a series of Hollywood villain roles that Mikkelsen has seemingly cornered the market on. THR's James Hibberd spoke to the actor about the casting chaos surrounding Beasts, with insider details about his role as Grindelwald and he talks the long-awaited Indiana Jones 5. The profile. 

—Ted talks turkey. Seth MacFarlane has closed the deal and assembled the cast for his live-action Ted series at Peacock. The writer and director will return to voice the foul-mouthed fuzzy bear in addition to serving as co-showrunner of the prequel series. Max Burkholder, Scott Grimes and Giorgia Whigham will also star in the comedy. The story.

—Casting change. Thandiwe Newton is leaving Magic Mike’s Last Dance, with Salma Hayek taking over her role. A Warner Bros. statement said Newton was leaving "to deal with family matters." Production on the film had recently begun in London. The third film in the Magic Mike franchise will be premiering exclusively on HBO Max and will see Channing Tatum return as male stripper Mike Lane. The story.

—Casting news. The Witcher is bolstering its season 3 cast with a quartet of actors. Netflix announced today that the fantasy drama has added Robbie Amell (Upload), Meng’er Zhang (Shang-Chi), Hugh Skinner (Fleabag) and Christelle Elwin (Half Bad) to the cast. The story. 

Unhoused Sweeps Become Flashpoint for Film Shoots in Los Angeles

►"Stop the sweeps! Stop the sweeps! Stop the sweeps!" The clearing of a tent encampment near the filming for Freeform drama series Good Trouble highlights Hollywood productions’ increasing friction with unhoused residents. THR's Gary Baum and Katie Kilkenny report that as the number of shoot days in the L.A. area has seen a recent uptick and the region’s homelessness crisis persists, the situation is triggering city crackdowns. The story. 

—O Canada! Amazon has revealed details on ten new Canadian original series and feature films. Among the titles is an untitled documentary by director Mike Downie about the iconic Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip and the previously announced The Kids in the Hall sketch comedy series, as well as a companion docuseries, The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks. The story. 

—Sugar high TV. On the subject of those Amazon Canadian originals, one of them is a comedy series inspired by a real-life maple syrup heist. Titled The Sticky, the project is based on a 2011 robbery of more than C$18 million of Quebec’s national maple syrup reserves (which represent more than 70 percent of the global maple syrup supply). The story. 

—J.Lo to open. The Tribeca Film Festival has set Netflix's Jennifer Lopez documentary Halftime as its opening night film. The project, directed by Oscar-nominated Tribeca alum Amanda Micheli, is about the second half of Lopez's career. The premiere is set for June 8 at the United Palace in Washington Heights. The doc will hit the streamer on June 14. The story.

TV Review: 'Outer Range'  

►"Not hole-ly satisfying." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Amazon's Outer Range. Josh Brolin plays a Wyoming rancher who discovers a mysterious, supernatural void on his property in this eight-hour exploration of bull riding, land rights and, most of all, holes. The review. 

—*DJ Khaled voice* Another one. Japanese retail behemoth Rakuten has joined Lionsgate’s local-film remake consortium Globalgate. The Hollywood studio is targeting international markets with local-language movie remakes like India's Dhamaka via its expanding consortium for film producers and financiers. Current partners include Televisa, TF1, Nordisk, Tobis, Rai (Italy), TME, Belga Films, Paris Filmes and Viva Communications. The story. 

—Overall deal news. The Righteous Gemstones director Jody Hill has inked a one-year overall deal with HBO and HBO Max. As part of the new pact, Hill’s directing and producing services for television will be exclusive to the WarnerMedia entities. He will also continue to be intimately involved with Gemstones, which was renewed in January. The story. 

In other news...

—Peabody Awards: Dopesick, Hacks, Summer of Soul, Reservation Dogs among nominees

—Rotterdam Film Festival moves dates for 2023, announces staff cuts

—Marvel’s Eternals, Hawkeye earn recognition for disability representation 

—David Bowie doc Moonage Daydream picked up by Neon, HBO

—Alexander Skarsgard can’t escape his fate in The Northman trailer

—The Flash star Jesse L. Martin set for NBC’s The Irrational

—Emily Ratajkowski lawsuit over paparazzi photo settles

—Red Sonja director sues to expedite visa for film shoot in Europe

—Hasbro buys D&D Beyond for $146.3m in gaming expansion

—Comscore Movies hires Michael Viane as head of global revenue

—Barry Manilow to miss Harmony Off-Broadway opening night after testing positive for COVID-19

—Jenna Bush Hager tests positive for COVID-19, misses Today taping

What else we're reading...

—As festival season returns, Eric Ducker looks at how nostalgia-led events are trying to sell our youth back to us [Ringer]

—Josef Adalian on ABC's Abbott Elementary being the model for network-sitcom success [Vulture]

—Why Russian TV propaganda is crucial to understanding the war in Ukraine [CNN]

—Interesting interview explaining Apple TV+'s recent deal to show baseball games, from the MLB's perspective [LAT]

—Critic Jonathan Jones on why Andy Warhol's work is worth more than Picasso now [Guardian]

Today...  

...in 1989, Cameron Crowe brought his directorial debut Say Anything, starring John Cusack and Ione Skye, to theaters. The teen rom-com garnered good reviews, made $21.5 million at the box office and features the often parodied scene of Cusack's Lloyd holding up a boombox under Skye's bedroom window blasting Peter Gabriel's softest of soft rock hits "In Your Eyes." The original review.

Today's birthdays: Adrien Brody (49), Julie Christie (82), Abigail Breslin (26), Sarah Michelle Gellar (45), Anthony Michael Hall (54), Rob McElhenney (45), Robert Carlyle (61), Gina McKee (58), Brad Garrett (62), Peter Capaldi (64), James Gray (53), Mr. Oizo (48), Marc Platt (65), Loretta Lynn (90), Anthony Dod Mantle (67)