Movie briefs: Halle Berry to join 'Monster's Ball' cast
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HOLLYWOOD - Halle Berry is set to join Billy Bob Thornton and Wes Bentley in "Monster's Ball."
The contemporary drama is set in the South where a racist man (Thornton) and his son (Bentley) work the electric chair at a local prison. Berry will play the widow of a black man they execute. Thornton later falls in love with her.
For a time the project was being developed with Robert DeNiro in mind for the lead and Sean Penn as director.
Berry will next appear in the spy-meets-hacker thriller "Swordfish" with John Travolta and her "X-Men" co-star Hugh Jackman.
Bentley will co-star with Heath Ledger and Kate Hudson in "Four Feathers," a remake of the 1939 film about a man labeled a coward in battle, to be directed by Shekhar Kapur ("Elizabeth").
On April 27, Thornton will next be seen along with Charlize Theron and Patrick Swayze in "Wakin' Up In Reno," a comedy about mismatched rednecks on their way to a monster truck show.
- Zap2it.com
'Moulin' can-cans Into Cannes
HOLLYWOOD - The highly anticipated musical "Moulin Rouge" will kick off the 54th Cannes International Film Festival in May. Directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann ("Strictly Ballroom") for 20th Century Fox, the picture stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.
It will be the first Cannes opener to compete for the Palme d'Or since Patrice Leconte's "Ridicule" in 1996. "I am particularly happy to welcome to Cannes a studio film that is in the finest show tradition to launch the festival," fest chief Gilles Jacob said.
Set at the turn of the 20th century in the legendary Paris cabaret of the same name, "Moulin Rouge" centers on a writer (McGregor) who dives into the nightclub's decadent world and falls in love with its most notorious star (Kidman).
The movie also features John Leguizamo as painter Toulouse-Lautrec.
"We always knew Baz was creating something very special with Moulin Rouge," said Robert Harper, vice chairman of 20th Century Fox. "But after seeing the film this month, we were completely blown away by what he's done, and we're thrilled that the Cannes Film Festival agrees."
The Cannes festival takes place May 9-20.
- Zap2it.com